Word: german
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...rail operator of cutting corners to save money, putting the safety of its passengers and employees at risk. "We warned a long time ago, as far back as 2003, that there were faults on the wheels of Berlin's S-Bahn trains," says Oliver Kaufhold, a spokesman for the German rail union Transnet. "When a third of the city's engineering depots have been shut down and they've cut back staff numbers, it's obvious something will crack one day." (See pictures of Barack Obama visiting Berlin...
...German firm Müller-BBM, a leader in its field, had been hired at the start of the reconstruction to bring the theater's acoustics back to their former glory. However, in the past few months, as the financial crisis has torn through Russia, Vedernikov learned that the firm's contract had not been renewed. A Russian institute without Müller-BBM's expertise has been brought in to carry out the work instead - a move to which the music director is vigorously opposed. "When I hear [Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov say] that it is very important...
While youth unemployment across the E.U. is significantly higher (17% for those 25 and under) than in the general population (7.6%), some countries are more vulnerable than others. German companies tend to hire workers at an early age; French and Spanish firms prefer temporary contracts to get around sometimes draconian labor laws. "The social crisis is more pronounced [in France and Spain] because their citizens believe policy should create more employment. But in a downturn, it leads to a rapid increase in just the opposite," says Askenazy...
...century ago, Max Weber, the great German sociologist, famously divided sources of authority into three types: the traditional, the charismatic and the legal-bureaucratic. Americans like their leaders to be charismatic--a word derived from the Greek that means a person has a gift of grace. Political parties routinely look for presidential candidates with charisma (Barack Obama, naturally) and regret it when they don't find one (think Michael Dukakis). (See TIME's Barack Obama covers...
Besides, a certain homely style can make your adversaries underestimate you. German Chancellor Angela Merkel may look like a typical hausfrau, but don't cross her. "She's ruthless," says a political insider in Berlin. "She doesn't just sideline her opponents; she destroys them...