Word: merkel
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finance Minister, Peer Steinbrück, have spent months saying they will never let irresponsible German banks off the hook by taking their toxic assets and putting them into some sort of government-backed bad bank...
...plan to do just that with the toxic debts of U.S. banks. The move has won plaudits on Wall Street and even a knowing nod from Main Street U.S.A., which understands that the plan is a necessary evil. In Germany, it has also fueled a fierce debate about whether Merkel is wrong and how Berlin might get toxic assets off German banks' books without making taxpayers foot the bill. (See 25 people to blame for the financial crisis...
...With an election just six months away, Merkel simply doesn't have the political capital with voters enjoyed by the newly elected Obama Administration. She already faces rising criticism and demonstrations against her policies to bail out the banks, such as the government stakes in Commerzbank and struggling mortgage bank Hypo Real Estate. Critics say during years of belt-tightening to cut public debt the government had no money for social programs, but now it is spending billions to bail out irresponsible banks...
...cost-cutting plans have terrified Opel's 26,000 workers in Germany. Over the past month, rumors of mass layoffs and plant closures have been swirling in the German media. Union leaders are clamoring for a quick decision on the bailout. But Chancellor Angela Merkel's government wants guarantees that any cash that it doles out will not flow back to GM's embattled operations in the U.S., or go down the drain if GM goes bust. (Read a TIME story on Germany's auto industry...
...need all of that slickness and more. Germany is stuck in its worst recession since WWII and exports are plunging. The young politician was elected to the German parliament just seven years ago representing the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU) party, which is aligned with Chancellor Merkel's party. A fluent English speaker, he soon made a name for himself in parliament as a foreign policy and defense expert. But it wasn't until last fall, when the CSU went into meltdown after suffering big losses in the Bavarian state elections that Zu Guttenberg was thrown into the spotlight. Last...