Word: schr
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...only is Germany edging ever closer to the 3% mark, but Gerhard Schröder, with a mixture of heavy-handedness and hauteur, has even muscled the Commission into withholding the obligatory letter of warning. How could he do this? If you run the biggest economy in the E.U., you can. Especially if you get two more biggies, in this case, France and Britain, to go along, or at least not to oppose...
...outcome is a victory of sorts for Schröder, who must face the electorate in September, but a disaster for Europe. If the preacher goes off the wagon, why should his flock stick to sobriety? How will the Commission be able to chastize Italy, Portugal and France, whose deficits are swelling, if it caved in to the Berlin bully? The euro, which since its inception in 1999 has plunged nearly 25% against the dollar, will surely not rise soon...
...stiffing of the Commission the only sin of the once so Europe-minded Germans. Indeed, Schröder has racked up quite a record in recent times. Take cars, something very dear to the European consumer. Competition Commissioner Mario Monti wants to break up the informal shelters that allow carmakers to charge different prices in different markets. But Schröder, eyeing the profits and employment rolls of VW, Daimler, Opel et al., doesn't like it. Liberalization of the energy market? No, says Berlin, we don't want a European regulatory commission that would set Europe-wide "tolls...
...moral of this tale is "neomercantilism," the protection of one's home market against competition from abroad. The Schröder government has become quite shameless in this game, using its muscle in European councils as if it were the direct descendant of Louis XIV and his protectionist Finance Minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert...
...other goodies like the next soccer World Cup. He is in hock to the banks for about ?6 billion ($5.2 billion), and lots of loans are coming due these days. When Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-American ruler of a globe-spanning media empire, offered himself as a savior, Schröder sent out the signal: "No foreigners!" The word was spread that the Chancellor preferred a "national solution" - as he did in the case of John Malone, an American whose Liberty Media wanted to invest big time in the German cable industry but was frozen out on the argument that...