Europeans Ask Themselves: What Is Europe?

December 9, 2011

Are Europe’s leaders trying to solve a crisis, or forge a new continental power? The euro’s fate may hinge on just what, exactly, Europe is.

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An Unequal Price For Equality

March 8, 2011

Europeans are about to pay an unequal price for equality. On March 1, Europe’s top court banned insurance companies from basing premiums on gender. EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Redding called the decision “an important step towards putting the fundamental right of gender equality into practice.” The court labeled gender-differentiated premiums discriminatory in a case originally brought by Test-Achats, a Belgian consumer group. While it’s admirable that the EU has recently …

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The Euro Lifeboat

December 2, 2010

Citizens of Germany, Greece and Ireland are all learning an important lesson: When you share a lifeboat with someone, you can’t each go your own way. Germany is the biggest contributor to the $113 billion bailout that the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund cobbled together for Ireland last weekend. The seven-year package of loans, totaling 85 billion euros at an average interest rate of 5.8 percent, guarantees …

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The Economic Fujiwara

November 22, 2010

The dollar is up against the euro. No, the dollar is down against the euro. Now it’s up again. Until it goes down. Meteorologists have a term, the “Fujiwara effect,” to describe the interaction of two storms in close proximity. In the Northern hemisphere, wind blows counterclockwise around centers of low pressure. When two lows “dance the Fujiwara,” as some scientists put it, the winds of each storm influence the …

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A Hypocritical Cloning Ban

November 16, 2010

In 1996 the world said hello to Dolly, and to a host of ethical and scientific questions regarding animal cloning. Now the European Union is trying to turn back the clock on biotechnological progress. Last month the EU’s executive arm, the European Commission, announced that it would propose a five-year ban on the cloning of animals for food production. John Dalli, the EU commissioner for health and consumer policy, acknowledged …

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Restoring Confidence In Europe’s Banks

June 25, 2010

The financial crisis that gripped the world in late 2008 was, most of all, a crisis of confidence. What we knew about the condition of America’s biggest financial institutions was bad enough, but what we didn’t know was terrifying. This is why the “stress tests” that financial regulators publicly performed on 19 of the country’s largest financial firms last year were so helpful. In some cases the news was good, …

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A Financial Thunderstorm, Not A Hurricane

May 5, 2010

The Greek financial crisis sent markets around the world reeling yesterday, as the soothing effects of the Eurozone’s $143 billion bailout package wore off after just one business day. If Greece falls, and then perhaps Portugal, will we be looking at the sort of global paralysis that set in when the Bear Stearns domino hit the Lehman Brothers domino, which hit Merrill Lynch, which hit American International Group, ad infinitum? …

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Kicking The Umpire Out Of The Game

March 15, 2010

When Greece raised 5 billion euros (nearly $7 billion) in the bond market earlier this month, it had to offer investors an interest rate of 6.25 percent — nearly double what fellow European Union member Germany pays to borrow money. The difference is that the Greek government’s finances are, as we noted here months ago, a train wreck, while Germany is still a good credit risk. The perilous state of …

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Liberation On The Tarmac

December 29, 2009

Airlines can continue to herd their customers like cattle, pack us like sardines and nickel-and-dime us like the suckers we must be, since we keep coming back for more. But they can no longer hold us hostage. With pro-passenger legislation bottled up on Capitol Hill, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood has issued a Department of Transportation rule addressing many of the concerns of travelers’ advocates. LaHood is calling the new regulations, …

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