Europe: Crisis Takes Center Stage
As was the case in the United States last week, the economic crisis dominated the news in Western Europe.
Shortly after the American Congress passed a law taxing AIG bonuses at a rate of 90%, a debate ignited in the Netherlands, for instance. This small European country, home to some of the world's biggest banks (like ING), has, like America, bailed out several banks and mortgage lenders in recent months. Shortly after being bailed out those companies plan to 'reward' some of their employees with massive bonuses. Left-wing parties Groenlink (the Greens) and SP (Socialist Party) were joined by the right-wing PVV party of Geert Wilders calling for a similar 90% tax rate. Dutch minister of finances Wouter Bos responded to the calls for a 'supertax' by saying that although he disapproves of bonuses for individuals responsible for the near collapse of banks, he's not yet willing to tax their bonuses at such a high rate.
Swedish conservative-liberal Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt lashed out at EU members who advocate borrowing large sums of money in order to spend their way out of the economic crisis. "A lot of E.U. member countries are now in huge deficits. That’s a problem now and will be a problem for the future," Reinfeldt said. He went on to criticize the Obama administration on the same grounds: "The huge deficits in the U.S. are a problem both for them and for the world because it’s actually taking away a lot of resources from credit markets all over the world, which creates problems for others."
The above makes Reinfeldt the first well-known European leader who publicly criticizes Washington for its handling of the economic crisis. Thus far, most Europeans have refrained from commenting on Obama's policies, even though they consider those policies unwise and counterproductive in the long run.
Turkey's economy, which was one of the fastest growing and most stable developing economies in the world, has collapsed: Its budget deficit has increased by 824%, the economy will shrink by as much as 7% this year, and unemployment has hit an all-time high.
Turkey lived above its means under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. It borrowed many billions from the IMF, individuals and foreign governments. This was acceptable when the economy was thriving, but became untenable at the moment the international crisis hit.
The crisis wasn't the only thing European newspapers wrote about, however. The British Telegraph found out that the DVD box Prime Minister Gordon Brown received when he visited Washington D.C. earlier this month wasn't merely thoughtless and cheap, it was also useless. After having complained about the present for a few days, Brown decided to make the best of it and put the movie "Psycho" in his DVD player. He clicked on play, sat down and waited for the movie to start ... only to see a pop-up screen appear saying "wrong region": the DVDs can only be viewed in a Region 1 player (North America).
Lastly, French President Nicholas Sarkozy is becoming so unpopular that the French are turning his least favorite book into a national bestseller. Sarkozy has frequently expressed his disdain for "La Princesse de Cleves" (The Princess of Cleves), a novel by Madame de La Fayette, which was published in 1678 and is taught in most French classrooms. The French have now responded by making it a symbol of dissent: Sarkozy's popularity falls while sales of the book are rising.
