Articles by Nico Wirtz
Angie in Wonderland
In her first New Year's address to her fellow countrymen-and-women German chancellor Angela Merkel outlined her new year's resolution for Germany: Reclaim the country's top economic position in Europe within the next decade. In taking on this project, the new...
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Germany's Grand Illusion
In the last quarter of 2005, Germany's economy is continuing down its path of weakness and fragility. Unemployment is rampant, economic growth has almost come to a halt and Germany's social security system and other welfare programs are chronically short...
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Flat Tax Frenzy
Known for having one of the most complicated and onerous tax regimes in the world, Germany recently surprised observers overseas when it started a public discourse on a concept that has been floated in the United States for quite some...
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Land of the Lost
If you thought raising taxes and pick-pocketing taxpayers was the exclusive domain of Germany's Social Democrats, it is time to think again. Once elections are on the horizon, politicians tend to indulge in populism. The latest outgrowth of this is...
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What Price Victory?
To those not too familiar with the German political and social landscape, the overwhelming victory of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the state of North-Rhine-Westphalia may have seemed an opportunity to turn the country around and resort to...
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The War on Capitalism
During the week of May 1 - Germany's Labor Day - it was clear that the recent "capitalism debate" in Germany has spun out of control. The chairman of Germany's Social Democratic Party (SPD), Franz Müntefering, by comparing foreign...
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Continents Adrift?
With the possibility of John Bolton becoming U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, the transatlantic rift that many politicians have been trying to talk away is resurfacing in a more pronounced way than ever before. Long-standing differences regarding mission, pur
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TCS EU Summit Coverage: German Economic Quicksand
This month, Germany's largest industry association, the Association of German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (DIHK) published its latest survey of German industries. The results were remarkable, but should not have come as a shock to anybody who has been...
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Allies Adrift?
"The Cold War is over now. Very fortunately so, but at the same time...the glue that kept us together for so long has lost its strength." - Jean-Luc Dehaene, former prime minister of Belgium For decades, it was conventional...
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Wage Against the Machine
With Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle's endorsement of the Minimum Wage Advisory Council's proposal to hike the minimum wage from $5.15 to $6.50, the Badger State may soon see its minimum wage go up by 24 percent. The council, however,...
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