Europe gets the prize: Sixty years of peace, if not prosperity

Europe gets the prize: Sixty years of peace, if not prosperity

John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — The European Union, the concert of 27 countries ranging from the Bay of Biscay to the Baltics and the Balkans has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway. Some may smile, others may smirk, and many, when they think about it for a second time, may say […]

Demise of the West: Waiting for Act II, but the stage is empty

Demise of the West: Waiting for Act II, but the stage is empty

Special to WorldTribune.com By Gregory Copley, Global Information System It would be a mistake to think that the Western economic crisis is being managed toward a successful conclusion; that perhaps it can escape from disaster. Rather, most Western societies have moved closer to the brink of economic — and therefore political and social — instability […]

The coming train wreck

The coming train wreck

Sol W. Sanders   [See Archive] Resembling a huge 74-wheeler packed with unassembled goodies, the U.S. is stranded on the world economy grade-crossing with the Euro express gathering speed as it tears down the Trans-Atlantic financial tracks for a seemingly inevitable collision. A police report written by patronizing Harvard economists some time in the dim […]

End of Atlanticism and the rise of Germany: The West looks East and yields to unelected bureaucracies

End of Atlanticism and the rise of Germany: The West looks East and yields to unelected bureaucracies

Special to WorldTribune.com By Gregory Copley, Global Information System Europe is at a pivotal point. Or, rather, it is at a point where its structural transformation can no longer be ignored. Events in Europe have finally led us to the dénouement of the 20th Century. It may presage a new Europe tied more firmly into […]

France’s pendulum swing to the left jolts a continent’s fault lines

France’s pendulum swing to the left jolts a continent’s fault lines

John J. Metzler UNITED NATIONS — Tone, tenor, and style separate Nicolas Sarkozy from Francois Hollande as much as clear political ideology divided the two contenders for the French presidency. But sentiments like voter discontent, backlash and anti-austerity describe the mood French voters were in when they elected the Socialist candidate. Francois Hollande’s victory with […]

Classic showdown for Western civilization: Not in Brussels, but in Greece

Classic showdown for Western civilization: Not in Brussels, but in Greece

Sol W. Sanders There is a terrible poignancy to the current Greek crisis. Its essence does not revolve around Greece’s role in the European Union or the Eurozone, per se. After all, before the fall, Greece contributed only 1.8 percent of the gross national product of the world’s largest trading bloc. Nor, indeed, as time […]

World waits for someone to do something, and then waits some more

World waits for someone to do something, and then waits some more

Sol W. Sanders Looking around the world, the striking characteristic is waiting out a number of crises. Their outcome seems almost artificially suspended, and their interaction on one another and their ultimate effect on the world is at issue. We start with the Euro. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s supplications in Beijing were perhaps laudable but a […]

Proud, for once, to be a German

Proud, for once, to be a German

Special to WorldTribune.com By Uwe Siemon-Netto, FreePressers.com It’s been more than two years since my last visit to Germany, my native land. This time I traveled home at the height of the Eurozone crisis. I returned to California just before Christmas filled with pride in my compatriots. Don’t get me wrong. I am not particularly […]

Drastic fixes for critical crises or dodgy compromises for bumps in the road?

Drastic fixes for critical crises or dodgy compromises for bumps in the road?

Sol W. Sanders “Moderation in all things”, said a pre-Christian North African Roman dramatist, Terence [Publius Terentius Afer]. But like so many artists, he latched on to a beautiful artifact but got the logic wrong. He’s echoed these days in the oft repeated mantra from talking heads calling for compromise. It usually follows a description […]

History of the Euro crisis: What happens when the center no longer holds?

History of the Euro crisis: What happens when the center no longer holds?

Sol W. Sanders The kaleidoscope of events and mock-events is moving so rapidly in the European crisis, even a dedicated netizen following events finds himself bemused. It might be good to look at a little history: The European effort to unify — after two bloody civil wars of near annihilation and the post-World War II […]