- Help your child learn financial discipline, IndiaTimes.com, August 20, 2010.
2. German Chancellor Angela Merkel stood behind a podium at the DZ Bank at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate, gazing sullenly into the cameras. She had just received the wrong prop for a photo op, and she needed to get it out of sight as quickly as possible.
To thank her for her speech marking the International Year of Cooperatives, a gray-faced official had thrust a porcelain piggy bank into her hands -- an ugly thing with a milky sheen that appeared to reflect the very coldness said to characterize her policies.
Merkel reflected momentarily, then had the gift quickly tucked away in a box. Photos of the piggy-bank chancellor are not exactly what she most urgently needs right now. In fact, for the past few days, she has endeavored to put a more friendly face on her image as the strict belt-tightening politician who is forcing Europe to adhere to Germany’s budgetary discipline dictates.
She is determined to stick by her strategy. But now when she talks about the euro crisis, instead of focusing solely on “structural reforms” and “stability,” she has also started to refer to “growth” and “jobs.”
Merkel's euro strategy is under fire, and she has lost one ally after the next in recent weeks. In the Netherlands, her most loyal follower, Prime Minister Mark Rutte, has submitted his resignation. In Frankfurt, European Central Bank President Mario Draghi has demanded that Merkel’s cost-cutting strategy be supplemented by a “growth pact.” And in Paris, Socialist Party presidential candidate François Hollande has announced that, if he wins the run-off election this coming Sunday, he intends to lead the European opposition against Merkel. “So many people in Europe are waiting for our victory,” he said. “I don’t want a Europe of austerity, where nations are forced on their knees.”
【Go to the 'piggy bank'?】相关文章:
★ 怎样学好初中英语
最新
2020-09-15
2020-08-28
2020-08-21
2020-08-19
2020-08-14
2020-08-12