The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung argues in favour of comprehensive subsidies for the ailing auto industry. "Hardly any other industry is as globalised as the car industry. ... Now we are facing a financial crisis, and companies that compete internationally are receiving state subsidies. This is the strategy that has been decided in America and the same will no doubt be done here in Europe and Germany. We have been taught that subsidies are a bad thing because they disrupt the free play between supply and demand. ... Admittedly, this free market exists only in theory. The Japanese are taking brutal measures to protect their car business. And it is not only in Eastern Europe that governments provide huge incentives for companies wanting to open new plants there. In Germany, too, the state gives a helping hand, albeit a little more discreetly: here government money is invested in research and development. ... The goal must be for all companies to get the same aid - immediately, for a fixed period of time and, if possible, worldwide." (03/11/2008)

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Corporations, » Economic Policy, » Germany, » Europe, » Global
All available articles from » Michael Kuntz

The Times argues in favour of sovereign wealth funds, which are injecting badly needed funds into Western businesses. "The cross-border investments of these funds generate political controversy in developed economies. ... [The French] President [Nicolas] Sarkozy has vowed to protect French companies in the face of what he calls 'extremely aggressive sovereign funds which only follow economic logic'. By contrast, [the British Business Secretary] Lord [Peter] Mandelson declares that Europe should not discourage investment, and that London would provide a good home for the European operations of sovereign funds. ... Western governments are entitled to expect transparency in the way that sovereign funds invest their holdings of international reserves. But this requirement should not be a cover for protectionism. ... Investors with long-term horizons are conspicuous by their scarcity in today's financial markets. They ought to be welcomed." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Financial Markets, » France, » United Kingdom, » Europe

In the daily Polska, Polish sociologist Jadwiga Staniszkis casts the financial crisis as an opportunity for Poland: "The crisis not only will not destroy Poland's chances of modernising, it could actually provide the opportunity for this change. Naturally this depends on the strategy used to face the crisis. In the moment a crisis emerges, for example, it may be that what had previously been perceived as a setback turns out to be a valuable reserve. Take a look at the Chinese: because of the crisis they have started a series of reforms that will facilitate the trading of rights for the use of land and property. This means that all of a sudden over 730 million potential borrowers are on the market. That gives the economy a tremendous boost. And here in Poland the crisis has created a situation in which it is easier to push through difficult and hitherto unpopular social reforms - I'm thinking here of interim pensions ... and also the conversion from the zloty to the euro." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, Polish)
More from the press review on the subject » Economic Policy, » Poland
All available articles from » Jadwiga Staniszkis

The French business paper Les Echos analyses Russia's action plan for the crisis: "The Russia of Vladimir Putin is also affected by the crisis, and here the cards are being shuffled and dealt in a new, Russian way. We are now witness to a new round of nationalisations and privatisations, the fourth since the fall of the USSR. What is at stake is control of the world's most important firms in the area of strategic raw materials: oil, gas, steel, diamonds, nickel, gold and precious metals. ... First of all the regime will probably try to help the energy companies, because it is convinced that control of oil and gas supplies to Europe is the key to a new and grand national policy. ... The new deal could be even bigger than the three previous privatisation waves. ... And if you recall earlier times, there should be no shortage of bloody intrigues. But apart from a few exceptions, Western firms are apparently not invited." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » Financial Markets, » Russia
All available articles from » Yves Bourdillon

Slovenia is the only EU member state to have voted against opening a new chapter in Croatia's EU membership talks. In the Slovenian daily Dnevnik columnist Zoran Senkovič has the following to say on the subject: "Croatia had already learned that one does not violate EU rules. ... The first lesson was the case of Croatian general Ante Gotovina, who was wanted by the war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Brussels delayed negotiations with Croatia until his arrest. ... But above all Croatia only has itself to blame for the delays, because the country's difficulties with its shipyards, the stalled reforms of its legal system and its problems with organised crime have pushed EU membership further into the distance than Zagreb would like to see it - and Slovenia is not to blame for these problems. Croatia's biggest problem is that it has learned nothing from the lessons of the past." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, Slovenian)
More from the press review on the subject » EU enlargement, » Croatia
All available articles from » Zoran Senkovic

The Dutch government has struck the ban against blasphemy from the country's penal code. This step was long overdue, writes the progressive Christian daily Trouw: "It is time that the animosity between the Christian and secular Dutch gave way to the realisation that in this pluralistic world one must learn to deal with differences. In this respect it is good that the cabinet has abolished the distinction between religious and non-religious outlooks in the penal code. The Netherlands is no longer a Christian country, but nor has it become a secular one. ... On the other hand the cabinet has made it clear that freedom of expression is not unlimited. This freedom does not encompass the right to insult. But fortunately nor is there the right to be protected against insults." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, Dutch)
More from the press review on the subject » Religion, » Weltanschauung, » Netherlands

The opposition Czech Social Democratic Party (CSSD) wants to stop its attacks on the country's government led by the liberal conservative Civil Democratic Party (ODS), so as not to hinder the Czech EU Council presidency. The conservative newspaper Lidové noviny comments: "The Social Democrats won the most recent local and senate elections, while the ODS and its leader have major problems on their hands. So the CSSD is in a position where it can afford to be generous. ... CSSD leader [Jiří] Paroubek explains he is prepared to separate the EU Council presidency from domestic politics. But at the same time the CSSD is against enlarging the Czech contingent in Afghanistan, which is damaging the country's credibility among its partners. It is hardly imaginable that both party leaders will be able to agree on a foreign policy direction if the government does not fundamentally revise its former foreign policy." (03/11/2008)

» more information (external link, Czech)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Domestic Policy, » Czech Republic
All available articles from » Bohumil Doležal

The daily Die Presse fears that the financial crisis could have the effect of politically radicalising Russia, Hungary and Ukraine. "Russian voices that see the crisis as a chance to relax state control over the economic sector, to carry out structural reforms and modernise the economy will go largely unheeded at the moment. The instinctive reaction of the Russian elite is in the opposite direction: more state intervention in the economy. Some observers fear that the leadership duo formed by [Russian President] Dmitry Medvedev and [Russian Prime Minister] Vladimir Putin could even seek the solution in a 'development dictatorship'. Political radicalisation and seeking salvation in new forms of dictatorship are horror scenarios that could become reality as a result of the present crisis, and to which the countries of Central and Eastern Europe are particularly susceptible. They have seen it all - with the effect of a world in flames. Perhaps right now a history lesson would do the responsible politicians all over Europe the world of good." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » International Relations, » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Eastern Europe
All available articles from » Burkhard Bischof

The Europeans would vote for Obama if they could. Writing in the newsaper La Repubblica, however, Bernardo Valli finds it hard to imagine a head of government belonging to an ethnic minority being elected in Europe. "A German chancellor of Turkish origin? A Senegalese French president? A British prime minister of Pakistani descent? Here European scepticism wins out. ... For some years now Europe's image of America has been tarnished. The Bush era pushed America into a depression from which a new, dynamic society is looking for a way out. The Obama phenomenon strikes at the heart of Europe because it clearly demonstrates Europe's inflexibility. This is based in mistrust and in the fear of a strong, inexorable wave of immigrants which could disrupt the social equilibrium. We are becoming aware of the stiffness that has beset our society. Europe is changing in colour. Waves of newcomers are arriving in our continent, people who are not easy to assimilate but who bring with them new and indispensable energy. We are crippled by our fear of the foreign. America, the epitome of the country of immigration, has taught us what it means to be a multiethnic, multicultural society. ... The symbolic value of Obama's rise, and perhaps in just a few hours his election to the highest office of the world's most powerful nation, is so strong that even a sceptical and insular continent like ours can't help but be fascinated." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, Italian)
More from the press review on the subject » Migration, » Weltanschauung, » Europe, » U.S.
All available articles from » Bernardo Valli

The Swiss daily Neue Zürcher Zeitung contends that it is important to adopt a more relaxed attitude towards drugs and convert the drug shadow economy into a liberal system, whereby Switzerland could play a pioneering role: "Switzerland is one of the states that question the wisdom of traditional drug policy. With its 'four-pillared policy' in which in addition to repression, prevention and damage control a heroin-based therapy was introduced, it is playing a pioneering role that has attracted international attention. Experts are leading a high-level and rational discussion about how to overcome the inconsistencies in the differentiation between legal and illegal substances through models that take account of a drug's scientifically researched addictive potential and potential for harming people's health. That each legal step can be subjected to a vote will help to ensure a drug policy that not only experts but also the people understand." (02/11/2008)

» full article (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Health Policy, » Switzerland, » Global
All available articles from » Oswald Iten

Le Monde stresses in its leading article the positive role of the common European currency in the current economic and financial crisis: "The financial crisis has one undisputed winner: the euro. Seven years after its introduction it has offered Europeans joint protection from the financial storm. Without the euro, the writing would already be on the wall. Like in the 1990s the old continent would once more be torn asunder. ... Let us observe the fate of those countries that do not belong to this family. The small state of Iceland is bankrupt. Hungary is dependent on the International Monetary Fund and European institutions. Even worse off is Denmark. With its virtuous Scandinavian model ... it has had to ask for help from the European Central Bank. It is becoming widely recognised that remaining outside the Eurozone is an expensive undertaking. ... The crisis should encourage the French to put an end to their complaints about the European Central Bank and the common currency. For two decades the euro was their main political objective. They have reached it, and they have every reason to be content." (01/11/2008)

» full article (external link, French)
More from the press review on the subject » EU Policy, » Fiscal Policy, » Europe

The Financial Times is optimistic about the G20 meeting of the advanced and emerging countries slated for November 15 in Washington: "With goodwill and imagination, the G20 leaders can commit themselves to a co-ordinated, co-operative solution to the financial crisis that, day by day, is sweeping across the developing world. That would be a powerful political response to an immediate problem. The alternative, that countries look out for their own interest while the system falls apart, is too horrible to contemplate. ... The G20 meeting will not resolve the intricacies of regulating credit default swaps or introducing new counter-cyclical capital ratios for banks. But it does offer a chance for some of the rich economies to undo some of the damage they have done to global economic co-ordination over the past decade. Determined US leadership for the future will have to wait until a new president moves into the White House in January. The rest of the world cannot allow a vacuum to exist until then." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, English)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Economic Policy, » Global

The crisis has now hit the art market, El País writes in a preliminary report on the auctions of modern and contemporary art in New York: "Edginess, caution and - although no one wants to say it out loud - fear. ... After five consecutive years of dolce vita in which the buying frenzy turned contemporary and dead artists into investments whose prices reached exorbitant heights and replicated the crazy behaviour of the financial markets, the big freeze has set in on the art market. ... The great uncertainty now is: Who will stop buying? The Russians and Chinese, who invested spectacular sums in recent years? The US nouveaux riches who made it fashionable to buy art with money generated by the real estate bubble? The rock stars á la Bono, who would turn up at auctions in the same way they turn up for the opening night of the hottest new club?" (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, Spanish)
More from the press review on the subject » Fine Arts, » Financial Markets, » U.S., » Global
All available articles from » Barbara Celis

The film "Welcome to the Land of Shtis", in which a postal director is transferred to a region in the north of France where the dialect is almost incomprehensible, says much about the state of France today, writes the weekly newspaper Die Zeit: "The film shows a France ... with floral wallpaper in the bedroom, protected from globalisation and crises, cosily ensconced in the familiar universe of a post office. ... But aside from a few elderly people in the countryside or in mining areas, practically no one in northern France speaks Shti any more. ... [The director] Dany Boon has revived a dying language, which sounds in the German dubbed version like a bold cross between Swabian and Swiss German. All this fits in very well with a complete absence of foreigners. For 106 minutes not a single person of Arab origin crosses the screen. ... What kind of a country is this, that delights in such a skewed image of itself?" (30/10/2008)

» more information (external link, German)
More from the press review on the subject » Film, » France

Modern journalism is still having problems picking up on long-term, complex or even global phenomena, writes Turo Uskali, doctor of philosophy and communications lecturer at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland, in the daily Helsingin Sanomat. He notes that only a few media were able to predict the financial crisis: "It is the task of quality journalism to discern and predict new trends and directions. ... Given the risk of forecasting the future is it not enough to simply report on what happens on a daily basis? ... In recent years the British [weekly The] Economist ... has made an effort to carry out its own studies on difficult issues and then publish the results. This is an interesting journalistic format." (03/11/2008)

» full article (external link, Finnish)
More from the press review on the subject » Fiscal Policy, » Media policy, » Finland, » Global