Month: June 2011

The social unrest in the streets of Athens palpably demonstrates the dangers of letting public debt problems come to the boil. The developed world should watch them carefully and wonder what it can do to avoid a replay of such scenes in New York, London or Tokyo. Though there are no pain free solutions to the world’s public debt problems, this should not stop us from creatively exploring the options.

Just days after the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the International Monetary Fund, French finance minister Christine Lagarde emerged as the frontrunner to succeed him. As nominations closed this week, her only remaining opponent, Mexican central banker Agustín Carstens, has all but conceded defeat. The IMF may soon get its first female managing director.

Just days after the resignation of Dominique Strauss-Kahn from the International Monetary Fund, French finance minister Christine Lagarde emerged as the frontrunner to succeed him. As nominations closed this week, her only remaining opponent, Mexican central banker Agustín Carstens, has all but conceded defeat. The IMF may soon get its first female managing director.

Having spent the last few weeks in Germany, I returned to Australia more puzzled than ever about the country in which I grew up. Germany has never been a nation that was easy to understand. Nor has it ever been a nation at ease with itself. But in its present state it has become a country overflowing with contradictions.

Genügt ein Schuss Aborigine-Blut, um für die Urbevölkerung Australiens zu sprechen? In Australien hat eine Kolumne die «weissen Aborigines» so bissig exponiert, dass diese gegen den Autor Anklage erhoben. Damit verschärfte sich die Frage, ob eine städtische Elite, die sich auf eine partiell indigene Abstammung berufen kann, die Ureinwohner adäquat wahrnimmt und repräsentiert.

It was in a busy shopping street in the city centre of Lübeck where I spotted them. Glowing in bright yellow, the fruits at the market stall looked exactly as I remembered them from Australia. But when I saw the price of 79 Euro cents per kilo (approximately AU$1), I wondered whether they were really bananas.