Year: 2015

The refugee crisis could prove to be the EU’s make-or-break moment.

Europe is suffering from some strange delusions that are less apparent when you live there. That is because certain beliefs and self-images are repeated until they can no longer be questioned without turning yourself into a political pariah. In my new essay, ‘Why Europe Failed’, I am dealing with some of them.

In the breathlessness of the euro crisis, it is easy to miss the wood for the trees. By looking at individual trouble spots, we may be ignoring the roots of the crisis.

The continent that invented and dominated the modern world has gambled away its future. ‘Why Europe Failed’ is a sobering account of the Old World’s fall from grace.

The rise of the European welfare state, the reduction of economic dynamism and the increasingly questionable legitimacy of the European project go hand in hand. ‘Panem et circenses’ could have been the motto of ­Europe’s post-World War II mixed economy model. It remains to be seen whether the EU will also share the Roman Empire’s fate.

In this Friday’s Top 10, everything you need to know about the new global economic crisis – and what Donald Trump has to do with it.

For a change, Europe’s worries do not originate from the continent itself. Instead, they stem from the fallout of China’s dramatic slowdown.

Before any politicians stumble across the idea of a Vehicle Management Act and try to introduce it into parliament, let me just make it clear that this was never meant seriously. We Germans do have a sense of humour, you know. Sometimes it is just a little harder to pick up.