Comment on: "How to Prop Up the Euro", by Steven Rattner

See"

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/02/opinion/how-to-prop-up-the-euro.html?ref=global

for Op-Ed piece.

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Dear IHT Editors:

It is quite disconcerting how ignorant of the facts the NYT/IHT Op-Ed contributors sometimes are. Mr. Rattner is only the latest in a long string of so called "experts" (in fairness, Mr. Rattner is a "former Wall Street executive", so he certainly qualifies as an expert in wreaking financial havoc on the countries economy while enriching himself) go on and on about the failures of the European leaders to find a long term fix to the well known problems of the Euro. On the face of it, the comments in his Op-Ed piece are largely correct, while certainly not new.

His comparisons with the US system are the usual myopic half-truths one hears from American commentators. The fact that the federal government, for example, pays half the unemployment benefits, does NOT insulate individual states from having to implement draconian austerity measures in order to avoid bankruptcy - states like California are forced to make extremely harsh cuts to education, health care, state retirement, etc., etc., not at all unlike Greece is having to do now. And if these Ep-Ed experts, like Mr. Rattner, ever bothered to travel through Europe with open eyes and open ears, they would be amazed how much cross-national migration there is in Europe to find and fill jobs.

These misrepresentations aside, however, what is by far more concerning is that this bevy of Op-Ed writes does not bother to do even the slightest research (Google search, Wikipedia -- I suggest looking at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Stability_Mechanism) to find out of their basic thesis (European leaders are only looking at short term fixes) is actually correct. If they did do some background reading, or better yet, traveled to Europe and listen to some political discussions, they would know that there is indeed work going on, and has been for over a ear, to come of with some "structural" long term fixes. All of these, however, take time to implement, as they involve changes to the series of treaties with enable the EU and the Euro.

Such work (modifying treaties among 17 and/or 27 different countries) is not an easy task, and in todays fast moving world, is not the best way to run things. However, even with that, by comparison with what the US Congress has done (or not done) with its Super Committee to try and resolve the budget/debt crisis in the US, the European politicians, in their slow and cumbersome efforts to modify the EU and the Euro, don't look so bad by comparison.

Sincerely

Claus Gehner

Comment on: "Leading from Behind" by Roger Cohen

see
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/01/opinion/01iht-edcohen01.html
for Roger Cohens original article.

I agree with the substance of Mr. Cohen's column - \"leading from behind\" for the US in its current state of decline, both economic and political (having just returned from two months in Europe, many people we talked with are quite unbelieving in terms of how far down the US has gone).

However, I am still very skeptical in terms of the \"success\" or \"benefits\" of the so called Arab Spring.

The elections in Tunisia has given an Islamist party (all-be-it \"moderate\") by far the largest share of the electoral vote, and it promptly sent signals that Shira law (e.g. on allowing polygamy) will be re-enabled.

In Libya a similar lead of islamist political parties is evident. And in Egypt, the poster child of the Arab Spring, the military seems poised to consolidate its power, and is allowing anti-coptic-christian violence.

In all these cases (as in Iraq and Afghanistan) the US's ignorance about other parts of the world, and their implicit assumption that when people \"protest\", it means that they want the type of democracy and society we have -- THEY DON'T, as evidenced by the rise of islamists all through the region.... Although when you get right down to it, the Republicans in many ways want to institute the christian equivalent of Shira law in the US.