Re: But the outfall could go further. Britain's political, financial and business classes have been polluted by the same conservative virus. It is not just Lady Thatcher, but Tony Blair and Gordon Brown who have uncritically celebrated America's enterprise culture. Beyond them, many in Europe have wilted before the propaganda offensive and begun to accept that Europe's economic and social model is irredeemably weak and that it should be Americanised.
In truth, the task, as I argue in The World We're In, is to develop a distinctive European model of enterprise which takes a more rounded view of what produces organisational success and protects our conception of the social contract and public realm which are central to European civilisation, and which all Europeans, despite their surface differences, hold in common along with the best in the American liberal tradition.
As real fears grow that Britain could experience similar problems, our establishment has been quick to point out that we are better regulated along European lines. This notion was decried just a few months ago by many of those same voices as inhibiting our ability to emulate American enterprise. Our 'sclerotic' European-ness may be what saves us. We should be relieved and proud - and build on it.
What a short memory Mr Will Hutton has....
Tuesday, 9 April, 2002, 16:19 GMT 17:19 UK
Hints of a thaw in German economic freeze
By James Arnold
BBC News Online business reporter
It's no accident that Schadenfreude is a German word.
Always keen to take a pop at an over-mighty neighbour, Europeans are doing their best to highlight Germany's current economic woes.
"Behind a healthy facade, Germany is crumbling," bellows Britain's Sunday Times; "Kirch's collapse causes an earthquake in Germany," crows France's La Tribune.
Certainly, reading the press - inside as well as outside Germany - gives the impresssion of a country in the throes of a recession of unparalleled ferocity, an impression reinforced this week by the messy disintegration of the Kirch media empire.
But that may not be entirely fair: even amid the gloomiest of the news, it may not be fanciful to detect the first glimmerings of recovery.
Portents of doom
Not that business news has been anything other than wholly dismal in the past few months.
Germany is in recession, by any measure, and its economy has now underperformed the EU average for 10 straight years.
Unemployment, which Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder promised would be below 3.5 million in time for September's elections, is already over the 4 million mark.
Germany's jobless rate, at 8.1%, is the fifth highest in the EU, and is three times the level seen in the neighbouring Netherlands.
Company crunch
Even more crucially for most voters, something seems to be dangerously wrong with Germany's leading companies.
The failure of Kirch may only affect a couple of thousand jobs, but the company's iconic status as a global media giant - Germany's biggest private broadcaster, owner of TV rights to the World Cup, Formula One and so on - gives it a special poignancy.
[...]
Three years ago, Holzmann (*) was bailed out at the insistence of Mr Schroeder, costing the German taxpayer 2.2bn euros (£1.3bn; $1.9bn).
This time around, political bleating is being ignored in favour of economic good sense.
Small compensation for Holzmann's 23,000 workers perhaps - but possibly excellent news for the 4 million queuing at dole offices around the country.
[snip]
news.bbc.co.uk
(*) GERMAN COMPANY PLEADS GUILTY TO RIGGING BIDS ON USAID CONSTRUCTION CONTRACTS IN EGYPT
Philipp Holzmann AG Sentenced To Pay $30 Million Criminal Fine
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Philipp Holzmann AG, a Frankfurt, Germany construction company, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $30 million fine for its participation in a conspiracy to rig bids on construction contracts funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the Arab Republic of Egypt, the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Alabama announced today.
[snip]
usdoj.gov
__________________________
Tuesday, June 22, 1999 Published at 15:58 GMT 16:58 UK
Business: The Economy
How Leeson broke the bank
It was the 1980s. Traders were young and greed was good.
Nick Leeson, a working class lad from Watford, the son of a plasterer, was chuffed to land a job in the purportedly-glamorous world of the City of London in 1982.
It was a relatively low-grade job, but he quickly made a name for himself. He worked his way up, becoming a whiz-kid in the hardworking atmosphere of the far eastern currency markets.
Soon, he was Barings Bank's star Singapore trader, bringing substantial profits from the Singapore International Monetary Exchange.
By 1993, a year after his arrival in Asia, Leeson had made more than £10m - about 10% of Barings's total profit for that year.
In his autobiography Rogue Trader, Leeson said the ethos at Barings was simple: "We were all driven to make profits, profits, and more profits ... I was the rising star."
He and his wife Lisa enjoyed a life of luxury that the money brought.
He earned a bonus of £130,000 on his salary of £50,000.
[snip]
news.bbc.co.uk
You may want to investigate on your own the following case studies of European business "savvy":
Credit Lyonnais, Swissair, Sabena, Lernout&Hauspie, Eurotunnel, EuroDisney/Disneyland Paris, etc. |
