Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy draw up package to counter debt crisis but will not reveal details before G20 summit By guardian. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German chancellor Angela Merkel after meeting in Berlin to discuss how to confront the eurozone bank and debt crisis. Photograph: Martin Meissner/AP The leaders of France and Germany have announced that they are ready to recapitalise Europe' ...

Think Greece's current economic malaise is the worst ever experienced in Europe? Think again. Germany, economic historian Albrecht Ritschl argues in a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, has been the worst debtor nation of the past century. He warns the country should take a more chaste approach in the euro crisis or it could face renewed demands for World War II reparations. Former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer ...

In Griechenland heißt es, man habe Deutschlands Hilfe mehr als verdient. Immerhin seien aus dem Weltkrieg noch Rechnungen offen. "Welt Online" hat nachgerechnet. Autor: Sven Felix Kellerhoff on www.welt.de Here you can read it in English by NYT. In der aktuellen Debatte um eine mögliche Staatsinsolvenz melden sich in Griechenland immer mehr Stimmen zu Wort, denen zufolge Deutschland noch enorme Schulden aus ...

Sep 12th 2011, 18:13 by R.A. | WASHINGTON MANY people have been linking to this Spiegel piece, on how the Germans are preparing for the possibility of a Greek default. It's a remarkable read. Consider: "The rest of Europe is losing patience with Athens. And after 18 months of crisis in the country, there is still no improvement in sight. Key economic figures are worsening, and there are growing doubts over ...

Berlin has its own Outraged camp: a loose network of politically-critical people started occupying the city’s main square, Alexanderplatz, since Saturday night, following the example of north-African and Spanish revolutions. After the nightly event “aCAMPada Berlin goes aCAMParty” it was decided to camp out in order “to demonstrate against various political events, that aren’t compatible with the free democ ...

(Reuters) - Germans may accuse spendthrift euro zone southerners of too much play and not enough work, but they enjoy the most generous annual holiday time in the European Union, a study released on Wednesday showed. Reporting by Eric Kelsey, editing by Paul Taylor Workers in Germany enjoy 30 days of paid holiday a year on average, the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions ...

By Yasmin El-Sharif and Stefan Kaiser Tough times are ahead for the Greeks, with the government raising taxes, cutting social benefits and selling off state enterprises. Berlin has led the European pack in demanding the measures from Athens. But economists say Germany would be overwhelmed if it were forced to implement similar measures. The Germans are always way ahead when it comes to austerity measures -- ...

LATE one night in September 2008, as the financial world trembled,Josef Ackermannreceived an urgent call from Berlin. On the line was Angela Merkel, the German chancellor. She needed his help — now. A big German bank was about to collapse, much the way Lehman Brothers had only days before. It was 12:45 a.m. and shaky financial markets were about to open across Asia. Fear was in the air. Mrs. Merkel asked wh ...

Action in Berlin ...

The real causes of and the myths about the crisis by Jérôme E. Roos Negotiations are going on for an effective abolition of Greek national sovereignty in what the Financial Times has called an “unprecedented outside intervention in the Greek economy.” Believe it or not, the European Union is set to ‘peacefully’ annex Greece, essentially putting the country’s economy under direct conservatorship of the north ...