Germany and the Eurozone

The New York Times recently started a discussion about whether or not Germany should stay in the Eurozone. This discussion prompted questions of whether or not it was beneficial to Germany's growing economy to stay in the Eurozone.
    Charles Dumas, chairman of Lombard Street Research, said that by staying in the Eurozone Germany was weakening its economy and undervaluing its labor. In contrast Astrides N. Hatzis, an associate professor of law and economics at the University of Athens, pointed out the costs of Germany leaving the Eurozone, such as having the devalued euro provide competition for an overvalued deutsche mark. He also points out that Germany will lose financial and political investments if they leave. Finally, Stephan Homburg, a professor at Leibniz University, thinks Germany should leave because the legal framework of Europe's common currency has been corrupted, it is costly to stick with the euro, and staying with common currency will poison Europe's political atmosphere even more. 
   I found it really interesting to look at the different views on this subject as well as where the people writing were from. It seems to me like place of origin has a large influence on whether or not one thinks Germany should stay in the Eurozone. 
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/11/12/should-germany-leave-the-euro-zone/germany-should-leave-the-euro-zone

Twitter Blocks Germans’ Access to Neo-Nazi Group

    With the flourishing of social media, the distance between different countries has grown smaller, and the spreading of

information has never been easier. It seems that this very democratic culture of open information from the U.S. has

quickly spread across the globe, even to places that freedom of speech has never been guaranteed; such as the middle-

eastern countries that had started their revolution via Facebook.


    However, on September 25th, 2012; one of the largest and most influential social media, Twitter made a controversial

move in Germany that triggered debate all over the world. This controversy started with the group "Besseres Hannover,"

a neo-Nazi group in Germany that had been posting far-right tweets and swastika symbols, which could be prosecuted

according to the laws in Germany. Though this incident caused little resistance due to its laws and Nazi past in Germany,

people from other countries have raised their concerns over freedom of speech. What if, the government of Russia

decided to suppress youtube videos that acted against the government? This is a serious problem since it makes the

social media companies potentially subject to manipulation by governments that are authoritarian.


    On the other hand, JIllian C. York, the director for international freedom of expression at the Electronic Frontier

Foundation said that, "It's not a great thing, but it's a way of minimizing censorship. It's better for Twitter if they can keep

countries happy without having to take the whole thing down." As China did. Youtube also has a similar company policy

about removing videos that contain hate speech. However, if content being deemed inappropriate could be removed by

company policies or the legal system of the country, then, what is freedom of speech? Or moreover, what is

appropriateness? 

Marijuana

Marijuana has been a hot topic of late in the U.S. with the debate over whether or not to legalize it. It appears that the same is also true in Germany. Der Spiegel's article "German Politician Inhales on Live TV", they briefly discuss the legal state of marijuana, and the repercussions of using it.

They also mention the possibility of classifying marijuana "on the same level as other 'soft' drugs such as alcohol and nicotine". How does this compare to the American discussion? Would Germans agree with how we regulate "soft" drugs? 

Is US Foreign Policy Falling Behind?

In light of the recent American foreign policy debate, I thought it would be interesting to see what Germans are saying about the subject. In an article from Der Spiegel titled "Debate Reveals Outdated US Foreign Policy", both Romney and Obama were bashed for their outdated, Bush era, stance on foreign policy. The article stated that they were not focusing on important, new global challenges such as green technology and the rise of Asia, but instead still stuck in a world order created by the Bush administration that focused on the Middle East.
    From an American perspective I found this idea completely new. I had just assumed that because the US was so focused on the Middle East, so was the rest of the world. Instead I was caught completely unaware by the idea that what the US considered some of the most pressing issues in foreign policy were outdated. This lead me to wonder what this could mean for the US as a global power if many of the world's other countries consider it to be wrapped up in problems of the past. What do you think?

Leipzig becomes Germany's hipster playground

Students study outside the University of Leipzig. Photo courtesy of University of Missouri.

According to Der Spiegel writer Maximillian Popp, Leipzig has taken Berlin's title of "Germany's hippest city."

Just in the last year, approximately 9,000 people have moved to the city, raising Leipzig's population to highest its been since the Berlin Wall fell.

Young artists and writers are flooding the city, occupying the city's Clara Zetkin Park and formerly abandoned warehouses-turned-studios.

Much like the U.S., Germany also has a high unemployment rate with nearly a "fifth of the country's population living on unemployment benefits."

In the U.S., considering the difficulty for recent graduates to get hired for entry level positions. Thus, it has  more common for students to begin studying subjects they do not necessarily find practical. Instead, students both in the U.S. and in Germany are studying subjects they just find interesting like arts and literature. 

What remains to be answered is whether this trend will remain prevalent in both American and German culture. Do you see this as a short-term trend? If so, how do you think this will effect popular cities like Leipzig?

Global Power in Decline

This article from the Spiegel  looks at the October 22nd U.S. presidential debate between Barack Obama and Mitt Romney. The article states that both candidates failed to adequately adress many of the growing concerns of the American people such as climate change, the rise of Asia, education and infrastructure. More importantly, the Spiegel argues that neither candidate fully explained how they will deal with an increasingly outdated foreign policy at a time when American citizens are tired of being a world police force but still want to believe in American exceptionalism. Thoughts?