Economics

欧元的黄昏

Aug 3, 2012 Harold James

慕尼黑——要理解欧元危机，显然需要懂点经济学。此外还需要懂点欧洲各国深层次的文化取向。

时值夏休季高峰，正好可以了解一下欧洲的闲暇文化。欧洲人玩和放松的热情，不亚于他们在金融和经济上打拼的劲头。问题不仅仅是他们做什么。他们怎么做，尤其是，谁做的，有助于揭示欧洲难题的深层性质。

今年6月的欧洲杯似乎很乐意让自己被看成欧洲单一货币危局的影射。人们说被淘汰的队伍是“脱离欧元”。希腊人则自豪地见证了他们的国家队挺过小组赛，杀进四分之一决赛。

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Harold James

Writing for PS since 2001
207 Commentaries

Harold James is Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University. A specialist on German economic history and on globalization, he is a co-author of The Euro and The Battle of Ideas, and the author of The Creation and Destruction of Value: The Globalization Cycle, Krupp: A History of the Legendary German Firm, Making the European Monetary Union, and The War of Words.

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 13 Comments on this article

John Silva Nov 6, 2012

i had just commented on an article by the same author, but i've got to make a second remark...
how dumb can this text be?! there are young foreing talents in opera and football in Europe, ergo, the all continent is in decline and their youth should work harder... Now that's a sign of some «deep cultural orientations of European societies». Still he mentions Mezut Ozil, third-generation german, meaning that his father was already born in Germany, as a «foreign».
Maybe the author should hit the books instead of the opera to know more about Europe.
About football : «Defeated teams were described as having 'left the Euro'», did he really thought that this was some kind of pun? Because in 2008, and 2004 and before that: «defeated teams were (also) described as having 'left the Euro'» because they did!!!
From the VIP stadium areas u really get a nice view, but it's not the best way to interpret the game...
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Ernest Dautovic Aug 24, 2012

Harold, and project syndicate, please do us a favor. Avoid letting this professor articulate on Europe because is evident that he has a superficial knowledge and opinion on what's going on. The risk is that a lot of readers could take him seriously and this article is, by far, below the quality-standard of project syndicate.
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Pieter Keesen Aug 16, 2012

Prima Donna's

In a Greek tragedy the chorus serves a purpose as does the hero. Ten years ago I would subscribe to your notion of European complacency. European youth is certainly less competitive as their Chinese and American peers.
I watched a documentary about tiger moms the other day. How Asian mothers go to extreme lengths to make their child successful. One Dutch social scientist pointed to the fact how important it is however, to also foster compassion and care in a child, which is often altruistic by definition.
I think Europe is not wasting talent. The fact that non-Europeans come to the old continent practice their respective trade, indicates a sound appreciation of talent. It is policy to attract the talented, and offer a stage and opportunities. America has always been an example in this respect.
Europeans also understand that the majority of people are only moderately successful. For instance, to run a hospital you need excellent doctors. But good nurses are just as important, and even the cleaning lady needs to do a good job if the hospital is not to be a dirty infection ridden institute.
Sure, the old have always scorned the young being complacent, lazy and naive. But to judge the youth of an entire continent as jaded and lethargic, come on mr. Princton. What opera is concerned, today's youth is more interested in rock music and hip hop. Now where did that narcissistic style originate exactly?
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jean-louis salvignol Aug 6, 2012

Slight correction. Barcelona is in Catalonia, autonomous community of Spain. Barcelona is the city of birth of Josep Maria Carreras, who is of Spanish nationality.
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Frances Coppola Aug 5, 2012

Umm, Jose Carreras is Argentinian, not Spanish.....

Opera is, and has for a long time been, a global art form. There have been great singers from many nations, not just European. The recent development has been the arrival of Chinese and Japanese singers on the international scene, but Russians, Americans, Latin Americans.....they've been there for ages.

I am a singer, by the way, and I studied at the Royal College of Music in London. What I would say is that the standards have risen so much in opera now that it is much more competitive than it was fifty years ago.
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Joulie benoit Aug 5, 2012

"L’enthousiasme et l’envie d’entreprendre se dissipent peu à peu."

Oui, c'est le problème fondamental. Mais n'est ce pas le cas aussi au USA ?

Benoit

"Drive and enterprise evaporate."

Yes, this is the fundamental problem. But is not it also the case in USA?
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Zsolt Hermann Aug 3, 2012

In order to solve this global crisis, in which the Eurocrisis is just one of the symptoms we simply need a simple psychological change.
We simply have to understand finally that we, human beings are not enemies, we are not competing for some prize, some superiority against each other.
We should stop worrying about, and hate globalization, these interconnections we evolved into are a huge present to all of us in order to maximize human potential, to elevate our existence onto a whole new level by mutually cooperating.
When we see incredible talents appearing from other nations, or even from the neighboring street we should not envy it or try to suppress it in order to keep ourselves on top, but we should be happy that we have such a diverse talent, capability all around the world to put the beautiful, colorful mosaic together.
We should readjust our socio-economic human system in a way where everybody has the chance to put his/her little, or greater piece into the common vessel to push all of us forward.
Just imagine what we are wasting away, how much we held ourselves back by the envy, rejection, hate humanity has show during its history instead of combining what we all have.
If we are all sitting on the same boat, only mutually working together can we sail forward.
Maybe we could read the same article, or view the rest of the Olympics differently think about all this...
- Edward Ponderer Aug 4, 2012
  
  Excellently stated!
  
  How much this analogous to a child frighted to enter the adult world...or to a young adult fearing the commitment of spouse and children.
  
  Yes, responsibility, but one that a person has matured to take on -- they are becoming something far greater than a child. But till now, neither could they appreciate the great privilege of great meaning and purpose to life, to sense goodness and bond in true love...
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Lutz Donnerbolzen Aug 3, 2012

"it all ends in a German way – in terror and destruction." Seriously? Is this supposed to be funny? Or rather just a racist cliché?
- Siddhartha Gadgil Aug 13, 2012
  
  I believe `German way' only meant `German literary tradition' or `what is generally considered the German literary tradition.
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- Lutz Donnerbolzen Aug 6, 2012
  
  @ Antoni Jaume:
  "Who is being racist here?"
  Well, the german tabloid press surely is, and I personally feel sad and disgusted about that; but this article and its author are not on tabloid niveau - that is why I'm so baffled about the author's off-hand remark about "the german way".
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- Antoni Jaume Aug 4, 2012
  
  «Or rather just a racist cliché? »
  
  Like those about lazy southern Europeans? When we work more hours every year for less pay than Germans? Who is being racist here?
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André Rebentisch Aug 3, 2012

The analogies of the article do not hit. Opera singing has always been a supranational scene. I doubt you could expand work ethics to the arts. What is missing in Opera today is relevance of pre-modern 19 century Zeitgeist. Well-trained music robots simply cannot bridge that gap.
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欧元的黄昏

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