Sunday, September 27, 2009

Europe tilts right while US spins left?

Angela Merkel is celebrating --sort of -- in Germany. Her party, the CDU, did not do all that well, but the Free Democrats upped their percentage to 15% from 10% in 2005. The Free Democrats are more pro-market even than the CDU. See the NYT's coverage.

The left-leaning Social Democrats (SPD), with whom Merkel had to have a grand coalition with over the past four years, reached its post-War low in election percentage.

Merkel can now govern with a partner that is more in line with her own more conservative philosophy.

Interesting. After the biggest economic disaster since the Depression, with all the press blaming markets, Germany of all countries doubles down and bets even more on a free (r) market economy? Or am I misinterpreting this?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Unknown said...

NYT had this followup too:
http://tinyurl.com/ydkjj8g

probably has to be looked at case-by-case. Certainly Greece didn't follow the trend.