NATOSource
Featured Publications
Kazakhstan and the United States: Twenty Years of Ambiguous Partnership
The Five Futures of Cyber Conflict and Cooperation
US Lessons for the Eurozone Restoring Confidence through Transparency
Prospects and Challenges for Increasing India-Pakistan Trade
A US-EU Action Plan for Supporting Democratization: Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia
Council News
Jonathan Paris Discusses Syrian Crisis with France 24
Jonathan Paris, nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council's South Asia Center, appeared on France 24 to discuss Russia's support for the Assad regime and what it means for a possible UN resolution against Syria.
Damon Wilson US Senate Testimony: Ukraine at a Crossroads
On February 1, Atlantic Council executive vice president Damon Wilson testified at a hearing of the US Senate Committe on Foreign Relations on the topic: "Ukraine at a Crossroads: What's at Stake for the US and Europe?"
Michele Dunne on US-Egypt Relations for NPR's Morning Edition
Relations between the US and Egypt have taken a downturn since Egyptian authorities raided the offices of seventeen nongovernmental organizations in December - three of them US-funded. Michele Dunne, director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East, spoke on NPR's Morning Edition about the situation and what it means for US aid to Egypt.
FEATURED ISSUE
The South Asia Center receives guidance and support from many experts throughout the world. Our senior fellows, guest-speakers, Center patrons, and visitors contribute heavily to the Center’s mission to “wage peace,” and engage the international community in the region. The Center asked our contributors the simple, but key question, “What you do expect in 2012?”
REGISTER
Merkel Shifts, Approves German Stimulus Package
Peter Cassata | December 19, 2008
Following weeks of disagreement with Brussels, and France and the UK in particular, the German government has agreed to a second stimulus package of nearly €40 ($55.5) billion. Merkel faced a strong backlash throughout Europe in recent weeks from critics who felt the government was not responding adequately to Germany's economic downturn. Her refusal to spend more on the crisis has also cost her domestic popularity. Spiegel:
Together with the first stimulus package, Berlin is now set to invest a massive €50 billion in its bid to beat the recession and stave off huge increases in unemployment in 2009 and beyond. According to government sources, the two packages combined will be worth up to 2 percent of Germany's gross domestic product and are expected to have a "macroeconomic effect."
The vast majority of the new government investment will be spent on improving roads, schools, universities and sports facilities. Chancellor Merkel told the Neue Presse newspaper, in comments published on Friday, that extending broadband networks would also be included in the package.
The funds will also be spent on encouraging private consumption, although there is still no agreement on whether that will be achieved through income tax cuts, something the Christian Social Union – the Bavarian sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrats – are pushing for. Merkel has so far opposed tax cuts before next year's September parliamentary elections. The plan will include proposals to increase the state's subsidies of the health insurance system, so that contributions made by employees and employers could be reduced.
Further details are expected to emerge after a meeting between Merkel and the governors of Germany's Länder scheduled for next Tuesday, and final decisions on where capital is to be injected will be made in January. The announcement marks an about face from Merkel's earlier hesitance to use further government funds to combat the country's recession.
Related Posts:
- Economic Pressure on Merkel Continues
- UK, France Snub Germany at Financial Meeting
- Germany at Odds with UK, France Over EU Stimulus Plan
Peter Cassata is an assistant editor at the Atlantic Council.
