Amy SilversteinFebruary 28, 2012 12:21

Angela Merkel hit by beer (VIDEO)

During a Christian Democratic Union meeting at a fancy restaurant, a 21-year-old waiter drenched the back of Angela Merkel's jacket with beer. Here's the video.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) speaks with Lower Saxony's State Premier David McAllister at a session at a meeting of Germany's lower house of parliament on February 27, 2012 in Berlin. (John Macdougall /AFP/Getty Images)

The accident might actually be someone else's fault.

Michael GoldfarbFebruary 24, 2012 12:54

Euro zone crisis: a pause for reflection

A Greek bail-out was agreed this week. Now what?

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The euro zone crisis at half-time, what's going to happen next? (Sean Gallup/AFP/Getty Images)

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

It's half-time in the euro zone crisis. So gather round and take a knee, and let's figure out what we've learned from the first half.

1. The bond markets work one way and the EU works another. Their methods are wholly incompatible. That's what caused the crisis to explode in the way it did. But a synthesis was reached between the two, because the EU's leaders ultimately showed the big institutional players in the bond market they were serious about tackling not just Greece's problems, but government deficits throughout the euro zone.

Government leaders who did not get with the program were removed. Once governance issues were resolved, the bond markets began to calm down.

This is a key lesson for American economic commentators to remember. Bond markets don't entirely rely on spread-sheet data. They care about unquantifiable things like good governance. Italy under Berlusconi was a joke, under Mario Monti it is a country whose governance gives hope of being as effective as its luxury goods businesses, which dominate their sector of world trade.

Michael GoldfarbFebruary 23, 2012 13:52

Greek debt crisis: insult upon insult

Greek and German media folk trade unpleasantries

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

My thanks to Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) of Britain's Channel 4 news for pointing me toward this story in the Athens News.

Yiorgos Trangas, a radio host for Real FM, called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a "dirty Berlin slut" live on the air recently. Now, the station has been fined 25,000 euros ($33,260) by the National Council of Radio and Television for the outburst. He was judged to have "abused the Greek language" and used an obscene word to describe Merkel.

Jessica PhelanFebruary 23, 2012 13:55

Greek journalist Yiorgos Trangas fined for calling Angela Merkel a 'dirty Berlin slut'

Greek radio presenter insulted the German chancellor on air, twice.

Angela Merkel "dirty Berlin slut" 23 02 2012

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A Greek radio presenter called German Chancellor Angela Merkel an offensive term that apparently means "person without shame" - but is a lot more vulgar. (Odd Andersen/AFP/Getty Images)

BERLIN, Germany — Greek journalist Yiorgos Trangas has attracted a €25,000 fine for referring to German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a "dirty Berlin slut."

The radio presenter used the derogatory term on Athens-based Real FM not once but twice, in September and October of last year, the Athens News website reported.

The Greek original, "ξεκωλιάρα του Βερολίνου," means literally "girl with an open a**hole," according to the English-language site, but can also refer metaphorically to someone who has no shame.

Germany: Neo-Nazi murder victims remembered with ceremony, minute's silence

Jessica PhelanFebruary 23, 2012 07:43

Chancellor Merkel urged Germans to be vigilant against far-right extremism, citing Edmund Burke's famous warning: "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

EU leaders leaning toward growth v. austerity

Paul AmesFebruary 21, 2012 14:43

ROME — The leaders of the EU's two leading economies did not sign up, leading many to see the letter as a challenge to Merkel and Sarkozy.

Merkel picks Joachim Gauck as new German president

Siobhan DowlingFebruary 20, 2012 12:31

BERLIN — Joachim Gauck, a former East German activist and pastor who helped expose the crimes of the Stasi secret police, secured the backing of all the main parties as presidential candidate, less than two years after being narrowly defeated by Merkel’s nominee Christian Wulff.

Michael GoldfarbFebruary 6, 2012 12:56

Sarkozy and Merkel hold special meeting

French President makes his close relationship with Merkel a campaign issue.

Say this about French President Nicolas Sarkozy, he takes risks. 80 days before he stands for re-election he held a cabinet meeting and invited a guest to attend: German Chancellor Angela Merkel. It is their 14th joint meeting - giving new meaning to the term "special relationship." Merkel said it was "quite noram" for her to be involved in the French presidential election campaign.

The BBC has a full report here.

Sarkozy's close alliance with Merkel has become a serious issue in the election campaign. Marine Le Pen, leader of the ultra-right National Front is running on a platform of taking France out of the euro. She is running a credible third in recent opinion polls. Socialist Francois Hollande is leading Sarkozy and he too is taking a very anti-Europe line as arch euro-skeptic, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, gleefully wrote in today's Daily Telegraph:

Michael GoldfarbJanuary 27, 2012 14:01

Mario Draghi at Davos

ECB chief says bond markets are overestimating the risk attached to many euro zone countries' sovereign debt

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

An interesting week in the euro zone crisis is over. Most of the important players made it to Davos so nothing definitive was being decided. As I wrote yesterday, Davos isn't a place where policy is made.

It's clear it has been a week where the center held and the sense that a corner has been turned continued to frame the week's activities. Even Greece and her creditors inability to reach final agreement on debt reduction hasn't ruffled feathers.

Michael GoldfarbJanuary 26, 2012 14:19

Davos takes on euro zone crisis

Old arguments about how to solve the euro zone crisis are re-hashed at World Economic Forum annual meeting

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Davos: the euro zone crisis followed the leaders to the Alps (FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

this story is part of globalpost's continuing coverage of world business. for more visit our new business page.

Davos. The name, the place, what it stands for is a challenge to an ideal of journalism. It seems to be one of those events that become a story not because of any intrinsic news value but because a bunch of famous people get together and allow journalists to mingle among them.

There are many national leaders at the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos but no treaties are signed, nor are there joint declarations of policy made. That would be news and worth reporting. There are titans of industry in Davos, but no products are launched or companies acquired. That, too, would be news etc.

It can't be news because the comments about the year to come actually shape events. I came across this article from The Washington Post a couple of years ago on Google about some famously wrong predictions made by the rulers of the planet at the World Economic Forum. It's pretty amusing. (For that matter, did anyone at Davos in 1996 or 97 predict there would be something like Google (founded in 1998) and that a search engine would upend all previously known models of information aggregation and dissemination?

Anyway, the leaders are at Davos, journalists are tweeting like fan-boys and girls about rubbing shoulders with them.