> Schroeder, on the other hand, has now presented exactly the policies he
> was expected to push in the beginning, but was prevented from pushing
> because he got a red-green coalition instead of the grand coalition he
> wanted and expected. And because Lafontaine was beating him in the
> leadership battle.
Wait, whoa, hold on a second here. Schroeder was never interested in a Great Coalition, this was a rhetorical line in the election campaign, is all. There are deep psychosocial rifts between the SPD and the CDU/CSU, made deeper precisely because of the fact that they pursue almost identical policies (throwing money at VW and Daimler, while maintaining a fairly plush welfare state). Lafontaine was *not* beating him in the leadership battle, he made a few high-profile appointments in the economics ministry, is all, but didn't have a whole lot of real power.
You can call Eurocapitalism many things (I know I do), but "stupid", "self-destructive", and "hypermonetarist" are not among them. They've slashed interest rates to the bone, continue to pour money into East Germany and Eastern Europe, continue to invest humongous amounts of money into the welfare state, have started to tax the rich again (Jospin levied taxes on corporate profits, and the new SPD-Green budget), and are making some heavy investments in the environment and renewable energy while reducing their already low military expenditures. No, it ain't utopia, but it's not Clintonite barbarism, either.
-- Dennis