September/October 2012

After spending ten days in the serenity of the Côte d’Azur, one might be forgiven for asking what could possibly be wrong in the world. Yet, even here, surrounded by glorious mountains that slide gently into the sea’s rocky shores, there are reminders. The gleaming yachts may stand in the harbors as always, symbols of the lure of privilege, but the small talk on land is of diminished expectations—Mediterranean Europe’s stagnant economies and the structural unemployment, decaying infrastructure, and declining purchasing power and living standards. Depending on who is talking, blame goes to the continent’s stubbornly embedded dependency culture and a leadership that panders to it, or to the wealthy who obliviously shuttle back and forth from those glistening yachts and fail to pay enough in taxes.  ... Read More