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‘Muddling Through’ Is the New Normal – And I Feel Fine
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, March 22, 2011
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it.
It’s the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine.
– REM, “It’s the end of the world as we know it“Disappointment, as well as renewed pressure from the financial markets on Portugal, Greece, Spain and Ireland, greeted the recent deal on eurozone reform hashed out by European leaders.…
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Monetary fix for California: Let’s ditch the U.S. dollar
By Steven Hill, Sacramento Bee, March 13, 2011
Many solutions have been proposed to the political and economic crises of our Golden State, with Gov. Jerry Brown calling for a June election to deal with the state budget. But the sheer intractability of the challenges leads to an inevitable conclusion: Piecemeal approaches no longer will suffice.…
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America and Europe: John Locke vs. Saint Augustine
By Steven Hill, The Globalist, March 7, 2011
Both the European and American ways are deeply rooted in old traditions — even in different branches of Christianity. These forces continue to shape attitudes across the Atlantic. Nowhere are these ideological differences more instructive than in the conception of property and social responsibility, argues Steven Hill, author of “Europe’s Promise.”…
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An Open Letter to U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein About Her (lame) Position on the Filibuster
By Steven Hill, Huffington Post, March 4, 2011
Dear Senator Feinstein,
Thank you for your response* to my letter, but I completely disagree with your position. The filibuster is anti-majoritarian, as is the US Senate itself. Senator Feinstein, you and Sen Boxer represent 38 million Californians while the two Senators from Wyoming represent a half a million people.…
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Economic Powerhouse Germany
By Steven Hill, International Politik (IP), Berlin, Germany, March/April 2011
Germany has evolved a social capitalism which has proven to be more stable and efficient than America’s Wall Street capitalism, not to mention more ecologically sustainable. Shrewd governmental policies, smart reactions to crises, and economic democracy are the secret to Germany’s global economic success.…
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Can Krugmanomics Be Saved?
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, February 24, 2011
Paul Krugman recently penned a 6000 word essay for New York Times Magazine provocatively titled “Can Europe Be Saved?” (January 16, 2011) Coming from anyone else than a Nobel Prize winning economist, such a title questioning the survivability of the largest economy in the world, with more Fortune 500 companies than the United States and China combined, would be laughably dismissible.…
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How to Avoid the Hamas Problem
By Steven Hill, New York Times, “Room for Debate,” February 17, 2011
There is great worry in many quarters that elections in Egypt could result in a polarized government, or even an Islamist takeover. But this need not happen if the electoral rules are constructed to encourage broad representation.
For an example of the wrong way to run an election, consider the Palestinian elections in January 2006.…
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NRA doesn’t scuttle new laws by lobbying, but by magnifying the clout of single-issue swing voters
By Steven Hill, New York Daily News, January 30, 2011 (also published in The Guardian)
For all the outrage over the Tucson massacre, everyone knows that sentiment will not translate into common sense gun control laws. Even President Obama, for most of his career a supporter of restrictions on firearms possession, has failed on two occasions – his Tucson and State of the Union speeches – to mention one of the most obvious reforms, the banning of semiautomatic weapons like Jared Lee Loughner’s Glock and the high-capacity clip he used.…
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China’s Democratic Baby Steps
By Steven Hill, Project Syndicate distribution, January 27, 2011 (published by The Guardian, Korea Herald, Japan Times, Toronto Star, Times of India, Burma Digest, Egypt Daily News, Macau Daily Times, Kiev Day and others)
WASHINGTON, DC – During the state visit to the United States of Chinese President Hu Jintao, President Barack Obama pressed Hu on human rights.…
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Happy 2011: Europe’s Year of Reining in the Banks
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, January 18, 2011
The start of 2011- let’s call it Year Two A.G. (“After Greece” debt crisis) – has brought both good and bad news on the economic front. The bad news is that 2 A.G. is beginning much like 1 A.G. ended, with headlines about government debt and default, this time focused on Portugal and Spain.…
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My Lunch at the European Commission: ‘Why is Europe Losing the Public Relations Battle to China?’
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, December 22, 2010
The European Commission is the most important body that Americans – and far too many Europeans – have never heard of. As the executive branch of the European Union, it is on a peer level with President Barack Obama and his Cabinet, yet the public hardly knows it exists or what it does.…
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Democracy: Made in China
By Steven Hill, Truthdig, December 15, 2010
George W. Bush, it turns out, was not only a challenged president but also a lousy advertisement for the importance of democracy. It’s 2008, the Beijing Olympics have just ended, and I’m sitting across a cafe table from professor Pan Wei, a rising academic and ideological star in China who teaches at Beijing University.…
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California’s Constitutional Convention: The Spirit of the Founders Visits the Golden State
By Steven Hill, California Journal of Politics & Policy, Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010
Jointly published by New America
“Every man, and every body of men on earth, possesses the right of self-government…I am not among those who fear the people.” –Thomas Jefferson
“This representative assembly should be in miniature an exact portrait of the people at large. …
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My interview with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou…from the top of the Acropolis
By Steven Hill, Washington Monthly, December 4, 2010
My interview with PM Papandreou was preceded by one with his Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Spyros Kouvelis. I was ushered into a pleasant yet not extravagant office, decorated tastefully with various artworks of Greek culture and personal artifacts. The Deputy Minister was joined by some of his staff.…
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Reconsidering Japan, Reconsidering Paul Krugman
By Steven Hill, International Politik (Germany), December 2, 2010
The New York Times is doing a series on Japan that it describes as an examination of “the effects on Japanese society of two decades of economic stagnation and declining prices.” Reading the series is about as cheery a task as rubbernecking at a car wreck on I-95.…
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Austerity vs. Stimulus: Who’s Right?
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, November 24, 2010
To paraphrase Denmark’s Prince Hamlet, ‘To enact austerity or not to enact austerity, that is the question.’ Unfortunately, dear Hamlet, that is a question without a sure answer. The truth is, none of the experts know what is the correct thing to do.…
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Germany Speaks Out
By Steven Hill, International Herald Tribune/New York Times, November 12, 2010
The Group of 20 meeting in Seoul is quickly emerging as a game-changing moment. Not only did President Barack Obama suffer a loss of face, but America’s leadership took a major hit.
Following America’s catalytic role in bringing the global economy to the brink of disaster, followed by the Obama administration’s weakened political position after the Nov.…
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United States too uncritical of Israel, says American author
Interview with Steven Hill, By Mustafa Edib Yilmaz, Today’s Zaman, Istanbul, Turkey, Oct. 31, 2010 A leading American author and political analyst has said the US has been unable and unwilling to push Israel to make the necessary concessions to achieve peace in the Middle East because of historical and electoral reasons.…
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Media ‘Speculators’ Miss History Being Made In Europe
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, October 19, 2010
Like financial speculators, the media likes to speculate in hype and sensationalism, dedicated to advancing their goals. Financial speculators do it to make gobs of money, and the media does it to grab eyeballs for their TV shows and newspapers. During the recent Greek debt crisis, both the financial and media speculators acted to put the eurozone in play, and to destabilise entire national economies.…
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There’s No Place Like Europe: Steven Hill on Medical House Calls, Multiparty Politics, and Other American Fantasies
Interview with Steven Hill by Alissa Bohling from t r u t h o u t
While Europe is far from immuneto the economic decline and resource scarcity it faces along with the rest of the world, columnist and author Steven Hill maintains that the continent still leads the globe in building political infrastructures that foster a shared and sustainable prosperity.…
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Review of “Europe’s Promise”: Europe as a role model?
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, October 11, 2010
Review by Erich Weede of Steven Hill’s book Europe’s Promise: Why the European Way is the Best Hope in an Insecure Age
Steven Hill is Director of the Political Reform Program of the New America Foundation. In his book he compares the economy, society and politics of Europe and America. …
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Angela Merkel is Getting it Right
By Steven Hill, International Politik (Germany), October 4, 2010
The Chancellor’s critics are misjudging today’s challenges and the strength of Merkel’s leadership
Forget Barack Obama. Forget the Hu Jintao/Wen Jiaboa duo, David Cameron, or Vladimir Putin. Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is the world’s most important leader. The latest reports suggests that Germany’s economy has been growing at a blistering annual rate of nearly 9%, making a good recovery from the U.S.-led…
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How’s Europe Doing? Dispatches from the continent
By Steven Hill, Washington Monthly, September 28, 2010
DISPATCHES FROM THE CONTINENT…. This week, the Washington Monthly launched a fun little project called, “How’s Europe Doing? Dispatches from the continent.” It will feature posts from Steven Hill as he reports his five-week speaking tour of Europe — visiting 12 countries and 20 cities.…
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The China Superpower Hoax
By Steven Hill, Truthdig
China must have the best public relations maestros in the world. How else would a country with a lower per capita income than Iran, Mexico and Kazakhstan, one of the worst environmental records of any major nation, endemic corruption, jails stuffed with dissenters, and a dictatorship, besides, be hailed by so many as the next global superpower?…
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Europe’s challenge: “Out of many, one”
By Steven Hill, Social Europe Journal, September 18, 2010
With relief, Europe has made it to the end of the summer holiday season with the worst of the Greek/eurozone debt crisis behind it. Defying the gloomy headlines, the eurozone did not disintegrate; indeed this crisis, like previous ones, provided a shove toward further economic integration.…