Suchergebnisse

The 1970s were years of high inflation in Italy. As the price of goods increased and the lira, a high denomination currency, was debased, the country faced a chronic lack of small change. Those were the years when coins were used to operate all sorts of devices, from pay phones to launderettes, vending machines and jukeboxes. Adapted from the source document.

Large families appear to have gone out of fashion. We may live longer and healthier lives than our predecessors, but we are having fewer children. In many countries it is women who decide whether and when to have children, and this decision is often the result of many considerations that include work, career and money, but also being in a stable relationship, having friends and family to rely on, and living in an area where good services such as nurseries and schools are available. Adapted from the source document.

Boiling down the problems of the eurozone to a crisis of leadership offers a simple explanation. In comparison with recent history, there is an undeniable lack of charisma in today's Europe. Angela Merkel, the key to the drama, has aroused strong sentiments. Northern Europeans have praised her intransigence, while southerners have blamed her for imposing draconian measures on their countries. Nobody, however, has ever praised Merkel for leadership skills and charisma. But is leadership really the missing 'ingredient' to make a union of countries such as EMU, in which 17 member states share the same currency and monetary policy as equals, gel? Or, rather, should the key issue be one of 'restrained leadership'? After all, the EMU decision-making process involves several sovereign states, each with its own agenda and its public to which it is accountable, rather than on a single leader who drives decisions forward. Adapted from the source document.