I must admit to being a little bewildered by the complexity of the debt crisis in Europe. Part of the problem is that there are so many EU government entities involved as well as financial leaders in the various European governments. This article in the Economist seeks to name the players and institutions that have the responsibility over the next few months of avoiding economic catastrophe: Germany's slow response also has something to do with the personality of the chancellor, Angela Merkel. She is a physicist by training, methodical to a fault and ultra-cautious; faced with conflicting advice, her instinct is always to put off a decision. She may be fully committed to the project, but for her Europe is a cost-benefit calculation rather than historical destiny. Not so her finance minister and one-time rival, Wolfgang Schäuble, a disciple of the ex-chancellor, Helmut Kohl. Mr Schäuble, who is wheelchair-bound since an assassination attempt in 1990, does not demur when interviewers...(Read Full Post)