CNE Monatsmagazin Digest
May-June 2006

English Summary

The 3rd Annual European Resource Bank Meeting, hosted by the F.A. v. Hayek Institute, will be held from June 29 - July 1, 2006 in Vienna. This year's meeting will tackle labour market reform and migration, internal market reform, innovation and R&D, protectionism, and deregulation. Among the speakers: Ivan Miklos, Victoria Curzon Price, Andrei Illarionov, C. Boyden Gray, and Benjamin Netanyahu. Highlight: the Austrian Ball in the Palais Liechtenstein.

"In a civilised country with a free and democratic legal structure, it must be possible to live and die free from the dogmatic imposition of the will of others." This is how the German Society for Dying in Dignity (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Humanes Sterben - DGHS) starts its list of aims. Hardy Bouillon talked to Dr. Kurt F. Schobert, Chief Executive of the DGHS, about the objectives and positions of his organization, established in 1980.

"Who belongs to the most influential intellectuals in Germany?", asks Gunnar Sohn and has a critical eye on Germany's 500 top influential intellectuals, according to a ranking by the magazine Cicero. "Cicero's ranking reveals that the few top business representatives among the top 500 share one feature: all of them are excellent speakers. That shows the way for others."

The Berlin-based IUF (Institute for economic freedom, Institut für Unternehmerische Freiheit) promotes "political change towards a society based on individual freedom and a competitive market economy." One of its major events this year was the Reform Summit on May 2, 2006, at which international experts discussed free market alternatives to Germany's statist policies in taxation, labour law, pensions and health care. Among the speakers were chief economist of the German Bank Norbert Walter und former Putin advisor Andrej Illarionov.

"Germany's pension system has no savings and its liquidity reserves are close to zero; they hardly cover one month", says Wilfried Prewo in his new book "Vom Mündel zum mündigen Bürger", a revised, enlarged and updated version of his "From Welfare State to Social State". In his 100-page study he explains the "empowerment reform" that would allow workers to have their individual social saving accounts, a model that could work throughout Europe. Hardy Bouillon, who reviewed the book, asks how long German politicians can afford to neglect such reform proposals.

Why was Keynesianism overcome by neoliberalism? Which roles did Popper and Hayek play in this game, and why did they always play down their differences? Interesting question raised by Jürgen Nordmann in his book "The long march to Neoliberalism" (Der lange Marsch zum Neoliberalismus). Alas, he does not offer convincing answers. "The main reason for his failure might rest in his method of political sociology, which he applied exclusively", says Hardy Bouillon in his review.

"Karl Marx's communistic individualism" ("Karl Marx' kommunistischer Individualismus), ed. by Ingo Pies and Martin Leschke, does not strive to rehabilitate Marx' mistakes. "It is an attempt to go beyond mocking footnotes and to defend Marx's alleged systematic and value-free approach. The latter is hardly successful, because the authors collected in this volume differ when it comes to this question", writes Hardy Bouillon in his review.

They belong to the liberal highlights in Germany: the Hayek Days of the Friedrich A. von Hayek-Gesellschaft and the Friedrich A. von Hayek-Foundation. This year they take place in Erfurt, 22-23 June 2006. Main topic will be Germany's demography. This year Hayek medallist will be German pollster guru and founder of the Allensbach Institute Elisbabeth Noelle-Neumann and economics journalist Günter Ederer.

Click here to view the full Monatsmagazin in German.

Dr. Hardy Bouillon is Head of Academic Affairs at the Centre for the New Europe.