CNE Monatsmagazin Digest
September 2006

English Summary

All-rounder: Interview with CNE-Executive Director James Rogers ... If he has a free minute, he makes the Crossword Puzzle for European Voice every week. But he has hardly more time for leisure, since he faces a huge variety of functions, i.e., that unless it is fundraising or event planning, it probably crosses his desk at some point. Asked for the secret of his success, he says: "What I've brought into the mix is a passion for putting everybody's ideas into a structured plan, so that nobody becomes overwhelmed - including me."

Constitution updated: In April 2006 the European Constitutional Group (ECCG) published A Proposal for a Revised Constitutional Treaty, in which they proposed to change several parts of the TECE (Treaty Establishing a Constitution for Europe by the European Convention). The ECCG suggests, among other changes, to give the European Parliament a Second Chamber - a body drawn from national parliaments - which shall ensure that all proposals submitted by the Council are consistent with the provisions of this Constitutional Treaty. The Enterprise Institute (UNI) has now published the first German translation.

On public debts, liberalisms and migration: In the new edition of CNE's Journal for the New Europe (JNE) Pierre Garello and Vesselina Spassova - according to the title of their paper - are Looking, without success, for a good reason not to worry about public debt, while Norman Barry disentangles The confused state of modern liberalism and Robert Nef provides three different possible answers to the question how Migration and liberalism should relate to each other.

The image of the entrepreneur: Screened schoolbooks in Nordrhein-Westphalia give a distorted image of the function of the entrepreneur, write Gunnar Sohn and Ansgar Lange referring to Newsweek-columnist Stephan Theil whose analysis is based on a study by the Initiative Juniorprojekt. According to that study, enterprisers are not associated with the creation of jobs, rather than with child labor, piles of rubbish, internet-addiction and alcoholism, say Sohn and Lange. Little big land: Saarland, one of the smallest among the German Laender, won the dynamic-ranking of the Laender 2006. The ranking was established by the Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft and is based on a study by IW Consult Cologne. The dynamic-ranking, a comparison of 33 economic indicators, exclusively looked at the changes between 2003 and 2005. The Saarland owes its top rank in particular to the fact that its GDP grew during that period by 6.1 per cent while average growth was 2.3.

Real heroes: According to Burton Folsom's book Empire Builders, the real heroes in history have build economic empires rather than political ones, "not by force but by service: selling products that customers want at competitive prices." He shows that in particular for Michigan's empire builders William Durant (founder of General Motors) his competitor Henry Ford, chemical giant Herbert Dow and inventor of cereal breakfasts, Will Kellogg.

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