The German dilemma just now is about the depth of sacrifice Germans, and northern Europeans generally, should make to save southern economies that they regard as unreformed (and which they fear are unreformable).
Yet fatalism about an unreformable state seems misguided.To begin with, the patient is not in his current condition by design.
Reforming the nearly unreformable ReprintsInflation is running at nearly 20%, with domestic prices of fuel creeping up, even though Nigeria is one of the world's largest oil producers.
Reforming the nearly unreformable Reprints Related items Arab foreign policy: Always prickly, sometimes paranoid, occasionally pragmaticAug 5th 2004But, unlike Shias, Christians have no militia.
Reforming the nearly unreformable Reprints Related items Iraq's Christians: Less safe than before?Aug 5th 2004 Sudan: Shuffling paper while Africans dieAug 5th 2004 Palestine: Who's in charge Aug 5th 2004 Morocco: The slow march to reformAug 5th 2004 Onward, Muslim soldiers?Jul 29th 2004Yet scarcely was Mr Powell's plane out of Saudi skies before the caveats blew in.
Such measures indicate that the army would quite like an extended rule, albeit behind a curtain.The loathing of the begumsHowever long the pause, Bangladesh's democracy is probably unreformable, from without or within, while Mrs Zia and Sheikh Hasina, known as "the two begums", still rule their roosts.
Friedman often argued that the agency's heavy-handed, over-cautious approach to drug approval did more harm than good by stifling innovation and delaying the arrival of life-saving new medicines on the market.Few are likely to agree with his conclusion that the FDA is unreformable and must be abolished outright therein lies a tort lawyer's paradise.
I do believe that you are required to report on it accurately.Josef AckermannChief executiveDeutsche BankFrankfurtNigeria's getting betterSIR – You do your readers a disservice with your article on Nigeria's efforts to reform its economy ("Reforming the nearly unreformable", August 7th).
For France, the figure was 36%.Special report The art of the impossible Insider and outsiders Lessons from the campus Reforming the unreformable Minority report Beyond these shores Where there's a will Sources and acknowledgements ReprintsSome of this thinking seems to be taught at school.
If human behaviour is unreformable, social policy can only ever be about trying to cage the ape within.
THE 64-year-old who retires as Japan's prime minister on September 30th has earned a reputation as the reformer of the unreformable.
