Germany
Stellar growth bucks crisis
20 August 2010
Presseurop
Financial Times 
Financial Times, 20 August 2010
Germany’s economy is set to grow by 3 per cent this year, faster than even the Bundesbank had forecast only two months ago, the Financial Times reports. What is more the German central bank said that the economic recovery in Europe’s largest economy was being increasingly generating its own momentum, not just by its tigerish export growth to the US and China. The good figures come after Germany reported stellar growth in its GDP of 2.2 percent in the second quarter.
As Greece pimps its ancient monuments to bring in the tourists, lovers of cultural heritage are up in arms. But the country is only doing openly what the whole of Europe is: looting historic sites to drum up more ready cash. 
Asserting national values is central to the political project of the Hungarian PM. Since the start of the year, fifteen paintings, specially commissioned for an exhibition in the Castle of Buda, have been putting this ambition on show. 
The game has gone on for nearly two years: Athens pretends to comply with the demands of its creditors and partners, and they pretend to believe in Greece’s commitments. As the spectre of default comes nearer, however, the Greek bluff cannot go on much longer, writes an El Mundo editorialist.