According to The Economist, the German economy is not quite as steady as it is assumed to be. Based on exports of cars and industrial equipment, it is now over-reliant on "its exporters’ success." As the London weekly observes, "global markets are volatile: the country’s current-account surplus has fallen by more than half from a mighty 8% of GDP in just a year." The solution to the industrial giant's problems should be a drive to create better conditions for start-ups and develop the services market – a direction that Germany has always been reluctant to follow.
"In the past decade German firms, unions and politicians have set about making their export economy competitive, with spectacular results. Now the country needs to gear up the domestic economy," recommends The Economist. The report goes on to conclude that general elections on 27 September ought to result in a conviction that "it is time to experiment."
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.