OR, THEN AGAIN, MAYBE IT'S JUST THAT NO ONE CARES:

Europe's quiet leader (Anne Applebaum, November 3, 2009 , Washington Post)

[P]artly by default and partly by design, Merkel is now the de facto leader of Europe. Over in Britain, Gordon Brown's Labor Party is immolating itself. Over in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy's attention-deficit issues propel him from one project to the next, to the irritation of everybody. The Italian prime minister, Silvio Berlusconi, is under endless investigation, and everyone else is too small or too preoccupied to compete. Even when the European Union chooses its next president later this year, he (and it almost certainly will be a he) will find it extremely difficult to do anything that contradicts the wishes of Merkel, who regularly tops lists of the world's most powerful women.

In fact, the more I watch her, the more I am convinced that her femaleness holds the key to her success. Under her watch, Germany has continued to grow more powerful, more influential, more dominant than ever before.

German population in decline (RDA, 1/19/09)

Demographic changes have been pinpointed as an important if challenging opportunity for coach holiday travel over the coming years. It is, therefore, important for all involved not only to keep an eye on current economic forecasts and developments in source markets and holiday destinations but also to keep a close eye on medium to long-term demographic changes and developments.

Germany’s population has been in decline since 2003 but has been shrinking faster then expected according to the Germany Federal Statistics Office. The statisticians reckon with a decline of ca. 0.2 % to 82.06 million. There were 150,000 to 160,000 more deaths in 2008 than births. In 2007 142,000 more people died than were born. Immigration and emigration were in equilibrium. In previous years immigration was dominant.

Posted by Orrin Judd at November 3, 2009 7:39 AM