Battling A Plague Of Capitalists

MICHAEL KAPPELER / AFP-GETTY IMAGES

SPD chairman Franz Müntefering

When Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schröder snatched a narrow electoral victory in 2002, he garnered desperately needed votes by opposing George W. Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Now, in the run-up to crucial elections in North Rhine-Westphalia later this month, his party has launched a new assault. This time the target is Anglo Saxon-style capitalism. Franz Müntefering, chairman of the Social Democrats (SPD), inveighed against "swarms of locusts that fall on companies, stripping them bare before moving on." The inspiration for this alarming imagery was identified last week when his headquarters leaked a "locust list" naming the alleged pests. These included U.S.-based...

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