Criticism of Johnson—and His Legacy ~ die Rechte koop

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Insights, analysis and must reads from CNN's Fareed Zakaria and the Global Public Square team, compiled by Global Briefing editor Chris Good

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July 7, 2022

Criticism of Johnson—and His Legacy

After weathering waves of scandals, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson indeed met one he couldn't overcome. In a resignation speech today, Johnson reprised his achievements, chief among them concluding Brexit.

Reactions and retrospectives have been swift and plentiful. "Johnson in 2019 rescued his party from the doldrums into which a succession of mediocre leaders had driven it," writes Guardian columnist Simon Jenkins. "Johnson's public persona has been undeniably likable to some. … Just as no one should underrate the qualities that brought Johnson to prominence, so no one should underrate those that have brought his downfall."

Predictably, others have been more scathing. Before Johnson's resignation, at The Spectator Andrew Lilico lodged a right-leaning critique that Johnson leapt from scandal to scandal without a policy "vision." As Britain emerged from the depths of the pandemic, the chance was there to deliver one, "(b)ut nothing happened," Lilico wrote.

As the Global Briefing noted yesterday, predictions for the post-Johnson era have included a messy Conservative leadership battle and a tack toward smaller government. The Financial Times editorial board calls for "a different kind of politics" to emerge: "not bluffing but sober mastery of detail, not dog-whistle politics but consensus-building, and not flippancy but focus."

A Year After the Assassination of Its President, Haiti's Situation Is Dire

One year ago today, gunmen assassinated then-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse in his residence. The murder still unsolved, Haitian-American author Edwidge Danticat writes for The New Yorker that Haiti's situation remains dire, with gang violence—including gunfights, kidnappings, sexual assault, and a flow of illegal weapons—still plaguing the country and little hope for effective international help.

Germany Worries as Inflation Sets In

Inflation isn't everywhere, as The Economist wrote recently.

"Of the 42 big economies featured in the indicators page of The Economist, eight still have inflation below 4%," the magazine noted on June 20. Parts of Asia had been spared. Through the first quarter of 2022, the US, UK, and Canada had seen worse inflation than their friends in Europe, Japan, and Australia, the magazine observed.

And yet, this week Der Spiegel flashes warning signs for Germany, where inflation has arrived in force. Harkening back to the late 1960s, nine coauthors cite fears of a wage-price spiral—the process of inflation digging in durably, as workers demand more pay to make up for their paychecks being worth less.

"Many people are preparing to significantly cut back on spending in the future, even when it comes to buying simple everyday items," the coauthors write, suggesting a recession could arrive. Hanging over everything is Germany's dependence on Russian gas—energy prices are a big part of the problem—and a fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin will cut it off.

The search for policy responses in Europe's largest economy has been wide, the coauthors write: Calls have emanated from the ruling SPD party for adjusting tax brackets to offset real-income losses, a wealth tax, an inheritance-tax increase, "tax-free special payments" from employers to employees, and a "crisis solidarity payment from top earners." Meanwhile, some warn that bolder efforts to help workers and consumers—for instance, Germany introduced a federal gasoline discount on June 1—will only make things worse.

Does History Offer Hope?

At the same time, economist Brad DeLong offers some comforting analysis for Americans, in an Economist op-ed. A critical question about the current phase of inflation, including as it does elements related to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine, is: Will this look like the 1970s, when inflation became entrenched? Or something shorter-lived?

As did former Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke in a recent GPS interview, DeLong argues things aren't so bad. With caveats about both Federal Reserve overreaction and underreaction, DeLong suggests the current spike in prices is more akin to those in 1947 and 1951, which receded relatively quickly and without big Fed adjustments.

NATO's Biggest Problem?

NATO members have signed accession protocols for Sweden and Finland, formally inviting them to join the alliance, but each ally must ratify them domestically, and questions remain as to whether Turkey will do so.

This follows weeks of commentary surrounding Turkey's resistance to letting Sweden and Finland join—and years of it surrounding Turkey's weaker democratic norms and status as the alliance's odd man out. At the Financial Times, columnist Gideon Rachman acknowledges such gripes but argues that NATO needs Turkey (and its president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan), among other reasons because Ankara controls access to the Black Sea (which is critical for Ukraine) and, were Turkey to leave NATO and ally with Russia, the latter "would be at the gates of the Mediterranean." At Foreign Policy, Maximilian Hess wrote recently that now would be a great time for the West to court Turkey, possibly by offering economic help.

For all the focus on Turkey, NATO may face a bigger problem, as The New Statesman's Jeremy Cliffe reminds us: the potential return of former US president and consistent NATO skeptic Donald Trump to the White House after 2024.