When German chancellor Friedrich Merz announces that in these hard and challenging times Germany must “learn the language of power,” two things are clear: this is not about phrasing political statements in different ways. The intended meaning becomes clear in the accusation leveled against the president of the enemy state currently at war, Russia: He only understands the “language of force,” and consequently, this is how he must be dealt with, rather than with the language of diplomacy. The “lesson” announced by the chancellor here is thus about how to position and assert his nation as a global actor capable of wielding force — both in its dealings with Russia and on the world stage in general. Secondly, it is also clear for the Federal Republic’s Commander-in-Chief that a policy involving threats and the use of military force is not, in fact, a new language that has to be learned from scratch; rather, it is a practice already honed over four years of conflict with the Russian adversary. Considerably more of this is required: this is what Merz wants Germany to learn.

In the market economy, growth is an officially and quite generally recognized necessity. It is taken for granted that the growth of the economy is the precondition for prosperity; when growth slows down or actually stops altogether, there is a risk of want and need. Those who warn that continuous economic growth is an absurdity go more or less unheard in the culture section. Critics who maintain that a growth geared solely to immediate economic performance is too narrow a focus for society’s well-being and who call for broader criteria and values to be included are suspected of being anti-consumerist or anti-progress, or accused of ultimately having no idea of human nature and inherent human needs. Even the most sober reference to “natural limits of growth” will face the accusation of being divorced from reality. And indeed it is — reality being that those in charge of business definitely do not know or recognize any ‘natural limit’ that could thwart the economic purpose that is in effect and being practiced: a market economy needs growth. The only question is why? Where does this absolute necessity come from?

A. Conflicting ways out of the recession

I. Culture War in America

II. Obama’s economic and financial therapy for the nation’s ailing economic base

III. The Republicans’ counterplans

IV. Worries and warnings about the catastrophic consequences of the political dispute help to intensify it

B. The U.S. has to be concerned about its money

I. The U.S. economy is the major exception in global capitalism

II. The identity between America’s national credit and the world’s capitalistic wealth has a price that has fallen due in the wake of the recent financial crisis

III. And the competitors are no longer the same either

Conclusion: New steps in implementing the crisis through the states’ crisis policies

Having fought two unproductive wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and being in a disastrous economic condition amid the financial and the sovereign debt crises, America seeks to restore and re-assert its global leadership role. For this purpose and in this sense, the Obama administration has proclaimed the 21st century as “America’s Pacific century.”