PERSPECTIVE Elements of a Progressive Economic Policy Matthias Platzeck January 2012 n These are testing times. The global economy is floundering. Whether the United States will manage a sustainable recovery hangs in the balance. What is more, united Europe finds itself plunged in a severe crisis, the worst since the foundation of the European Union. At the close of 2011, how this crisis will resolve itself – economically and socially – cannot be foreseen. n The crisis we are currently experiencing has so many different elements: a financial crisis, a banking crisis, a growth crisis, a public debt crisis, but also a crisis of con­temporary liberal capitalism. Perhaps worst of all, it is accompanied by a moral crisis. People’s trust in what democracy can do is in profound crisis, especially the inability of democratic politics to assert itself against the financial markets.