Davos 2012: Twitterers React to Angela Merkel's Speech

German Chancellor Angela Merkel kicked off the World Economic Forum in the Swiss resort town of Davos Wednesday with a keynote address that aimed to reassure attendees that the eurozone will weather its current crisis -- and critics and supporters took to Twitter to respond.

The twittersphere buzzed alive in response to Merkel's remarks, which focused mainly on solving -- if not surviving -- the European debt crisis. Some were encouraged by Merkel's assertion that her native Germany was "ready for more commitment" to the European Union, while others may have appreciated her admission that resolving the current crisis will take some time.

Despite admitting that "there's still room for improvement," the overall message of Merkel's speech was optimistic. "I'm absolutely convinced that we will be able to master this crisis," she said, according to Bloomberg.

But not everyone took solace in her remarks. Martin Wolf of the Financial Times wrote "This economic perspective will kill the euro" on a liveblog, while BBC Business editor Robert Peston tweeted "All I took away from Merkel Davos speech was that expanding the bailout funds are as dead as the deadest dead thing."

Here are some other notable tweets about Merkel's speech:

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Comments

[BurtonDesque]

07:59 PM on 01/27/2012

Larks' Tongues in Aspic?

[Steven G. Brant]

04:03 AM on 01/26/2012

What this tells me is one simple thing: Angela Merkel (and her advisors) know Nothing about Design Thinking. The global economic crisis will not be solved if we just have patience and understand "democracy takes time". It will Only be solved by people who know how to find the Root Cause / Design Flaw in the current design of global capitalism. I wrote about this in 2008 and 2009. Maybe the time has finally come for the perspective that comes from using Design (AKA Systems) Thinking to be heard.

We need to Redesign global capitalism around cooperative, abundance-based principles and leave cut-throat competition and scarcity/fear based thinking in the dustbin of history where they belong!

(from 2009) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/mountain-redesign-what-da_b_161532.html?view=print

(from 2008) http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steven-g-brant/capitalism-is-dead-now-wh_b_127016.html?view=print