Another note on Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Party. She is not a neo-liberal in the American sense. Christian Democrats have their own trade union movement in much of Europe, and in Germany, the Christian Democrats have been in coalition with the Social Democrats for 2 of her 3 terms in office. That union may be forced by political necessity, but it remains popular in Germany, with the CDP and SDP together being the preference of 55 percnt of German voters. 

The liberal party of Germany are the Free Democrats, who were in coalition with the Christian Democrats til they fell below the 5 percent threshold for Bundestag representation in the last german election. 

The Christian Democratic Party does not sit with the British Conservatives or other Thatcherite neo classical liberal groups in the European Parliament. 

President Obama and his Wall Street appointees and soon-to-be-payers-of-speech-fees may want to think Angela Merkel is neo liberal, but its not the situation.