Bezos Makes First Visit to Washington Post as Owner

Jeffrey P. Bezos, the new owner of The Washington Post, kicked off a packed, two-day visit to the paper on Tuesday, his first since purchasing the newspaper for $250 million on Aug. 5. Mr. Bezos was meeting with managers on the editorial and business sides, according to people with knowledge of his schedule, at times chaperoned by Katharine Weymouth, the publisher and a member of the Graham family from whom Mr. Bezos bought the paper.

On Wednesday, he is expected to meet with reporters, hold a noon lunch with editors, tour the Post’s printing plant in Springfield, Va., and answer questions during a meeting with the newsroom staff at 3:30 p.m.

While Mr. Bezos can often be reticent with the press, he gave an interview to The Post that ran on Monday’s front page and said he was ready for The Post to start a new “golden era” under his ownership. Mr. Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com who now serves as the company’s chairman and chief executive, bought The Post as a separate investment from Amazon.

But he told The Post that he planned to bring to the newspaper some of the same approaches that had been successful for Amazon.

“We’ve had three big ideas at Amazon that we’ve stuck with for 18 years, and they’re the reason we’re successful: Put the customer first. Invent. And be patient,” he said. “If you replace ‘customer’ with ‘reader,’ that approach, that point of view, can be successful at The Post, too.”

Mr. Bezos said he did not expect to be involved with the daily operations of The Post. Instead, he said, he will offer his “point of view” and financial support. “I’ll be there with lots of advice from a distance,” said Mr. Bezos.

Mr. Bezos is expected to close on the deal in October. The Graham family had controlled the paper for about eight decades.

Lew’s Visit to Europe Reveals a Wide Policy Divide

Mr. Lew pointed to evidence that increased government spending and looser monetary policy had helped the United States recover at a much faster pace than the Continent has. But even as some European leaders expressed concern about rising unemployment and deepening recession, it was clear that Europe’s political constraints — and Germany’s insistence that bringing down deficits and reassuring lenders was the best route to sustained growth — were preventing a more expansionary approach from taking hold.

“Nobody in Europe sees this contradiction between fiscal consolidation and growth,” said Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, sitting alongside Mr. Lew at a joint news conference in Berlin on Tuesday. “We have the common position of a growth-friendly process of consolidation, or sustainable growth.”

Consumed by the problems of the American economy and its efforts to hold off deep budget-cutting proposals from Republicans in the United States, the Obama administration has hardly been in a position in recent years to lecture other nations on good policy.

But Mr. Lew’s trip to Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin and Paris — his first swing through Europe since becoming Treasury secretary — gave the administration an opportunity to highlight the diverging economic fortunes of the United States and Europe and to make the case that more expansionary policies could actually help with budget deficits.

The United States has pointed out that its quick rescue of the financial system, front-loaded stimulus measures and delayed budget-cutting have helped foster 14 straight quarters of growth and a falling unemployment rate — even if the recovery has proved sluggish by historical standards.

In contrast, Europe has lurched from one crisis to another, hobbled by a complicated political structure and skittish financial markets. It continues to suffer through rising joblessness and economic stagnation. Greece, Spain and Portugal all remain mired in deep recessions, and even the large economies of Germany, Italy and France were contracting as well at the end of 2012.

A Treasury official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive diplomatic conversations, said that while the Americans did not endeavor to lecture the Europeans, they did focus on the profound need for growth on the Continent, for the good of Europe as well as the world.

As Mr. Lew said in Berlin, “The driver for economic growth will be consumer demand and policies that would help to encourage consumer demand in countries that have the capacity would be helpful.”

But some of the biggest levers that governments employ to bolster their economies during a downturn are seemingly out of the question in Europe, given its political constraints and some countries’ heavy debt burdens. Any calls for more stimulus spending, less austerity or looser monetary policy face entrenched resistance in powerful Germany. The view there, shared in other Northern European countries like Austria and Finland, is that the European Central Bank has already gone far out on a limb with measures to prevent a collapse of the 17-nation euro zone.

Michael Heise, chief economist of the German insurance giant Allianz, said Tuesday that the central bank should already be thinking about how to reabsorb some of the money it has pumped into euro zone banks by issuing unlimited cheap loans. Otherwise, he said, easy money policies could feed new asset bubbles and remove pressure for economic reforms.

Looking on the bright side, the Treasury official said the European representatives all recognized the urgent need to focus on employment and growth. The official also said that there seemed to be growing pragmatism in Europe, with more officials willing to allow budget flexibility in certain economies, for instance.

Jack Ewing contributed reporting from Frankfurt and Steven Erlanger from Paris.

Greek Protesters Await Angela Merkel on Athens Visit

Ms. Merkel was to meet with Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, President Karolos Papoulias and with Greek and German entrepreneurs on a six-hour visit expected to be accompanied by rowdy demonstrations against Germany’s perceived leading role in pushing Greece to impose more pain on its citizens in exchange for rescue financing.

Eager to give Europe’s most powerful leader a warm and safe reception, Greek authorities are mounting the biggest security operation since 1999 when President Bill Clinton visited Athens amid furious protests at NATO airstrikes against the former Yugoslavia.

Some 7,000 police officers, many brought to the capital from the provinces for the day, will be on standby along with rooftop snipers and protests have been banned in much of downtown Athens.

Security will be particularly heavy outside the Parliament and the German Embassy. The police may resort to the use of water cannons if rallies get out of hand. The precautions reflected the desire of Greece’s fragile coalition government, embroiled in difficult talks with Greece’s so-called troika of foreign lenders on a $17.4 billion dollar austerity package, to contain its citizens’ rage at Ms. Merkel, who has been cast here as the arch-villain of the euro crisis.

Ms. Merkel’s visit comes only days after her main rivals, the Social Democratic Party, announced that Peer Steinbrück would run against her in next year’s general election.

Mr. Steinbrück served as Ms. Merkel’s finance minister in her government from 2005 to 2009, and his party has been more lenient in its discussion of Greece’s future prospects in the euro zone, arguing the time lost by the government between elections earlier this year must be taken into account when considering aid to the country.

The Social Democrats criticized Ms. Merkel’s visit to Athens as coming too late. The chancellor was last in Athens in 2007. Carsten Schneider, a finance expert with the Social Democrats criticized the chancellor in comments Tuesday to ARD public broadcaster as “only giving advice from behind a desk in Berlin” since the outbreak of the crisis in 2009.

Even within Ms. Merkel’s own Christian Democratic party there are differences of opinion on how to handle Greece. While the chancellor has in recent months shifted her rhetoric from stressing the importance of austerity and come out more strongly in favor of keeping Greece in the euro zone, her current finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble has upheld a tougher line on Athens.

“We want to help Greece to build up an efficient bureaucracy and an efficient economy, but at some point, Greece needs to stand on its own two feet,” Mr. Schäuble told RBB public broadcaster on Monday . “It is pointless to help a bottomless pit.”

Ms. Merkel’s government has said her visit is intended as a clear signal of solidarity with the Greeks and will not interfere with the forthcoming report by the troika of lenders — the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission.

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, told reporters in Brussels on Tuesday that no decisions would be taken on Greece until the report is produced, but he warned that “regarding reforms, more needs to be done” in Greece, Reuters reported.

In Greece, civil servants, including teachers and doctors, are walking off the job for three hours starting at noon to protest Ms. Merkel’s visit and have prepared banners reading “Don’t cry for us Mrs. Merkel” and “Merkel you are not welcome here” to wield during rallies.

Daily speculation in the local media about the outcome of Greek negotiations with the troika, aimed at securing a $40.8 billion dollar loan without which the country faces default in late November, was eclipsed on Tuesday by anticipation of the German leader’s visit.

Headlines in center-right newspapers read, “A message of support,” “A decisive visit by Merkel” and “We are staying in the euro.” Others, more skeptical, declared “Merkel is bringing no gifts” and “A day of anger.”

This anger was echoed by a nurse heading into the center to join fellow protesters. “This is pure provocation, we have to answer back,” said the nurse, Christina Amanti, 37. “It’s like she’s visiting her protectorate. What’s she going to do, pat us on the back and tell us to keep getting poorer, that it’s good for us?”

Melissa Eddy contributed reporting from Strasbourg, France.