Gordon Brown, then chancellor of the exchequer, thought so too.
PANICKY, desperate, clumsy: these are not words normally associated with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor.
The chancellor is the most powerful man in the Austrian government.
Germany's chancellor wants to play a bigger role on the world stage. But are Germans ready?
Otto von Bismarck, a Prussian chancellor, used his to tamp down the tobacco in his pipe.
Ever since he was chancellor, Mr Brown has been an articulate expositor of ideas for a new global financial architecture.
The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, is conspicuously skipping any meeting with Mr Cameron in London this week.
Already some in her coalition grumble that she has lost her knack of winning elections. But she will surely survive as chancellor.
The historical figures had to be tortured to buttress this claim, but the prime minister remains inordinately proud of his success as chancellor.
Treasury mandarins are already unsettled by doubts about who the chancellor of the exchequer will be next month or even next week.
The idea, put about by Mr. Brown's supporters, that there should be a "smooth and orderly transition" to the chancellor is a dangerous one.
Then after arriving in London tomorrow afternoon, he will give a joint press conference with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, to repeat calls for regulatory measures.
BBC political correspondent Mike Sergeant says the chancellor has entered this increasingly tense debate, but at the same time making it clear he has a good relationship with Dr Fox.
German industry’s steely ability to hold down costs was also helped by the Hartz reforms, introduced when Gerhard Schr?der, a Social Democrat, was chancellor between 1998 and 2005.
Add to this a chancellor noted more for caution than for vision and a novice atop the foreign ministry eager to score political points, and you have a recipe for disarray.
