So Frau Merkel, allegedly the leader of the German Right-wing, has done a deal with the socialists in order to form a working coalition to govern the country. As always when trying to cut a coalition deal with any Left-wing political party the agreement contains some hefty handouts to certain favoured groups which will win applause for today's politicians but will hand a shit sandwich to the next generation who will be presented with the bill!
In Der Spiegel they have an interesting article which summarises the main editorials from various German newspapers. The one that caught my eye was from the conservative Die Welt which summed up the coalition deal, thus:
The coalition contract reflects the spirit of regulation-loving statism. The very policies set in motion by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder through his reforms of social and labor laws that created the breathing room needed for the economy to flourish and for unemployment to fall are now being systematically dismantled. In the case of the SPD [the Socialist party], this is the result of shame over the success of Schröder's Agenda 2010 (which cut worker protection and benefits for the long-term unemployed and also cost the party votes). In the case of the conservatives, it's attributable to 'Merkelism' -- e.g. a chancellor who has transformed her CDU into the first postmodern political party in Europe, one in which the idea that 'anything goes' is now an actual party value." [My emphasis]
"The message this sends to the rest of Europe is disastrous. We preach austerity to the debt crisis countries and yet we continue to fatten Germany's already plump social system instead of putting it on a diet. Germany can no longer be considered a role model for Europe."
I am not proud to say that in respect of political parties who stand for "anything goes", 'Dim Dave' beat Frau Merkel to the winning post years ago, in fact, I reckon that despite his Eton education he would have difficulty spelling the word 'conservative'! However, somewhat to my surprise, even the Left-leaning German editorials are critical of the political beneficence being ladled out to the German people who have no idea of the future costs of a minimum wage, retirement age being cut by four years, dual citizenship for children of immigrants and hefty pension increases for women with children.
Meanwhile but still on German affairs, the WSJ has another interesting sidelight on German finances. We all know that - to their credit - Germany regularly clocks-up massive surpluses much of which is expressed in terms of personal savings. However, Stephen Fiddler wonders where all these savings are going? The answer, alas, is not good:
"A high export surplus means de facto that you invest a lot of saved money abroad," the European Union's economic commissioner Olli Rehn told the German newspaper Bild in an interview published Sunday. "That may make sense. What we have seen, though, is that not all German savings were invested sensibly, but instead went into toxic securities in the U.S. for instance."
Others put it less diplomatically."German savers give their money to the financial system and it gambles it away," says Sony Kapoor, a financial expert who runs the think tank Re-Define.
It sounds harsh, but some German studies show losses on German savings abroad have been spectacular, running into several hundreds of billions of euros since 2006.
Oh dear, what a pity, never mind - and by the way, what's the German for 'sucker'?
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