Posted on 01/15/2015 11:25:42 AM PST by Berlin_Freeper
Germany has balanced the federal budget for the first time in more than 40 years, helped by strong tax revenues and rock-bottom interest rates, but the extra leeway is unlikely to translate into spending that could boost weak eurozone growth.
Berlin had been aiming to achieve a schwarze Null – a balanced budget or one in the black – this year but the finance ministry announced on Tuesday it had got there in 2014, a year ahead of schedule.
It is the first time since 1969 that Germany has achieved the feat and is a domestic and European political fillip for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government, which wrote the goal into a coalition agreement in late 2013 and has preached budget discipline to Greece and other indebted eurozone countries.
Peter Tauber, general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union party (CDU), said the budget was a historic success and sent a clear signal to the rest of Europe that Berlin was leading by example and only spending money in its coffers.
“This marks a turning point in financial policy: We’ve finally put an end to living beyond our means on credit,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
When you our source your defense needs it is easy to balance your budget.
Wait, Germany has balanced its budget AND it is now monitoring and restricting the travel of suspected Islamic jihadists?
How hard is it to get German citizenship, exactly? Ich habe zwei jahre von Deutsch in die schule :)
Not to denigrate Germany's efforts at fiscal responsibility, but the devil is in the details. Remember Slick Willie's "budget surplus"...that wasn't? Some interesting accounting.
I would need to see a whole lot more detail before I could take this at face value.
Germany has one quarter our population. They do a few things right, like very high quality manufactured products. But Merkel is an idiot, so this won’t last.
While there is always some “Buchkuchen” going on with government finances, the fact that Germany can even make the claim shows that it is the only country in Europe with anything like a real economy.
Like ALL Western nations Germany has its issues, but there is much to admire. I have family over there & they love it.
and the U.S. can’t. <shock
I agree. But I’m not ready to compare it to the Second Coming.
I have to wonder what the cost of carrying the debt would be if the ECB wasn’t artificially forcing 0 interest rates. If I could eliminate the interest on my mortgage, it would have a nice effect on my budget. How about people that are carrying car loans, credit card debt, mortgages and signature interest loans? Imagine their budget change if all of that came interest free.
It’s pretty much acknowledged here that normal market based interest rates would essentially collapse the US budget. The Fed has also admitted it can *never* let interest rates return to market based levels.
But you have to hand it to Germany to not increase their debt when borrowed (printed) money is basically free. The normal human reaction to free money is to go borrow (or print) as much as you can, like a country near us, for example. The Germans went the other way.
Good for Germany, IF you can believe their accounting. The USA last balanced its budget in AD 1957. I like Ike!
The statisticians at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have done some analysis of average salaries.
“At the top end of the distribution we have Belgium where single people pay 43% of earnings in income tax and social security contributions (or national insurance), followed by Germany with 39.9%,” says Maurice Nettley, head of tax statistics at the OECD. “The lowest rates are paid in Chile at 7% and Mexico at 9.5%.”
These tax rates apply to single people with no children, on an average salary for their country.
Belgium - 42.80%
Germany - 39.90%
Denmark - 38.90%
Hungary - 35%
Austria - 34%
Greece - 25.4%
OECD Average - 25.10%
UK - 24.90%
USA - 22.70%
New Zealand - 16.40%
Israel - 15.50%
Korea - 13%
Mexico - 9.50%
Chile - 7%
The following tax rates apply to married couples with two children.
Denmark - 34.8%
Austria - 31.9%
Belgium - 31.8%
Finland - 29.4%
Netherlands - 28.7%
Greece 26.7%
UK - 24.9%
Germany - 21.3%
OECD average - 19.6%
USA - 10.4%
Korea - 10.2%
Slovak Republic - 10%
Mexico - 9.5%
Chile - 7%
Czech Republic - 5.6%
In Germany the rate drops from 39.9% to 21.3% because of generous child tax credits. Across the OECD, tax rates drop by an average of 5.5% for married couples with children. Greece is the only country where you pay more tax if you are married with children.
Continue reading the main story
More on this subject
There are more Porsche Cayenne owners in Greece than taxpayers earning more than 50,000 euros - true or false?
The lengths people go to avoid paying tax
UK tax: Do you give more than you get?
Of course, the point of paying taxes is that the government is supposed to provide services for that.
“In a lot of the European countries tax rates and social security contributions are high but the provision of benefits by the state tends to be very generous compared to countries in other parts of the world,” says Nettley.
“If you fall ill or become unemployed the state will contribute and there are also generous pension arrangements.”
They balanced the budget partly with more tax revenues. I’m) less impressed with balanced budget and more with small government.
I’d much prefer our government half the size it is now with a small deficit than why we have now with a balanced budget.
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