Posted on 12/09/2011 8:44:44 PM PST by MinorityRepublican
The Euro Has Been Very Good — for Germany
DURING the first nine years of the euro’s existence, it seemed to be a great success for what are now called the peripheral countries of the euro zone. Able to borrow at low rates — in some cases for the first time — and benefiting from a buoyant global economy, many countries boomed.
But over the last five years, those countries have suffered more than others. Nowhere are the changing fortunes within the euro zone more apparent than in the unemployment statistics.
The accompanying charts show unemployment trends since the end of 2006, near the peak of growth and a year before the United States fell into a recession that spread around the world after the credit crisis worsened in late 2008.
For Germany and, to a lesser extent, the countries that some have speculated could join it in a new common currency if the euro zone collapses, recent years have been a time of relative prosperity. At the end of 2006, the unemployment rate in Germany was 9.6 percent and nearly four million people were out of work. Now the rate is down to 5.5 percent and just 2.3 million people are classified as out of work.
Both of those figures are the lowest since 1991, the year Germany was unified.
Germany has benefited from many factors. It held down its labor costs during the boom, strengthening its competitive position relative to other members of the euro zone. The fact that those countries were in the euro zone helped to depress the currency’s value relative to other currencies, which made German exporters even more competitive.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Bump. Thanks for posting.
1. They have found the right level of balance between social services and economic growth, learned from the experience of a capable civil service that dates back to the time of Frederick II (the "Great") when he ruled Prussia in the 18th Century.
2. German tax laws encourage businesses to keep as much of their operations on German soil as possible. Why do you think German automakers still have most of their assembly lines in Germany?
3. Germans are willing to work hard to economically advance.
In short, if Europe is to solve its sovereign debt crisis, it will likely be done on German terms. Sorry Italy and Greece, all those overly-generous social services and rampant corruption will have to go, like it or not.
You can do a lot if you depend on someone else to provide for your security.
And once again, Britain stands alone. Somewhere in hell right now, Hitler must be having a hearty laugh about the turn of events.
You can do a lot if you depend on someone else to provide for your security....
BINGO. Same goes for Canada. They can have their cake, eat it, do all of their big-gov’t experiments knowing that Uncle Sam has their back.
Don’t count on it forever.
“You can do a lot if you depend on someone else to provide for your security.”
Right on the money! Not even an occasional “Thanks Uncle Sam.”
In the end, the Germans have Europe by the bollocks! They should have thought of EU 80 years ago, saving the world a lot of trouble.
“You can do a lot if you depend on someone else to provide for your security.”
That’s obviously true but Germany didn’t ask for that security, they merely took advantage of the situation. What rational country’s leader wouldn’t? Notice I qualified that with the word “rational” thus eliminating our dipwad Prez. Your input could apply equally to Japan.
The rest of Europe will bleed Germany dry. Freaking parasites....
Yes, but the whole area relies on someone else - Germany has found a balance and the rest went totally nanny.
The rest of Europe is lucky to have the Germans and Poles. Thanks MinorityRepublican.
“You can do a lot if you depend on someone else to provide for your security.”
Thats a myth. Germany can defend itself against anybody on their own, aside from USA or China and perhaps an ideological renewed Russia and even those three would take heavy losses in an attempted invasion.
The military budget of the USA is pure self-interest nothing more and the bases in germany are there for logistical reasons and not to defend poor old defenseless germany.
No, there's no "right level of balance" when it comes to that. It's been less than a decade ago that they were called the "sick man of Europe"; and thanks to some very creative interest-rate games at the ECB (which is in Frankfurt), they magically recovered. You don't turn things around that rapidly without playing some kind of shenanigans.
They have found the right level of balance between social services and economic growth
Hold on there. Germany has a social market economy, which stipulates government intervention in putatively private business. There are plenty of other countries around, even within the EU, with more attractive tax regimes; if they don't move there, than that's all due to government interference in Berlin. Also note that those countries within the EU with lower corporate tax regimes are being pressured (mostly by Berlin) to raise those tax levels. Doesn't sound like Berlin wants competition, does it?
German tax laws encourage businesses to keep as much of their operations on German soil as possible. Why do you think German automakers still have most of their assembly lines in Germany?
. . . and they're the only people who are so willing? The "austerity measures" that are being imposed on the rest of the eurozone are projected to cause a lot of job losses—except in Germany. I'd say that the much-vilified Greeks would work just as hard as the Germans if they could, even if they had their accustomed government benefits cut by several degrees. That would be more than enough to get them to reject the communists' influence.
Germans are willing to work hard to economically advance
Yeah! All summer long, while the Greek government was cutting vacations and raising the retirement age from 55 to 60, the Greeks were rioting to go back to work!
Meanwhile back in Deutschland, the Germans were working for pensions that start at 65-70 so their Greek brothers could maintain their cushy life style!
Typical Olog-hai logic.
LOL....THEY'RE ALL Communists. An' if YOU sympathize with them, that makes you.....WELL YOU KNOW!
"But I guess that someone who names himself after a plane that murders Americans doesn't care about facts like that."
It's called WAR not murder but you are as biased as they come.
Since this is the NY Slimes, I assume they’re advocating the Occupy movement go global, pitting Country against Country. Grand scale Cloward-Piven.
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