The German newspaper whose website is now a little better organized (but no so well organized, you understand, that I can actually provide a link to the story in question) published what ought to be an interesting tale of changing tastes in toys, “Per Modellbahn aufs Abstellgleis” or, roughly, “By Model Train onto the Siding.” There would even seem to be comparative advantage in such a story, as toy-making is one of Germany’s traditional industries. Or as defenders of the romantic image would have it, handicrafts.
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Tag Archives: Germany
A Big Problem?
Just a brief query: Can anyone think of the last time one of the big four countries in the EU — Germany, France, Britain, Italy — had a successful presidency of the Union?
It looks like the UK’s turn at the top will end without a budget agreement, which is fine for Blair’s domestic politics, but not so good for running the 25-country EU. Italy’s last run was marred by an initial spat between Berlusconi’s government and the European Parliament and never really got back into gear. Germany’s last presidency, back in ’99, featured the resignation of the Commission, the resignation of Germany’s finance minister and the war in Kosovo. The French presidency in 2000 ended with the summit in Nice, one of the least productive EU summits in memory. (EU mandarins from Central Europe still haven’t forgotten how Chirac gratuitously slighted them at Nice, setting the tone for his approach to enlargement.)
Breakthroughs seem to come during the presidencies of smaller countries. In recent years, think Ireland and Denmark. In the interests of better governance, maybe the Union should ban big countries from holding the presidency?
What did Schily know, and when did he know it?
This much is uncontroversial: in late 2003 the CIA kidnapped Khalid al-Masri, a Lebanese-born German citizen, and carried him off to a prison in Afghanistan for interrogation. In the end they released him when they realised that his only crime was to have the same name as some other man they wanted to get their hands on. It took them five months to realise this, five months during which al-Masri says he was tortured. He must be lying about that part, though, because George Bush has said that his administration does not torture.
Now, however, it looks like an extra-large family-size jar of controversy is about to be opened. Otto Schily, who was at the time Germany’s Innenminister — in this context, an analogue to the British home secretary or American director of homeland security — knew about the matter in May 2004 because then-US ambassador Daniel Coats told him. That’s not the controversial part. This is: according to a report in this week’s Spiegel, Schily kept quiet about the Americans kidnapping and falsely imprisoning a German citizen because Coats, his good friend, asked him to.
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Angela Merkel’s Best Foot Forward
Angela Merkel sets an ambitious and optimistic note in her opening speech, going back to the ‘postwar reconstruction’ theme raised in her election campaign. Fine words, and why not, but unfortunately it will need more than good intentions to get to grips with Germany’s present day problems:
Angela Merkel on Wednesday called for a “second reconstruction” of Germany, by recalling the efforts deployed to rebuild war-torn Germany in the 1950s and reconstruct the former Communist east after reunification, in her eagerly-awaited first speech to parliament as chancellor.
“This land has great possibilities – Germany is full of opportunities,” Ms Merkel told the house. “I am looking forward to unleashing this dormant energy.”
Consumption in Germany
In comments here, Edward has addressed a question I was also thinking about this morning. He writes, “So the new coalition’s ‘play’ will be to try and really push-start domestic consumption in 2006. Obviously they hope some consumption will be brought forward in order to avoid the tax.”
Tax and a positive contribution from the ECB are important, of course, but I wonder if there aren’t other hindrances to domestic consumption. I’d be hard pressed to think of an upswing in the German economy that wasn’t led by exports and fed by investment. Domestic consumption brings up the rear.
Add to that strong admonitions in the culture that consumption is bad. Look at any apartment building and count the number of “No ads please” stickers on mail slots. Add in the Öko (“ecological”) position that the best contribution to the environment is to consume as little as possible. Add deep cultural mistrust of credit. Add some of the demographic trends that Edward has written about in detail. All of these suggest that there are barriers to a recovery sustained by domestic demand that go beyond fear of the taxman.
Or I could be wrong. Americans, after all, have famously overthrown their Puritan heritage and consume enough to keep the world economy afloat. The hard-core economists could be right, and culture might play no role at all in household decisions. I honestly don’t know what to think about German consumption. Further thoughts, anyone?
Thanks, Gerd
Wasn’t Gerhard Schroeder fun? Didn’t Germany, maybe more than any other big country in Europe, need a leader who enjoyed things? Hasn’t public life gotten just a little grayer this late November Tuesday?
The election in ’98 showed that Germany could actually change governments at the ballot box, and not just through parliamentary maneuvers. One more doubt about German democracy laid to rest. The red-green government changed the terms of public debate about immigration, for which I am personally grateful. And I saw the difference in treatment at the local foreigners’ office in downtown Munich. For this honesty, Germany is better off. The SPD and the Greens sent German armed forces into combat in Europe, and on to missions in Afghanistan and elsewhere. Germany is shouldering its responsibilities as a major nation. For that, all of Europe is better off.
Sure, there were missed opportunities and many things still need to be done in Germany for it to really be ready for the 21st century. But the achievements of the last seven years are not small, and they will not be short-lived.
UPDATE: Another thing. By calling the election a year early, Schröder ensured that her opponents in the CDU would not have time to push Angela Merkel out of the top position. Thus we will not have the insufferable Roland Koch as Chancellor. For the historic first of having a woman as German Chancellor, thanks Gerd.
Hollywood’s Big Loss
No more free money from Germany.
Even though its focus may be far removed from the geopolitics of Europe, Hollywood has reason to be concerned with the recent results of the German elections. The newly designated Minister of Finance Peer Steinbrück announced on Nov. 12 that he was retroactively eliminating the part of the tax code that allows German investors in media funds to defer their taxes. This German tax shelter, as I have previously pointed out, provided Hollywood with an El Dorado of easy cash for the past quarter-century and allowed studios to increase their earnings without any risk. Now it is dead.
I love Edward Jay Epstein’s columns.
Turnering The Screw
The Turner Report is about to appear. The Turner in question is the UK peer Lord Adair Turner, and the subject of the report the future of the UK pensions system. Although the final report is not due till the end of the month, the FT has been ‘ leaking’ some of the possible contents.
The commission will apparently suggest that the age at which workers can claim their full state pension should, over time, rise from 65 to 67. The increase is intended to come in stages, starting after 2020 when the UK’s women’s state pension age is set to be aligned with men’s at 65. Thereafter, state pension age should rise in line with increasing longevity, the commission will say. Now this idea seems to me to be a very important one, and I’d just like to take the time out to explain why I think this.
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Easterners conquer Germany; southerners flee
Brandenburg’s Matthias Platzeck has been tapped to become new leader of the SPD. This means that Germany’s two major parties will both be led by people from the ‘new states’, the former GRD. Franz Müntefering will, however, enter the new cabinet as planned.
The CSU’s Ede Stoiber won’t be going to Prussia, though. He has decided to remain in Munich as Bavarian prime minister. Michael Glos will get Stoiber’s designated CSU place at the table instead.
Stoiber’s decision can only mean he thinks that the grand coalition will fail and that it would therefore be better to stay unconnected with it. Whether he is right about this is, of course, another matter.
(No links, sorry. This is all from the ARD teletext. I’ll try to stick in links to fuller treatments later in the day.)
Angie 2.0 – March 26, 2006?
Update (2/11/05, 01:30 CET) – Maybe Angie 2.0 is actually a guy: two East German are now heading Germany’s biggest parties. The SPD crisis management team agreed late Tuesday evening to offer Brandenburg’s state premier Matthias Platzeck (German biography) the party’s chairmanship. Absent any surprises, this nomination will probably be confirmed by the upcoming party conference.
Update (1/11/05, 16:19) below the fold.
Does everybody really get a second chance? Or will it just be Angela Merkel? Not too surprisingly, Edmund Stoiber was the first to realise that the SPD’s power reshuffle after Franz Müntefering’s sort-of instant resignation, even in case a successor will be named quickly (currently, the only two candidates allegedly under consideration are the state premiers Kurt Beck and Mathias Platzeck), is leading to a situation in which the arithmetics of a grand coalition don’t really add up anymore, not simply because coalition talks with a SPD delegation headed by a combination of acting and designated leaders will suffer from a relative affluence in cooks dealing with the broth.
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