Hi Elmat.
Here's some opinions
labour market reform, the Hartz commission proposals to streamline job placement, are inadequate.
... in sofar that in case they are successful (ie the job placement agencies get going) then a sizeable portion of the usual normal job market will get bastardized as follows: Heinz decides to change jobs. He's unemployed for a couple of weeks, and then gets a placement with one of the agencies. Heinz loves his new job (pays the same and they have a better canteen) and his new job loves Heinz (he costs MUCH less than he would cost without Hartz) - the whole scheme is a subsidized by the government. For ever (at the moment)
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To cap it all, Germany suffered the indignity this week of a formal reprimand from the European Commission for running a budget deficit of 3.8 per cent of GDP, exceeding the 3 per cent limit under rules that Germany itself created to underpin the euro.
It's not indignity, it's a screw-up. Looks now like the intention of Maastricht was to impale the vampiric heart of M. Keynes.
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In these circumstances, a degree of schadenfreude might be expected in other capitals.
Yeah, it's like people 3rd class Titanic having a laugh at the 1st class. It's still the same ship.
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Structural reform is the only long-term answer, but in the short term it would cause pain that neither government nor the public appears willing to contemplate. Germany remains a wealthy, comfortable society. The danger is that, like Japan, it would prefer to muddle through than take tough policy decisions.
100% correct: the reforms sorely needed - in Germany, corporate, job market, social security, in Europe agricultural subsidies, political landscape, fiscal power structure.
RegZ
dj |
