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Strategies & Market Trends : Booms, Busts, and Recoveries -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (43657)	12/19/2003 7:43:38 AM
From: TobagoJack	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 74559

DJ, <<I love one-liners>> ... as opposed to this :0) Message 19608980

To: smolejv@gmx.net who wrote (43657)	12/19/2003 7:41:26 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 74559

German reforms: Die sache ist Schwarz, DJ!! Published: Dec 19 2003 19:56 \| Last Updated: Dec 19 2003 19:56 Few German legislators can have read the reform package passed on Friday. At 2,800 pages, the legislation was weighty, even by the heavy-handed standards of German governments. In terms of substance, however, it is even fluffier than the original proposals. Adjusting for offsetting cuts in subsidies, the overall tax relief is likely to amount to less than 0.2 per cent of gross domestic product, hardly much of a stimulus. Including other measures the effect on demand should be broadly neutral. Structural progress has also been extremely limited, and not only because of trade union opposition. For example, sharper cuts in distorting home-owner subsidies and reforms to Germany's medieval guild system, which restricts access to many trades, were watered down to secure approval by the opposition parties. It is doubtful that the relaxations of dismissal rules for small businesses will have much of an impact. And once again, progress on making collective wage-bargaining more flexible has been delayed. In the absence of such measures, job growth will be limited and the new restrictions on long-term unemployment benefits are likely to have little effect. Optimists might argue that at least Germany has at last started to reform. Indeed, regional leaders from both sides of the political spectrum are already urging braver steps next time around. But the tangled negotiations of the past few months illustrate how difficult further progress will be. It is just as well that Germany only accounts for a third of revenues of DAX companies, making it more of a bet on the global recovery than progress at home.