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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elmatador who wrote (562)	9/18/2005 1:57:12 AM
From: Elroy Jetson	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 217734

What exactly do you think is wrong with Germany? Everything seemed just fine the last time I was there. Its been a very expensive fifteen years since taking on East Germany. Combining an industrialized nation with a second world nation is not easy. I travelled in the East before reunification and rumors that East Germany was better off than other communist bloc nations are completely unfounded. .

To: elmatador who wrote (562)	9/18/2005 2:13:01 AM
From: energyplay	Read Replies (4) \| Respond to of 217734

To a certain degree, Germany does have some special knowledge and organization forms. A working educational system, that works for over 905 of the population. A very good system for vocational training and training advanced skilled workers, possibly the best in the world. There is as a result, huge deep pool of skilled workers. Some very good universities. Very strong groups of specialized middle sized companies - the Mittlestand - that have good competive postions and are generally aggresive with long term goals. Cooperation between major banks and industrial companies, which is especially helpful to the middle size companies, which have problems with access to capital markets in most countries. ** A side comment on bank funding for middle and small companies - Note that Japan solves this small company capital access problem in a similar but more group oriented way, with Kieretsu, or collections of companies oragnized around banks. The US uses venture capital and the unstable IPO and small debt issues market to address problem this in a much more free-for-all manner. China seems to be using a combination of political and personal connections, plus funding anything and every thing that might result in employment. Sort of like the dot-com model previously tried in the United States, with well documented results ;-) The UK idea was you were supposed to be born in to enough wealth to start with....then get someone else to run it. Gentlemen don't get their hands dirty, you know. And Russian verison goes like this : To fund a small company, first, loot a large company... ******* Back to Germany's prospects However, this isn't enough - given both increasing world competition and more rigid EU thinking, and increasing German political rigidity. It isn't enough to allow Germans to reach their potential, especially the young. Even if the CDU loses, I expect the SDP to try some reforms.