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

To: energyplay who wrote (565)	9/18/2005 2:32:22 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217750

There's the Berlin Wall. Germans and the whole world believed on the stereotype. They expected Wistchaftwunder "The Sequel". Compare Czech -where Skoda car maker owned by Volkswagen needs to be throttled down not to destroy VW of Germany since they can make cars much more efficiently. Eastern Germany is faring much worse because the former West Germany imposed on them all kinds of measures that hampers competition. Like training a guy 3 years to sell cars. There a lot of useless old things that they have to dump into the dust bin but that would hurt some special interest and should be kept on. As a result the former eastern Germany has to go ahead with a hand tied behind their backs. The anti take over laws resulting form the oil shock of the mid 70s when Arabs awash with petrodollars were buying anything site is another problem. Anything for sale has to find a German buyer: Siemens has to constantly do that, but cleverly they get Japanese on board and face is saved. The huge money the US was putting into Germany dried up after Cold War and Germany has to fight for get tourists like any other country since they don’t have a fixed amount of tourists living there. A lot of wind has been taken off Germany sails. Hence the tough government they need. But -as the propaganda goes- Germany is in another planet, they need not to face facts that are common place in other countries.

To: energyplay who wrote (565)	9/18/2005 2:32:35 AM
From: elmatador	Respond to of 217750

The real Wistchaftwunder (economic miracle) is Germany keeping its economic standing.

To: energyplay who wrote (565)	9/18/2005 9:29:31 AM
From: critical_mass	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217750

A couple of things to point out: 1. Germany exports more than any other country. 2. Germany's Xetra DAX and "Neu Markt" experienced almost the same type of behavior as the DJIA and NASDAQ back in 2000-2001, but the real estate "echo bubble" so often discussed on these SI boards has not inflated in Germany. Real estate prices, and personal debt have been relatively stable over the past 5 years. 3. East Germany has experienced some success stories where capital funds self sustaining businesses instead of capital scooping up distressed assets in a crony capitalist manner. For example, Infineon, DuPont, and AMD chip plants in Dresden. BMW factory in Leipzig, Smart Car and VW plants in Dresden. Plans for a chip plant with investors from the middle east, Intel and incentives from the German government were abandoned midstream for a site located in Frankfurt Am Oder. Schröder has pushed through many reforms, which is why he lost popularity and support from within his political base. Merkel and Schröder respective reforms are not that far apart. According to an article in the current edition of the Economist, Schröder would cut corporate taxes more than Merkel. Merkel would cut the unemployment insurance more than Schröder, but raise the VAT by 2%. Things are not that bad in Germany, despite constant calls for reform from the outside.