Change

Inasmuch as Italy hasn’t changed since the early 2000s, US and Germany have. The Kanzler is a Kanzlerin, Mr President was born in Hawaii and is not a WASP. But the degree of economic change which took place in Germany is far bigger than any development in the US. Let’s not even mention Italy.

The derided Sick man of Europe – I quote here The Economist, the Financial Times and a dozen of London and NY-based investment banks – is now giving lessons in How to Manage the Economy to the US.

Of course Schadenfreude still abounds, just read those influential newspaper articles saying yes-but-Germany-cannot-continue-to-grow-like-this. Still it is surprising to see how something has started to change, especially after Merkel’s visit to the US.

Not only the New York Times but even the Washington Post recognize now that Germany got it right with the economy. And with society as well. More and more columnists align supporting evidence of German lower unemployment figures and a better distributed wealth. Owning a house and be leveraged should not be a goal in itself, when one can pay a reasonable rent. Speculating on property appreciation not necessary, if productivity gains are matched by better salaries, generating also better tax receipts and better education. Welfare is a good safety net, once the moral hazard has been trimmed.

The US media and the corporations were able to push a very stupid neologism defying gravity such as “jobless recovery”. It managed to become a household name in the US before showing its lack of logic. In Germany such a nonsensical concept for the masses would just have attracted a fair dose of “Ach! Quatsch!” by its public opinion from day one. In Germany pragmatism never sleeps.

“We don’t have short-term strategies, only long-term ones” says an entrepreneur in Saxony-Anhalt, a Land located in the former DDR. Apparently the US and the UK governed by their short-term oriented investment bankers could use some advice from the Mittelstand.

Germany’s “ingenuity” of working hard, working well, with everybody following the rules and for a good wage maybe is not a bad idea after all. As the Washington Post puts it “They make things, while we make deals, or trades, or swaps”.

But this is what BerlinRomExpress has been saying since 2007. So nothing new to our beloved readers.

 

Photo: Bundeskanzlerin.de

14 years and things haven’t changed

Bonn – Monza

Germany has lived now more than 20 years with 2 administrative capitals: Bonn and Berlin. True, 500km in between don’t help. Still some think that now Bonn could survive pretty well without ministries and Berlin could be more efficient with 100% of the government under one roof.

In Italy the Lega is suggesting to move key ministries to the tiny city of Monza, south of Milan.

Zeitgeist? Nonsense.

The Belgian job: balkanization

Dissection of Italy in two different portions. This is what the Lega is suggesting today in Pontida. Pretty clever.

Who’s such a fool to think that balkanization may be a remote answer to a weak country’s problems?

Invasion, maybe…

(hey hey it’s a joke!!!)

italy’s double blackmailing

No growth and scarce creditworthiness. The Italian government has been so long in denial about the crisis and its structural roots, that now any much-needed fiscal stimulus may trigger a violent reaction from the speculative arm of the financial markets. It’s a stand-off, John Woo style.

And this is why Italy is based on reciprocal standoff. In parties, in corporates, in the administration everybody is keeping someone else in check. It’s the pervasive presence of blackmailing.

We’re full of blackmailers. Lega Nord. Responsabili. Massimo D’Alema. Rifondazione. Pierferdinando Casini. The church. Some corporates and some unions.

The only one who can’t blackmail anybody else is the Total Taxpayer: the employee. The blackmailing pyramid rests on a basis of “tax slaves” who work and pay until the last drop.

Class struggle has become vertical, now.

wash it down

There is a wind of change in Italy. Now we only need the usual people from the left who are expert in “Betonierung” ie in suffocating the movements and re-establishing the Etat des Lieux. I mean Mr D’Alema, of course.

We’re happy for the referendum results. But we fear that the “bidet” may be the end result.

Be Berlin

May I quote the blogger Mischalke04 for the fabulous vintage prints and sounds? See his full post with all the images and sounds here, detailing Willy Brandt’s campaign to attract youth to the then divided city.

Now there’s Wowereit’s “Be Berlin”.

 

Source: Mischalke04 @ WordPress

people we like @ Hamburg – Helmut Schmidt

This cover dates from June 1979. And this interview from 1999.

Schmidt had very clear ideas on Europe, democracy – its pros and cons – emerging markets, sustainability already in 1999. Unfortunately his view on wars and human rights migration proved also correct. His views on over-regulation in Germany, France and Italy are still fresh today. With hindsight, some things changed and some didn’t (like his comment on Italy!).

Even if that was a year of booming stock market and euphoria, Schmidt was extremely lucid and cautious (see his comments on the role of the US).

Afghanistan and Iraq were not on the radar yet, but the Balkan wars were recent (“there are problems which cannot be solved, this is what Americans do not understand“). Rings a bell or two.

In his 1979 interview with TIME he details the 3 biggest problems of the economy. Also these ring a bell or two.

Q. What are the greatest problems facing the world economy?

Work Pride

Tonight the passion for State TV is online. A big program on air from Bologna, for the 100th anniversary of the FIOM unions.

At last tonight work is high on the agenda. Not easy careers on TV, scratch-and-win, or celebrities.

did you say Plakat? no, Plagiat!!

Another fake Doctorate. Facts are ascertained. Pretty quickly.