And everybody thinks that the dollar is down against the euro because of our failures. I would like to suggest that it is the other way round, and they would rather have our problems.

A return to the Hindenburg economy?

(yeah, I'm proud of that one and not ashamed to admit it. there's like, 3 or 4 meanings you can pull out of that sucker!)

German economy has been stagnant at best the last 5 years. Which was why Schroeder got elected. A very reason for lower taxes; even with their very higly skilled work force they can not compete.

Yeah, but look at the bright side, they still get 4 weeks paid vacation a year! Makes you wonder what the unemployment rate really is, having to hire one extra employee for every twelve v. one for every 24 in the U.S. Is it any wonder that they are losing jobs?

Can you say socialism at work? This is what you get when you have huge bureaucracy, limited free markets and onerous tax burdens. Oh, and loving David Hasslehoff “music” can’t be helping anything.

hmmm, and just think how their economy will react when chimpmonkeyhitlerbush and condi vavavoom rice pull even more troops out of there....heheheheh

wie sagst man "payback is a bitch" auf deutsch?

There is one metric that most Americans dont consider in terms of unemployment. In the US, a persons statistical average period of unemployment is roughly 1 month for every 10k in salary or wages. In Europe, any time a person is unemploymed is generally marks the end of their careers.

European contries have extreme laws that require employers to give long periods of notice prior to any layoffs that may occur and long terms ( think "multi year times annual salary" here...). The net effect not only makes it more difficult for companies to restructure in recessions, but it makes it nearly impossible to justify hiring anyone when times are good.

The result? no firing, but not hiring either, making companies none-too-efficient, which in turn makes it harder for them to compete, which then tightens the death spiral.

So when you look at that 12% unemployment rate, look at it as if all the people you know who lost their jobs in 1979-80 stayed unemployed throught the boom-boom era. Now try to imagine how angry those people would feel at "the system".

Also try to remember that once-upon-a-time-not-so-long-ago, Germany was a budwieser clydesdale work horse of industrial productivity that many handwringing cassandras of leftist failure here in the US wondered how we were ever going to compete against them.

12% is bad. really, really bad. If you are in the US and unless you are older than 25, you've never seen anything like 12%.

Older than 25?

France has an umemployment rate of about 10% and Germany 12%. What will they do? Herbert Hoover and Jimmy Carter economics, raise taxes, price controls, etc., or GASP! lower taxes and deregulate? This is Old Europe - socialism forever - blame the US deficit, trade policies, etc.

Excellent post Frank Martin! Another thing to look at in both Germany and France is youth unemployment. Since they are the ones entering the workforce -- in lands where firing a worker in very hard --
it is a good indictation of job creation. I can't remember the exact number for youth unemployment, but I remember it is hideously high.

Compare the US economic growth rate to the population growth rate and you will see the reason for the discrepacy between those countries.

Bullwinkle - AI think the min is five (5) weeks, I met an autoworker at the EnglishGarden who was on a 13 week vacation. He had 24 years with BMW and spoke better English than my German to boot. Handled his beer well also, I think.

Germany (and Europe in general) will whine about these macro-economic statistics - and then continue to vote themselves rich. Oh yeah, this is going to turn out well...

We didn't even hit 12% during the Carter 'malaise' years so this is pretty scary but this is what happens when the Socialists and Greens set economic policy.