Germany's Economy

choi

Don Lee, Germany Has the Economic Strengths America Once Boasted. Los Angeles Times, Jan 22, 2012.
http://www.latimes.com/business/ ... ddle-class-20120122,0,3874773.story

(a) Quote:

(i) "Volkmar's [husband's] out-of-pocket costs for stomach surgery and 10 days in a hospital totaled just $13 a day. College tuition for their son runs about $260 a semester.

(ii) "The nation's [Germany's] jobless rate fell last month to a two-decade low of 6.8%, considerably lower than in much of Europe and the US. * * * Germany so far has maintained an impressive trade surplus with the rest of the world, including China.

(iii) "In 1975, manufacturing accounted for about 20% of the United States' economic output, or gross domestic product, about the same as in Germany today. Since then, US manufacturing's share of GDP has slid to about 12%.

"In 1975, the US budget deficit was a manageable 1% of the economy, about the same as Germany's now. Last year, the US deficit was about 10%.

"American families in the 1970s and early '80s typically saved about 10% of their take-home pay, about the same as in Germany today. The U.S. savings rate these days is in the low single digits.

(iv) "Germany, like China, fiercely promotes its exports and has been reluctant to ramp up domestic spending, frustrating Washington, which wants to sell more American goods abroad.

"But Germany's economic practices and lifestyle are deeply ingrained in a culture that fears debt and inflation. In many ways, for instance, the nation discourages consumerism. Its streets aren't plastered with the billboards that dot the US. Taxes on goods and services are high. Many shops and restaurants in Germany are closed Sundays. Many smaller stores don't even take credit cards.

(v) "By one common measure, Germany's household debts were 97.5% of total after-tax income in 2010, compared with 125% for the US.

(vi) "Volkmar and others attribute part of the lower unemployment rate to the German work ethic. Yet Germans, on average, work far fewer hours a year than Americans, thanks partly to five or six weeks of vacation.

(b) Note:
(i) Elz, Hesse
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elz,_Hesse
(a community)
(ii) Limburg an der Lahn
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limburg_an_der_Lahn
(on the river Lahn; section 2 Etymology)
(iii) The report mentions the German couple lives in a "Tudor-style house." It refers to
(A) Tudor Revival architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_Revival_architecture

, and not
(B) Tudor architecture
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tudor_architecture
(section 2 Domestic: arrival of the chimney stack and enclosed hearths; section 3 Typical features)
(c) To imply billboards and credit cards are the cause of debts is akin to, in my view, blaming gun, not the gunman, for violence.


---------------------Separately
(1) Jack Ewing and Palko Karasz, Hungary’s Economic Doldrums Deepen; A country susceptible to the economic problems in Western Europe. New York Times, Jan 17, 2012 (title in print; online title: Hungary, Once a Star, Loses Its Shine)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/1 ... 7iht-hungary17.html

Quote:

"Hungary serves as a cautionary tale for those who argue that Greece could regain competitiveness by reintroducing its currency. The [Greece] drachma would plunge against the euro, the theory goes, and allow Greek products to compete on price with countries like Turkey.

"In theory, the plunge of the currency should help the economy by making Hungarian products less expensive abroad and cutting the cost of labor relative to neighboring countries. But economists and business people say the advantages of a weak currency are more than canceled out by negative factors, like soaring prices for imported fuel or imported components for Hungarian factories, not to mention higher payments on foreign currency loans.

Hungary " has a trade surplus and its debt, equal to 81 percent of gross domestic product, is in line with the European Union average, though high for a developing country. But the near future looks grim, with 10.7 percent unemployment and inflation of 4.3 percent as the economy heads into recession.

Note: Hungary has its own currency--not in eurozone, that is. There is no need to read the rest.

(2) Liz Alderman, Efficiency Is a Worry for Europe. New York Times, Jan 16, 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/1 ... ne-to-the-test.html

Quote:

(a) "From that perspective, the focus on stricter budgetary discipline is not enough to cure Europe’s problems, economists say. A few years ago, for instance, Germany’s budget deficit was higher than Spain’s, but the competitiveness of the German economy far outpaced that of its southern neighbor.

(b) "Indeed, Greeks with full-time employment worked an average of 42 hours a week last year, according to Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, while the average in Portugal was 38 hours. In Germany, it was just over 35 hours.

"But the effect on competitiveness was starkly different. A Eurostat index of labor productivity gave Germany a mark of 105 in 2010, the latest year for which figures were available. But productivity was only 94.8 in Greece and 76.4 in Portugal.

My comment: There is no need to read the rest.