Germany’s Data Questions its Austerity Policy

Distortions also exaggerate the manufacturing figures after a late-falling summer holidays in some German states kept factories shut for longer.

Still, criticism of Berlin’s economic policy is going to intensify. As Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz wrote last month, Berlin is wrecking its own economy and the rest of eurozone’s with an austerity project that is divisive and creates widespread poverty. He said: “Germany is forcing other countries to follow policies that are weakening their economies – and their democracies.

Even business leaders are becoming restless. “We are no longer growing,” said Volker Treier, chief economist at the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry. “We have had too little investment in Germany for years now.”

Carsten Brzeski, an economist at ING, put the problem succinctly. He said: “No more Sommermaerchen (summer fairy tale) but rather a German summer horror story.”

Will Schäuble reverse years of austerity and start to spend some of Germany’s export earnings? Will he support increased spending on the country’s decaying infrastructure and support job-creation for a growing underclass? It doesn’t seem likely given his consistently hardline comments. Only the German parliament can save the day.

via The Guardian

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