Rattlesnake Ridge 
BFF
“The debt crisis sweeping southern Europe and lapping France is cause for alarm in Washington and Beijing, but not it seems for the rank and file of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party. On the contrary, at a meeting of Merkel’s Christian Democrats the mood among delegates ranged from triumphalism over Germany’s economic strength to complacency about the crisis and blind faith in Berlin’s ability to shield Germany from it. Merkel warned on the first day of the congress Monday that Europe faced what could be its “toughest hour since World War Two.” But her message didn’t register with many of those in the hall or with the German media. Much press coverage focused on domestic issues – the minimum wage, childcare and education………… Unemployment has fallen to its lowest levels since German reunification in 1990 and the smaller “Mittelstand” firms that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy have strong order backlogs.…….”
That “alles” also includes the United States, speaking of economics. While U.S. corporations have rushed during the past two decades to export more jobs than products, German firms have focused on keeping jobs inside Germany. German government policies have helped. The American corporatist right-wing has been making a lot of noise about patriotism, while facilitating the opposite: the weakening of the Middle Class in favor of corporations. Even Dick Cheney’s beloved Halliburton, beneficial of so many American government contracts moved its headquarters to the Persian-American Gulf, to be near the potentates so beloved by the Cheneys, and for patriotic tax purposes.
Remember all the swooning over the “Japanese model”? I was in graduate school in those days and I remember that it immediately preceded the long stagnation of the Japanese economy. Forget the Japanese model, forget the crazy Tea Party model. Go the German model, but that may require some sort of mass lobotomy for the corporate and political leaders. And who is going to perform that? Will Obamacare cover that (Germany, like all other industrial countries except the United States, has a robust public health system)?
Cheers
mhg
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