Posts tagged germany
Germany has the economic strengths America once boasted: Germany with its manufacturing base and export prowess is the U.S. of yesteryear, an economic power unlike any of its European neighbors. It has thrived on principles America seems to have lost.
The couple, in their early 50s, aren’t retired or well off. They live in a small Tudor-style house in this middle-class town about 30 miles northwest of Frankfurt. He’s a foreman at a glass factory; she works part time for a company that tracks inventories for retailers. Their combined income is a modest $40,000.
Yet the Krugers have a higher standard of living than many Americans who have twice that income.
Their secret: little debt, frugal habits and a government that is intensely focused on high production, low inflation and extensive social services.
That has given them job security and good medical care as well as well-maintained roads, trains and bike paths. Both of their adult children are out on their own, thanks in part to Germany’s job-training system and heavy subsidies for university education.
For instance, Volkmar’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.
Photo: Vera and Volkmar Kruger, seen here in the town of Limburg, Germany, not far from their home in Elz, earn about $40,000 a year but live as well as an American couple making twice as much. Credit: Don Lee / Los Angeles Times
This is one of those few times when I think about moving back…
This is how France won the World Cup in 1998.
While much of the rest of Europe is struggling to pass harsh austerity packages, Germany is in the midst of a debate over cutting taxes by as much as $14.2 billion.
Germany Is Flying Above the Economic Storm in Europe - NYTimes.com
Never thought Germany’s economy would be the envy of the Western hemisphere…
This recovery is spread widely because every German town seems to have its periphery populated by the famed “mittelstand” of small and not-so-small companies, exporting countless unglamorous but profitable products. These companies are often family-owned and founded on values of quality and investment, combined with a shrewd search for markets.
Under her, Germany has once again become a nation to emulate.
Why don’t you send press releases as a fax?
BBC News - What is the secret to Germany’s economic success?
Making things that other people want to buy.
Cover of German magazine Der Spiegel: ‘The distraught States of America: A nation loses its optimism.’
Although has been spared the terrorist attacks that have hit the United States, Britain and Spain, Hamburg — and Germany in general — remains a breeding ground for Islamic radicals, security officials acknowledge.
Unscathed Germany Is in Eye of Terrorism Scare - NYTimes.com
I guess I’ll have to drink them myself. Oktoberfest turns to Oktobergloom as German Braumeisters wake up to an extraordinary hangover - their country’s shrinking appetite for beer.
Consumption has fallen 32 liters (per person/year) since 1991! Wonder if coffee is up.
A country of our size, with its focus on exports and thus reliance on foreign trade, must be aware that … military deployments are necessary in an emergency to protect our interests — for example when it comes to trade routes, for example when it comes to preventing regional instabilities that could negatively influence our trade, jobs and incomes.
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