"Germany's Merkel Shows Obama How Economies Grow"

[WhiskeyGirl]

BERLIN — German consumer and business confidence hit three-year highs on Tuesday as Chancellor Angela Merkel forecast the number of jobless could fall below three million in Europe's biggest economy.
 
 
"We may get to three million or perhaps slightly below," Merkel said after the economic research group GfK released its latest survey under the headline -- 'Consumer Climate at Three-Year High.'
 
 
On Friday, the Ifo research institute said German business confidence in September had hit levels last seen in mid-2007, suggesting that an anticipated slowdown will not mean a return to recession.
 
 
"Growth indeed seems to be stronger than we had expected," Merkel told a congress of the German industrial federation BDI in Berlin.
 
 
The household sentiment index compiled by GfK and published for October rose to 4.9 points from 4.3 points for September, a figure that was itself revised higher amid brighter expectations for the economy, jobs and personal incomes.

more here - http://www.thefoxnation.com/angela-merkel/2010/10/06/germanys-merkel-shows-obama-how-economies-grow

original story - http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jjVaXhfTTF6d4Q1NAoYVHm3vb32g?docId=CNG.2f6d2f189001e51bb038ab8658c80eda.231

[WhiskeyGirl]

Merkel: Poor Nations Must Do More

SEPT. 21- UNITED NATIONS — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday told poorer nations to take greater responsibility for their progress, opening up a development divide at the UN summit on eliminating poverty.
 
Merkel's keynote speech on the second day of the summit here called for more emphasis on free markets and good governance, while Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad blamed capitalism for all of the world's ills.
 
African leaders among the 140 heads of state and government at the summit urged greater efforts to empower the hundreds of millions struggling to climb out of the deep poverty afflicting much of the continent.
 
"Development aid cannot continue indefinitely," Merkel told the summit, called to examine progress made in the so-called Millennium goals.

Does this apply to states too?  'Aid to balance the budget or pay the teachers can't continued indefinitely'?

more here - http://www.thefoxnation.com/angela-merkel/2010/10/06/germanys-merkel-shows-obama-how-economies-grow

[WhiskeyGirl]

German steel workers demand 6% wage increase

Unions argue that a moratorium on pay claims must end as German economy starts to show strong growth

Talks on wages in the German steel industry that started last week will set the tone for negotiations in other trades. The IG Metall trade union – the largest in Europe – is demanding a 6% increase over the next year. It also wants better conditions for older workers and equal pay for temporary staff and workers with open-ended contracts. With the German economy operating at full capacity and growth nudging 3%, the union is determined to have its share of the takings.

The head of the trade union federation (DGB), Michael Sommer, made his position clear: "Workers made sacrifices when they agreed to short-time working" and the unions restricted their demands during the crisis, "but with the upturn, we are not holding back any longer."

Germany has managed for almost 10 years without wage increases. In 2000-08, unit labour costs rose by only 2.7%, compared with 16.5% on average in the eurozone.

more here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/14/germany-angela-merkel

Has the Obama Great Recession II (he saved us, he told us so many times) been going on for 10 years?  Imagine not getting a raise for 10 years due to a 10 year crisis?

What does Obama do?  Pay for raises and wages for government workers, no jobs for Main Street.

[WhiskeyGirl]

To take just three examples: the rightwing German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has been to the left of her British, French and Spanish colleagues by paying firms to keep their workers in jobs; with the longest retirement in Europe and a shortfall of €42bn by 2018, France had a problem funding its pensions long before bankers messed up. After an unprecedented boom followed by an equally sharp bust in which hospitals and schools were shut, there has hardly been a peep from the Latvian workforce. The economic clock may have gone back a few years but not as far back as 1991, which in eastern Europe is the bottom line.

more here - http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/sep/30/europe-protests-editorial

Maybe the 'economic collapse' was intentional?  How could so much go wrong and nobody noticed for years?

Maybe it was a bad trade?  Someone cut the electric and turned off the dark pools?  High frequency trading?  Slowed the internet on the big global banks?

Maybe the 'collapse' was just a cover story for the failure of socialism?  An excuse to destroy America too?