Immigration in Germany is a third-rail kind of issue. They've not adapted yet to the Turks who work as guest workers and this is a couple of decades since that started. The cultural immune system at work, it appears, since language isn't the major issue for the second gen of the original workers.

There is also the problem of employment and social benefits, both of which work against higher immigration.

My guess is that she reflects a large part of the german population in her attitudes. They really still haven't fully integrated the former East Germany and brought it up to former West German standards. They are also a major exporter compared to the EU and US, and that part of their economy will suffer the most from worldwide recession. In addition, German banks are extended on loans, both internally and for the former east block.

They have reasons for caution.

But it's a better argument for loosening Germany's immigration policy than for letting the world's economy collapse.

So now the world's economy is solely dependent upon Germany. It's a false choice, once again, offered up.

Does anyone remember the National Lampoon's cover where they had a dog with a gun to its head and the caption read "Buy this magazine or we'll shoot this dog"?

That's not, on the face of it, an absurd objection. But it's a better argument for loosening Germany's immigration policy than for letting the world's economy collapse.

Well, it's not like the world economy will depend on Germany's stimulus package particularly. To some extent that's a collective action problem; any one major economy could take a free ride on economic stimulus, but if they all do it, stimulus doesn't happen. But on the other hand, there's a fair argument to be made for a dividing line between growing and not-growing economies and populations. The EU is big and rich, but not as big and rich as the US, Brazil, Russia, India and China combined. Having those five on board will be more important than any five European countries.

So the long and short of it is bad economics founded on an indelible historical image of a wheelbarrow full of money to buy a loaf of bread.

Merkel's argument makes sense for saying that the sustainable deficit for Germany over the course of the current business cycle is lower than the sustainable deficit for the US over the course of the current business cycle.

That is not, however, an argument over whether Germany should engage in substantial stimulus, but rather an argument that Germany does not have the luxury of including a big component of permanent tax cuts as part of that stimulus.

Rather, the real argument ... which Merkel cannot say, but then as long as we do not believe in mind reading, the above report is about what Merkel is claiming, not about what Merkel "believes" ... is that with a stronger safety net, Germany can get by politically with a smaller stimulus, and so it can take a free ride on the backs of countries like the US and China that cannot afford, politically, for the recession to stretch out to three or four years.

So Germany's reward for having built a stronger safety net, enabling it to withstand better the crisis we're now experiencing and which began in this country, is to endure lectures by our country on the things it must do to make our lives easier. I support cooperation in trying to solve this thing too, but the almost comically narcissistic political face we present to countries like Germany must often tempt them to tell to take a hike.

I also am amused by Ezra's curious word choices in depicting disagreement between the US and Europe on stimulus. First he had a post where he depicted them as "lazy" for not meeting our expectations, and now he ratchets up the rehtorical pressure by sternly condemning their refusal to "cooperate!" I'm not sure what relationship this language evokes better, parent/child or mobster/mark. It doesn't seem to describe a relationship of healthy, mutual respect between sovereign nations with differing interests that need to be compromised and accommodated. Oh well.

I have a feeling that Germany's stimulus "efforts" will end up being more robust than anybody reckons at the present time. Why? Well, I think there's (understandably) too much emphasis on the various, explicit "stimulus packages" promulgated by this or that government. A more straightforward way to look at things is to simply focus on how much a given country's public sector is borrowing as a percentage of GDP -- in other words the size of their respective deficits. Well, long story short, my sense is Germany (and other European states) slipped into recession more slowly than the US, and consequently, their tax collections haven't plunged as rapidly as their transatlantic cousins. My guess is the fiscal situation of a number of European nations -- Germany, too -- will get much "worse" as 2009 progresses. And this will translate into much larger deficits, and much less reason for the US to complain.

So Germany's reward for having built a stronger safety net, enabling it to withstand better the crisis we're now experiencing and which began in this country, is to endure lectures by our country on the things it must do to make our lives easier.

No, Scott, their reward is a just society peopled by citizens who enjoy higher living standards and greater economic security than the citizens of non-social democracies. Social democracy is its own reward. But none of this changes the fact that they ought to do more. I think they will end up doing more, as my 2:01pm comment attests, but still...

Some other points played much more in the European media than the American:

- Most European governments regard this entire crisis as America's fault. For America to insist other countries spend billions to clean up its own mess is seen quite negatively.
- European government have also been pushing for expanded financial regulation, which so far has been falling on deaf ears in the Obama administration.

See this (English) Der Spiegel article: http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,613582,00.html

There's a graph in that link showing that in 2010 Germany will have a larger stimulus than the US.

Jasper: non-social democracies

Better term: "antisocial" democracy.

There's a graph in that link showing that in 2010 Germany will have a larger stimulus than the US.

tyronen: Your link illustrates my 2:01pm point. It (no doubt correctly) shows that the $250 billion or so of the recent US stimulus package that will actually get spent in 2009 is smaller as a percentage of GDP than Germany's 2009 stimulus spending. But that's highly misleading, because in 2009 the US looks set to run a deficits approach 15% of GDP. That's far larger than the corresponding figure for Germany (even if, as I suspect, the Germans and other Europeans end up having to run larger deficits than anticipated because of falling tax revenue):

http://www.economist.com/markets/indicators/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13375962

Better term: "antisocial" democracy

Alex: Yes. A fitting term, and far more elegant than the one I came up with.

Germany "ought to do more" for whom? For itself? Or for us? If the stimulus efforts Germany has undertaken, combined with its safety net and future regulatory plans, make sense in terms of its interests, why is that bad? I get the uncomfortable sense from Ezra's posts (especially the latest one at Alex Massie's expense) that he'd rather our interlocutors simply submit to a course that benefits us rather than insist that it benefit them too. That's imperial colonialist thinking, and I don't like it any better in "progressive" clothes than in neo-conservative ones.

Germany "ought to do more" for whom? For itself? Or for us? If the stimulus efforts Germany has undertaken, combined with its safety net and future regulatory plans, make sense in terms of its interests, why is that bad? I get the uncomfortable sense from Ezra's posts (especially the latest one at Alex Massie's expense) that he'd rather our interlocutors simply submit to a course that benefits us rather than insist that it benefit them too. That's imperial colonialist thinking, and I don't like it any better in "progressive" clothes than in neo-conservative ones.

"...it is the wheelbarrows of worthless currency during the hyperinflation of the 1920s that preoccupies Germans."

I think that's right about German anxieties; but the Germans are also wrong. Hitler did not come to power in 1924 after the hyperinflation, but in 1933 after the "responsible" policies of the early 1930s. See Paul Krugman's chart of comparative interest rates in the 1930s: Weimar Germany briefly raised its discount rate to 12% to defend the gold standard.

Since the Nazis only just managed to come to power in 1933, a lot of things can be said to have provided the critical margin. But certainly Hooverite policies in 1930-32 were one such factor, and modern Germans forget this completely.

"...it is the wheelbarrows of worthless currency during the hyperinflation of the 1920s that preoccupies Germans."

I think that's right about German anxieties; but the Germans are also wrong. Hitler did not come to power in 1924 after the hyperinflation, but in 1933 after the "responsible" policies of the early 1930s. See Paul Krugman's chart of comparative interest rates in the 1930s: Weimar Germany briefly raised its discount rate to 12% to defend the gold standard.
(Here: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/golden-fetters-ii/)

Since the Nazis only just managed to come to power in 1933, a lot of things can be said to have provided the critical margin. But certainly Hooverite policies in 1930-32 were one such factor, and modern Germans forget this completely.

PS: If I posted twice, it's because the blog software sucks: it told me repeatedly that my comment had failed, so naturally I tried again.

No, Scott, their reward is a just society peopled by citizens who enjoy higher living standards and greater economic security than the citizens of non-social democracies.

This is what irritates me about socialists such as Jasper. Freedoms mean nothing.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=5983778

This is what irritates me about socialists such as Jasper. Freedoms mean nothing.

First, I'm not a socialist -- I believe in vigorous free markets, and I want to see the means of production remain firmly in private hands. What I am is a social democrat. But unless you're a true died-in-the-wool government minimalist libertarian, you and basically support the same system, we just draw the line at different places: you want a public sector that consumes, say, 31% of GDP, and I want that number to be, say, 45%. And what the heck does your link have to do with any of this?

What Scott said. Also Merkel wants to be reelected in september and the german populations doesn't like bailing out american bankers at the moment.

“Over the next decade we will undergo a massive demographic change, and, therefore, borrowing is a greater burden for the future than in a country with a much more continuously growing population, as in the United States of America,”

I think, that demographic change in Germany is largely overestimated, especially by politicians within Merkels Christian Democratic Union. With productivity rising and people working to much higher ages.

Germany "ought to do more" for whom? For itself?

Yes. Of course "for itself." If there's one thing that sets this crisis apart from anything seen in eighty years, it is its global nature. As one of the world's largest economies, Germany's actions are highly influential. A world wracked by increasing poverty, uncertainty, violence and political tension hurts everybody -- German included. So, to the extent that Germany's weak response adds fuel to the fire of global instability, then, yes, quite obviously doing more is in Germany's national interest.

What I am is a social democrat

A more palatable name for an ugly being.

"He who has the gold, makes the rules" --the golden rule of economics.

And when government provides the funds, they call the shots. The nature of government is acquisition of power. We're seeing this now with the auto bailout as Obama fires executives.

And in Germany, they also dictate the rules such as no free speech.

Not up for grabs....fact.

Your position may be that these freedoms are not important, but not everyone agrees with you.

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