German Economy Leaping Forward as Americans Fall Behind
By louisehartmann
by Thom Hartmann
The official figures are showing that the German economy has leaped forward by 2.2% in the three months to the end of June, its fastest quarterly growth in more than 20 years. The German national statistics office said, "Such quarter-on-quarter growth has never been recorded before in reunified Germany." The higher-than-expected growth was due to strong exports, helped by a weaker euro. The eurozone economy grew by 1% during the quarter. Another big factory in the continuing growth of the German economy is that during the Great Recession German workers never saw layoffs or significant reductions in pay. This is because all German corporations are required to have a board of directors comprised 50% of workers, and that during the financial crisis the German government filled int he pay gaps of workers working fewer hours. Thus demand never dropped in the German economy, because workers always had a good paycheck, and so their economy continues to be robust.
Comments
#2
Posted this on other Live Blog
oops!! Sorry!! Anyways- Morning Joe & Germany
JUST before I walked into the room to discover I'd forgotten to shut off the TV before that JERK say: "Germany, now THERE's a Country that has it all together. He then went into all the good economic numbers coming out of Germany. I could only think-My GOD, the Jerk has woken up!!I "thought* too soon.He followed it by going into a rant about how they did it ALL through "cutting spending, getting rid of needless entitlement programs and Unions"HOW the HELL can this JERK get away with saying that on National TV??!!! I *thought* that was Murdoch's lawsuit that said it was FINE to "Lie" on "Entertainment networks"--WTF does "Morning Joe" promote itself as?? NEWS or entertainment??!!nevermind...I know the answer to that....
#3
Hey! Thom stop with the fairytale,that Obama would be under investigation if he brought
pressure on Senators for a stronger consumer friendly Health Care Bill:Obama did make deals,he made deals with Ben Nelson,remember that "Nebraska" provision.He made deals with big Pharma,he sure as well wasn't concerned about investigation then........but anything for poor & ordinary Americans is ...oh well we can't do that cuz the GOP will investigate us.This is the Prez who wants to kill Americans with jury or justice.....he is not afraid of investigations there but anything that benefits Americans he is scared cuz of investigations........all damn lies
How many investigation have there been on GWBush for all the illegalities he committed.Thom stop lying to your audience.....or more accurately parroting some illogical reason from the WH for their dismal performance with regards to poor & ordinary Americans.
And quite frankly this guy don't deserve to be Prez .....he has done nothing of consequence for poor or ordinary American peoples. Sure as hell Nov will come & go for me.....as I will stay home,after you have lost almost everything what else is there to lose.
#4
a little more detail in your response would be helpful for your cause. I will be voting across the party line Democrat this November. Simpy because Regulation keeps big business from screwing over us ordinary Americans. In 1998 the republicans repealed the Glass Steagall act, financial regulation that kept Securities dealers and lenders separate. In 2006 Lehman bros was selling securities out one side of their office while taking bank deposits to short those same securities. They made a fortune because the securities they sold failed and became worth nothing. As you know when you buy a security short or any stock the more it loses the more you make. This was completely legal because of the Republicans actions in 1998.
#5
Actually what they said, was that the German consumer finally opened their wallet. I also believe US growth was recently 2 something.
#6
The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right! - Shakespeare
http://fora.tv/2010/07/19/Richard_Dreyfuss_Improving_Civic_Education#fullprogram
I can't say how much I love Fora.tv! As an auditory & visual learner, I relesh the chance to listen to lectures and discussions that are on this site. Thom's discussion of "Screwed" is on here too. Nevertheless, I just watched the entire speech/discussion with Richard Dreyfuss. He talks about the lack of Civics education in our society as a whole, (not just in schools) and what we can do about it. It's a good talk, and although he talks slow, he has some good messages. It’s a topic that I wish Thom would discuss more of and that is ‘Societal Ignorance” and how we fix it. Dreyfuss say's that everyone has the right to be able to answer "Who are we, and why are we who we are." You should get him on to pitch his initiative: http://thedreyfussinitiative.org/
#7
Living on an Indian Reservation it is evident that there is very little regulation, almost 0 investment of federal dollars coming in. About 90% of it goes out to towns outside the reservation boundaries (needless to say towns like Rapid City SD love "our" money). We have 80% unemployment, mostly government and education jobs very little private sector, which I believe is because of the lack of regulation. Our money comes in gets turned maybe once if we are lucky and then flows out. The government system is a congressionally created system (Indian Reoganization Act of 1934). This is what a libertarian system looks like I believe or a free market capitalistic society when left alone comes to be. I would like to follow in Germany's footsteps here, going green and self sustainable will be great. Not having total local control makes it difficult, however not impossible. Thanks Mr. Hartmann for the success stories, it gives us hope here.
#8
Concerning USA corporations, the Board of Directors is usually derived from a network of the good-ole-boys. Therefore American corporations would never allow average joe's to intervene because this would take too much power away from the "special people" who are currently redistributing the wealth amongst themselves.
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It is my understanding that Harry Truman helped to write a great constitution for Germany. Maybe we should adopt Germany's constitution or incorporate the salient areas to improve our constitution.