Oh
So no new Reich or World domination plan...?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothesI don't want them to be gone. I want the *Union* broken, ie CDU and CSU divided. I am tired of all this fucking tail-wags-dog attempts from Munich.
Fuck, if the SPD would promise the CDU to not kick them in the ass while they did it, they could essentially kick out the CSU and just continue governing till 2017! The Great Coalition has 504 seats, 10% of which are CSU which means even if they kicked out the blue-white morons they'd still have a two-thirds majority!
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X5 It comes from the fact that Germany is by far the largest and most powerful of the countries pushing for austerity, the ideas would have gotten nowhere without German support, and certain aspects of austerity (the absurd level of fear around inflation and the printing of money) can be tied very clearly to German cultural issues.
That's the Bavarians, Aszur. Huge difference.
edited 3rd Nov '15 9:25:54 AM by DrunkenNordmann
We learn from history that we do not learn from historyBarbarians!? Germany is worse than I thought!!!
As a random question...how well can you get along in Germany knowing English only?
It has always been the prerogative of children and half-wits to point out that the emperor has no clothes
It depends. In big cities in Western Germany reasonably well. The same counts for Berlin. It could be more difficult if you come to rural areas. particulary in Eastern Germany (and Bavaria, even many Germans can't properly understand their dialect, or so we joke).
x6 @ Silasw: Although this fear of inflation has little to do with historical experience (like many foreign experts believe) and more with personal interest. Germans have on average higher saving rates than other Europeans (just compare the percentage of Germans owning their own house, compared with e.g. Southern Europeans) which means that high inflations hurts us more.
edited 3rd Nov '15 9:44:22 AM by Zarastro
But isn't that personal interest there because of a cultural shift bought about by the historical experience?
“And the Bunny nails it!” ~ Gabrael “If the UN can get through a day without everyone strangling everyone else so can we.” ~ CyranZarastro has stated that German economic policy, the structuring of business oversight, the ECB and the German government isn't coordinated, but when everyone with the highest seats sounds like they're speaking from the same playbook...
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That would probably depend on how the big companys would react, would e.g. Siemens move their HQ back to e.g. Berlin?
@ Potatoes Rock: Fun fact, it is often said that Germans would dominate the ECB, but on its own Germany does not have a lot of influence there (it might have more than any country on their own, but that's because it also guarantees for the largest amount of money there). There is only one German in the ECB council (like the rules allow) and so far no president of the ECB has been from Germany (something that'll hopefully change after Draghi's turn). The reason why Germany has some control over the fiscal policy is because many other smaller countries agree with Berlin and vote with them.
Besides, you don't need to be coordinated if you have basically the same conviction. Most leading economists and politicians have been deeply influenced by Ordoliberalism which they attributed to the German economic miracle when they grew up, and this concept has been vindicated by the Euro crisis.
edited 3rd Nov '15 11:29:46 AM by Zarastro
I don't think the Bavarians really want to secede. They make a lot of noise, but that's par of the course by now. I'm more worried about the political climate in Saxony, especially if the Pegida/AfD crowd gains any real political power there. These guys already threatened to secede (with the unoriginal name "Saxit") if they don't get their will otherwise.
edited 3rd Nov '15 1:13:13 PM by DrunkenNordmann
We learn from history that we do not learn from history

That everyone in Europe is dancing to our tune and therefore we were able to force austerity on them. Sometimes I get the feeling people want us to be an imperialistic behemoth - similar to the people who can't get over the fact that the Cold War ended a few decaded ago.
We learn from history that we do not learn from history