Germany Will Lose if Macron Fails

[...]within a couple of days of the election, core planks of Macron's economic platform were already under attack in Germany. DONATE NOW Macron's campaign manifesto embraced the idea of more eurozone federalism, characterized by a shared budget for eurozone public goods, administered by a...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inProject Syndicate
Main Author Kotz, Hans-Helmut
Format Newsletter
LanguageEnglish
Published Prague Project Syndicate 15.05.2017
Subjects
Eurozone
Labor unions
Macron, Emmanuel
Populism
United States > US
Europe
France
Germany
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:[...]within a couple of days of the election, core planks of Macron's economic platform were already under attack in Germany. DONATE NOW Macron's campaign manifesto embraced the idea of more eurozone federalism, characterized by a shared budget for eurozone public goods, administered by a eurozone economics and finance minister and accountable to a eurozone parliament. [...]far from viewing the current-account surplus as a policy problem, the German government sees it as a reflection of the underlying competitiveness of German firms. While Macron's program includes significant proposals for addressing supply-side issues with the French economy, it also favors output stabilization and, more important, increased spending in areas like public infrastructure, digitization, and clean energy to boost potential growth. While it is true that the German government cannot (fortunately) fine-tune wages, it could, out of sheer self-interest, provide for its future by investing more in its human and social capital - including...