German economy falters

[Puggit]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8511954.stm

Not sure how they feel about digging the Greeks out now...

[pilchardthecat]

It's a good job the "concerted and decisive" measures that were taken yesterday to help Greece turned out to be "we had a meeting and made a statement"

Because if they'd committed any actual money, there would be some very unhappy Germans today.

[fido]

But how can it possibly be? I mean they make real stuff like Luxury Cars which are like all the rage (loads of Beemers in Greece last time i went there), whereas we only export Financial Services to countries all over the world. Portugal will be along with the begging bowl, with Spain closely behind.

[nonplussed]

At least it might finally help push down the bloody Euro a bit....

[Tangent Police]

If the Euro does weaken a bit everything will magically repair itself pretty quickly.

What they need is Winky over there and the resulting currency crash will get more BMW's Greek/Spanish holidays selling than you can imagine.

If you ask me, this is a cynical move to publish this, rather than the PIIGS crisis they have been ignoring for so long.

[Mojocvh]

fido said:

But how can it possibly be? I mean they make real stuff like Luxury Cars which are like all the rage

And what % of the production expense for each vehicle does the German Government give to the manufacturers to keep German workers in jobs and "happy"?

[johnfm]

Surely Winky McTwatstick will just fly in, rescue Germany' economy with his decisive, macro-economic genius, shag Angela Merkel and be back for dinner?

[Timmy35]

johnfm said:

Surely Winky McTwatstick will just fly in, rescue Germany' economy with his decisive, macro-economic genius, shag Angela Merkel and be back for dinner?

Well we contribute 20% of the EU budget, so I'm sure Brown will dig deep into his our pockets to help out.

[turbobloke]

That 0.1% UK growth looks even more dodgy now.

[Tangent Police]

turbobloke said:

That 0.1% UK growth looks even more dodgy now.

Roll it. I'd rather the Euro stayed strong and ultimately fell to bits if the pound and us had to take a short/medium term hit.

The Euro is a significant tapeworm on our budget. We need it to all fall to bits asap, for the longterm good of the economy and freedom.

I don't know why any of the net contributors do it. It's like pissing your money away with no return. Even the people who it's meant to benefit are struggling with it's strength.

In my opinion, they need to force political union thoroughly before monetary union is possible. That may be harder than we think.