Tuesday, July 17, 2012
The Man Who Rescued the German Economy - WSJ.com
Regardless of party name, there ARE policies that been PROVEN to work.
So, if America is paying attention, here's yet another historical example of what works...
Raymond Zhong tells the story in a recent Wall Street Journal column:
"'Reform yourselves, and ye will grow out of your debt.' So goes Germany's unwritten mantra for the European crisis. Chancellor Angela Merkel is urging Greece, Spain, Italy and the rest to shape up their economies and pay down their obligations—and withholding German money until they do.
The Berlin road to economic righteousness is no mere sermonizing. Germany itself has gone down it and grown stronger. Gerhard Schröder, a Social Democrat, was German chancellor from 1998 to 2005, and during his second term his government lowered taxes, revamped unemployment benefits and streamlined labor laws. Mr. Schröder's shakedown of the welfare state—dubbed Agenda 2010 when it was launched in 2003—has been credited with insulating Germany against the debt mess that would later befall Southern Europe."