http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/s ... ela-merkel

And yet the general take in our press was that she might struggle. Obama/Romney was a 'washout' too.

Most of Germany's problems are ahead. Deutsche Bank is a problem waiting to blow.

She's been a driving force behind bailouts of minor states. I wonder would have happened to Greece's next bail out etc if she'd lost.

Some greeks are saying the bailouts are not really that helpful. They want to default on all the debts as they will then be able to grow. Even now while they may be close to a primary fiscal balance that does not include all the interest on all the new debt that they had to take to bail out their banks.

I don't blame them. If I was Greek, I'd want to default on them too. Sure, noone would lend to the government again, but that would just mean governments would have to learn to balance teh books. That can't be a bad thing.

They are at that point now. Without the interest payments they are running a small surplus.

Looks like the CDU will be partnering up with the SPD. Merkel has already called Pier Steinbrook to talk about setting up a possible coalition.

So Germany will have a national minimum wage soon then.

It has had a minimum wage for the best part of a decade, although certain industries managed to get exemptions, but the exemptions are being revoked on a regular basis.

Really?


http://www.economist.com/node/21536648

Two year old article?

For non-qualified jobs, the minimum wage seems to be 7.50€. Most industries set their own minimum wage - this is protected under law and is usually set in discussion with the unions and the employers, but this often covers all pay grades, which means no performance related pay (i.e. if you do a much better than average job, you won't get a higher payraise ), it is based on qualification and length of time in the job and possibly age.

https://www.destatis.de/DE/ZahlenFakten ... hland.html

Radio 4 yesterday had various german commentators discussing the election results, and mentioned that German has a significant problem with poverty with people stuck on mini jobs and large numbers of single working mums in poverty.

I don't think that's a problem when item under discussion was apparently installed a decade ago.

It's not hard to find references to the fact that the SPD (German equivalent of Labour) has been campaigning for a national minimum wage because Germany doesn't have one.
Here's one from 2008, when Germany didn't have a national minimum wage http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... 39FcUBQ41Q
And here's one from 2013 when they still don't http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/featur ... 71142.html
And speculation that Merkel has been readying up for an CDU / SPD grand coalition by softening her attitude to that policy goes back quite a long way.

It's very simple stuff, I don't understand how we're making general knowledge so controversial.

A lot of people are doing up to 3 jobs here.

You can take a second job which pays up to 400€ a month without paying any tax on that income.

But 0.5 and 0.7 jobs are very common here, especially in areas traditionally filled by women. A minimum wage doesn't help much, if you are stuck in a job where you work a maximum of 20 hours a week.