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How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

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Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#81

Post by zwieback »

iagovar wrote: post #77
nothis wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Economics in a nutshell: "There must be a single number that explains all of this!" It can't possibly be that Germany actually built its exports based on quality. That can't be replicated by tweaking some tax laws.

Many other euro companies export based on quality. I know this at least in Spain. In Spain many companies just export with generic names, as it's believed that people associates spanish products with low quality, and this has been apparently confirmed with by Real Instituto Elcano surveys. I did a reddit thread about this: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskEurope/comments/ejgwy7/apparentl... This also happened with special…

I changed my mind about that after working with our Barcelona divison - top notch engineering all around.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#82

Post by jkhwkejhrwer »

wolfgke wrote: post #45
ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, France wanted to use the Euro currency to reign in the German economy. Funny how that ended up backfiring decades later with Germany running the show.

As they say in Germany: "Bedenke wohl, worum du bittest. Es könnte dir gewährt werden." ("Consider well what you ask for. It could be granted to you.").

I could give a recent example that applies to Germany. But it would be flagged since that kind of thinking is forbidden here.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#83

Post by casefields »

slowmovintarget wrote: post #22
blablabla123 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe there's a simpler explanation, in Germany businesses are run quite conservatively in comparison. Nice for stability but probably bad for innovation. By the way, Germany is one of the top 5 exporting countries since decades, so this has little to do with the Euro: https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/WLD/Yea... https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/WLD/Yea...

In part, it has to do with the fact that many items made in Germany are of high quality. Most goods that are sold in U.S. for instance, are made in China. Often times these goods simply fall apart (dishwashers, washing machines), are defective, or have toxic odors (like full-color books). Not so for things made in the U.S. or Europe, and it just so happens that there are a great many things that Germany makes now, wh…

The reminds me of when people would ask how it was possible that Madoff was such a successful investor; he's just better than everyone else.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#84

Post by scottlocklin »

TLDR: economists are imbeciles.

Never mentions hidden champions[1], never mentions the high level of training and morale and hence productivity for the German worker, never mentions German dedication to quality, never mentions the social capital of corporations which are hundreds of years old, never mentions the fact that MBA quarterly profit maximization uber alles bullshit never caught on in Germany, never mentions the Landesbanks.... I submit this article as evidence that economists don't understand any economy.

[1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_champions

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#86

Post by pvaldes »

ed_balls wrote: post #52

Good article, but the model is too simple. UK used to produce more cars than Germany, but it's the opposite now. Why? They haven't shared the same currency. German cars were better. > And it means those same workers in Spain are less equipped to compete for Manufacturing jobs — because Elon Musk has to pay them in German Euros instead of cheap Spanish Peseta. If you’ve got to pay everyone in German Euros, you might a…

If by productive means lying about car emissions to cheat authorities, yeah, Wolkswagen and Audi and whatever are really efficient cars made by really productive german workers.

Maybe we could move this conversation to adult zone and non-cartoonist levels beyond "spanish cheap drunk workers living in the beach" and "german saint teetotalers workers"?

Thinking that a spanish engineer is less educated than a german engineer is hilarious (yeah, we take siestas under a cactus with a big hat all day in between last party and next party). University titles in all EU are equivalent for the same grades.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#88

Post by tompccs »

scottlocklin wrote: post #84

TLDR: economists are imbeciles. Never mentions hidden champions[1], never mentions the high level of training and morale and hence productivity for the German worker, never mentions German dedication to quality, never mentions the social capital of corporations which are hundreds of years old, never mentions the fact that MBA quarterly profit maximization uber alles bullshit never caught on in Germany, never mentions…

If you'd bothered to read you'd realise that the author isn't an economist, and that he does talk about Germany's manufacturing excellence. That doesn't explain why in 1992 Germany had a massive trade deficit and UK had an equally large trade surplus, or how they've been able to avoid the fate of Japan.

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#89

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

vixen99 wrote: post #46
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mostly likely, the quest for a rational justification for brexit will continue.

Quest over! If you're actually interested in understanding the reasons for Brexit and you should before making such comments, try this https://briefingsforbrexit.com . Not recommended for those with a short attention span. "Briefings for Brexit is a small group of volunteers, mainly academics, who set up the website in 2017 in order to provide reasoned factual material to help to inform the national debate on Brexit.…

> The two co-editors are Graham Gudgin and Robert Tombs, both of Cambridge University

But you don't mention:

> Graham Gudgin is chief economic adviser at Policy Exchange

https://www.theguardian.com/profile/graham-gudgin

Policy Exchange is part of : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tufton_Street

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/eu-referendum...

> entirely funded by well-wishers

Cool, how would I go about donating £10 to them? Would you say that this kind of small donation makes up the majority of their funding? Who are the large backers?

So this is totally above board, unaligned and not paid for! /s

Re: How Germany is able to run the world’s second largest export economy

#90

Post by tompccs »

zwieback wrote: post #31

Not a word about the fact that Germany simply produces desirable products? Somehow that has to factor in. Financial policy and the education system favors a conservative manufacturing sector that incrementally improves upon what Germany has done for decades. While I got my ME degree in Germany my dad, who is a solid state physicist, spent all his energy trying to accelerate the development of a German electronics sec…

He does talk about Germany's 200 year manufacturing excellence. That doesn't explain why in 1992 Germany had a massive trade deficit and UK had an equally large trade surplus, or how they've been able to avoid the fate of Japan.
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