Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

conradbastable.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 348 posts

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

#111

Post by usrusr »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #4
billfruit wrote: post #2

Very informative. Does this imply that Brexit is the rational choice for the UK?

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

Brits never experienced the tangible benefits of EU membership because they actively excluded themselves from both Schengen and the Euro. It's not really surprising that many reject something that is only an abstract macroeconomic set of rules to them.

Contrast this with public opinion in Germany back before the common currency: most German EU supporters were openly afraid that the Euro could seriously endanger their economy, but they considered it well worth the risk just for complementing the convenience of open borders with an end to the hassle of dealing with foreign currencies.

To anyone with a bit of critical thinking ability, macroeconomic decisions are close to a coin toss: both sides have good arguments and nobody has convincing data to back up their claim (if there was there wouldn't be a decision to be made).

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

#112

Post by pergadad »

ailideex wrote: post #53
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…

> the common market has distorted things in Germany's favor, an effect that probably won't last. Quite by design. Having the whole Europe on Germany's monetary policy (i.e. Eurozone with EUR interest rates) while not sharing any other policy is heavily in Germany's favour and one of the main reasons the European debt crisis happened. Not to say that being a well governed country with good policy and a culture that is…

That's a very simplistic view and doesn't at all cover the whole picture. The union benefits all countries in varying ways (eg without the union Italian and Spanish and French banks would long have gone bankrupt). At the same time it also has negative effects. But you have the same issue internally inside any larger country.

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

#113

Post by scottlocklin »

tompccs wrote: post #88
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.

Gee, what was different about 1992 in Germany? Could it be ... absorbing East Germany?

He may not be an economist, but he excels at economic imbecility.

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

#114

Post by gharding »

vangelis wrote: post #93
gharding wrote: post #70

[flagged]

So who exactly is responsible for this loss of national character? Is it a particular ethnicity or religion?

Whether there is anyone "responsible" is really rather irrelevant; fact of the matter is that just like how any invasive species can literally bring a thriving and divers ecosystem to a full collapse, so too will the very thing that drives the whole world's engine no longer be able to drive the whole world's engine if it is choked off.

I am actually way more interested in the insanity that leads to people simply not being able to comprehend basic things like cause and effect like this, than I am in the invariable outcomes it will have. It is purely magical and adolescent thinking, akin to the literal magical thinking that is well documented in various forms where some blessing or shamanic "force field" convinces people that somehow the laws of physics and reality will be negated and, e.g., bullets or enemies or diseases will not be able to bring harm. It's a kind of suicidal mania, regardless of even whether it is produced or some abnormality, let alone who produced it.

When you are trying to, e.g., cure cancer with the last ditch effort in hopes of a kind of pyrrhic victory through chemotherapy, what does it matter whether that cancer is from some 30 year old contact with asbestos or from getting a single sun burn last summer. Fact of the matter is that the cancer is real and it will kill you if you don't treat it and that means death, the end, snuffed out… only as it relates to this topic, it means the end for civilized humanity, civilizational collapse on the scale of the eastern Mediterranean bronze age civilization that was lost to history for thousands of years until rather recently.

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

#115

Post by TillE »

durnygbur wrote: post #106
idclip wrote: post #58

Theres a reason the Politics is becoming extreme, the largest economy is simply neglecting its citizens and simply saving a lot. Edit: not trying to troll. Many are thankful, but many are worried aswell. I/we dont consider it difficult to understand. Work hard, save, dont go to wars, its a simple equation, but its not all rosey, and things arent perfect. Many claim this prosperity to be illusory, and fear a harsh cri…

Seeing their elites enjoying themselves on the southern French coast, Italian and Spanish islands, Caribbeans, and wherever else the last thing that comes to mind is that they're "saving a lot". It's more like they decide on whose cost the "saving a lot" will happen - employed taxpayer.

It's been observed that the German word for austerity - Sparpolitik - is quite a euphemism, and does a lot of work convincing people that it's a good idea to "save" money like this.

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

#116

Post by olivermarks »

Luc wrote: post #107
olivermarks wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel very bad your original well argued post was flagged.

The phrasing about genocidal ethnic replacement, polluting water with oil, eradication of the native French etc. etc. didn't set off any alarm bells?

You are misrepresenting the original (now unviewable) post. That is disgraceful

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

#117

Post by raxxorrax »

dzonga wrote: post #71
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.

Japan produces quality products. That even the revered companies here in the states e.g Apple via Jobs had to emulate them ? so yeah it ain't all about quality. Currency games have a strong role to play.

Japan is very successful if you look at their trade statistics and their products are often held in high esteem in regards to quality.

But the currency obviously helps Germany. Still, there are a lot of niche products where companies with around 300 employees can call themselves global market leaders. It is not just cars, although it is the largest industry and there are quite a few manufacturers.

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

#118

Post by toyg »

jpfr wrote: post #33

The analysis is incomplete. It does not take services into account. Yes, Germany has a positive trade balance in goods. But the trade balance in services is negative. This ... well ... balances the balances. The UK has shifted its economy from production to services. Hence the negative trade balance for physical products excluding services.

This. I stopped reading when the author claimed the UK was the biggest exporter in 1993 and now it's not - well, duh: this country doesn't export low-margin widgets anymore, because it makes more money into high-margin services. A lot of those services are sold to... Germany.

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

#119

Post by 40acres »

Interesting that the labor culture in Germany relative to the rest of the EU is not mentioned at all. Germany is one of the strongest nations to be an industrial worker and has various laws that are pretty unique to the nation, such as co-determination, I believe this has acted as a defense vs. outsourcing (and when they do outsource, they go to high cost places such as the US) and has kept it's manufacturing base strong.

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

#120

Post by baud147258 »

emj wrote: post #42
baud147258 wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Except that the EU is an union of unequal countries, so if Germany (which is one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful country in EU) want to keep an industrial edge via a special case in law, they're going to get it.

There are several countries in the EU that likes and produces big an heavy cars, Germany is not alone, my guess from this post is that France primarily produce smaller cars. To make any difference we should make it easy and cheap to buy fast electric bicycles since they have a lifecycle emission that is about one tenth of cars (Blondel, Mispelon, and Ferguson 2011). At the moment customs for chinese electric bicycles…

I don't think the market is the same between cars and electric bikes. But helping producing affordable electric bike in the EU could be a good idea.
Post reply on HN