Raw Nerve: Germany Seethes at US Economic Criticism

[cronus]

http://www.spiegel.de/international/ger ... 31126.html

Raw Nerve: Germany Seethes at US Economic Criticism

German policymakers are striking back at the United States, after a US Treasury report blasted the country's massive trade surplus. Sensitivities in Berlin are still high over US spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel.

A day after a US Treasury Department report bluntly denounced Germany's economic model, accusing it of hampering the euro zone recovery and hurting global growth, Germany called the conclusions "incomprehensible" and challenged the US to "analyze its own economic situation."

The Treasury's semiannual currency report criticized Germany's overreliance on exports, a high current-account surplus and weak domestic demand. These factors "have hampered rebalancing at a time when many other euro-area countries have been under severe pressure," the report concluded, citing budget tightening in the euro periphery. "The net result has been a deflationary bias for the euro area, as well as for the world economy."

The German Economics Ministry responded in a statement with equally harsh words, saying that Germany's surplus is "a sign of the competitiveness of the German economy and global demand for quality products from Germany."

(continued)

[JimC]

U-boats will roam the Atlantic once again, searching for that perfect happy time...

[cronus]

U-boats will roam the Atlantic once again, searching for that perfect happy time...

What are the Germans thinking exporting themselves out of a hole and keeping back some money like real capitalists?

[Clinton Huxley]

They'll be installing V2s in Cuba next....

[Horwood Beer-Master]

I wish we had an overreliance on exports

[Clinton Huxley]

When higher Hun start to export themselves, the world needs to worry.

[Audley Strange]

Obligatory reference to WW2.

[Clinton Huxley]

Obligatory reference to Franco-Prussian Difference of Opinion.

[mistermack]

I'm sure that Merkle will find a final solution to the American problem.

[Warren Dew]

U-boats will roam the Atlantic once again, searching for that perfect happy time...

What are the Germans thinking exporting themselves out of a hole and keeping back some money like real capitalists?

Not to mention generating real savings so they'll have something to draw on when their baby boom starts retiring in 10 years, unlike Japan and the U.S.