Capitalist recovery an illusion - German evidence
German exports saw their sharpest fall since 2009 as demand in China eased off and eurozone exports fell by 9.6%.
Germany exports around 40% of its goods to the 16 other countries that use the euro, many of which are in recession.
Overall exports, according the Federal Statistics Office, were 2.4% lower in May, while imports rose by 1.7% as domestic demand remained steady. Exports to countries outside of Europe fell by 1.6%, with the slowdown in China affecting demand.
The German economy was robust in the early years of the euro crisis but has slowed down sharply in recent months, even shrinking in the last months of 2012 before recovering to show a modest expansion in the first quarter of this year.
Germany's economy shrank by 0.7% in the final quarter of 2012, and grew just 0.1% in the first quarter of 2013.
The eurozone as a whole - comprising the 17 European countries which adopted the euro currency - contracted in the first quarter of 2013, its sixth consecutive quarterly fall, bbc.co.uk
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2013
Germany's Job Miracle is Low PayIn Germany there is a growing poor-rich divide as well as increasing resentment among those who see German prosperity being built on the exploitation of the downtrodden. Statistics from Germany's employment agency show that at the top end German workers' wages rose by 25% between 1999 and 2010 while salaries in the lowest fifth rose by a mere 7.5%, when inflation was 18%. That has led to what economists refer to as internal devaluation, significantly reducing their purchasing power and doing damage to the German economy.
A survey for the European Central Bank in April showed that Germany's median net household worth was much less than that of Greece. In terms of GDP per head, Germany is faring reasonably well. But, contrary perhaps to popular belief, it is only just above the eurozone average. According to the Institute for Employment Research, the research arm of the federal employment agency, 25% of all German workers earn less than €9.54 (£8.15) per hour. In Europe only Lithuania has a higher percentage of low earners – those earning less than two-thirds of the national average wage.
Sometimes referred to as McJobs, mini-jobs are a form of marginal employment that allows workers to earn up to €450 a month tax-free. Introduced in 2003 by the then Social Democratic chancellor Gerhard Schröder as part of a wide-ranging labour market reform when Germany's economic doldrums earned it the title "sick man of Europe", they keep down labour costs and offer greater flexibility to employers. But critics say they have helped to expand the disparity between rich and poor and undermined many of the values that have traditionally underpinned Germany's social-market economy. Not only do they give employers no reason to turn them into proper jobs, but mini-jobs offer workers little incentive to work more because then they would have to pay tax. As a result, many remain trapped in marginal work and detached from Germany's much-hailed jobwunder, or jobs miracle. Employers enjoy the fact that they can get a work force for just €450 a month.
Anette Krame, labour market expert for the Social Democrats said "Mini-jobs are destroying ordinary workplaces, and for most people they do not provide a living wage. It can't be that even in the US most states have a minimum wage, while Germany, one of the world's richest countries, has none."