German GDP up by 3% last year

[republicanism]

Ask our workers who much they get from that GDP growth.

Last year, real income grew significantly for the first time in years, after basically stagnating since 1992/1993. Hopefully, the unions will show their balls in 2012 and grab some of the cake.

Our growth wouldn't be possible without the Euro and the export advantage it gives us. So we should just pay Greece' debt and than let them free, i.e. leave the Eurozone.
It is our charge in exchange for the massive benefits we take from the Euro.

[republicanism]

You do know that the Euro acts like a huge monetary tax on your entire population that is directly handed to your exporters, right?

What does "monetary tax" mean? Sales tax? Property tax?
I don't know the term and didn't find a good explanation on the net.

But anyways, yeah, the German exporters are by far the greatest profiteers of the Euro. German goods are ridiculously cheap on the world market thanks to the Euro, and our disastrous wage policy.

Our schools and Unis are rotting under our asses, we privatize away rail, hospitals and waterworks, wages are stagnating, child poverty is the highest since the 70s - but economy is growing. Yeah!

Its kind of funny to see some folks(who see themselves as left of center) espouse a system that is more "supply-sider" than even most supply siders themselves are. But its not like you should expect all that many people to stay consistent in their beliefs.

What has supply-side economics to do with the Euro? It is quite the opposite: Supply is neglected, exports are supported.

[republicanism]

Quite simple really. A "monetary tax" is the artificial devaluation of a currency to achieve export competitiveness. The devaluation makes the purchasing power of the entire country poorer because the true value of that countries currency would be higher.

So, what China does on a grand scale. And what happens to Germany through the Euro, on a lower scale as well.

So under the Deutsche Mark you would be able to afford more. The difference between the Euro and the Deutsche Mark in purchasing power is a tax on all of your citizens.

Nope, under Deutsche Mark we couldn't live on our exports as we do, since a Deutsche  Mark would enhance (right term?) big time.

You don't know much about what "supply side" economics means do you?

I do, but I got it wrong in English, my English language skills are limited. Sorry,

I did some research and found out that supply-side-economics meant the very opposite of what I meant. Surprisingly, the German wikipedia page "Nachfragepolitik" is not translated, and the online dictionaries do a bad job as  well-
So, I'll tell you that I'm talking about is "Keynesianism", though that's not really my point.

At its core they are just focused on lowering the tax liability of companies so that lower cost of doing business makes them more competitive and boosts their supply of goods. In the most extreme examples(when countries try to almost be mercantilist in their approach to the world) some countries have gone as far as defacto taxing their population and then giving the money to their largest companies. Japan, China, and Germany are the big 3.

The affect of that is to practically be more supply sider than even supply siders are.

Now knowing what supply-side means: Yeah, you're right. That's why German ecomomic policy has been a mess for the last 25 years.