No new debts despite high subsidies

Berlin Armament, more investments in digitization, roads, rails and bridges, the fight against climate change: Overcoming all these major challenges and at the same time not incurring excessive new debt seems an impossible task.

Many economists and politicians are therefore convinced that these challenges can never be mastered without debt. But the almost impossible could perhaps succeed if politicians make an effort.

At least that is the conclusion of a study by the financial economist Friedrich Heinemann from the Leibniz Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) on behalf of the employer-financed Initiative New Social Market Economy (INSM), which is available to the Handelsblatt. Accordingly, the investment requirement of 600 billion euros over the next ten years could be covered by a mix of intelligent reductions in subsidies, increases in state efficiency, privatizations and a targeted growth policy.