The FDP boss and the co-boss of the Greens are interested in the post of finance minister.
(Photo: dpa)
Two offices stand for securing the prosperity of the citizens: The President of the Bundesbank watches over the stability of the monetary value. The finance minister watches over the citizens’ wealth by striking a balance between the state’s financing needs and the tax burden and ensuring that state funds are used sensibly. These tasks continue to exist, although we have lost our autonomy due to the abandonment of our own currency and increasing integration in the EU.
Although all euro countries have the same voting weight in the Council of the European Central Bank (ECB), the words of Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann as the representative of the economically strongest nation had special weight. He could not prevent the path towards an “Italian currency union”, but at least slow it down.
Similarly, the finance minister has the task of slowing the path to a debt and transfer union and showing alternatives – especially in view of the considerable risks that were taken in the course of the European reconstruction fund.
The Federal Audit Office has warned: “The reconstruction fund is establishing a liability regime under which member states must mutually support each other for outstanding liabilities. In fact, it is a question of mutualisation of debts. “
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
France, along with Italy and Spain, has the greatest interest in this communalization. The structural deficit of the French state has risen to five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) under Macron. The indebtedness of the state, private households and companies is approaching 350 percent of GDP, twice as high as that of Germany. No wonder that there are fears that the future German finance minister, unlike the incumbent one, might refuse a more extensive debt union.
Redistribution of debt in the EU
The advocates of the debt union get help from economists who believe that it is a sustainable strategy to fight structural weaknesses and excessive indebtedness with even more debt.
Daniel Stelter is the founder of the discussion forum beyond the obvious, which specializes in strategy and macroeconomics, and is a management consultant and author. Every Sunday his podcast goes online at www.think-bto.com.
(Photo: Robert Recker / Berlin)
You don’t mind the fact that relatively poorer Germans stand up for richer Italians, Spaniards and French. This culminates in a vote by Anglo-Saxon economists for the “more modern” Robert Habeck (Greens) and against a “backward-looking” Christian Lindner (FDP). “Modern” is therefore someone who incurs debts and redistributes them in the EU.
In truth, it would be the continuation of the problem. It would be better to find a solution to the fundamental problems of the euro and the EU, for example through a joint debt repayment fund.
“We will define German interests in the light of European interests,” says the traffic light exploratory paper. If this is serious, the future government should send the right signal to its partners by electing the finance minister.
More: Nobel laureate warns against Lindner as federal finance minister.