BEWARE THE IMPOTENT GERMAN

Germans frozen by their fears (Jacqueline Thorpe, Financial Post, November 26th, 2005)

It is a sunny November Saturday in Frankfurt, Germany's financial hub. On Zeil street, a pedestrian-only shopping strip, the stores are decked with elaborate Christmas decorations and twinkling lights.

The streets are bustling and teenagers skateboard in the square. The cafes are overflowing with coffee-drinkers, beer-drinkers, loud conversation and smoke -- a shock to the Canadian system, long used to antiseptic public interiors.

But beneath the festive atmosphere, something is wrong: No one is buying much. The world's third-largest economy, stuck in a rut of slow growth and unemployment near a post-war high of 11.6%, seems entirely on edge.

"It's psychology," says Claudia Burck, gazing with her partner at the expensive baubles in a high-end jewellery store. "I don't think people have really less money than before. If you see in the streets and the shops, there's plenty of people but politics and the economy are not so optimistic and people think it could become worse."

Last week, Bundesbank vice-president Juergen Stark said the same thing: "There is no confidence in the future. There is a fear of increasing unemployment, there is no confidence in the sustainability of public finances and no confidence in the ability of policymakers to solve the problems."

Don’t want immigrants? Don’t want babies? Don’t want to cut social benefits? Something has got to give. Or, you can just get very angry and blame others for taking what is rightfully yours.