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The closure of the Kiel Canal in March 2013, because of of dilapidated and old locks, has focussed attention on Germany's neglect of infrastructure. German investment in infrastructure each year is less than the depreciation for the infrastructure. About 100 billion euros in backlog for infrastructure spending exists at German municipalities, according to KfW bank. And the investment of $39.5 billion euros in infrastructure spending for 2012 was down 9.5% from 2011. The government has restricted itself to high profile projects such as renovation of Stuttgart rail station, neglecting schools, roads and bridges.

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German leader Merkel is losing support because of her loss of touch with issues of interest to conservative Germans, especially immigration. The Christian Democrats Bavarian sister party favors cutting off imigration altogether. Merkel says, Islam is part of Germany, and favors integration. At this time integration has failed, as there is a parallel society of Turkish immigrants in Germany.

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Weakness and lack of economic growth in the rest of Europe is having an impact on the growth rate in Germany. In the second and third quarters of 2011 combined, economic growth in Germany was 1.6%. The economic growth for France during that period was 0.6%. For the third quarter, acccording to Eurostat, the European statistical agency, Belgium had no growth, and the Netherlands reported a GDP decline. Spain showed no growth. Germany had higher growth rates during the early period of recovery after the 2009 financial crisis, and it now appears that this may be because German companies were better able to export, having held down labor costs, and the euro was weaker than what the rate for the deutsche mark would be. This shows a slowdown across the whole of Europe replacing the earlier situation where Germany far outpaced other European countries.

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Alison Smale describes a perception of German preference for "order" and "peace and quiet" in its response to the Ukraine crisis. He describes how Germans responded first to the news of NSA surveillance of Angela Merkel's phone, and then to the crisis in Ukraine. German public opinion has preferred a policy of diplomacy and engagement with Russia- letting Russia vent its feelings about NATO enlargement to its borders something American respected diplomat Kennan suggested avoiding- to resolve the crisis without disturbing the economic relationships built up over many decades and different administrations, from the time of Willy Brandt and Kohl to the present day.

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Finally after prolonged dithering Angela Merkel had her cabinet approve 22.4 billion euros of loans to Greece over 3 years, with parliamentary approval the next step. And the ECB followed this with its announcement that it would accept Greek debt as collateral regardless of downgrades. This follows the approval of a $110 billion rescue plan for Greece from the IMF and other European nations announced over the weekend. That ECB decision comes in the wake of Standard and Poors decision to downgrade Greek debt to junk status.

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Roland Nelles gives 6 reasons why chancellor Merkel is likely to run for chancellor in 2017 and do well. Nelles says the alternative is a Greens, Left party, SPD coalition as in Berlin. But the rest of Germany is too conservative and the very idea of that coalition could bring conservatives together behind Merkel, including the CSU. It would give CDU voters second thoughts about switching to the anti-immigrant AfD party. Also important he says is that the immediacy of the refugee issue could fade as the German government better handles the refugee situation, including security, housing and integration. And as the agreement with Turkey is holding for controlling flow of refugees and turning them back. Also compared to SPD Merkel is still 8-10 points ahead in polls today says Nelles, so that there are still many Merkel supporters. In addition to what Nelles says, Strack in DW.com points out how Merkel's openness even showing emotions sometimes, about how the refugee crisis caught her and the German government unprepared, could help her in coming months. ...

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German chancellor Merkel says after a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Kerry, after disagreements over NSA spying activities- "Mutual interest will be the motor for finding common solutions step-by-step. We talk about such questions of NSA openly even when there are differences." In the first address to parliament as head of the new CDU-SPD coalition, Merkel said mass collection of phone data by NSA only led to mutual mistrust and in fact diminished rather than increased security. Germans are even more sensitive than the U.S. about such spying after traumatic experience under Gestapo and Stasi secret police during 1931-2090.

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Teva has agreed to acquire German generic pharmaceutical maker Ratiopharm for 3.62 billion euros. Germany is the second largest generics market in the world at $8.8 billion and the acquisition makes Teva the top generics company in Europe.

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Christmas market running car into a crowd on Dec 21 in Magdeburg pushes security as the main issue with migration not attracting workers for labor shortages. All parties are against migraton today in Germany. Professor Hohne of the Technical University in Chemnitz says

"With that, other facets of migration are pushed to the background — such as, for example, how to address Germany's labor shortage or attract skilled workers. I fear that the attack in Magdeburg will further strengthen this bias."

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Chinese car company Shuanghuan's CEO was on display at the Franfurt auto show. Its rear looks like a BMW X5 and BMW has charged that it copied the X5 and filed suit to prevent it from being marketed in Germany. Shuanghuan also has a minicar that is called Noble which looks like the Daimler's Smart minicar. Daimler also is taking legal action to prevent the marketing of the Noble in Germany. Only the X5 was shown at the Frankfurt Auto show getting criticism from Reithofer who is head of BMW. Critics say that the Chinese actually have borrowed from several car designs and from different aspects such as the interior aand exterior of different brands,thus the X5 is seen as borrowing from the front of a Toyota Land Cruiser and the rear of a BMW X5. The price difference is huge 29,000 euros for the CEO vs 59,000 euros for a X5. Currently the Chinese are struggling with safety issues in their cars by makers such as Brilliance and the Landwind. Both cars did badly in tests conducted by the German automobile club ADAC. Landwind's model is being retooled for safety while the Brilliance which has a collaboration with BMW for the Chinese market presented a new subcompact the BS2 as an alternative to the VW Golf....

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German banks lent $21.3 billion to the Icelandic borrrowers according to the Bank for International Settlements, well over a quarter of all international lending to Iceland. Most of Iceland's banks have collapsed. Iceland's central bank chief says lenders are likely to get only 5,10 or 15% back.

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The German parliament votes 439 to 119 on July 16, 2015, approving a 86 billion euro aid and loan package to Greece under an aid for reforms plan. 60 members of chancellor Merkel's CDU group voted against compared to 29 voting against the bailout extension of Feb. 2015. This included approval of 7.16 billion euros in short term funding for July 20, to meet a 4.2 billion euro payment to the ECB. This was conducted as a special session of parliament. Chancellor Merkel said: "we would be acting with crude intelligence and irresponsibility if we didn't at least try this path." Finance Minister Schauble told parliament- "We believe that there is a chance that we can bring these negotiations to a successful conclusion," yet he cautioned that after the negotiations of coming weeks "we will have to discuss whether the negotiations have shown a way that works."

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Approval process by government is now much stricter and the approval process takes longer for new wind turbines. A leading renewable energy developer BayWa re. estimates 45% of the old turbines installed 20 years ago would not be approved under today's stricter standards. As these become unprofitable a lot of new turbines have to replace older ones. After years of gains suddenly in 3 years the wind power capacity installed each year is dropping sharply, and is in deep trouble. Especially because wind energy plays a big role in Germany, accounting for 25% of total electricity production in 2019, solar only has 10%. For all of Germany only 290 MW was installed in first half of 2019, 80% drop from same period 2018.  In 2018 2800 MW of wind turbines were installed, and that was down from 5000MW in 2017. Problems in addition to stricter approval standards is the resistance from the public which fears wind turbines close to residential areas could affect health of residents. In Bavaria 10H ban is imposed on new installations, requiring 10 times the height of the wind turbine as minimum distance from homes. Other issues are wildlife and the impact on  birds in the area. 300 turbines for 1200 MW are blocked for this reason. Other reasons are military concerns, FM radio beacons. It used to take 10 months for approval. Now the process is so long that the technology itself has changed by that time. Commercial risks are growing for operators in this environment as new costly regulations come into place. A regulation in Brandenburg requires payment of 10,000 euros to neighboring municipalities per wind turbine. Subsidy eligibility is also being cut. ...

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Chancellor Merkel meets President Trump in a key summit in March 2017. The two leaders have different styles, one flamboyant the other reserved. Chancellor Merkel tells the German media "it is better to talk with each other than about each other." Trump called Merkel's refugee policy "catastrophic," Merkel has said that the Geneva convention requires countries to do this on humanitarian grounds. On trade German's Economy minister Brigitte Zypries says Germany would file a suit on any hike in import duties at the World Trade Organization, that WTO rules restrict import taxes to 2.5% on autos. Germany's BMW plant in the U.S. exports more autos than GM and Ford put together, and Merkel is likely to emphasize large German investment in the U.S.. The heads of BMW and Siemens and other industry executives are accompanying Merkel to the U.S. as trade will be a key topic.

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A Infratest Dimap opinion poll for broadcaster ARD shows 70% of Germans rating finance minister Schauble's work positively in July 2015.