LyrArc Article Gist
The expected EU turnout in 2024 is at a high of 68 percent. Over the years since its formation the early enthusiasm and vision was replaced by dry directives issued by bureaucrats in Brussels leading to lethargy. 1979's 62 percent voter turnout contrasts with 2014's 48% voter turnout. Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have each in their way created new surge of interest in EU and the parliament in Strasbourg, says Caroline Gruyter from her conversations in France, Switzerland, Netherlands, Czech Republic. Today 74% of EU citizens polled say they support the European Union. Similar numbers even in the UK as Labor party is about to come back in a big way.  What happened? The war in Ukraine, Russia and NATO, US and NATO, the UK drift back to EU in sentiment, Italy's conservative parties called Right wing are supporting the EU under Meloni. Another reason for the sense of EU coming back to life comes from my visit to Germany, where after decades of disinvestment in infrastructure the rail station in Frankfurt is being rebuilt and new infrastructure is being built all over the city. Posters all over Frankfurt for EU parliament elections show a new spirit for Respect for workers, working families, and a sense that the FDP, SPD, CDU and Greens can take the decisions to give new vigor to the German democratic process.    ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Lindner met with senior FDP leaders in Potsdam to plan breaking away from the Scholz government 2 months before it happened on November 5. Lindner was fired that day by Scholz after making unacceptable demands including scrapping climate action targets, and reducing investments in infrastructure. The supplementary budget passed by Scholz was to reidirect 60 billion euros of unspend Covid money to needed infrastructure and climate action projects. The German Constitutional Court declared it unconstitutional. 

The FDP is polling 4% which means it is headed to the situation a decade back where it had no seats in parliament. Which explains Lindner's actions seen as a betrayal by the Scholz government. The greens had advocated investment 4 years back which never happened because of Lindner and FDP opposition hurting the German economy's resilience.

LyrArc Article Gist
Which European port is at the center of Europe's wind energy project. Answer: Esbjerg, Denmark. On May 18, 2022 the heads of state of Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium came together to sign the Declaration of Esbjerg. Together the countries want to increase wind energy production in the North Sea to 65 gigawatts (GW) by 2030 and rising to 150 GW by 2050. Esbjerg is one of the few ports in Europe and the key port serving the offshore wind industry. Industry leaders Vestas and Siemens Gamesa ship wind turbines from here, and Orsted provides spare parts that weigh several tons.  German ports such as Bremerhaven lack the infrastructure and it is tied up in disputes ending up in court. Dutch port of Eemshaven is much smaller. The harbor was recently expanded in Esbjerg by 0.5 million square metres to 4.5 million square metres or 45 million square feet. Environment groups are also part of this and there is no dissent in the planning. Here are some useful facts on wind power- Environment cost is 70 times less than that of coal fired power according to Germany's Federal Environment Agency. Within 3  to 11 months wind turbines generate the energy required to build them. No CO2 is produced in the electricity generation process but they do alter the landscape. The future of wind power giants is in the sea where the wind is reliable and strong. One such modern turbine can have an output of 10 to 15 thousand kilowatts to provide electricity for 40,000 people. Pioneers in wind energy are Denmark and Germany. Denmark gets 50% of its energy from wind power, for Germany this is 25%. Jobs are generated installing and operating these wind energy turbines. 1.3 million people are employed in it today. With additional wind propulsion energy consumption of freighters carrying most of the world's freight would be reduced by 30%. Wind and photovoltaic solar can combine for providing most of India's energy because of its sea coastline and having a lot of sun. To get an idea of what is doable in India - in Germany 41% of electricity demand is met from renewables mostly solar and wind. German farmers get 25% of their income from solar energy. Where Germany lags is in use of renewables for transport which falls to about 9% and for heating and cooling where it is about 18%, and it is making great strides to correct this. A big change is technology and how people use transport (more train than airline or automobiles), which will change the entire picture of how energy is created and used in the future. Energiewende the  term for this change is only beginning to take place with urgency in Germany in 2022. India needs to work closely with Denmark and Germany to stay in front of these developments.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Patience and remaining undeterred with SPD at 15% just months before the election helped SPD'S Scholz to win. There was also a carefully planned campaign around Scholz, unity in the SPD behind Scholz. Scholz and SPD realized that there was a major opportunity to win confidence of Germans in the pandemic aid packages for Germany and the European Union that Scholz put together. Scholz took charge chairing meetings when Merkel was in isolation. In this way he not the outgoing chancellor Merkel was seen as the architect of economic recovery from the blow of the pandemic.  Percentages are deceiving including the drop to 15% for SPD. Scholz pointed to public fatigue with the two major parties and need for change had led to shift to Greens, and other parties. By working with Greens to develop a common approach based on borrowing to invest in infrastructure and climate change Scholz realized he could both tap into skills of a younger generation that had gone to the Greens and build Germany along lines that also tackled climate change. This created a new and real option for Germany- the experience and new zeal for workers and families of the changing SPD under Esken and Scholz with the energy and zeal for tackling climate change of the Greens under Habeck and Baerbock. As a map of Germany in the NYT shows on September 28, the numbers can be deceiving. Except for Bavaria in the south most of Germany's regions including cities of Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg voted for the SPD or the Greens. Most of the map is red color of the SPD, with small densely populated pockets in cities Cologne and Berlin for Greens. Apart from Bavaria and Thuringia-Saxony, the election was won by Greens SPD by big margin. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Modi's BJP party wins in West Bengal, Assam and Pondicherry, with new TVK party in Tamilnadu. It is avcotry for good governance as the BJP and TVK promise good governance. The BJP has brought good governance since it won the national election in 2014 and 2018, 2022, 2026. And gradually won state elections in Delhi, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Bihar, Orissa last year. This enables the whole Indian economy to advance rapidly in industrialization, modernization, and Vikshit or Developed Bharat vision for 2047 (the 100th year of independence). In the years ahead India's economy is likely to close the gap with China to become the third largest economy in the world. In 1950 India's and China's economy were the same size. This situation is likely to happen in the next two decades. Yet this win today gets no media coverage in the WSJ, in Washington Post, The Guardian and only lower down in the page on the NYT without grasping the significance and BBC covers it only marginally. Only the German DW.com has non stop coverage. The established media is ignoring what is happening to 2 billion people, bigger than the story in the Gulf with 7% of the people in South Asia which is cluttering the pages of the established media, and coverage of the teapot refineries in China that get most of that oil on China's coastline. Ignoring the enormous enthusiasm and energy that has been unleashed across India in the last 12 months for a modernized India Vikshit Bharat 2047 built on good governance, infrastructure building and technological innovation, scientific advancement after 1000 years of waiting. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The proposed EU financial transactions tax of 0.1% on stock transactions and 0.01% on derivative transactions gains support. It would generate about 100 million euros for Estonia and about $10 billion for Germany. It is designed so that any small job loss would be more than made up by job gains through badly needed infrastructure investment, at a time when EU budgets are tight.

LyrArc Article Gist
Risk averse leaders are hurting the German economy with little or no growth in the last 5 years. See articles alongside. Anglela Merkel's debt brake inthe German Constitution and the attitude for debt brake of Lindner's FDP in the Scholz coalition since 2021 have led to underinvestment in public infrastructure. Merkel's lack of investment in digital technologies, overdependence on Russia for oil and China for markets during the decade in office are all leaving Germany in bad shape in 2015.

LyrArc Article Gist
This Editorial Board editorial in the WSJ should be titled Ukraine Corruption and Ukrainian people's interests in good governance. The reason is that beyond ensuring that the $187 billion sent by the US is used without corruption and this editorial cites evidence that this is the case through many oversight authorites US and EU has set up- there is the larger interest of the people of Ukraine battered and fatigued by 4 years of war. Corruption becomes an accepted practice in many democracies. Nations such as India that were mired in corrupt practices in state governments are seeing major changes in the last decade with public funds dedicated to infrastructure going to build the new infrastructure India needs to modernize its economy. It is proving that this is possible in Asia, as is shown in Taiwan, South Korea, Japan, China and now India. There is every reason to believe Ukraine can achieve this good governance with sufficient efforts and this is the goal set by the European Union, by Germany, Britain and France, for Ukraine. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
About 30 rail routes in Germany will be renovated under a massive renovation program of Deutsche Bahn that begins July 15. Repeated delays and cancellations of an antiquated rail system is causing frustration for rail users in Germany. Deutsche Bahn's deficit is euros 2.4 billion and the debt euros 34 billion. It paid 133 million euros just for delays over 60 minutes to customers last year, up by 43%. Germany is not investing in the rail system as it should because of a culture that has spread since the 1990's that investment in public infrastructure and public services is not essential. The CDU party and the FDP have adopted this culture as their own, and the people have not voted this out as the FDP is part of the currrent coalition of the Socialists and the Greens under Scholz and FDP's Lindner controls the Finance Ministry. This is the challenge facing Europe and the US, dismantling a culture step by step that does not believe in investment in public services and infrastructure for far too long allowing it to fall apart when financial markets invest and waste capital in dubious projects. In the US inventing a new golf ball gets 100 million dollars in this dysfunction in financial markets in the EU and US, the list is endless which adds up to tens of billions of dollars.  ...

LyrArc Article Gist
This report in DW.com discusses the quick rise of Annalena Baerbock, 40 years, to the co-leader role with better known Robert Habeck, 51 years, at a party conference in 2018. In the winter of 2019 she was supported by a huge 97% of delegates at the party conference, with Habeck getting 90%. She has an advantage in foreign policy issues with her education in England at the London School of Economics, where she studied for her Masters degree in International Law. She speaks fluent English, rare in German politics. Baerbock spent 1 year in the US when she was only 16 years old. Very useful now with changes in Europe, the US and India. Boris Johnson in Britain, Biden in the US, and Modi in India, all speaking English.  She has spoken up against xenophobia, and being from Potsdam in the east is able to understand issues facing East Germany. A big change Baerbock says happened in 2019. Then she and Habeck decided to open up the Greens to become a big tent party that welcomes people from all sides. This was a smart choice at the time as Germans moved away from the two main parties- the SPD and the CDU. Dismay from the Schroder years when working class issues were ignored, and dissatisfaction with the Merkel years when investments in infrastructure, social care, health, education were neglected.  AfD support has stalled with the end of the migrant crisis and immigration no longer an issue. Baerbock says today of that 2019 party conference- "What we knew then was that we wanted to open our party up, that we wanted to make policies for a broad society: inviting and with clear objectives. Here today I want to make an offer, for the whole of society, as an invitation to lead our diverse, strong, rich country into a good future." Key changes that could happen in Germany in 2022- Phase out of coal powered energy by earlier date than 2038. No support for increased defense spending. Yet this is not likely to be an issue with the new American Biden administration. Infrastructure and vital investments in health and education would become a top priority similar to the US, UK and India. Careful policy coordination by Germany with the US, UK, France, India and Japan, and other EU nations, as the world shifts into a period in which lessons learned from the pandemic and the last three decades lead to renewal of supply channels and renewal of societies.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Even though immigration makes the headlines for the average German and daily German life polls and surveys show says the NYT that the main concerns center around a failing economy. For 5 years Germany has experienced little growth. According to Eurostat, Germany's GDP growth rate is 2023 -0.2% 2022: 1.37% 2021: 3.67% 2020 -4.1% Tankersley and Eddy report from Lutherstadt Wittenberg Eastern Germany. As Germany's economy slows companies may move jobs and manufacturing to Austria and France says one CEO of a company that makes fertilizer and additives for diesel motors. This could lead to loss of 10,000 jobs in an already depressed region. The problems faced buy German industry are increasing with higher costs of energy- even after prices have come down energy is 20% costlier than the European average according to Eurostat. Industry leaders say this is the result partly of efforts to reduce fossil fuel emissions. Increasing competition from China means Germany cannot compete as before. Investment in public infrastructure has not kept up with crumbling roads and bridges and a rail system with underinvestment and plagued with delays. Investment in digital technology has lagged behind China, India and France.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
For what a ruble buys in Russia , 2.7 times what a dollar buys in the US, Russia gets alot of bang out of its defense budget of $149 billion, about $401 billion (Purchasing power) compared to US $997 billion. Add to this Russia is now a war economy in the war with Ukraine and concentrates its forces in one theatre not four as the US spread out over Indo-Pacific, Europe and Middle East and Korean peninsula. This is the reason behind most of DJT's actions reflecting realities in defense. Shut down the Middle East theatre which is also what the American people want by moving everything in the direction of economic progress, turning down the revolutionary and sectarian ideologies that roiled Egypt of Suez, Iraq and Syria, Afghanistan and Pakistan in the 60's and dragged the world into costly insane wars. And do this with the consensus of Russia, China and India. Wind down the war in Europe- accept the Russians as a Northern European power with a settlement of the Ukraine conflict, and let Germany lead Europe's defense. Manage the relationship in the Indo-Pacific with India and South and Southwest Asian investments in economic infrastructure that will offset China's rapid growth of the last three decades by incentivizing South Asia and South western Asia parts of which were called the Middle East by the Britons and now can be rengaged in the South /Southwest Asian group of nations led by the US. This is the policy for the next 25 years to 2050 that a Russia, Germany, US, China, India consensus sees as a constructive future for the people of the world.   ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The global minimum corporate tax will enable US, France, Germany, India and other countries to invest more in healthcare, education, infrastructure, in the years to come. Countries that helped tax avoidance shown in this graph in Live Mint are Netherlands, Cayman Islands, Britain, Ireland, Hong Kong, China. The biggest contributor to tax losses for advanced countries US, Europe and India is the Netherlands with $27 billion in tax that is diverted away, as shown in Live Mint.

LyrArc Article Gist
Problems that are emerging as the AfD takes up role of Opposition in legislatures at the state level in Hesse, Thuringia and Bavaria. Finding proactive solutions to immigration, cost of living concerns and investing in infrastructure, in education, healthcare, childcare  that would improve the lives of people would go a long way to strengthening democracy at the local and state level in all parts of Germany with the help of the federal government.

LyrArc Article Gist
The pandemic exposed Germany's digitization infrastructure weaknesses. A lot will need to change in education in Germany to meet new upheavals as digitization changes the nature of work in the job market. Digitization, automation, and rise of electromobility, knowledge economy will change how the world and Germany works. More and more knowledge work means Germany will need to change its education in many fields. Some experts say it is the political failing of the state that digital education is not a subject in schools. In the car industry alone the rise of electromobility could cost 200,000 jobs a result of a study by Ifo for car industry association VDA. New jobs will be created in other professions and industries as many as 2.1 million jobs in health, training, teaching, management and administration.

LyrArc Article Gist
The growing popularity of rail trips in Europe as companies such as SNCF in France and rail companies in Austria and Germany increase investments in rail infrastructure. The idea is to cut the carbon footprint on short haul flights.Sleeper trains are also increasing in popularity with a new Austrian rail sleeper train between Paris and Vienna. Unlike earlier increases in rail travel this one is getting more support as rail as the potential of being less stressful, more interesting and as more investment is being made on rail infrastructure in Eastern and Central Europe. 

Much remains to be done in integrating the different rail systems in Europe both in infrastructure terms and in ticketing to customers. If this is done rail has serious prospect of becoming genuinely popular.

LyrArc Article Gist
Chancellor Scholz made increasing the minimum wage a key plank in his election platform. The German parliament passed a bill increasing the minimum wage to 12 euros ($12.90) per hour as of October 1- an increase of 2.18 euros per hour. The increase will mean 400 euros extra per month for people with a monthly income of 1700 euros.  Chancellor Scholz wrote on Twitter "Many citizens in our country work a lot but earn little- that must change." "For me, one of the most important laws and a question of respect." The bill passed by a wide margin with 400 in favor, 41 against, and 200 abstentions from the CDU/CSU. CDU says Scholz bypassed a commission that sets the wage increase. Unions and other parties rejected that saying the bill will reduce poverty in Germany. The Merkel years will be remembered for the lack of attention to essential infrastructure, to digitalization, and to workers and families. Mr. Scholz and the Greens under Habeck and Baerbock are working to reverse years of wanton neglect of essential needs. In fact much of the increase will go to pay for additional cost of food and energy that is a result of Russia's invasion. Merkel and her predecessor Schroeder pursued policy that led to Germany's extreme dependence on Russia for energy resulting in the jump in energy prices today. France and Britain are also taking action to provide additional income to workers to offset the higher cost of energy and food. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Lael Brainard, Fed Vice Chair, is the new director of the US National Economic Council, which advises the president on economic policy and coordinates policy between executive branch agencies. The NEC director will now oversee the implementation of the infrastructure and semiconductor spending packages. WSJ says she may also have the task of managing the economic fallout from Ukraine because of her background growing up in west Germany and communist Poland as the daughter of an American diplomat.

LyrArc Article Gist
William Galston in the WSJ says outright for the first time in the WSJ that the years from the last term of Clinton, through the Bush, and Obama administrations were an outright failure for the American people. He documents the losses- 5.7 million job losses in 2000-2010 as Clinton opened China's entry into the World Trade Organization without any precautions taken to prevent abuse of world trading rules after the experience with Japan. Worse no help to the displaced workers which fed into the resentment of workers. Sex scandals weakened the presidency and acted as the major distraction during the last years of Bill Clinton. Over the administrations of Bush and Obama almost the entire US manufacturing base was dismantled and shipped to China. Pharmaceutical companies were allowed to charge recklessly when Bush disallowed Medicare to negotiate prices for pharmacueticals placing additional burdens on the American people. Bush started long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq that cost the US dearly in lives and resources wasted with no vital US interests at stake as in Europe. This distracted attention from problems simmering at home. Obama continued these wars preferring to focus on reelection. The migration crisis, the neglect of infrastructure worsened during this period. The Bush deregulation of banks led to the 2009 world banking crisis that led to large layoffs worsening a bad situation from outshoring and creating a class of unemployed, and shrinking household wealth and savings. The Biden administration, the first Trump administration and now the second have started the process of revival of the US. And yet Biden, DJT are relative outsiders who came to the presidency and were not favored in the established order of the 1990-2016 period. One can say about Blair, Cameron, Boris Johnson in Britain, about Clinton, Bush, Obama in the US, and Schroeder, Merkel in Germany that the leadership was mediocre and failed the people of Europe and the people of America.     ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Germany's Bundestag parliament vote eases constitutional "debt brake" March 2025. CDU's Merz and the SPD join with Greens to provide the two thirds majority to remove a constitutional debt brake put in in the Merkel years. Germany's dilapidated infrastructure from rail to other transport and public facilities, to poor childcare are a sign of how the Merkel debt brake has hurt the German economy. Four years of the Greens SPD coalition government of Scholz were wasted when the SPD and Greens wanted investment in infrastructure starting in 2021 but included Lindner of the super cautious Free Democrats as Finance Minister who opposed spending and vetoed it every step of the way. The results can be seen in Frankfurt and other cities and in the underinvestment in Deutsche Bahn rail and all over the country. Merz of the CDU and the SPD and Greens finally fix this problem starting with removing the debt brake.  What happened to Lindner and Free Democrats? They did not make the threshold of 5% for representation in the German parliament, the Bundestag in Berlin. Lindner resigned for his failure. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
Experts in the U.S. say the U.S. made a mistake in not supporting the idea of a new financial institution to meet the urgent needs of development and infrastructure financing of Asia's developing countries. India, Australia, S. Korea, Britain, Germany, France and Italy are joining as founding members in 2015. China has offered leadership in providing resources for the new bank. Jane Perlez says China is looking for the best talent worldwide to help write the charter for the bank and to run it. It is a project pushed forward by China's president Jinping, and was discussed at the 2013 G-20 meeeting in Moscow as a critical part of the agenda. Laurence Brahm, who supported Chinese premier Zhu Rongji in 2001 for entry into the WTO, says it is natural for China to look for ways to use its extra capacity in steel, concrete and pipes to build projects in other parts of Asia, which would mutually benefit China and the region. Paul Haenle of the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center in Beijing, says the U.S. lack of support is shortsighted, as the existing U.S. sponsored institutions World Bank and the Asian Development Bank are sorely lacking the resources to deal with the huge infrastructure challenges in Asia. China's Finance Ministry is looking for the best talent worldwide to write the charter and run the bank. Natalie Lichtenstein, a lawyer with 30 years experience working at the World Bank will write the bank's founding charter. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
How will posterity view Angela Merkel. As she ends a fourth term this BBC News report says it will remain a contested legacy. Much of what went right has already been written. A woman, a pragmatic scientist who hewed to the center not just as a scientist but with a knack for politics. Much of her early period in office was one in which she had to tackle the eurozone crisis. The euro's weakness had its roots in the way Mr Kohl allowed eurozone membership for countries such as Greece without adequate entry requirements. Some of the other problems were also left behind by an overzealous mentor Helmut Kohl who pushed for German reunification that never really happened in terms of bringing all east Germans into the idea of the Federal Republic. These problems in a neglected eastern part of Germany around Dresden were never tackled by Merkel. They were social issues that Merkel's pragmatic thinking failed to grasp. Letting in migrants from Arab and African countries was a move that Merkel made without realizing the full implications. This policy was reversed but led to the emergence of extreme right wing sentiment in parts of the country. It is left to a future German leader to tackle the social and economic disparities that affect Germany today. As time passes people reflect and a more careful view prevails. Dr Rudiger Schmitt-Beck reflects this when he says that the Merkel years were about  a bizarre mix of modernization and backwardness. Merkel rejected nuclear energy after the events at Fukushima nuclear plant in Japan. As a scientist she was able to tackle such issues. Yet on the major social issues of the day Prof. Schmitt-Beck of the University of Mannheim, says she left Germany "grotesquely behind"- on child care, climate policy, digitization, infrastructure building, on demographic change. These are the issues that the Social Democrats and the Greens are standing up for today. Ironically Merkel may be remembered more for something that is not even mentioned in this BBC report. This is the European solidarity shown by action to financially support all EU countries including Italy with EU funding during the coronavirus pandemic.  This may be her biggest achievement because it will be lasting. Without it Europe would not be the better place it is today, resilient in the face of the pandemic.  Seen from outside Merkel will be seen as a German leader who failed to see the potential for India and other Asian countries with almost twice the population of China. Fascinated with 13 visits to China she studied Chinese history, politics and economics, says the WSJ. And did too little to balance Germany's close business and trade ties with China, with efforts in India and other countries. Seen from America as pointed out in the WSJ front page on September 23, Merkel made no effort to rebuild US relations with the Biden administration after the tumultuous period under presidents Obama with spying on her phone and with Mr. Trump over the EU's participation in NATO defense. She seemed resigned to a view that America had seen her best years, a belief that today does not exist anywhere in America. US president Biden's first phone call to Merkel was put off for a few days says the WSJ, and Merkel continued to build close ties with China, ignoring the fact that this was a new administration closer to that of presidents FDR and Harry Truman who did so much for Germany. And a president very different than any of Biden's five predecessors. ...

LyrArc Article Gist
The failures of German engineering at the Berlin Brandenburg airport with 4 billion euros over budget, 9 years behind schedule and technical issues.

As India takes on the role of pharmacy of the world during the pandemic, and builds world leading infrastructure in time, no longer can it be assumed that the old ideas are true about German, Japanese, American or Chinese engineering.

LyrArc Article Gist
Eurozone GDP growth is 0.4% in 2nd quarter 2025 after 2.3% growth in 1st quarter. The eurozone economy is expected to do better in the second half after the uncertainty in trade is removed with the new US-EU Trade Agreement. Unemployment is at 6.3% in May 2025 historic low in eurozone, and inflation is at 2% in June 2025. Lower inflation has increased the buying power of consumers. Future growth could come from consumer spending and from the huge investments the German government plans to make in infrastructure and transport, digital, other fields to revitalize it's economy.

LyrArc Article Gist
Greens and SPD Social Democrat parties in Germany favor social spending, infrastructure spending, and climate change investments. Free Democrats party holding the Finance ministry supports  a brake on spending. There is no agreement on the budget in this coalition, says DW.com. SPD and FDP are not increasing in popularity and SPD could lose the chancellorship if there is a new election. The Greens and the CDU are increasing in popularity. For this reason the coalition is likely to continue even with this disagreement on spending.  SPD and Greens say higher taxes and elimination of some subsidies is one solution. The common platform has not resolved these differences. In the US president Biden has retained the support of voters in the midterm elections and has gained bipartisan support for building infrastructure and investing in renewable energy, cutting health care costs.