> I have no doubt a government is to blame for the financial stagnation or decline. I never said that a government is to blame for financial stagnation or decl

> I have no doubt a government is to blame for the financial stagnation or decline. I never said that a government is to blame for financial stagnation or decline. I was referring specifically to Schröder's and Merkel's tenure as chancellors (2000-2018). I was wrong to add the 90s, although it is debatable if the above strategy was already planned by Kohl. > Thou not clear on how they are responsible for having companies produce massive profits and keeping wages low. You have to look at this in the EU context, otherwise it's hard to grasp. For any kind of group, which share the same currency, there must be a surplus recycling mechanism in place. Y. Varoufakis has talked extensively about the lack of surplus recycling, which was and is today a major design flaw and probably the reason the EU is going burst. In a common currency group, where no one can devalue, the exporting countries will have positive surplus vis-a-vis non-exporting countries. To revert the flow, exporting economies must invest in infrastructure (build schools, universities, public swimming pools, stadiums, roads, airports, setting up social services, public internet infrastructure, welfare which translates in jobs, etc.). The action of building infra will create scarcity in the labour market: companies will struggle to keep underpaid workforce. The secondary effect is that products, will be become more expensive. At that point the positive surplus will become balanced or negative... Then the same process should be repeated. Of course there are a lot of important details, but hopefully you get the gist.