Companies (Page 189)

Theodor Weimer, the CEO of the Deutsche Börse and frequently referred to as Mr. DAX, slammed German Economic Minister Robert Habeck’s plans in a burning manner. Speaking at a debate hosted by the Economic Advisory Council of Bavaria, Weimer, a considerable number in both European and international fund, did not hold up in his judgment.

” We’re facing a large catastrophe”, Weimer declared, reflecting on his 18th conference with Vice- Chancellor and Economic Minister Robert Habeck, who is co- head of the Greens.

First, Weimer noted a sort of enthusiasm, observing that Habeck had shown great listening skills and made some proper decisions. But, that enthusiasm evaporated. ” The conservatives are exceedingly coming through”, Weimer said, indicating a shift in policy emphasis that he finds deeply troubling.

global view of Germany is waning

Weimer’s address was n’t just a tirade but an expression of genuine concern. He painted a grim portrait of Germany’s position in the world economic group by sharing perspectives from his extensive interactions with foreign investors. ” Our popularity has never been worse”, Weimer emphasized.

Investors, especially lengthy- word ones such as healthcare companies and pension funds, are bewildered by Germany’s current direction. They shook their heads and inquired,” Where have the German values gone?” We do n’t know how to read you anymore.'”

These buyers, according to Weimer, then process Germany with a sense of fatalism. ” If you continue this way, we will prevent you actually more”, they warn. What they perceive as irrational guidelines that have made Germany a” junk shop,” with investments motivated by unscrupulous goals rather than powerful fundamentals, is at the heart of their frustration. ” What you are doing is just insane”, they tell Weimer.

A federal lacking course

The skepticism is n’t limited to economic policy. Weimer reports that political watchers from places like Singapore are boldly questioning Germany’s government’s level of competence. ” They ask me,’ What kind of state do you have?'” Weimer said.

He elaborated on the perceived change towards a “big state” mentality, where the position feels compelled to overprotect. “Economically, we are on the path to becoming a developing state”, he warned.

Effects on key sectors

One important point of contention is Germany’s electrical business. Weimer criticizes the strict CO₂ laws that have, in his view, caught auto manufacturers. ” If I buy a BMW 7 Series, I just find a six- barrel cross in Germany, but in the USA, I get an eight- cylinder”, he pointed out, lamenting the stress to lower company cars as misplaced. ” We need big cars to drive growth”, he argued.

Broader policy failures

Weimer’s critique extended beyond economic policies to Germany’s handling of migration and defense. He criticized the nation’s immigration policies as being fundamentally flawed and unrequited. According to him, effective migration should concentrate on attracting skilled workers who contribute to the economy rather than supporting those who may turn out to be long-term recipients of welfare.

Additionally, he highlighted Germany’s lag in defense and digitalization as critical areas of failure.

A call for change

Weimer ended his speech by invoking a need for radical change and an urgency. The times of glossing over Germany’s economic issues are over, he asserted, quoting the late Wolfgang Schäuble, a famous German politician ( CDU) who died last year:” Isch over” ( It’s over ).

Weimer’s speech serves as a stark wake- up call. It’s a revolt against what he perceives as a noxious green ideology that permeates Germany’s economic policies. As international observers watch closely, the question remains: Will Germany heed this call for change, or continue down its current path?

Diego Fassnacht, CFA, is an international economist and an investment advisor to individual clients and institutions. Prior to his work in finance, he served on the governing council ( Deutschlandrat ) of the youth organization ( JU) of the main German opposition party, the CDU.

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The International Organization for Migration ( IOM) releases its World Migration Report every year. Most of these studies are anodyne, pointing to a liberal increase in relocation during the period of capitalism.

As states in the poorer regions of the world began to suffer from the effects of the Washington Consensus ( cuts, privatization, and austerity ), and as employment became more and more difficult, more and more people took to the streets to try to survive.

In 2000, the IOM released its primary World Migration Report, which stated that “it is estimated that there are more workers in the world than ever before.” It was between 1985 and 1990, the IOM calculated, that the rate of growth of world migration ( 2.59 % ) outstripped the rate of growth of the world population ( 1.7 % ).

A major force behind global movement was the liberal attack on government spending in poorer nations. By increasing payment payments to their families, it was evident that the migrants had become an important pressure in providing foreign change to their countries by 1990.

Remittances, primarily from the international working class, outstripped the volume of official development assistance ( ODA ) by three times and foreign direct investment ( FDI) by 2015. FDI is the investment funds provided by private companies, whereas ODA is the support provided by says.

For some places, such as Mexico and the Philippines, payment obligations from working- group migrants prevented state debt.

This year’s report notes that there are “roughly 281 million people worldwide” who are on the shift. This is 3.6 % of the world community. It is much higher than the 153 million persons in 1990 and is quad the 84 million people who moved in 1970.

” International trends point to more movement in the future”, notes the IOM. Based on extensive research, the IOM finds that the increase in relocation may be attributed to three aspects: conflict, economic precarity and weather change.

Second, people relocate battle, and with the increase in war, this has become a leading cause of movement. Conflicts are exacerbated into battle because of the enormous level of the arms trade and the pressures of the merchants of death to avoid peace initiatives and to use extremely expensive weaponry to resolve disputes. Many of these problems may be resolved by quiet heads are allowed to succeed.

Global military spending is now nearly US$ 3 trillion, three- quarters of it by the Global North countries. Meanwhile, arms companies made a whopping$ 600 billion in profits in 2022. Because of this profiteering by the merchants of death, tens of millions of people are permanently displaced.

Second, the International Labor Organization ( ILO ) calculates that about 58 % of the global workforce –or 2 billion people – are in the informal sector. They have little access to social security and little protection at home.

The data on youth unemployment and youth precarity is stunning, with the Indian numbers horrifying. According to the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy, India’s youth, who are between the ages of 15 and 24, are “faced by a double whammy of low and falling labor participation rates and shockingly high unemployment rates. The unemployment rate among youth stood at 45.4 % in 2022- 23. This is six times higher than India’s 7.5 % unemployment rate, which is alarming.

Many West African migrants who attempt the dangerous crossing of the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea are frightened by the region’s high levels of precarity, underemployment, and unemployment.

According to a 2018 report from the African Development Bank Group, peasants have moved from rural areas to cities to low-productivity informal services, where they decide to relocate for the lure of higher incomes in the West, as a result of the attack on global agriculture.

Third, more and more people are faced with the adverse impacts of the climate catastrophe. Government leaders convened in 2015 to create a Task Force on Climate Migration at the Paris climate summit. Three years later, in 2018, the UN Global Compact declared that those who are moving because of climate degradation must be protected.

However, the concept of” climate refugees” is not yet established. In 2021, a World Bank report calculated that by 2050 there will be at least 216 million climate refugees.

According to the IOM’s most recent report, these immigrants, many of whom lead extremely precarious lives, return larger and larger sums of money to aid their increasingly flimsy families.

” The money they send home”, the IOM report notes, “increased by a staggering 650 %during the period from 2000 to 2022, rising from$ 128 billion to$ 831 billion”.

Most of these remittances in the recent period, analysts show, go to low- income and middle- income countries. Of the$ 831 billion, for instance,$ 647 billion goes to poorer nations.

Working-class migrants ‘ remittances make up the majority of these nations ‘ gross domestic product ( GDP ), which is significantly higher than FDI and ODA combined.

Remittance payments are subject to two crucial aspects, according to a number of studies conducted by the World Bank. First, these are more evenly distributed amongst the poorer nations. FDI transactions typically benefit the largest economies in the Global South and are directed at sectors that do not always offer the poorest members of the population employment or income.

Second, household surveys indicate that these remittances significantly lower poverty in low- and middle-income nations. For instance, remittance payments made by working-class migrants reduced the rate of poverty in Ghana by 5 %, in Bangladesh by 6 %, and in Uganda by 1 %. When remittances are dropped, countries like Mexico and the Philippines see their poverty rates dramatically rise.

The treatment of these migrants, who are crucial for poverty reduction and for building wealth in society, is outrageous. They are treated as criminals and are abandoned by their own nations, which prefer to spend cheesy money on foreign investments through multinational corporations rather than attracting less impactful investments.

According to the data, a shift in the class perspective regarding investment is required. More in- and out-of-country “hot money” than the “hot money” that” triangles down” into society are greater in volume and have a greater impact on society.

If the migrants of the world – all 281 million of them – lived in one country, then they would form the fourth largest country in the world after India ( 1.4 billion ), China ( 1.4 billion ), and the United States ( 339 million ).

However, migrants are treated poorly and with little respect ( a recent study from the Zetkin Forum for Social Research demonstrates, for instance, how Europe treats migrants as criminals ).

In many cases, their wages are suppressed due to their lack of documentation, and their remittances are taxed heavily by international wire services ( PayPal, Western Union, and Moneygram ) which charge high fees to both the sender and the recipient.

There are currently only a few small political initiatives that support the migrants, and no platform that can bring their populations together into a potent political force.

Vijay Prashad is an Indian historian, editor and journalist. He is a writing fellow and chief correspondent at Globetrotter, an editor of <a href="https://mayday.leftword.com/”>LeftWord Books and director of <a href="https://thetricontinental.org”>Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

He has written more than 20 books, including <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Darker-Nations-Peoples-History-Third/dp/1595583424/?tag=alternorg08-20″>The Darker Nations and <a href="https://smile.amazon.com/Poorer-Nations-Possible-History-Global/dp/1781681589/?tag=alternorg08-20″>The Poorer Nations. His latest books are <a href="https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1869-struggle-makes-us-human”>Struggle Makes Us Human: Learning from Movements for Socialism and ( with Noam Chomsky ) The Withdrawal: Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and the Fragility of US Power.

Globetrotter produced this article, and it has since been republished.

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