QOTD: "The centerpiece [of German's resurgence] were labor-market reforms designed by a former human-resources executive at Volkswagen AG. The power of unions and craft guilds was curtailed, making it easier for unskilled youth to enter the job market and easier for employers to hire and fire at will. Germany's lavish unemployment benefits were sharply cut back. An unemployed person in social-democratic Germany today can draw benefits for only about half as long as his counterpart in capitalist America.
The immediate reaction was a brief rise in unemployment, as German business was allowed for the first time to optimize its labor force. And there was a backlash by powerful union and guild interests, costing Mr. Schroeder his bid for re-election. But Germany was transformed.
Today's chancellor, Angela Merkel, who replaced Mr. Schroeder, has praised him for his "courage and determination." She is now spearheading the effort to repeat his Agenda 2010 template throughout Europe. Surely if Germany could start with the wreckage of a communist slave-state and make itself into the most dynamic developed economy in the world, its template could transform sluggish and over-indebted economies like Italy and Spain." --Donald Luskin
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