Forum Newsletter #47 – Wrap-up from the New Economy

Dear friends and colleagues,

The chancellor has gone on vacation, and the election campaign that has emerged so far still has potential for improvement in terms of content. Curriculum vitae details or smirking-at-the-wrong-moment. To make sure it doesn’t stay that way, we’re launching a special edition of our New Economy Short Cuts at the end of the summer break. Starting with the week of August 23, we will invite leading politicians from the political parties to present their essential economical ideas and discuss them with selected experts in their respective fields. Please note.

On August 24th, SPD leader Norbert Walter-Borjans will talk about his party’s proposal in terms of a reintroduction of the wealth tax. Two days later, FDP parliamentary group vice-chairman Christian Dürr will talk to Rüdiger Bachmann about his party’s tax cut proposals – and the question of how well the assumption can be justified that tax reliefs will be fiscally self-financing via their growth effects. On September 8th, we will host a Short Cut with Anja Hajduk from the Green Party on the demand to reform the debt brake – in an exchange with Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, who has just completed a study on the topic on behalf of the Forum. We are still confirming an appointment with Andreas Jung from the CDU – to discuss the climate policy ideas of the Union. Caren Lay from the Linke is expected to discuss the idea of a nationwide rent cap on August 23rd.

When economists are trying to get a particularly good hearing, they like to make joint appeals or guest contributions. That’s a good thing per se, but it also brings with it the danger that the result, for all the consensus, will be rather fuzzy. Obviously, one or the other can get confused about what they represent and where. Recently, a number of leading representatives of the old school signed an appeal for the return of the market economy – with the urgent request to return to the debt brake as soon as possible. This week, there was a different kind of community call: the Leopoldina’s statement on the economic consequences of the Corona pandemic, whose experts called for the opposite – not returning to the debt brake for now. Strikingly, one of the experts supported both said article and the Leopoldina recommendations. We will leave this here for everyone – and remain nobly silent.

What you will also find on our website this week: a short review of the book Moritz Schularick has just published on the role of the state.

Have a nice weekend,

Thomas Fricke