Newsletter: German traffic light schizophrenia versus the Harris agenda / Symposium and birthday on 19 November

Dear friends and colleagues,

Whenever social paradigms have been replaced in history, this has always been associated with phases in which the old model is weakened but still has an impact and the new one is not yet fully developed. Tricky enough. But It’s fatal when this happens within the same government as the Germans are currently experiencing.

The back and forth between the deep belief in the market of the past and the experimental industrial policy of these days makes it basically impossible to turn it into something good. The worlds of thought between those who influence Christian Lindner and Robert Habeck are too difficult to reconcile. Those who fundamentally declare the state to be a nuisance will be extremely reluctant to sympathise with industrial policy. The drama is that this mutual blocking is used by populists – as proof that doom is approaching and that democracy should be abolished.

You can get an idea of how much further the Americans are paradigmatically when you read what Kamala Harris has now presented as the economic policy agenda for her potential presidency – A New Way Forward For The Middle Class. It contains a fairly clear diagnosis, according to which much of the resentment of Americans is that the middle class in particular has been left empty-handed in the heyday of market liberalism and that the country has lost too much industry in the (sometimes unfair) competition. A loss of control, in other words.

This finding is shared by quite a few international experts, whether in the Berlin Declaration or in an open letter by more than 400 economists in support of Kamala Harris. And from which Harris’ advisors have derived a fairly stringent programme aimed at reversing these trends: investing in economic sectors that are classified as strategically important for the future – and ensuring that everyone benefits from the reconstruction this time. Whether through massive subsidies for investment or empowering workers. Unlike during the previous paradigm.

One may not share the diagnosis. And what is on the agenda may not be ready yet. Apart from that, none of this is a guarantee of being elected on 5 November. It’s just something like a coherent vision – whereas the paradigmatic German coalition schizophrenia looks more like a fatal historical irresponsibility.

And yet there are a lot of people in this country who are already contributing to the development of a new model. For example, Tom Krebs, who describes the ‘misdiagnosis’ of market-liberal economics in his recently published book. Or Philippa Sigl-Glöckner, with whom we talked about her book ‘Gutes Geld’ in the latest New Economy Short Cut – commented on by the head of the Ludwig Erhard Forum, Stefan Kolev. You can rewatch the event – here. To name just two.

Reminder: we will be discussing the paradigmatic significance of the outcome of the US election at a symposium on 19 November from 3 pm – with Joe Kaeser, Simon Jäger and Isabella Weber, among others. Register here.

Have a nice weekend,

Thomas Fricke

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