At the moment we are facing a whole collection of difficult to forecast developments from the situation in China and the oil-price crash to the worrying news from some banks in Europe and the US. All of that is linked: Worldwide company debt is high and there is a lot of money in circulation. That is why necessary structural reforms are not being made.
Wolfgang SchaubleThe German export successes are not the result of some sort of currency manipulation, but of the increased competitiveness of companies. The American growth model, on the other hand, is in a deep crisis.
Wolfgang SchaubleI don't want to interpret the pope's words, especially as I am one of those horrible people who fell away from the Roman church after Martin Luther.
Wolfgang SchaubleI would caution against fueling cheap populism. First of all, every German who has spent a vacation in Greece knows that the standard of living there isn't higher than it is in Germany. Second, Greece is paying a high price for European assistance.
Wolfgang SchaubleIf you make the state responsible for everything, you shouldn't be surprised when you end up with a state that bears some resemblance to a dictatorship.
Wolfgang SchaubleHistory shows us a lot of things. It shows why the Lord's Prayer includes the supplication: "And lead us not into temptation." In my day, dissertations were still written by hand, or drummed out with a typewriter. In the past, you had to round up the literature, find the books and find the passages. Nowadays you click on Wikipedia or Google and you have everything you need. This probably makes it more difficult to resist temptation.
Wolfgang Schauble