Reforming The Renewable Energy Law... Again

We still don't have a coalition contract for the next government, but today we learned more about the plan to reform the Renewable Energy Law. Merkel has realized that offshore wind energy is quite expensive after, well, Merkel massively increased (from under 9 €ct/kWh to around 15 €ct/kWh - depending on location - for 12 years plus 8 more at a lower level) the subsidies in the form of an allocation fee paid by consumers in 2009.  This new "reform" will not lead to any significant improvements to the consumers.

Satire Lags Behind Reality

(via)Once in a while newspapers get fooled by satire because it the premise of an article feels real, and the journalists do not take the time to fact check the story, and onion style stories can end up on in the news cycle. Yesterday the opposite happened. The Postillon, a German award-winning daily political satire homepage, wrote on the issue of more and more people being dependent on basic security at old age that one could increase the bottle deposit as a "social measure" supporting those collecting bottles. A premise which feels unreal, but is close enough to the position of German politicians that it will make an excellent satirical article. Well, sadly reality was faster.

How The German Industry Is Damaging Itself

Bertelsmann Stiftung is pushing for a smaller state and and more economic "freedom" to fire people. I can understand their current support for a free trade agreement with the US, since content providers will profit the most; and the Bertelsmann Group is Germany biggest content provider. Their fight against against worker rights also makes sense since Bertelsmann is not dependent on good workers, they are only the middle man. Also, a minimum wage would mean that it would be harder for the middle man industry to exploit workers. But for inexplicable reasons, the German industry wants the government to go in the same direction. These are firms dependent on good engineers, proficient craftsmen, and actually have a very good track record working with unions.The metal and electronics industry employers' federation has their own lobbying institution - the Initiative Neue Soziale Marktwirtschaft (INSM) - which aims at "reforming" Germany to become more like the US. In other words the INSM is trying to turn Germany into an industry free zone, like Britain; and sadly it is very much successful.