Word: mittelstand
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...unlikely Westerwelle will be in the mood for too many compromises. The FDP leader, tipped to become Germany's new foreign minister, criticized the previous government for bailing out the automaker Opel, while neglecting small and medium-sized firms - the famed "Mittelstand" which make up the backbone of the German economy. Westerwelle also called for controversial reforms to make it easier for firms to hire and fire workers and he proposed 400 spending cuts. That could lead to clashes with Merkel, who's spent the past few years defending Germany's social and labor protections. "I think Chancellor Merkel will...
...world's fourth largest. Under the influence of her SPD partners, Merkel intervened to preserve jobs in big industries. Guido Westerwelle, the FDP's leader, and future deputy to Merkel in the new coalition, believes too little has been done to look after the interests of Germany's Mittelstand, its small- and medium-size businesses. He told TIME in a recent interview that some German stimulus measures had been ill-conceived. "You can sign 100 stimulus programs but if investing doesn't gain momentum, the economy won't get better," he said...
Westerwelle espouses the economic liberalism that has always defined the FDP, and under his eight-year command he has positioned his party as the champion of the Mittelstand, Germany's formidable family-owned companies. "When a big company gets into difficulty, the German eagle comes to the rescue. When a Mittelstand company gets into trouble, the vultures circle," Westerwelle said in May. His recipe for growth: encourage private investment and cut taxes. "You can sign 100 stimulus programs but if investing doesn't gain momentum, the economy won't get better," he says...
...Only a few years ago, it was Commerzbank that looked like a takeover target. But Blessing, who became head of the bank just three months ago, helped engineer a turnaround of the bank's retail business and lending to mid-sized businesses, Germany's famous Mittelstand that forms the backbone of its economy. Blessing, a hobby marathon runner who had hoped he would be able to rebuild Commerzbank at a less hectic pace, realized that in the current financial crisis the opportunity to take over rival Dresdner may not come again...
...backs" - and now 1,000 shirts a day are arriving at the chancellery in Berlin. Schröder complained in a television interview that he and his family had received personal threats in an unprecedented tide of hate mail. And now it gets worse: a steady stream of Mittelstand companies - the small- and medium-sized firms that have been the backbone of the German economy for decades - are pulling up stakes and leaving the country. They're voting with their feet to escape Schröder, his taxes and the onerous labor laws that they say prevent them from competing...