Germany: The Discontent with Prosperity

The New York Times:  With an unemployment rate of 3.5 percent and Christmas markets full of shoppers and revelers, “Bavaria is the planet of the happy,” said Katrin Schmidt, a labor analyst with the Federal Employment Agency based in Nuremberg.Except that many people in this region, and around the nation, seem subdued and uncertain about their own financial health. Germany’s good fortune, however conspicuous to other Europeans, is widely viewed here as having come at the expense of its workers, who for the past decade have sacrificed wages and benefits to make their employers more competitive.  Read more…..