Oh Where Have We Gone Wrong

With a €500 billion bailout package for Germany banks, a lot of Germans are asking is it too much. For sure, that’s a constant question at the Riemerschmid Graduate School of Economics in Munich. Although located near the Isartor, the school is an extension of Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, and reportedly ranked among the top economic educational institutions in Europe with a specific focus on relevant policy issues. Oh what heated discussions they must be having today. 58% of Germans believe the bailout package was necessary. At the same time, 25% of Germans worry about their own bank accounts not being secure. So the economic unrest is worldwide. The economic school is actually named after a prominent architect and artist in Munich, Richard Riemerschmid, who was a major figure in the creation of Art Nouveau in Germany and a member of the Deutscher Werkbund. The Werkbund, was a German association focused on connecting product manufacturers with design professionals to improve competitiveness of German companies in global markets. It was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States. Perhaps it was successful, as the German bailout ranks right up with the US and UK financial packages of the economic crisis.