Will the economic problems push Germany towards a European solution or towards a non-cooperative solution?
As a result of the industrial recession, caused by the unfavourable industrial specialisation, the deterioration in cost competitiveness and the increase in precautionary savings, we should expect a long period of sluggish or zero growth and rising unemployment in Germany . For the rest of the euro zone, it is important to know how German economic policy will react to this situation: A "European" reaction: implementing, together with the other euro-zone countries, a plan of investment in new technologies and renewable energies; A "non-cooperative" reaction, as in the Gerhard Schröder era: corporate tax cuts, wage restraint, in order to reduce production costs and gain market shares from the other euro-zone countries.