Economics
The Plot to Scrap Germany’s Balanced Budgets Has Already Begun
- Germany’s parliament began discussing budget on Tuesday
- Scholz’s SPD pushed for Weizsaecker to become chief economist
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When Wolfgang Schaeuble stepped down in 2017, Europe’s much-feared austerity champion received a special gift: his staff at the finance ministry lined up as a big black zero in praise of his zeal for balanced budgets.
But today, Germany’s worship of fiscal discipline is being challenged by a looming recession and tantalizingly cheap credit -- and a silent revolution is under way at the 140-year-old institution to shed its economic dogma.