There's an odd financial discussion going on, and was reported by the British newspaper 'Telegraph' today....concerning the German financial situation.
The accusation being discussed is that Germany MIGHT be hiding the actual size of it's trade surplus (it'd be a shock if this were true), and that the true amount might be as much as 80-billion Euro MORE.
Who makes the suggestion? Professor Heiner Flassbeck....a former state-secretary of finance, and now a Hamburg University professor.
So you sit and pause over this. Why would Germany go and mask 80-billion Euro? It would greatly change the GDP, and cause European neighbors to be aggravated over the competitive nature of German industry. It would also force the Merkel government to concede that the NATO rule on 2-percent GDP spending is a more significant problem.
The odds of hiding something like this? I sat and pondered upon.
First, most companies really don't care to advertise their numbers much....but they have to file tax paperwork and admit profits or losses. The government would capture that data.
Second, in the old days, these financial reports were fairly simple, but there are various ways that you could sit and report things (both by the companies, and by the government) and have money sitting in some dark corner of the 'room'. I admit...80-billion Euro being hid....is a lot.
Third, if this came out.....some German bureaucrat angry with the system or Merkel's economics plan, then it'd launch a huge investigation and various members of the EU would be terribly upset. It'd also mean that the Germans didn't send the correct tax-revenue to the EU.
I'm mostly shaking my head over this. It's a serious story, if true. I'm more likely to believe the true amount is NOT 80-billion Euro, and that it's more like five to ten billion Euro. The question is....do you suggest an independent audit of the German government? I just don't see that happening.
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