Whether people want to admit it or not....stress is now a problem.
This morning, the Hessen government came to announce that the Financial Minister of the state of Hessen, had committed suicide. Thomas Schafer.
The guy was in his mid-50s...highly educated (reaching a doctoral degree) and considered the most likely person for Premier-President of the state in the 2023 election coming up. He'd been the state Finance Minister for a number of years and highly regarded.
What they generally say is that the stress consumed him, and unlike previous occasions where he devise financial solutions, this was different.
I suspect if you looked around the landscape right now....several thousand people are on the edge. Some are considered successful but their financial path is rapidly failing them at this point.
The news media as part of this hype? Go view public TV at night....it's national news and consumes 80 to 90 percent of all news. Reality TV shows are being made over it.
So there's stress, and it's going to have implications.
2 comments:
I wonder if a closer look at the financial priorities of his government aren't in order? A conscience against corruption, perhaps?
I think in this guys case...he was looking at the decreased sales activities/commerce and huge decline in VAT income, and trying value the outcome for the remainder of the year. Then he was reacting to various public welfare projects and emergency finances (for clinics, old-folks homes, etc).
If they stay closed for the bulk of April and try to 'jump-start' the economy in May...I don't see more than half of businesses producing satisfactory incomes for the rest of the summer. That VAT bucket and income tax revenue bucket at the national level....is going to have a harsh time by the end of 2020, and going into 2021. Lot of people are hyped up over the news media, the virus, and reacting badly in stress.
If you were looking for serious corruption...it'd be at the village/town/city level where you could do it and get away with it. At the state and national level....too many people looking at the numbers and asking stupid questions.
Remember too....these state finance folks have to react to stupid unplanned emergencies. When that big anti-capitalist riot occurred in Frankfurt three or four years ago, and they burned all those police cars...the state had to find emergency money in the budget to replace the Frankfurt cars.
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