Pork-Barrel Politics

Recently I wrote about the problems of European dairy farmers. Today I had to read about an approach of German Agriculture Minister Ilse Aigner (with support from Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and Slovenia) trying to stop the necessary market shakeout by postponing the lift of the EU milk quotas. Aigner is from Bavaria - and dairy farming is a key sector in Bavaria and especially its small farms will be hit hard. Luckily the approach was turned down. From the EU stimulus package €90 millions will be spent in Germany for rural development though. Aigner wants to give the money to the farmers. I hope the money is not simply thrown out the window...

In another example the president of the association of German automobile industry (VDA) claims to take back (German) the raise in truck toll on German autobahn from beginning of this year. This is supposed to help German transport agencies with foreign competitors. I just wonder how since it would affect all trucks on German streets. Also the idea was to bring transportation from streets to rails, i.e. it was a means of environmental policy. Why should this be stopped now? Because of a market shakeout? That's a desired effect! So far government says no (German) but the automobile industry is one of the strongest lobbying groups in Germany so I'm not sure how long this still stands.

Have in mind the government is currently already wasting €1.5 billions as part of the stimulus program for car sales in form of a scrapping scheme: For scrapping a 9-year old car and buying a new one you get €2,500 from the government. In times of the worst crisis car registrations in February were at a 10-year high! Imagine the plunge when the money for the scrapping scheme is running out:

Critics of scrapping schemes point out that they are like administering a shot of adrenaline to a sick patient — first there's a rally, then there's a collapse. [..] Christian Streiff, boss of France's PSA Peugeot Citroën, warned such incentive schemes have an "inverse effect" — they essentially guarantee an implosion in the market once the subsidies stop.

And also just of today another example: Last year there were major data-protection scandals in Germany, not to talk about illegal surveillance of employees in a bunch of companies like Deutsche Bahn, Deutsche Telekom, Lufthansa or Lidl. All of a sudden all politicians wanted to protected customer's and worker's privacy. That's long gone. The most important point, an explicit opt-in on transfer of customer data to other companies, is now discussed again. Since it might cost jobs I don't think this rule will make it into law.