Bullishness to moroseness

Merkel recently spoke of how Germany's social market economy obliges German companies to hire and train employees. She urged them to begin doing so. This is clearly a response to CDU dropping in the polls and growing concern about the slowing down of business activity.

All hype was out earlier this year about how the economy was getting out of its doldrums. Business executives were bullish, bullish, bullish! Everyone was urging the consumer to go out and spend now! The World Cup also gave a little added push to the market.

Now, however, optimism is beginning to slide. There's a dampening of expectations and a moroseness in the air. The Euro is increasing in value to the detriment of the German export machine. And the soon to be 3% increase in the value added tax will undoubtedly put a damper on things. Siemens is laying off 15,000 workers; Volkswagen plans layoffs of 20,000 later this year and has begun negotiations with union representatives in order to do so.