Economists Markus Brunnermeier and Stefan Kolev have presented a comprehensive strategy aimed at modernizing the German economic landscape. Their paper, titled “Agenda for the Takeoff: Ten-Point Plan for a Resilient Germany”-which was reported on by the “Handelsblatt”-includes proposals spanning all relevant policy areas.
Among their recommendations, Brunnermeier, who teaches at Princeton, and Kolev, who directs the Ludwig Erhard Forum in Berlin, advocate for increasing labor market flexibility through measures such as innovative collective bargaining agreements and education vouchers. They also call for restructuring corporate taxes, providing relief on income taxes, and reforming the pension, health, and long-term care insurance systems.
While the leaderships of the CDU, CSU, and SPD have spent the weekend negotiating reform proposals, the feasibility of the government agreeing on a comprehensive reform package remains questionable. Brunnermeier and Kolev intend to support such efforts. They explain that the “ten points form a deliberately cross-party compass for a comprehensive reform agenda” adding that they are developing necessary reforms across all areas of economic policy, recognizing that these reforms must be considered as a whole due to their mutual dependencies.
From the perspective of Brunnermeier and Kolev, “resilience” is central to securing Germany’s future prosperity. According to their agenda, “Resilience is the ability to move forward after a shock and to reinvent oneself: adapting quickly to a new normal without losing social cohesion”. Achieving this requires a “re-industrialization” of the German economy, suggesting that “existing industrial structural competencies [must] be shifted towards AI, biotechnology, quantum computing, novel materials, and, above all, business models that do not yet exist”.
