Michel the German, a nationwide personification corresponding to America’s Uncle Sam or Britain’s John Bull, is a sleepy fellow with a nightcap. He’s a bit conservative and never all that eager on disruption. Michel is, in different phrases, an appropriate consultant for the fashionable German financial system, which has grown by a meagre 0.1% over the previous 5 years and is, in response to forecasts, now coming into one more yr of stagnation. When voters head to the polls on February twenty third, the depressing state of the financial system might be on the entrance of many minds.
