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Now we have it in black and white.

The eternal declarations by our government that all the other countries are just as badly or even worse off in the crisis - they no longer apply.

In its latest report, the IMF, the International Monetary Fund, made it clear that the failure of the federal government in the pandemic will have a direct impact on Germany as a business location.

And the report for the Federal Republic is particularly bad.

While almost all major nations were predicted to see stronger economic growth than expected, economists expect a mild upturn for Germany after the historic slump in Covid year 2020.

This IMF paper should teach our policy a lesson.

And not just now, but in the long term.

Anyone who thinks that Covid-19 will leave us alone after the first major vaccination is wrong.

To think that in six months everything will be over anyway and that we will return to our everyday economic life is naive and fatal.

The pandemic and its consequences will be with us for a long time.

For years.

Relaxation and prolonged lockdown - this is what it looks like in Europe

The countries in Europe react very differently to the development of corona infections.

While Great Britain and Portugal are beginning to ease the situation, there were violent protests in Italy.

Source: WELT / Jan-Friedrich Funk

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It is worth taking a look at Great Britain.

The country has also risen to become the new European model student within a few months because the British government is showing with its course: This country can be in crisis.

Framework conditions are currently being created with which one can get through bad times as well as possible.

Because what is often suppressed: The British are better off than us in terms of vaccination benefits in the long term.

The country is well prepared for the very likely annual follow-up vaccinations due to corona mutations: four current and future vaccines are being produced on the island.

In combination with the good vaccination organization, the British lead is likely to be much greater and longer-term than many can now imagine.

The urgent appeal is therefore: The government of this country - whatever it may look like in the future - must switch to doer mode.

At the moment we are being denied this competence by economists, investors and capital markets.

Brits and Americans, on the other hand, are granted that they are armed for a difficult future.

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But it's not too late yet.

Anyone who builds a modern and sustainable vaccination and test organization now will benefit from it for many years - probably decades.

In the future, it will simply be part of being good at these things.

This is the only way to continue counting among the great and strong of this world.

But the long-term project doesn't stop with vaccination and testing.

Sustainable reform of the encrusted authority structures is also part of the long-term fight against pandemics.

Nobody should allow German health authorities to fall back into the old bureaucratic and analogue deep sleep.

The digitization of the education system must continue at high speed - even when all pupils and students are back in the classrooms and lecture halls.

The pandemic is likely and hopefully to end soon.

But after that our country faces a much bigger and longer crisis.

We need agility instead of standstill, departure instead of blockade.

Germany's future viability is at stake.

Everyone has to understand that now - and act accordingly.

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