The Council of Experts, which advises the federal government on economic issues, has taken a first step out of its crisis.
Martin Werding, the finance and economist from Bochum, is to become a “business wise man” at the suggestion of the employer.
On the one hand, this is good news because Werding is an experienced researcher who is recognized in politics and science.
On the other hand, the committee, which had shrunk to three members after Volker Wieland's surprising resignation, now only needs one new head to reach the statutory size of five researchers again.
The federal government must now fill this fifth place, which has been vacant since Lars Feld left more than a year ago.
It is detrimental to the body established in 1963 that neither the old nor the current government was able to agree on the Field successor.
The vacancy led to a stalemate in the Council between Veronika Grimm and Volker Wieland on the more regulatory side and Achim Truger and Monika Schnitzer on the more left side.
The Council was therefore unable to agree on a chair, nor did it take a clear position in its reports on important issues such as the debt brake.
In order to end the increasing politicization of the Council, a fifth member must now finally be appointed who cannot be clearly assigned to any party and who is professionally beyond any doubt.
In order for the body, which is urgently needed in times of crisis like these, to become more effective again, something else is needed: instead of concentrating primarily on the annual report in autumn, which is several hundred pages long, the Council should publish shorter, more up-to-date reports several times a year Publish expertise.
This could result in a completely different, continuous exchange with the government than the occasional meetings that are currently taking place.
The voice of the Council, which is not very shrill, could shape the debate and would also be a beneficial counterbalance to the sometimes hysterical debates that economists are having on social networks.