German Thrift

[GeoffF100]

I thought this article might be of interest here:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/ ... for-saving

[stewamax]

Interesting view, especially that German domestic thrift far predates the Weimar Republic and hyperinflation.

[bungeejumper]

It's one of the reasons why Frankfurt's equity scene never even approached the vitality of London's. (Well, that and the fact that insider trading wasn't outlawed until 1994. ) https://www.independent.co.uk/news/busi ... 12601.html

Ironically, the stock market slump of 2000 came long just in time to stop the German appetite for stock trading before it had really got started. In the late 1990s, with the dotcom boom in full flow, growing numbers of private investors had been tempted to have a go at the newly-created Neuer Markt (a second market, rather like USM or AIM), and quite a lot of them promptly lost all their money. Thus reinforcing the folk-wisdom of their grandparents that banks and bonds were the only reliable way to save.

IIRC, most postwar German banks were at least partially owned by the local governments, and they were able to dish out high savings rates and various tax incentives which the fully independent banks couldn't match. It was, in short, a bit of a mess.

BJ