What? Nu? Again?!?

The leading candidate of the Linke Partei™©, Gregor Gysi recently appeared in an amusing interview on German TV to make Gerhard Schröder (who at present is expected to lose the upcoming election) an offer he can't refuse: adopt the platform of the generically named Links Partei, get its' 10 expected percentage points in the upcoming election, and remain Chancellor. Having called Schröder a "liberal" in the neo-con evil baby eating sense (yeah right), the platform basically involves taxing large businesses out of existence to fund the social welfare state which created so the unemployment because it also involves taxing the job creation base out of existence.

It's political blackmail to indulge Schröder's hunger for power, just as it had once with the Greens. The results were policy pandemonium worthy of Emperor Nero's ill-timed violin recital. I'm sure ol' Gerhard is thinking "win this one and deal with these whackos later", but if he cared for his country he should either try to win a majority for his party without the ball-and-chain of the left's poverty-creating view of the world. It failed for 30 years in the GDR, why would the former PDS types who are not Linkster want to try it again? Then again, maybe a non-functioning state could do less harm, but it's doubtful.

They still seem to be fighting the old fights. To illustrate Gysi's party’s lack of depth, he doesn't want to tax much more the small businesses because they're already hurting, and made up of people. Questions: what are big businesses made up from? Robots? Their economy is geared toward big business as a fundamental base of job creation - why try and kill it with this small-minded niedkultur (or culture of envy)?

Besides, how many people do you know who work for a poor person?
His theory displays a simplistic and shallow view of how to be humane (never teaching a man to fish to cover the cost of giving away another fish), and a kind of economics based on his own emotions, or a desire to be though compassionate at the expense of a generation's future. In one interview I saw, he simply refused to discuss economics, citing that he didn't want Germany to become Britain, the US, France, or Sweden.

France and Sweden are neo-liberals?

The other thing he wants to tax (even further, considering the "progressive" taxation structure) is to stick their thumb in the pie of investments, stocks, instruments, and market transactions. The sunniest part of this job-killing scenario is that what investors there are will be motivated to "do a Granny." They'll invest in small check dividend paying instruments instead of market stocks that give businesses the capital they need to by the plant and equipment that creates jobs. It's downright brilliant if you want to sabotage the future of a nation of 80 million people. And that's the sunnier part. The cloudier part results in shrinking Europe's GDP at bad time. Building a über-mega-superstate needs either a population that's thoroughly employed and feels stable, or brown shirts, Molotov cocktails, and broken windows. Economic expansion means more people are working and fewer people in need of a Government's "love". Let's hope they don't find themselves only having option 2.

Clinton's success in the US, as well as the Clark's success in New Zealand depended entirely on implementing right wing policies. The PDS rhetoric amounts to red meat for a population frustrated with malaise. It's a shame that it will bring them even more of it than before.