The Scotsman - Business - Global success can be relocated

Using Germany as the central theme, Colin Donald looks at what's working and what isn't economically. The following excerpt isn't necessarily the most useful bit, but I'm trying to file the quote about 'that special class of uselessness' where I can reach it easily...

The eurozone’s key economy has received such a critical drubbing of late that confusion over some of its vital signs is seized on almost with relief. Some analysts are ready to interpret mixed indicators as signs of an economy on the upward turn.

The negative details are familiar enough. Growth and employment rates are poor, the machinery of job creation - attacked by the OECD last week - is clogged, especially in the service sector. The income divide is growing, taxes are high and returns on investment are meagre. Labour reforms appear stalled, and the eurozone’s fiscal policy, already embarrassingly breached, belongs to that special class of uselessness, a guideline that can neither be adhered to nor ignored.