Bill Bonner (Daily Reckoning) – In 1949, the Soviets and the Allies divided Germany into two parts. One part followed a traditional capitalistic path to reconstruction. The other part took the socialist road. Remarkably, they kept this test going for 40 years.

Of course it was misery for many of the test subjects. People were so eager to get out of the East German control group, they risked their lives jumping over the barbed wire. Then, when the wall was down, the population of East Germany collapsed…more than one out of every ten people moved to the West!

But it was a great experiment for economists. Too bad they didn’t learn anything.

Pundits greeted Angela Merkel’s convincing election win in Germany Sunday with a collective yawn. Commentators think the German economy is sluggish and over-dependent on exports, and believe that a change in the German government from a grand coalition to a center-right coalition will make little policy difference.

I think that’s wrong. It’s an erroneous viewpoint that’s symptomatic of the short memories of the chattering media. It’s also one that could cause investors to miss out on one of the best profit plays in the global marketplace today.

I’m talking about Germany – the real powerhouse of Europe.

The “New” Germany

From the 1950s to the 1980s, West Germany consistently delivered high growth rates and low inflation. West German engineering proved superior to any other on the planet. And West German living standards rose far above anywhere else in Europe.

Then came 1990.

East and West Germany were reunited and an

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I very much enjoyed this book review by Gerard DeGroot published in Sunday's Washington Post on Michael Meyer's new book on the fall of the Berlin Wall.  It never fails to impress me how much our ideas about this recent period in history continue to inform (or more aptly, misinform) our understanding of contemporary politics and relations with Russia and the states of the former Soviet Union.  Apparently Michael Meyer's book pokes some holes in the traditional hero myths, and points to the accidental and chaotic nature of how all these world-changing events spun out of control.  Very interesting and thoughtful stuff here.The events themselves were played out by a cast of thousands in Budapest, Berlin, Prague, Warsaw and Bucharest. There was no script; this was an improvisational drama conceived by Camus, with help from Kafka and Molière. The Soviet Union came ...

Der Spiegel has a fascinating article about a piece of historical documentation which has been uncovered, revealing whether it was Walter Ulbricht or Nikita Khrushchev who came up with the idea of building the Berlin Wall.

Khrushchev, at any rate, stepped up the pace. "We will give you one or two weeks to make the necessary economic preparations," he told Ulbricht. "Then you will convene the parliament and issue the following communiqué: 'Beginning tomorrow, checkpoints will be erected and transit will be prohibited. Anyone who wishes to cross the border can do so only with the permission of certain authorities of the German Democratic Republic."

Khrushchev wanted to convince the East German population that the wall being built would protect them from Western spies, and he said that the

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German Stimulus Stinginess Opens Opportunity Window 

By Martin Hutchinson, Contributing Editor, Money Morning

Editor’s Note: Picking up the pieces from our credit crisis, and the stimulus package designed to help the markets are all everyone is talking about recently. And it’s a pretty good likelihood that it’s all we’ll be hearing for a while. Having a good handle on which governments are doling them out and the amount they’re spending is important. It doesn’t just tell us which governments are overspending for results, it uncovers nations that haven’t been spending as much. It’s a window for investors to pick up some solid foreign stocks.

Four Ways to Profit From the Country With the Smallest Stimulus Package

Commentators are tripping over one another to declare this country or that country’s stimulus package as a primary reason to pour money into its stock market. Yet if you look at the highly damaging long-term effects of such

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