have the ssm, the srm. the whole project of the banking union is making progress. i am always a bit surprised when people focus so much on the german elections. if one looks on how all decisions regarding europe passed the german parliament, there is roughly an 80 % stable majority. this is very likely not going to change. on european and international economics policy i would not expect many things to change as a result of these elections ”. what is, in your view, the most important problem europe is facing today? “ there are a number of things. the biggest risk to the positive trend i see is that we are not doing enough – that we are in positive territory, that markets stay calm. so, the biggest risk is complacency and reform fatigue. the second one that worries me is that in this crisis we see national stereotypes resurface. i believed my generation would have overcome this but this is untrue neither in northern nor in southern europe. the third thing is how do we re - develop the european project? every generation has to redefine what we mean by this. the banking union is the first element, but we also need a fiscal union, a democratically legitimate political union. the fourth is how do we stay competitive in a globalizing world? we have discussed europe. but we are very much inward looking while the rest of the world is moving. how do we stay competitive in an ageing society? ”. bis central bankers ’ speeches

these facts are hardly surprising as the united states is generally attested a leading position in terms of the factor human capital in highly qualified, research - intensive jobs. however, we should not lose sight of the fact that germany is known as a country with a very good average quality of the factor human capital. this basically favours a broad application of new technologies and their adoption to particular enterprise - specific conditions. what do all these findings now imply for future growth prospects? most of the currently available forecasts agree that an economic recovery is to be expected in germany over the next few years, whereas the pace of expansion in the united states is likely to decelerate, leading to a soft landing. to that extent, a certain convergence of cyclical growth can be expected. however, from the perspective of the debate on the “ new economy ”, the key question is whether the anticipated upswing in germany will be more than cyclical in character and lead to a trend shift in the path of growth - in much the an interpretation of these figures should take into account the fact that direct comparisons are complicated by the different methods to adjust for price developments, especially in the capital goods sector. the depreciation components, which might differ for several reasons, should also be taken into account. the figure relates to aggregate hourly labour productivity. the comparative value for the us corporate sector is 2. 2 %. the term “ new economy ” is also used especially “ to describe the shift from the industrial production of goods towards the provision of knowledge - based services ”. “ the new economy has arrived in euroland ”, goldman sachs, european weekly analyst, 99 / 41, 199, s. 1. science, technology and industry scoreboard 1999. benchmarking knowledge - based economies, oecd ( 1999 ). this type of investment grew by an annual average of just over 8 % in real terms in germany in the nineties. see in particular : tertiarisierung und neue informations - und kommunikationstechnologien, ifo - schnelldienst, 29 / 99, p. 23 - 34. quoted from the federal ministry of education and research, zur technologischen leistungsfahigkeit deutschlands, endbericht 1999, p. 29. same way as in the united states in the nineties. i believe this is possible if the willingness to undertake reforms is followed by action to match. what is of main importance to