Yesterday, I did (as usual) watch the actual edition of Quarks & Co. This edition had the title “Naked, but secure? How much security can a democracy endure?”
As also usual with this format, Ranga Yogeshwar, the moderator of this format, did not make any ostentatious claims, but listed simple facts. He had two persons in the studio with him, one that once was perceived as a terrorist and had been silently followed by Germany’s security offices, and one social psychologist, explaining the mechanisms of perceived “Angst” and the irrational reactions to that by the state and its people. One example: After 9/11 US citizens no longer wanted to fly by plane, because they feared to become a victim of another terror assault. So they travelled by car. The rate of incidents when using a car is way higher than when using a plane, so that irrational deviation led to some 1500 more dead persons in the year after 9/11. Another example: The airport at Frankfurt alone is paying 2 Million Euro PER WEEK for destroying the waterbottles et.al. that are raided at the security checks. The psychologist simply said: “Use that money to develop Afganistan, and Al-Quaida is history!”
These are just two small examples, of misguided reactions to terror-events, that had been induced by the government or irrational reactions of its citizens.
Think about it! And watch the replay on Saturday at noon on WDR3! Or download the feature as a podcast from: http://medien.wdr.de/download/1268164800/quarks/wdr_fernsehen_quarks_und_co_20100309.mp4. Sadly, it’s in German only… That’s the only caveat I have…
Thanks, Ranga, for a great edition (as usual!)!
Matthias
Unser neuer Gesundheitsminister Dr. Philip Rösler hat gestern in einer Pressemitteilung einen interessanten Satz zur geplanten Gesundheitskarte von sich gegeben:
Wir gehen den Aufbau der Telematikinfrastruktur schrittweise an und beginnen mit einer erweiterten und datenschutzrechtlich sichereren Krankenversichertenkarte. Die Realisierung weiterer medizinischer Anwendungen wird so lange mit einem unbefristeten Moratorium belegt, bis praxistaugliche, höchsten datenschutzrechtlichen Anforderungen entsprechende Lösungen vorgelegt werden.
Bin mal gespannt, wie das aussehen wird! Und was die Piratenpartei davon halten und dazu sagen wird.
Matthias
Today was the day of repetition of the contents as preparation for the test next week. This was a “quickie”, it’s been over after 15 minutes, some Q&A made it then to 25 minutes.
Sadly, this also marks the end of this lecture, which was really fun to start a week with. Wished, I would have been listening to more of his lectures over the last years, sadly, that’s no longer possible as he’s now retired…
All the best, dear Prof Rürup!
Sincerly Yours,
Matthias
Today was again devoted to social security systems, this time, it’s been health insurance and its german specific versions… 
Next week will be a recap as preparation for the final tests.
Matthias
P.S.: Last Thursday was meant to be Bert Rürup’s official last lecture (let’s call it a farewell lecture), but it did not happen, as some union people did block it by making noise… Sad, sad… ;-(
Today was the continuation of last week’s topic: Social Security Systems, mainly retirement pay. Especially the german version of it…
Again, a good start into the new week!
Matthias
Today’s topics were social politics and social security systems. He started by explaining the Phillips Curve and did provide us with the numbers and curves for Germany from 1955 to 1990. Then he did explain Okun’s Law and from there on dived into social security systems, where there was a couple of discussions around the late changes in law in Germany.
Again, a nice start into the week!
Matthias
Today’s topic was the continuation of last week’s session, and did cover multiple aspects of the keynesian economics as well as for example the Harrod-Domar model. Main topics were different aspects of who’s going to “pay” for the credits a government or state is using to invest in its future. So Development economics was the last topic of today’s lecture.
Matthias
Today’s topic was: national bankruptcy. It was the first in a row of two lectures, so we’ll see, what he’ll discuss next week additionally. Today he did cover the basis, all the definitions needed in order to understand the implications. A larger section today was devoted to the upcoming change of article 115 of the german consitution (see here) and the implications of the european stability and growth pact on that article.
Matthias
Again, I did start this week with a visit to Bert Rürump’s lecture. This week he did talk about further factors for influencing growth in an economy: The “amount of money in circulation” and the “key interest rate” (or for our american friends: “prime rate”), and how these do influence the economy. For more details, it is again a good idea to check Wikipedia, I always found their descriptions very useful: Money Supply. Sadly, the ones on the other factor are a bit terse, still, here’re the links: Interest Rate and Prime Rate
Matthias
P.S.: An addition to last week’s lecture: We do have to differentiate between taxes and insurances, when looking at all the dues we have to pay. Some are dues with no right on payback (for example: income tax, et.al.), some are dues with an entitlement for payback (for example: unimployment insurance). Sadly, many people always do the sum, and never differentiate between these two. When comparing the dues you have to pay in different countries, you have to look at those precisely, because there are countries, where for example the unimployment insurance is NOT done by goverment, but needs to be done privately. Therefore you can NOT compare the dues that are deducted from your income across countries.
This week’s lecture was on how to grow the GDP (gross domestic product) by two of the seven possible factors. “Human capital” as well as “growth in population”.
He started by discussing the “ideal state” and the need for growth, and with interceptions on the latest OECD studies, and their discussions on the state of Germany, as well as discussions on the influence of longer life expectancy…
Sorry for being a bit brief this week, to much to do…
I again did enjoy it immensly, again a beautiful start of the week!
Matthias
P.S.: Last week, he also did discuss the hysteresis, a phenomenon to be seen in economies. The number of “re-employments” after a downturn never does reach the number of “un-employment”… ;-( So un-employment grows and grows…
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