I dont think anyone is calling Germany socialist because of this. I think most of the state-owned banks are owned by local bodies or the federal states. Those ones owned by the local bodies are in fact controlled by the local business, small to medium trade and so on.
The banks owned by the federal states are in fact dominated by the dominating party in that state and used to provide funding for that party. E.g. the buil-up of the SPD in East Germany from scratch was helped by the Westdeutsche Landesbank.
>
> >Daimler's co-determination system is giving the UAW more clout
> >than it ever had before in running Chrysler.
>
> I'd be interested in the detail. The history of 'co-determination' in
> industrial relations is pretty poor.
>
Generally there is an equal representation of capital owners and employess in the board of directors (Aufsichtsrat) in German incs (Aktiengesellschaft). But this equal representation is shifted somewhat in favour of the capital side by the fact that the top management seats are counted as employees and in case of an indecisive vote in the board the chairman, who is selected by the capital owners will have an extra vote. So actually the the co-determination is just a right to be informed formally.
At the same time it is a source for integration coruption of union leaders. E.g. a former union leader on the Daimler board had to resign because of insider trading.
In the case of Daimler Chrysler the German 'co-determination' model was praised as beeing more consentual oriented than the more conflict driven US labour relations. I dont know whether it is true or whether it was just a way to sell it to shareholders.
Johannes