[lbo-talk] Real Wage Development in Germany, 1995-2004

[Somebody Somebody]

The U.S. figure in this chart is inflated because it includes the second half of the 90's which was the *only* period of significant wage growth in the entire period since the early 70's. It's not news to anybody on this list that the tech boom of Clinton's second term was a relatively good time for the American working class. 

Moreover, while the period from 1994-2000 was a boom-time in the U.S. with GDP growth rates for several years exceeding 4%, the German economy was extremely anemic and didn't really recover from the recession of the early 90's (which was deeper there than in the U.S.) until 2000, when so sorry, they suffered the next downturn along with America.