The other view - Germany should become the land of investors. The end of irrational fear of stocks is overdue.

Germany should become the land of investors. The end of irrational fear of stocks is overdue. Chancellor Friedrich Merz celebrates the reform of private pension provision. Not unjustly. It can be the beginning of a revolution. You are reading an excerpt from the newsletter "The Other View in the Morning," today from Cornelius Welp, economic editor of NZZ Germany. Subscribe to the newsletter for free. Do you not live in Germany? Here you benefit. At the end of the summit, the German Chancellor was even really euphoric. "We are turning a people of savers into a people of investors," cried a radiant Friedrich Merz to the managers from all over the world gathered with him at the "Invest in Germany" conference. Really everyone in the country could participate. In the new "wealth creation for all." Merz cheered a little loudly. But in principle, completely right. The promotion of private pension provision initiated by the government can indeed bring about a change in mentality. Instead of relying on the state pension and barely interest-bearing products, more Germans could take control of their financial affairs themselves. Such an act of emancipation is long overdue. Attempts in this direction had already taken place. However, the Riester pension introduced under the government of Gerhard Schröder benefited mainly the financial industry. The traffic light coalition agreed on a follow-up model but broke down before it could implement the plans. This will finally happen next year. Much too late. But better late than never. The core of the reform is the so-called pension deposit. For this, the state contributes 50 cents for every Euro invested in an ETF or another previously defined product. The subsidy is limited to 540 Euros per year. There is a further subsidy for children and a bonus for young adults. Additionally, there is a "early start pension": the state pays 10 Euros per month for each child aged 6 to 18 into their own pension deposit. Given the precarious situation of the state pension system, these are very manageable steps. Given the German skepticism towards even minimal speculative investments, it is a revolution. The roots of the skepticism are antisemitic. In matters of money, irrational caution reigns. Two trillion Euros are in German checking and savings accounts. The average interest rate is currently well below 2 percent. At least 800 billion are in classic life insurance policies. Newly concluded contracts have yielded about 2.5 percent recently. Inflation was more than 3 percent recently. Investing in these products is therefore not wealth creation. It is wealth destruction. The behavior is as irrational as it is deeply rooted. And it is also shaped by antisemitism. Even in the Middle Ages, the Jewish money lender was an image of an enemy, which the Nazis built up into an extreme opposition. The honest Aryan managed to outwit the greedy Jew. By investing money, by speculating. Studies suggest that this image still has an effect today. The traumatic experiences of hyperinflation and currency reform also created an extreme need for security. By the turn of the millennium, this seemed to change: "New Market," reserved for growth companies, attracted investors, the government recommended privatized telecommunications as the "people's stock." The crash followed little later. A new shock. A new trauma. The trauma exists unjustly. It exists unjustly. Whoever had invested 10,000 Euros in an (then non-existent) ETF on the leading index DAX immediately before the crash in March 2000 would today also have around 26,000 Euros thanks to reinvested dividends. As a checking account, out of the same sum, not even 15,000 Euros would have been obtained. Similarly, the balance in case of entry immediately before the global financial crisis in 2007 is clearly out. From the DAX ETF, it would have been almost 30,000 Euros. From a checking account, not even 13,000 Euros. Even more reprehensible is the unrealistic criticism of the Left party. Its representatives bet against "gambling," against "forced speculation" and against a supposed gift to the financial industry. The fact that Chancellor Merz served for some years in the service of the American asset manager BlackRock is not an indication of expertise from this perspective. Rather, it is evidence of cronyism. Of course, the deposit opens opportunities for banks and asset managers. They are already taking advantage of large advertising campaigns. The fact that they first attract customers and then aggressively withdraw money is almost ruled out by state regulations. And until now, competition has caused the opposite. Digital companies like Trade Republic and Scalable offer the new deposit completely free of charge. With their favorable offers, they have already caused, in recent years, young people to lay down their fear of the stock market and to take care of their money themselves. With profit. If the courage persists, it would not only be an important step towards a sustainable pension system. It would also be an act of emancipation away from the too-widespread state indebtedness. And it would even be worthwhile. That is not absolutely certain. The state pension is not, however, even more so.