The European economic crisis just keeps getting worse. The European Commission is now planning to pool all money for bank bailouts among nations. That means the funds set aside in Germany to weather German bank failures can be used in France. Meanwhile, the EU is preparing to relax the stability policy (austerity) because of refugees and terror. This emergency position will allow countries to now increase their debt under the exception of “Acts of God”. This clause can pretty much justify anything.
Furthermore, now tens of thousands of pensioners in Germany have to pay taxes on their pensions for the first time in 2016. A pension increase of 2.5% will result in a lower net take-home for the first time and this will exceed the basic allowance in the coming year. The Ministry of Finance expects to be characterized with 310 million euros in additional tax revenue.