Impact of the Global financial crisis 2008-2012 on the US-German economic relations

Abstract

In the face of rapid technological development, accelerating the processof information exchange, people and capital movements the economiccrisis acquires features characterizes its era: globalization,technological complexity, unpredictability. The crisis of 2008 is amajor global economic shock over the past decades. For the transatlanticeconomic relationship this could mean the loss of the dominant positionon the world markets and removal of the center of world economicactivity to the East. The banking crisis in mid-2008 developed into aclash of economic systems and ways of life around the world. Economicdifficulties in the Eurozone can slow output of the U.S. economy out ofrecession. The U.S. government insists on more decisive action toresolve the crisis. From 2008 to 2012, U.S. Congress repeatedlydiscussed the economic situation in Europe. During the four years, therehas been more than 40 hearings tagged as ``crisis in the Eurozone.{''}As a result, the United States supported the EU through the mechanismsof the International Monetary Fund. Also, the US did not give the dollarfall against the European currency so as to give additional benefits toproducers from Europe. The U.S. has no direct mechanism to influence thesituation in the EU, but the indirect mechanisms were launched. The U.S.can not afford serious economic problems in Europe. The EU economy isimportant for the United States not only as an integral part of thetransatlantic trade relations, a huge market and the most important partof the financial system which had been built by the America for severaldecades, but also because of the potential consequences for theinternational relations and its own national security. For example,reducing their military spending Europeans force Americans to increasetheirs. Scientific development, infrastructure renewal, army maintenancebecame a daunting task for Europe. Number of initiatives aimed atstrengthening bilateral cooperation were studied by parliamentarians.``The initiative to increase jobs and support the transatlanticeconomy{''} aims to eliminate as many as possible obstacles forinvestors and businessmen on both sides of the Atlantic - ``only theelimination of tariffs in mutual trade can bring additional 50 billionto U.S. exporters{''}. German MPs, for their part, do not dispute theneed to eliminate trade barriers, but prioritize measures to combat thecrisis differently. Banks, which, according to the Bundestag are thecause of the crisis have to pay for their rescue and for the crisisitself. Without restructuring the financial system all other measurescan only postpone the matter. Without U.S. reforming the world financialsystem is not possible. However, in the U.S. there is no certain opinionabout the role of financial sector in the 2008 crisis. On the one hand,the investigation conducted by an independent U.S. FederalCommunications Commission at the highest level, focused on the role offinancial institutions in the crisis. On the other, the conclusionsreached by the Commission could disappoint the German politicalestablishment. Namely: the supervisory control over the financialinstitutions actions, its absence or failure could not be the sole ormain cause of the crisis.