A German Economist Rejects Special Fund for Infrastructure
Lars Feld, an economist from Freiburg, has declined the notion of a special fund for infrastructure. “I don’t expect another special fund for infrastructure. Sufficient funds for infrastructure were already planned in the medium-term financial plan of Christian Lindner” the former advisor to the ex-FinMin told the Rheinische Post in its Tuesday edition.
Feld, a former chief of the economic council, also emphasized the need for the federal government to consider the federal task distribution in infrastructure spending. “Cities and municipalities are not bound by the debt brake and can overburden themselves in the scope of their investments, but they do not do so because they are overburdened with tasks in the social sector and with consumption tasks from the federal and state governments. This needs to change.”
Feld also sees room for maneuver at the state level, stating, “It would be good, too, if the CDU/CSU did not pin the state governments down on the debt brake. The states have more room for maneuver than the structural zero of the constitution suggests. They have the possibility of conjunctural adjustment and more room for special funds than the federal government.