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Unemployment is one of the indicators used to look at a country's macro-economy. The low unemployment in Germany leads economists to believe that the economy is recovering, meaning it is going through the "recovery" stage of the business cycle - a positive thing for a country after a global recession.

Jan 11th 2012, 15:07 by C.O. | LONDON SCOTT SUMNER recently wrote a nice post entitled "The myth of the pro-German ECB". I disagree with his argument that the Balassa-Samuelson effect explains higher inflation rates in the European periphery (isn't this effect based on productivity gains in the tradables sector?), but in my view he is right on his main point: monetary policy by the ECB was too tight for Germany. This article is about how Germany seems to be the only country in the eurozone not failing because of the reduction in aggregate demand from the euro. It explores the reasons for this.

The world economy is in a troubling situation right now, and leaders of the G-8 countries have often disagreed on how to deal with economic troubles. Angela Merkel (Chancellor of Germany) has pushed Europe into using austerity measures to attempt to solve its debt problems; but with this meeting the focus shifted rather to economic growth, and how the countries would work together to achieve this in the next few crucial months.

This article concerns the industry of solar panels. Last year, demand for solar panels doubled in countries such as Germany and Italy. This was in response to the increase in supply. Last year, the average price of a solar panel halved due to advanced technology (a ceteris paribus factor of supply). This decreased the costs of production of solar panels, shifting the supply curve to the right. In response to the low prices, demand also increased. This demonstrates the price mechanism.