Poor Gerhard Schroeder’s descent into economic lunacy continues apace:

“Chancellor Gerhard Schröder’s pledge to impose a punitive wealth tax [a tax on assets] on Germans earning more than €250,000 (£166,500) a year met howls of protest from economists and opposition parties yesterday as the government prepared for an early general election this autumn. The controversial plan for an additional 3 per cent tax on the wealthy who now pay 42 per cent income tax, were unveiled by Mr Schröder’s ruling Social Democrats at the weekend as part of the party’s election manifesto.”

This is in keeping with the SPD’s lurch to the left (remember all that talk about ‘locusts’) ahead of the elections this fall, and is likely, depressingly, to be quite popular.

Meanwhile the German (sorta conservative) opposition is planning to increase indirect taxation, something that would further hit already depressed consumption levels…

Madness.