In his essay, Flassbeck acknowledges Wolfgang Stützels‘s contribution to economics and sharply criticizes the failure of modern economics in Germany. The core of the text is Stützel’s [[Saldenmechanik-en]] - the accounting logic that the total financial assets of an economy are always zero because every claim is matched by an equally high liability. Using three examples of economic policy, Flassbeck shows how this macroeconomic logic is ignored in practice:

  1. pension debate: the thesis of the superiority of the funded system over the pay-as-you-go system fails because of the basic truth of balance mechanics: an economy as a whole cannot save. Financial assets are always zero - a demographic problem cannot be solved simply by changing the form of financing, but only by real adjustment.
  2. tax cuts and corporate profits: Flassbeck takes up Wilhelm Lautenbachs “entrepreneurial profit equation”: Corporate profits only rise if some sector (state, foreign or private households) takes on more debt or saves. Tax cuts combined with budget consolidation can therefore by definition not generate positive investment and employment effects - the falling government deficit pulls profits down.
  3. competition between nations: The attempt by states to gain competitive advantages through wage, tax or currency dumping is a zero-sum game. What works for an individual company (cost reduction) inevitably leads to distribution struggles, deflation and - as in the 1930s - to international devaluation spirals at a macroeconomic level.

Conclusion: Flassbeck complains that the German economists have abandoned Stützel and Lautenbach’s macroeconomic logic in favor of individual economic thinking and ideological positions - with fatal consequences for economic policy.