“You have to ask yourself, what did Friedrich Merz do for a living before entering politics,” Lindner mocked in an interview with the Tagesspiegel. Merz had previously praised the pension commission’s concept, under which employers and employees would each pay two percent of gross income into a capital-funded pension. The chancellor expects this to generate at least 30 billion euros annually for the German capital market.
Lindner considers this calculation flawed. “The capital that is saved must not be invested predominantly in Germany alone,” he said. Safe and profitable investment requires global diversification. He also criticized the planned financing through additional contributions: “Making labor costs even more expensive is a top-tier location risk.”
The former finance minister instead advocated building up the capital stock within the statutory pension system without increasing contributions – for example, through cost containment. The administration of the capital-funded pension should be taken over by the nuclear fund Kenfo, which already has experience with long-term investments. Kenfo CEO Anja Mikus emphasized to Spiegel that broad diversification over a long investment horizon is crucial.
Source: www.spiegel.de
