First, Germany has a system of centralised wage negotiations unmatched by other countries, which made it much easier to negotiate with its unions what was ineffect a national wage freeze.
My forecast is a growing crisis in Europe, a contagion effectin the European banking system, a resulting credit freeze, spreading to the rest of the world, and basically a rerun of many of the things that happened in 2008.
Ineffect it means the icy rains predicted could freeze the election for at least a few days - the American media will report on little else and fewer voters will hear what the politicians have to say.
The first thing I noticed when you put into effect that non-security discretionary spending freeze is you got kicked in the shins by some of the left-wing blogs.