From Germany

Perusing some German papers tonight and stumbled across a couple of interesting things.

From the Deutsche Well

Data released on Thursday showed that the number of people out of work in seasonally adjusted terms rose by 6,000 to 3.6 million in January. And in seasonally unadjusted terms, unemployment increased by 342,000 this month.

Not that big of deal EXCEPT

However, January's unemployment jump is still less than the 350,000-rise predicted by economists.

That is a BIG miss. Economist were predicting an increase of 350,000 and instead Germany lost 6,000? Germany's economic numbers have been looking really weak lately. The German labor department is trying to blame it on really cold weather but that 6,000 was a seasonally adjusted number. If you don't seasonally adjust they actually lost 342,000 jobs. OUCH!!

Also from the Deutsche Well

A German-based business information agency says Western Europe will face a fresh wave of bankruptcies this year, with insolvencies in Germany likely to reach record levels.

EEEEKKK!! Now you see the problem. If the EU saves Greece and eventually Portugal and Spain it will be Germans who do it. Well you can see the Germans have their own problems.

Let's add one more to the mix. From the German Local

Fears that uncertain recovery in Europe's biggest economy could stall were stoked Friday when data showed that German industrial production suffered a sharp setback in December.

Output fell 2.6 percent from the previous month according to seasonally adjusted figures provided by the economy ministry, following a gain of 0.7 percent in November and a drop of 1.7 percent in October.

On an annual basis, the fall in December was 7.1 percent, and along with fears over eurozone debt levels, the news helped pushed the euro to a nine-month low of $1.3648 on foreign exchange markets.

Analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had expected a rise of 0.5 percent but instead, Germany suffered its steepest fall since February 2009 when the country was mired deep in its worst recession since World War II.

Germany is Europe's biggest economy. It doesn't appear to be just a credit issue over there with Greece, Portugal, and Spain. These are economic numbers and an entire second dip looks like it may be occurring. Orders aren't looking to good either.

On Thursday, the ministry reported that orders lost 2.3 percent in December as global uncertainty weighed on foreign demand for German goods.

The rest of the article has words of hope for the Germany economy from various economics and analysts. Lets hope so because Germany is being forced to consider saving Europe.