Next Thursday, Germany will officially slide into recession when third-quarter growth figures for Europe's powerhouse will be released. The odds are that statisticians will announce "negative growth" to use a trending euphemism. Given that growth had dropped in the second quarter too, it would mean that Germany is in a recession, at least in technical terms. I can already imagine the alarmists dominating public debates on the state of the economy. "We've told you all along," they will say, "we're caught in a downward spiral, and the end of the world is firmly in sight anyway." But none of this is true. Uncertainty ... (full story)