Central cities of Germany

1. The city that I will be looking at is Bonn, Germany. The city is currently ranked as the 19th largest city in Germany. Some of the really big cities in Germany are Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, and Hannover. Some smaller cities include Augsburg, Halle, Kiel, Erfurt and Hamm. These cities are all around the country and have a lot of differences that make them unique.

The list can be found at this site.
http://www.citymayors.com/gratis/german_topcities.html

2. Bonn is a great city that has the Rhine River running through the city. Bonn also has the largest metropolitan area in Germany. It also holds a couple of multi-national corporations. Cities bigger than Bonn will have a larger variety of food. They will also hold more national corporations and hubs. Hamburg has the biggest port in Germany and the city of Berlin is the capital of the country.

Here are some pictures of the city:

EGT Consulting

The most important thing to remember about Germany is their economy. Even though they are holding strong, the country is on an economic down turn. The per capital GDP in 2012 for Germany was $39,100 estimated in the year 2012. The biggest port in Germany is the Port of Hamburg. The port is on the north, western side of the country but has many roads and a few rivers leading out of its harbor. The Autobahn will allow for quick transportation of the shipping containers. The most cost effective order of transportation would go train, roads, and then planes because of shipping costs. The business climate in Germany is very good. Compared to the United States in 2012, Germany has a lower corruption level. If the European economy was doing better, Germany would be a sure fire deal; with their GDP and population plus excellent transportation.

Pointing the Blam

1. This article is about how the delivery of some high tech electronics are going to be delivered late and this will cost the company millions. Also the article talks about how the German company called Siemens was always in the news for something negative. The company had been on the right track and had gotten a contract for high speed trains but they will not be able to deliver the parts on time. 

Siemens AG is a German multinational engineering and electronics conglomerate company headquartered in Munich, Germany. It is the largest Europe-based electronics and electrical engineering company. Siemens' principal activities are in the fields of industry, energy, transportation and healthcare. It is organized into five main divisions: Industry, Energy, Healthcare, Infrastructure & Cities, and Siemens Financial Services.

2. This had me thinking about the transportation we were talking about last week. By just needing to push back the order by about a month or two the delivery costs are going to be in the millions. I know that transportation was expensive and when a company ships multiple items it will cost close to a million if there was a delivery change but I never thought that transportation costs could cost multiple millions for a company that needed a delivery change. Just making me think that even though those freight containers are useful it still costs a company changing moment. These millions could be the difference of if a company survives and if a company goes under. Thinking that delivery costs is a difference maker is a very interesting thought because then what else could make a major difference in a company? The little costs might not be so little any more. 

3. The solution to this could be having open ended delivery dates, or even not booking transportation for the goods so far in advance. Trying to cut down on delivery costs is a huge deal and one that should always be taken into consideration. All companies should try and minimize transportation costs by not only booking transportation in advance but also knowing what product you are making and know when to not book transportation for the goods if the company even has a doubt the product will not be in on time. 

Crates or a box, whats the difference?

1. The part of this article that I found most interesting was the relation to innovation and how it really helped to create a different type of economy. Now we focus on an innovation driven economy instead of asking how capital and labor can be amassed. As a future economist I really do enjoy this view point because it stretches my brain to think about how something like transportation helped to influence innovation which in turn then influenced the way economies functioned.

2. The author sees the shipping container as what opened up globalization in the world's economy. Instead of it taking close to several weeks for a small amount of goods to be transported it now takes very little time for a lot off goods to be transported, making the manufacturing cost fall to the ground because now goods could be made in low income economies and shipped to high ones to be sold in.

3. I see companies gaining from this because now they can trade all around the world making their goods more available. I also could see the consumer gaining because now there are more competitors lowering the price of goods in the markets. But lastly I see the consumer losing because they will receive goods not at the same standard they are used to. Goods are going to be made cheaply and quickly so they can be sold in bulk, which I believe then harms the consumer in the goods they buy but at the same time decreases prices for them.

Prosperity without growth?

1. The issue this article talks about is if there truly is prosperity without growth. It questions our GDP formula (GDP = C+I+G+(Exports-Imports)) because the formula does not calculate in "the over exploitation of resources, the destruction of biological diversity, air pollution, noise, the expansion of impervious surfaces known as soil sealing, and the poisoning of groundwater." 

                       

2. This issue really can be related to when we talked about the GDP formula and how it was affected by its factors of the equation. This article now makes us think if there is actually something else that affects the formula and makes GDP increase or decrease. 

3. What lead to this was economist's not wanting to include outside environmental factors. This is a really hard policy to figure out because while economists really do want to find a way to measure GDP, they also would love to find a way to measure it properly and include environmental issues. I really do not know of any solutions or any way to improve the formula to include these factors. 

Transportation

1. Water Transportation

The port of Hamburg is the biggest port in Germany that has access to the North Sea. The ports
of  Lübeck and Bremerhaven are also very big ocean ports in Germany.

Hamburg

 Lübeck

Bremerhaven

2. Ground Transportation

Railways:

• total: 40,826 km, including
• at least 14,253 km electrified and
• 14,768 km double- or multiple-tracked

Though Deutsche Bahn is a private company, the government holds all shares and therefore Deutsche Bahn can still be called a state-owned company. Since its reformation under private law in 1994, Deutsche Bahn AG (DB AG) no longer publishes details of the tracks it own.  There is also about 280 privately or locally owned railway companies which own an approximate 3,000 km to 4,000 km of the total tracks in Germany. 

Highways:

The volume of traffic in Germany, especially goods transportation, is at a very high level due to its central location in Europe. In the past few decades, much of the freight traffic has been shifting from rail roads to driving road.  Germany possesses one of the most dense road systems in the world. German motorways have no blanket speed limit, but posted limits are in place in many dangerous or congested stretches. Germany has approximately 650,000 km of roads, of which 231,000 km are non-local roads.The road network is extensively used with nearly 2 trillion kilometers traveled by car in 2005, in comparison to just 70 billion km traveled by rail and 35 billion km traveled by plane.

3. Air Transportation

Short distances and the extensive network of motorways and railways make airplanes noncompetitive for travel within Germany. Only about 1% of all distance travelled was by plane in 2002. But due to a decline in prices with the introduction of low-fares airlines, domestic air travel is becoming a lot more attractive. Frankfurt International Airport is Germany's largest airport and a major transportation hub in Europe. Frankfurt Airport ranks among the world's top ten airports. It is one of the airports with the largest number of international destinations served worldwide.

Airports — with paved runways:

• total: 320
  • over 3,047 m: 14
  • 2,438 to 3,047 m: 61
  • 1,524 to 2,437 m: 67
  • 914 to 1,523 m: 56
  • under 914 m: 122 (1999 est.)