The International Financial Crisis – „The Beginning of a New Era“

Prof. Dr. Meinhard Miegel

He is considered to be one of Germany’s best-known and most disputatious academics. Professor Dr. Meinhard Miegel, Chairman of “Denkwerk Zukunft – Stiftung kulturelle Erneuerung”,
Prof. Dr. Meinhard Miegelnow directs the Amerang Dispute. This is the field of activity where the Ernst Freiberger Foundation focuses on academic research holding relevance for the future and sustainability of society. Miegel belongs to a group of prolific critics who take issue with a thinking that solely relies on material growth in advanced industrial societies. For him, the current economic crisis clearly marks “the end of perpetually growing prosperity and the beginning of a new era”. How the functioning of society, state and economy is to be maintained even if the economic power will continually decrease in a long-term perspective – this will be the fundamental concern of the Amerang Dispute in the years to come. Three stages or fields of research will help to provide answers, starting with the future of the family and the individual’s contentment and happiness in times of stagnating or decreasing economic growth. Then, possible effects of the crisis on the operability of the state will be investigated and, finally, the Amerang Dispute will deal with consequences on the economic framework.