Deflation, credit crunch, bank crisis - Will Germany's finance industry wake up from its (media) nightmare in 2004

"Deflation", "credit crunch" and "bank crisis" were the catchwords repeated in the financial press in 2003. In Germany in particular the media insisted in recent months that the country was experiencing a Japanese malaise. In their contributions Prof. Stephan Paul, Dr. Stefan Stone, Bochum University, and Prof. H. Jörg Thieme, Düsseldorf University, examine the extent to which these labels are justified and what trends can be observed for financial services in 2004.