The new government hopes to cure Germans’ distaste for the stockmarket

THE 177-PAGEFDPGDP coalition agreement between Germany’s Social Democrats, Free Democrats () and the Greens contains grand plans to combat climate change and covid-19, and to speed up digitisation. Tucked away on page 73 is a more modest promise, to fund a small part of its public-pension scheme by investing in stocks. Reactions in Germany ranged from the apprehensive to the enraged. “Is our pension safe in stock?” fretted one news outlet. Another asked: “Are politicians gambling away our pension?”As retirees live longer, Germany’s pension system, which was established in 1889 by Otto von Bismarck, is buckling. Workers and bosses together pay a “pension tax” of about 18% of a worker’s gross wage. This is meant to fund the roughly €300bn ($340bn, or about 9% of ) paid out in pensions each year. But shortfalls have meant that the government has had to subsidise the scheme, to the tune of €100bn last year. The problem is only set to get worse as more baby-boomers retire.