Longer business hours equals stronger economy

Food and drink retailers, as well as clothing retailers, performed best in June, according to data published separately by the Bundesbank.

No duh. The public, delighted by suddenly dilated summer hours, rushed out and abused them. Taking advantage of a young, impressionable idea -- a concept that's had too much to drink, and with a tender liver -- they've decided to spend more money on Sunday. We were all guilty, and don't believe anyone who says otherwise. The extended hours is how things should be, were we free of back-numbered business laws.

Private consumption "accounts for 60% of the country's gross domestic product." That's a low figure for one of the world's top ten economies, but still, yeah, we need consumers who aren't counting 5-cent coins. We're existing in such a Rube Goldberg economy that for every World Cup success story (sports merchandisers, well-located businesses), we had a casualty (restaurants and hotels overbooked by FIFA). That's why no one's willing to call the past few months a boom: it's more of an affirmative sign. And it doesn't take a World Cup for that to continue for German retailers: just a willingness to extend working hours for normal businesses. Extend, not demolish. A compromise.

Lazy Sundays, we know thy name. It's definitely charming, in a certain inconvenient way, that [nearly] everything is closed here on Sunday. But the German nation isn't a quaint, high-Schuhing department of Epcot Center -- it's a huge, powerful economy that needs to show some adaptability if it wants to stay in the major leagues.