Older people tend to be less mobile or flexible than younger people. This is because older people, with fewer productive years ahead, are more reluctant to incur various adjustment costs, for example relocating to a different geographical area or obtaining new skill sets to work in a different sector of the economy. This tendency appears not only in workers but also in entrepreneurs.
After looking at emerging markets, you may be also interested in the effects of recent market developments on the German banking industry. I would like to make four points here. First, German banks’ direct lending to US subprime borrowers or to intermediaries who passed loans on to the intermediaries is negligible.