We looked in vain in Siemens AG’s first half report on Monday for any mention of its Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG computer subsidiary, and with all the dreadful economic news coming out of Germany, it began to assume the air of the dog that didn’t bark: Siemens said of its overall business that it did not show any revival in the first half, and that continued economic decline affected domestic business and led to a decline in incoming orders, and there was no recovery in its foreign business; laying it on with a trowel, Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s leading economic advisor was quoted on Tuesday as saying that German workers failed to recognise the danger of high wages in a time of recession, and that German products were too expensive for world markets as wage increases outpaced growth in productivity, and earlier, Siemens Nixdorf had had to rebut a magazine report that its losses would be even worse this year, saying that it was certain that its results would improve this fiscal year; the article, in Manager Magazin, also said that Siemens was looking for a replacement for Siemens Nixdorf management board chairman Hans-Dieter Wiedig, and added that plans to reduce the workforce to 41,000 by 1995 from 47,200 at the end of February could well be accelerated.
