At one point they fell by nearly 16%, hinting at fears that VW is paying too much to fold Porsche into its large stable of brands.But VW, which has been one of the few carmakers to hold its own as markets collapsed, claims that closer integration from shared design and pooled purchasing will, in the long term, boost the merged firm's operating profit by €700m a year.
The view in Berlin is that France has been slow to embrace structural reforms like making it easier to hire and fire workers that would, in the long term, boost growth.
"Solving the housing shortage is possible, we just need politicians to roll up their sleeves and commit to the solutions that will create a healthier housebuilding market for the long term, from boosting small builders with government guarantees, to getting land into the hands of those who can build the affordable homes we need".
Even this more modest Treasury figure may well over-estimate the long-term boost to GNI.
By contrast, household demand is not getting any real long-term boost, despite a few notable initiatives, including better health care.
The Bertelsmann Foundation thinks that the US would be likely to be the biggest winner, with a long-term boost of 13.4% to its gross domestic product per capita, compared with 5% for the EU.
Some critics have suggested that concertgoers who attend such events might not be provide a long-term boost to ticket sales, because they might not return for more traditional fare.
The Bertelsmann Foundation thinks that the US is likely to be the biggest winner, with a long-term boost to its gross domestic product per capita of 13.4%, compared to 5% for the EU.
So today's announcement of a flat cash settlement for the operational science budget with a further long-term boost to the capital budget is hopefully less a cause of relief and more a cause for confidence for the future.
Freeing markets, whether by liberalizing rules on hiring and firing or sweeping away restricted practices in professions, still has the capacity to deliver a big long-term boost to productivity in much of the world.
