Resumen de Taxes Blown in the Wind? The Siemens Gamesa Bailout

Horst Eidenmüller, Javier Paz Valbuena

• The German government leads the bailout of the distressed wind power company Siemens Gamesa with a guarantee of € 7.5 billion. Based on prior conceptual work on the limits of bankruptcy law and bailouts of critical firms, we question the rationale for the bailout. Siemens Gamesa is not a critical firm. Neither efficiency nor geostrategic considerations justify the bailout. We also question its terms and conditions. The main shareholder of Siemens Gamesa is Siemens AG (through Siemens Energy AG), a highly profitable company. Siemens contributes little (if at all) to the bailout. This is not fair to the German taxpayer.