Economic data coming out of Germany may all spell doom and gloom. But viewed from her sun-drenched Stuttgart terrace, things do not look that bad for Regina Walz. "This talk of crisis is wildly exaggerated," she says. "We've been saving all our lives and we have a big family. Even if things go as wrong as they say, we'll always manage."

She should know. The 42-year-old mother of five is no ordinary Hausfrau : Ms Walz is a Swabian housewife. To Germans, it is they who personify thrift and solid common sense - values that Angela Merkel, for one, thinks the world could have done with a bit more of in recent years.