Die schwarze Null, the black zero. In November 2014 the Bundestag passed the federal budget for 2015 without any new borrowing. It was the first time since 1969. Total spending was set at 299.1 billion euros.
Critics doubted that the budget was really balanced. The Green budget politician Sven-Christian Kindler said: “Schäuble versteckt seine Schulden trickreich in Schattenhaushalten.” Schäuble hides his debts cleverly in shadow budgets.