Kaput: The End of the German Miracle

By Wolfgang Münchau

Categories: Business & Money, Politics & Social Sciences

Kaput: The End of the German Miracle (2024, Swift Press) is Wolfgang Münchau's account of Germany's postwar neo-mercantilist model: export surpluses, state-linked industrial finance, and factories over digital technology. Strength from about 2005 to 2015, he says, rested mostly on temporary tailwinds. Digital lag, costly energy after reliance on Russian supply, and deep Chinese demand exposed how rigid the system had become. Kaput shows how Europe's largest economy slid into structural decline—and why his one concrete remedy, a European capital-markets union to channel savings toward startups, looks politically remote.

Recommended by 1 person

• Patrick Collison: “is interesting and useful, though I'm not sure that it really gets at the root issues, and the neomercantilist diagnosis isn't super convincing.”