Germany’s Economic Model Is Broken, and No One Has a Plan B

The country is focused on exports, but China is slowing imports and U.S. tariff threats are growing. 

Politicians are offering few alternatives.

Trade in goods is more critical to Germany’s economy than oil is to Texas or tech to California—

an overdependence that is the result of decades of government policy that supported export manufacturing while creating hurdles to investment in new sectors such as IT or in the country’s infrastructure.

Exports support roughly one in four German jobs.

More than two-thirds of cars produced in Germany are exported. 

Since the mid-1990s, exports’ share of Germany’s GDP doubled, reaching 43% of GDP, 

four times the share in the U.S. and twice as high as China. 

Wall Street Journal 26 January 2025

https://www.wsj.com/economy/trade/germany-economic-model-broken-exports-095a488d?mod=hp_lead_pos7