This week brought more dismal German economic data: Industrial production fell 1.5% in June from the previous month, worse than analysts expected. German industrial output has been in decline since 2018, when global vehicle sales fell for the first time in almost a decade. Some of the grit that has gotten into the German economic machine might be hard to dislodge . The flaw in this model was that it outsourced economic policy, leading to problematic dependencies on geopolitical rivals. That allowed the country’s industrial base to survive better than in other Western countries.

Source: Wall Street Journal August 11, 2023 15:58 UTC