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Article: Germany's psychosis of defeat: a long-time admirer tells how Germany, like the United States in the 1970s, faces a profound crisis of confidence.
- Article from:
- The International Economy
- Article date:
- September 22, 2004
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 International Economy Publications, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Can Germany hold its own in the new world of a reconfigured Europe, an ascendant China, and a 21st-century America? Is German economic decline exaggerated? Or inevitable? These were questions I addressed recently at a meeting of Atlantik-Brucke, the German-American friendship organization.
The answer to the first two questions is "no." Unless it rapidly changes course, Germany cannot hold its own in the present world of a newly configured Europe, a rapacious China, and a flexible, highly adaptive American economy. German economic decline is, if anything, understated rather than exaggerated. And the decline of Germany's economy and Germany's role in the world is ...