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Germany's ascendancy over Europe will prove short-lived
Germany has peaked. Its hegemony in Europe is a “power illusion”, a confluence of fleeting advantages soon to be overwhelmed by the delayed effect of error and the crush of historic forces. We have come to believe the narrative that Germany was transformed into a Teutonic Tiger by the Hartz IV reforms of Gerhard Schroder in the country’s Thatcherite blast a decade ago. As always with such stories, it is half true. The reforms did make it easier for Volkswagen to secure longer hours for no extra pay at German plants by threatening to decamp to Eastern Europe. It is why unit labour costs fell 4.4pc across German ... (full story)