GLOBALIZATION

The Global Consequences of Germany’s “Educational Imperialism”

Matthew Klein describes how Germany's export strategy is damaging Europe and the rest of the world.

BY

THORE BECKMANN

PUBLISHED

17. JULY 2020

READING TIME

1 MIN

Germany “export world champion” – the trade surplus of the German economy is repeatedly celebrated in the media with positive connotations. The surplus is part of one of the biggest problems of the European domestic market and the entire global economy. Matthew Klein describes for Makronom how a sequence of economic policy mistakes in German politics led to the huge trade surplus.

In the past, it was primarily other European economies that suffered as a result of the German export surplus. But in the meantime, Germany has also taken its economic policy concept to the European level and is now putting pressure on the global economy. The mantra of “competitiveness” only works if some countries with deficits absorb the surpluses. This analysis is part of the book “Trade Wars are Class Wars” published by Matthew Klein and Michael Pettis and reveals numerous errors that are still present in the public debate on the German trade surplus.

ABOUT GLOBALIZATION

KNOWLEDGE BASE

After three decades of poorly managed integration, globalization is threatened by social discontent and the rise of populist forces. A new paradigm will need better ways not only to compensate the groups that have lost, but to distribute the gains more broadly from the start.

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