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Byline: Stefan Theil
If Americans are in shock over the economic plight that the collapse of the housing bubble has wrought, Germans are simply baffled. In their view, they seem to have done everything right--they have a high savings rate, a solid manufacturing base and no exuberance in their real-estate market, while profligate Americans binge-spent their way to illusory growth. Yet the crisis has hit Germany much harder than America--its GDP shrunk 2.1 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008, compared to minus 1.6 percent in the U.S., and the 2009 forecast is grimmer-- minus 4 percent in Germany versus 2 percent in the U.S.
The problem is that Germany is actually a lot like China. Its own conservative position as an ...