It might yet. Marcel Fratzscher, head of the German Institute for Economic Research and Government adviser has a few choice things to say: crumbling economy...infrastructure becoming obsolete...companies preferring to invest abroad...loyalty to German own brands evaporating....and a damning article from Der Spiegel has this little nugget that you might find interesting:
"The German economy has shied away from investment for years. Companies have almost €500 billion stashed in savings, according to the DIW president's estimates, and yet the investment ratio in the German private economy fell from just under 21 percent in 2000 to a little more than 17 percent in 2013. Many economists conclude that companies are anxious because they are worried not just about crumbling roads, but about the lack of qualified workers, the state of the euro zone and rising energy costs. And this fear, in turn, is stymying the planning for Germany's future.
The consequences are dramatic. When adjusted for inflation, many businesses have actually decreased their spending on machinery and computers in the last decades, according to the figures from the Federal Statistical Office. This is especially true of the chemical industry, but industrial infrastructure is also crumbling in, for example, the mechanical engineering and electronics sectors. But companies haven't stopped investing altogether -- they are simply no longer investing in Germany."
By the way, he's got a new book out called "Der Deutschland Illusion". It sounds like it might be right up your street.
