by Sazari » Sat Sep 08, 2012 9:29 am
Export oriented economy. I'm not saying we can't be one, but the germans have very favorable trade terms within the EU. This allows them to make a number of things at a competitive level that otherwise would be outsourced to Turkey or Vietnam or something. Honestly I think that explains much of the difference in unemployment (8% here 5.5% there, not huge really).
If you look at the rest of Europe, which by and large cannot be export oriented economies because the germans have that niche locked down, they have very high UE rates.