Germany only has itself to blame for its problems

Germany is currently suffering from: The contraction in its industry, given the considerable weight of the industries of the past; A real overvaluation of its exchange rate (in a currency area, increasing labour costs) that is causing it to lose market shares; Very negative long-term interest rates, which are causing hardship for savers and future pensioners. But Germany has done nothing to correct its excess savings, and moreover, since 2012 it has no longer lent to the other euro-zone countries but to the rest of the world, outside the euro zone. This has had the following consequences: In Germany, insufficient investment, public and in the industries of the future; a stagnation of productivity that has led to a loss of cost-competitiveness; Given the euro zone's external surplus, a move towards an appreciation of the euro and a deflationary spiral caused by the savings surplus, which are corrected by the very expansionary monetary policy, hence the negative interest rates. If Germany had invested its savings surplus in modernising the country and in developing production capacity in the rest of the euro zone, its situation (dependence on old industries, loss of-cost competitiveness, very negative interest rates) would be far better currently.