BMW’s China strategy: Localisation as Farewell
BMW is cutting 8,000 jobs in administration and development and moving the entire value chain for the Chinese market to China. Some commentators read this as proof that Munich, unlike…
AI Agents, Productivity and the Underestimated Role of the Corporate Constitution
Software companies promise a productivity boost from AI agents; SAP even speaks of the "autonomous enterprise". Economic history suggests that the gains do not arrive when the technology is purchased,…
Why China’s auto consolidation will not ease the export pressure on Europe
China's car industry is beginning to consolidate. Nio and Geely are merging their battery-swapping businesses, and GAC is taking over half of FAW Toyota. At first glance, this looks like…
German Startups: Lots of Beginnings, Few Continuations
Germany is reporting records in startup formation, unicorns and venture capital. Yet the same figures show that capital is concentrating in ever fewer rounds, that the number of financings is…
Chemnitz and the Persistence of Machine Building
For generations, Chemnitz has carried the epithet "cradle of German machine building." The title is more than city marketing: starting in the 1840s, within a few decades, the densest concentration…
The Future That Repeats Itself
In 1983, when his book The World After Oil: The Shifting Axis of Power and Wealth was published (later translated into German as Das Ende unserer Zukunft), Bruce Nussbaum was…
BDI’s Position Paper: The Same Old Tune for Forty Years
The BDI has presented a position paper, "Principles of Economic and Trade Policy," meant to rally 38 member associations and roughly 100,000 companies behind it. Its real analytical value, however,…