The List That Is Not a Supply Chain
On 9 October the European Commission named 46 more strategic raw materials projects, bringing the total to 106. That sounds like progress, and on paper it is. But a project…
What Audi’s Third Quarter Reveals About the End of the Two-Market Explanation
In the third quarter of 2026, Audi delivered 314,905 vehicles worldwide, 19.7 percent fewer than a year earlier. In the second quarter the decline had still been around 8 percent.…
What Volkswagen’s Third Quarter Reveals About Europe’s Role in the Group
Until mid-year, Volkswagen's sales decline could be explained entirely by China. The third quarter of 2026 suggests that this explanation no longer suffices. At the same time, Chinese brands are…
What the Franco-German initiative against China achieves – and what it leaves open
Berlin and Paris want to give the European Commission an instrument that, in an emergency, could go as far as immediate exclusion from the single market. The economist Sander Tordoir…
Why the EV Boom Does Not End a Dependency but Exchanges It
More than one in three new cars registered in Germany is now fully electric, and a widely read commentary sees this above all as a way out of a costly…
The Title That Promises Too Much
On world market leaders, specialists and the assumption of a dormant reserve in Germany's Mittelstand One assumption recurs with remarkable regularity in Germany's economic policy debate: the Mittelstand, the country's…
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…