...in part a gigantic property bubble, in part by increasing debt in the south.
I.e. in a very simplified and imprecise form: Greece and Spain was taking on government and private debt and was buying German cars from it, which reduced local competitiveness. EU rules were specifically designed to allow the unrestricted flow of funds from the north to the south - so there was nothing the south could do to protect their local industries.
Germany nudge-nudge-wink accepted Greece into the EU, despite their obviously doctored balance sheet, in part because they wanted the market expansion.
...
"auto profits" are tainted goods, they were boosted by a decade of binge-buying by the south.
This still is vastly oversimplifying the reality. The South gained enormous advances in infrastructure as well as in agriculture markets. The auto industry obviously had huge changes during this period and the only huge EU benefits in that industry have been German. National champions from elsewhere have largely been acquired by Indians, Chinese and Germans, with all of them making large investments. To blame that on the EU/Germany is to ignore the consolidation globally, reflecting the enormous capital intensity in the business.
The present situation is that Tesla alone has achieved already an apparently impossible conquering of some highly disputed and profitable ground, directly analogous to what happened with PayPal and then SpaceX.
The EU and predecessors benefitted all of Europe, funded by all the rich ones and developing the poor ones. To see all this as a German auto industry power play is grossly misleading. If the recent past is prelude to the future some people will complain that Tesla ate up everyones lunch.
Finally, the story of German industrial success is really the story of the Mittelstand
The Mittelstand - BDI
Far less the giants, all of which depend on the Mittelstand.
No other country has been so successful as generating small company industrial dominance as has Germany. There are some analogies in Japan and Korea. China has a unique approach, but also is highly dependent on small enterprise.
Our problem as Tesla investors is figuring out how adept Tesla is at managing legions of suppliers. We almost never discuss that very much, but GF-3 and GF-4 are both more of a test in supplier management and recruitment than most of us perceive. Just as with German OEM's, Tesla is actually less vertically integrated as the common wisdom thinks. The comparisons usually seen as those of teh US-based OEM's which often outsource design and QC. We should be thinking more about Apple than we do about GM.
These lessons are about cooperation and collaboration with seemingly divergent interests. Those skills were at the core of EU success and still are. Germany has been a gigantic contributor, but not really such an overweening dominance. The world has changed.
Tesla and Elon have learned how to manage in this cooperative world while avoiding being dragged into hostile zero-sum-game logic.
Clearly these are my own views partly influenced by my working life. I have strong views but may not be correct about everything.
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