Austria rises above its German neighbours

We have become used to reading about the dire state of the German economy. Unemployment soars, incom...

We have become used to reading about the dire state of the German economy. Unemployment soars, incomes flag, the birthrate declines and the government stumbles toward an almost certain electoral defeat. That's why it comes as a surprise to read about an economy of a German-speaking country that is doing pretty well. In a quiet way, Austria has been consistently outperforming its close cultural and linguistic neighbour. There are lessons in that about where Germany itself went wrong, and about its prospects for transforming itself in the years ahead. In terms of economic history, structu...