From a column by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in this morning’s Telegraph:

“In two weeks … Berlin will fall to Angela Merkel, the shy physicist who

grew up under Communism as the daughter of a Lutheran pastor, a

’non-person’, learning young how to question the system. … Her putative

finance minister, Paul Kirchoff, wants a 25 per cent flat tax and calls for

the abolition of 90,000 tax rules. ‘We will smash down the tax barriers,

break the cycle of resignation. I’ll be there myself on hand with a big

sledge-hammer. We want to give the citizens back their freedom and let them

decide for themselves what they want to do with their incomes,’ he said last

month. …

“Barely noticed, Germany has overtaken America to become the world’s biggest

single exporter, shipping the hardware that powers the rising economies of

Asia and eastern Europe. Its trade surplus is now greater than that of

China, Japan and India combined, reaching a staggering 16.8 billion euros in

June alone. The profits made by German companies are running at over 33 per

cent of national income, the highest in 40 years. …

“Foreigners poured £47 billion into German equities in May and June alone,

says the Bundesbank. Yes, there are 4.8 million unemployed. There were still

three million unemployed well after Britain had pulled out of its 1970s

nosedive. Jobs are the last of the lagging indicators. …

“Deutschland AG has knuckled down. Now it is up to the German state.”

[Derb] As the resident Germanophile here on NRO, this warms my heart.

Addressing his British readers, Evans-Pritchard goes on to suggest an

Anglo-German condominion, to go breezing past the stick-in-the-mud French

and hopeless Italians. That, if it happens, is an act the USA should get in

on.