MUNICH — Since last autumn, Germany has been accused by a number of Anglo-American economists, above all by the 2008 Nobel laureate Paul Krugman, of not doing enough to combat the world economic crisis and of free-riding on other countries' stimulus programs.
Recently, The Financial Times asked where are the German economists who defend Germany's policies, voicing the presumption that they disagree with their government's policies but are too cowardly to say so publicly, thus conforming to the rituals of the German "consensus society." From a German point of view, this discussion is a ludicrous inversion of the truth.
Germany has implemented two economic stimulus programs, amounting to 80 billion euro, or 3.2 percent of GDP, of which 1 percent of GDP will take effect in 2009. At first glance, this is indeed less than the American program, which totals 6.2 percent of GDP, of which 2 percent will be spent in 2009. But this impression is deceptive, since the German state, through the built-in flexibility of its extensive social-welfare system, already contributes to stabilizing the world economy.