Economics
Merkel Leaves Europe’s Sputtering Engine to Ride Out the Storm
- Germany is sticking to tight spending even in cheap-money era
- Manufacturing figures, profit warnings add to alarm signals
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Germany’s economy is sinking deeper and deeper into trouble, but there appears little chance of home-grown support from Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Signs of economic malaise are becoming increasingly hard to ignore amid a series of profit warnings in the country’s marqee automotive sector and an intensifying industrial crisis. The latest alarm bell -- a sharp drop in executive sentiment -- came just days after Merkel defended the country’s tight-fisted spending, a policy that’s riled European neighbors and the U.S.