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German ideas of prudence are not very popular in the English-speaking world. When US and UK consumers went on a credit-fuelled spending binge earlier this decade, the Germans astounded their friends by not joining in. When the boom underpinned by consumer debt turned to bust last year, Berlin was criticised for its reluctance to help save the world by boosting its public debt as much as the US and the UK. Many observers have even complained about German wage restraint, apparently preferring German companies to run up more debt to pay their workers more.

Yes, the critics have a point or two. It took Berlin too long in late 2008 to recognise the nature and scale of the crisis unleashed by the post-Lehman heart attack in global financial markets. In the scramble to play it safe by...