German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s decision to lift the debt brake on his country’s economy is a departure from a decades-long tradition of fiscal caution. Before we get to the consequences of the change in Germany’s fiscal stance, it is important to consider why its politicians are choosing to do this. Germany’s economy has been struggling for quite some time, with the unemployment rate steadily drifting up, much as it did in the early 2000s. The lack of economic progress has