Capitalism with a Constitution
How Germany built prosperity for all, how it unraveled — and what America can learn.
About the Book
In 1948, standing in the rubble of a destroyed country, Germany's founders designed a third way between unfettered capitalism and socialism: the social market economy — capitalism with a constitution. It produced the economic miracle, financed reunification, and sailed through crises that broke other economies. Then, decision by decision, German politicians abandoned their own formula. Today the world asks: what happened to Germany?
Joachim Enders answers from the inside — as an economist, strategy consultant, and pilot who has watched his country from the boardroom and from the cockpit. The diagnosis: it was never the model that failed, but the fidelity to it. And that is precisely why the formula matters for America now — in the age of Big Tech, energy transitions, and fractured trade. At its core: the Economic Constitution Test, six questions that grade any policy decision — German or American — against the rules of a durable market order.