This book analyzes Germany's economic performance at the turn of the twenty-first century. The period under observation strecthes from Germany's unification in 1990 over the death of the German Mark to first experiences with the Euro, with East Germany providing a hot topic of debate.

The Italian and German banking systems shared similar characteristics early in the 1990s but have evolved in different directions since then: Italy privatized its publicly-owned banks while Germany has maintained a large share of state-owned savings banks. Contemporaneously, banks in both...