Chartbook 460 Greedflation meets China shock: Can Europe's car industry be saved without making the cost of living crisis worse?

Adam Tooze · 22 Jul 2026 · adamtooze.substack.com ↗

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Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

Our reading
Europe's car industry is being overrun because of what has gone wrong inside Europe, not only because of what China did.

Their wordsIt reveals things that are deeply wrong at the heart of the European economy.

Interesting
Our reading
Protection for European industry should be granted only alongside demands for systematic reform of that industry.

Their wordsAnd this in turn means that if we really want to find a way out of the impasse, advocacy for protection and support should be tied to demands for systematic reform.

Interesting
Our reading
Europe's carmakers spent the early 2020s raising prices and profits at their customers' expense, and narrowed their own market doing it.

Their wordsTo put this same story another way, the European car industry in the early 2020s was a prime example of greedflation i.e. companies taking advantage of the COVID shock and other disruptions and to hike profits at the expense of consumers.

Interesting
Our reading
Europe's corporate sector has become a net lender to the rest of the economy, and that low rate of productive investment is what left its industry exposed.

Their wordsThe two seemingly contradictory trends connect, because the relatively low rate of productive investment leaves European industry vulnerable to its most vigorous competitors whose firms are contending with an even more deflationary macroeconomic situation at home in China.

Interesting