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Article
The Weird, Extremely German Origins of the Wirecard Scandal
How politicians, regulators, and the media fell for an obvious financial fraud
New Republic,
2021
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Is Germany a true economic tour de force? Or does the complex interrelationship between industry and politics – which touts the German Wirtschaftswunder while a code of silence mutes its failures – make it a tour de farce? In explaining Wirecard’s seemingly inexorable rise and ultimately predictable fall, professor Adrian Daub deftly examines how German national and commercial pride, beneath a veil of parochialism, perpetuated an ongoing blindness to the Wirecard imbroglio.
Summary
About the Author
Adrian Daub is a professor of German studies and comparative literature at Stanford University.
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