Alexander Privitera a Geoeconomics Non-Resident Senior Fellow at AGI. He is a columnist at BRINK news and professor at Marconi University. He was previously Senior Policy Advisor at the European Banking Federation and was the head of European affairs at Commerzbank AG. He focuses primarily on Germany’s European policies and their impact on relations between the United States and Europe. Previously, Mr. Privitera was the Washington-based correspondent for the leading German news channel, N24. As a journalist, over the past two decades he has been posted to Berlin, Bonn, Brussels, and Rome. Mr. Privitera was born in Rome, Italy, and holds a degree in Political Science (International Relations and Economics) from La Sapienza University in Rome.
In Search of Reforms
Why Merz is Struggling to Put Germany on a Growth Path Those who expected the Merz government to quickly fix Germany’s sluggish economy have good reasons to be disappointed. So …
AGI Asks: Assessing the First Year of the Merz Government
Friedrich Merz was sworn in as Germany’s chancellor on May 6, 2025. The country faces its biggest challenges in a generation: a sluggish economy, Russia’s ongoing aggression in Ukraine, a …
Germany’s Economy in 2026
Turnaround or another year of gloom? Will 2026 mark the turnaround for the German economy? While many international investors seem to believe in a debt-fueled comeback, fiscally conservative German authorities …
The Debate over a Digital Euro
At a recent hearing before the European Parliament, Piero Cipollone, the Executive Board Member of the European Central Bank (ECB) in charge of the digital euro project, reminded his audience …
Shaking Off the European Hangover
Europe has a hangover, and it shows. Gone is the cocktail of defiance and apprehension that accompanied the first few months of the second Trump administration. The summer has unveiled …
Germany’s European Chancellor
Many Germans are expressing buyers’ remorse. Coalition talks with the Social Democrats have successfully concluded, yet so far the head of the German Christian Democrats, Friedrich Merz, has failed to …
After the Elections, A Sense of Urgency in Berlin
The leader of the German Christian Democrats (CDU), Friedrich Merz, has hit the ground running. International developments, in particular the impact of the recent rapprochement between U.S. President Donald Trump …
When the Auto Industry Sneezes, Germany Catches a Cold
Martin Winterkorn could never have imagined that one day he would become the symbol of the crisis that has enveloped the company he once led with an iron fist, Volkswagen. …
Public Debt: A Tale of Two Worlds
Ask a number of economists at which level public debt becomes dangerous and you will get many different answers. In the wake of the great financial crisis in 2007-8, Kenneth …
Does Germany Need an Economic Pivot?
With customary fanfare, Germany’s political heavyweights recently opened the construction site of a new semiconductor facility in Saxony. For Chancellor Olaf Scholz and the newly confirmed European Commission President Ursula …
Gambling Europe’s Future
Overcome by a bout of despair, the French president confided to one of his closest advisers that “this is a country which is disintegrating, and I can do nothing about …
Revising Germany’s Playbook
For More European Unity When faced with criticism about his commitment to Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz usually reminds audiences of numbers—German military support to Kyiv is the highest in Europe—and …
