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It's not middling. At 122%, we are just behind basket cases Italy and Greece. We are above France or Spain, and more than double well-run countries such as Germany or the Netherlands. The EU target is 60% debt to GDP. Moreover, our debt is growing faster. Our deficit as a percentage of GDP, at 6.3%, is more than double the EU target.

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I'd be hesitant about calling us Germans well run. We're lacking money for everything and the past 16 years's greatest accomplishment was pushing maintenance further back to purse a balanced budget. Not spending money has its own costs as we now have to suffer through.

Germany doesn't lack money, it just reveres the lack of debt a bit too much. It's cheap for Germany to borrow and invest, and in all likelihood be able to debts down and benefit from the investments, but they don't, because debt scary.

A mountain of unrealized goodwill. It's such a pity, because indeed much of infrastructure is barely maintained.

Well there was that one time Germany owed everyone a lot of money after the Treaty of Versailles and it kind of directly led to Hitler’s rise to power and another World War… makes sense for them to be a bit more conservative than other countries.

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