LogFAQs > #880774619

Germany's economic position is largely due to the Euro. If the Euro were solely a German currency, it would have risen much more in value as Germany became wealthier, but since it's a currency shared w/ all of Europe, the economically weak countries like Greece and Spain...most of southern Europe, really... help to deflate it back down a fair bit. By having a "cheaper" currency, it gives Germany a trade advantage on the price of their exports that they really should not have. Meanwhile, Euros are too expensive for the impoverished European nations to afford much of them and their economies go into a death spiral because of it, with the added kicker that they can't use methods such as printing more money to deflate the value of their currency and make their exports cheaper, since the central bank (ie, Germany, they pretty much control that shit now) would have to agree to it.
TL;DR: Germany's economic boom is literally built upon the suffering, joblessness, and starvation of its own neighbors.
Hopefully that won't go on for much longer and things will re-balance.

China is an awful human rights violator and also manipulate their currency (but not to the extent Germany effectively does, yet only China gets called out on it), but even without any trickery, they're the most populous nation on earth and rich in natural resources. Barring revolt or civil war, they're pretty much certain to become the top world power eventually.
Pretty mixed feelings on that. U.S. obviously can't be the most powerful country forever and China's ascendance is inevitable and pretty pointless to fight against. But it would be nice if along the way they treated their own people better...