Shedonomics: Can Europe Survive China’s Manufacturing Machine?

In this episode, we unpack the new China shock, as exports to Europe surge nearly 30% in just two months and a €359 billion trade deficit keeps widening. From electric cars to fast fashion, Chinese firms are flooding markets with cheaper, faster, and increasingly better products, and Europe is struggling to respond. The real story is actually stranger. We dive into the rise of the “parcel economy,” where billions of low-value packages bypass traditional retail, and the even more surreal “shed economy,” where informal logistics networks are quietly distributing Chinese goods across Europe. Can Europe still produce anything at all? If one country can make everything cheaper, what’s left for everyone else? And if trade stops being two-way, does free trade itself break down? Was Trump right all along? Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Shedonomics: Can Europe Survive China’s Manufacturing Machine? online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Shedonomics: Can Europe Survive China’s Manufacturing Machine? is an episode from The David McWilliams Podcast by David McWilliams.

This episode is 36:53 long.

This episode was published on Mar 19, 2026.

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