He points out that many of the most successful German companies are doing well mainly by leaving Germany itself, relocating in countries where workers are cheaper or more biddable.
But it is more plausible to blame the trial's flaws on a legal system that has only imperfectly made the leap from being venal and biddable under dictatorship towards judicial independence and due process.
Mr Justice Paul Butler told the Special Criminal Court in Dublin that the court would sentence father-of-one Maguire to nine years with six years suspended, having regard to evidence that the defendant was a "vulnerable and biddable" character.
If those of us who do not belong to any of the main political parties ever have cause to doubt ourselves, we need only take the most cursory of looks at these endlessly biddable Dobbins in order to confirm us in our righteousness.