RE: Who is allowing this heresy to be printed in the Washington Post?
Occasionally, the WaPo allows sensible conservatives to submit columns to publish ( I have read people like Milton Friedman, Condoleeza Rice, etc at the WaPo).
They do this in order to appear : “Fair and Balanced” ( with apologies to Fox News ).
Unfortunately, an article which praises a nation that has kept much of its manufacturing base, and that maintains a trade surplus, cannot be classified as conservative. People advocating those goals are automatically labeled as "protectionists" and "isolationists".
And Milton Friedman is famous for absurd (in the opinion of many) explanations of why trade deficits are just fine. "You have a trade deficit with your grocer".)
What Germany is practicing is a significant degree of economic nationalism, a terrible taboo among the American elite of both parties, and also many "conservatives".