I drive through life with the handbrake on

I know this is a "zombi" thread...;-)... but I've just come across "mit angezogener Handbremse" in a text I'm translating. Is it common to use this figuratively in German? AFAIK, "handbrake" (or "brake") is not used in this way in English - hence my giggles when I read #1 - sorry!

"My" German sentence: "Die globale Wirtschaftskrise hat dafür gesorgt, dass quasi in allen Branchen und Industriezweigen mit angezogener Handbremse gefahren wurde."

Yes, that phrase it's fairly common in German.

in AE, this would be the "parking brake" rather than a handbrake.

Ok, but would you drive through life with the parking brake on, then? :-)

No, but in your sentence I might say that businesses are driving with at least one foot on the brakes (some maybe even with both of them). :-)

sailing through life at half ahead ?

It's also called the emergency brake in AE.
Driving through life with one's foot on the emergency brake
sounds OK.

except you can't keep your foot on the emergency brake, wupper; that's the thing you either pull by hand or you step on it once and it's set. :-)

...und hier, zur Abrundung, eine ähnliche Metapher: related discussion: mit gebremstem Schaum . . .

Normally you don't keep your foot on the EB, but if you're afraid of things getting out of control you can have your foot on it, just in case.

OR ...aren't driving full throttle, are driving only half-throttle
as an alternative. It's a similar metaphor.