Tuesday, July 12, 2022

Is Germany's Economy At The Breaking Point?

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz  

The UnHeard: The German economy is on the brink  

Putin can't be blamed for the country's economic malaise 

The economist Herbert Stein once wrote that if something cannot go on forever, it will stop. It seems like the German — and with it probably the European — economy is reaching that point. Most of Europe’s 100 largest companies were founded in the 1980s or before, which means that the old continent has entirely slept through the digital revolution of the 1990s and 2000s. There is no European counterpart to American corporations like Facebook, Amazon, E-Bay or China’s Alibaba or WeChat. 

This became painfully clear during the Covid pandemic, when the once vaunted German bureaucracy was revealed to rely on paper, pens and fax machines in its health care system due to a complete lack of digitalisation in key areas. Not surprisingly, the German economy shows cracks elsewhere as well. Measured by market capitalisation, only one German company makes it into the top 100 worldwide, and German market capitalisation as a share of global market capitalisation has shrunk to 1.97%, an all-time low. These are devastating numbers for a country that just a few years back was seen as a model for the world with its transition to Green energy and the planned exodus from nuclear power.  

Read more ....

Update: Germany: Unprepared for a perfect storm (ING) 

 Update #2: "Social Peace Is In Great Danger": Germany Is Quietly Shutting Down As Energy Crunch Paralyzes Economy (Zero Hedge)  

WNU Editor: Germany's economic malaise/problems were present long before the Russia - Ukraine war. It is just that with the energy crisis not engulfing Europe because of Russian sanctions and other disastrous EU decisions, the vulnerabilities and weaknesses of the German and EU economies are now being exposed. The end result of this crisis is predictable. We will not only see the de-industrializing of Germany, but a lower standard of living for most if not all of Europe.

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