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Germany, Once a Powerhouse, Is at an Economic ‘Standstill’
(www.nytimes.com)
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this post was submitted on 21 Jan 2024
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People were telling Germany for a decade that their over-reliance on Russian gas was a massive problem. Instead they publicly laughed at idea and doubled down. When the cheap gas faucet was abruptly turned off in 2022, suddenly Germans were paying piles of money for every loose scrap of gas available. Many factories ground to a halt or became uncompetitive.
A lot of other European countries depended on Russian gas. Some even more than Germany. That's not the main reason for the slow recovery from COVID and the energy crisis. Germany let a lot of it's infrastructure rot and is now facing the consequences. Additionally there are ideological debt restrictions in place, hindering the government to start a stimulus program, while a lot of other countries are doing exactly that.
You're also dealing with a Germany that made most of its economic value in manufactured goods that either don't transition well to a post-carbon world or can't compete against the Chinese market.
The same could have once been said of the British steel industry...
Steel is a complex manufactured intermediate good, not just a raw material that you dig out of the ground. Steel products and production methods evolved rapidly over the course of the 20th century, and the downfall of British steel was because they couldn't/wouldn't upgrade their tech and how their industry was organized.
The point is that if you cannot make money in Germany, you're dumb. It's not about gas or energy. It's cheap as it was earlier but they're much more taxes.
The problem is the laziness of the industry and service sector. They haven't been making progress but stagnated for decades hoping to just make money from status quo. Now they blame everyone but themselves just to distract from their mismanagement.
But the reality is, when you don't make money, someone else will do.
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