Maybe that would help.
Posted on 06/27/2023 9:57:48 AM PDT by george76
New problems undermine the country’s old playbook as manufacturing powerhouse..
Europe’s largest nation and its main growth engine has become the biggest drag on its economy.
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In past economic crises, Germany could rely on its factories to pull it out of any recession by tapping the world’s insatiable demand for made-in-Germany products. But a mixture of short-term and structural problems means this is no longer the case.
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A sharp rise in energy prices last year made producing goods more expensive. And with inflation and interest rates up around the world, foreign consumers can’t always afford the higher price tags.
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Production in the energy-intensive parts of Germany’s manufacturing sector was down 12.9% from a year earlier
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German industry’s flagging competitiveness isn’t just Russia’s fault. Germany also faces deep structural challenges, including a costly shift toward renewable energy sources, changes to global supply chains, and a shortage of skilled workers—all factors that make it harder and more expensive to produce goods in the country.
BASF, Germany’s largest chemicals producer, said it plans to close parts of its large Ludwigshafen plant, opting to shift production to locations such as Belgium and France.
A survey of 400 small and medium-size businesses in late April and early May by the Federal Association of German Industry found that 16% are already actively relocating parts of production and jobs abroad, and an additional 30% are thinking about it.
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With manufacturing wobbling, the other legs of Germany’s economy—consumption and services—haven’t picked up the slack. The country’s slide into recession this year was in part driven by declines in household spending as food and energy bills soared.
(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
Years ago, someone did a piece (might have been the Onion) on the Olsen Twins (Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen) complaining that Mary-Kate was “dragging Ashley down” and contributing absolutely nothing to the success of the team. It was funny because the two girls are fairly identical and interchangeable.
I just figure Europe is lost and I wouldn’t make any special effort to point at Germany.
How much of Germany’s chemical industry relied on Russian natural gas?
Surely climate change is to blame. /s
Flood in millions of low and hostile IQ Africans and middle easterners, start a war with the nation that provided you a bounty of free lowing cheap energy so you can play the green game.... and then act shocked that the economy collapsed.
The term “Blockhead” for Germans didn’t just fall out of the sky for no reason.
The cat is out of the bag now and NATO is running out of dictators to sack and loot at least the British pulled out but they are screwed with idiocracy already too
Quite a switch! Almost everyone else in Europe used to be a drag on the economy!
But, on another thread, I read that it’s one of the best places to live on earth.
“How much of Germany’s chemical industry relied on Russian natural gas?”
Thanks to Merkle Germany’s entire economy is reliant on Russian gas. The gas forms the base for much of the rest of the economy, not just in energy, but in the base chemicals from which everything else is made. Replacing that gas requires a lot of new infrastructure and considerably more expensive base chemical industries.
There are other issues. Germany and much of the Western world has stopped having babies. They did this decades ago so the entire workforce is aging out and facing retirement. The retirees are promised a generous retirement package was supposed to be paid for by the younger workers, of which there are too few. (This is probably because housing is too expensive, and nobody can afford a house big enough to both have kids and to live close enough to have a job.)
As the article mentioned, the green energy stupidity has cost amazing amounts of money and will never pay for itself or provide enough energy. Germany has been lying about how much of their energy is green. The sun doesn’t shine enough to use solar cells, so it takes seven times as many to equal the amount you’d get from, say the American west. The wind farms don’t work as there isn’t enough reliable wind. The result is the dirty coal and politically divisive nuclear plants must operate continuously because you can’t just spin them up when the wind dies, and the sun don’t shine.
Most of the problems Germany faces are of their own creation. But, like an alcoholic, they’ll have to hit rock bottom before they face the financial and political realities of their situation. I do have to say I’m impressed they didn’t bow to Russia’s energy blackmail.
Germany is committed to going green no matter what the cost and is no longer reliable to manufacturing.
France is still using nuclear power and has no plans to stop. So companies are shifting production to France.
Maybe Germany can start manufacturing large ovens again, they'd probably sell a lot to their new Muslim Immigrant majority.
For Pizzas.
This is the major problem with Italy. Which has led to many houses being abandoned or drastically reduced in price.
Leading to a oversupply of houses throughout the country, but mostly in the countryside away from the cities.
Even in Tuscany, you can now get great deals on estates and country homes in comparison to what they once were.
The real cheap properties are available in Calabria in Southern Italy. Down in the boot there are water front homes available for under $400K. Apartments for under $300K. Right on the Mediterranean. Italy is now the number one country for American & British Expats to buy real estate. Plus THEY WANT Americans to move there. They actually like Americans and Brits. They still hate the French though.
That will bring ANY economy down--Germany, Britain, or America included!!!!
It is kind of hard to make cars without steel and natural gas.
This affects Volkswagon/Porsche/Audi/Mercedes/BMW/FIAT
Need to visit Lascari, Sicily where my paternal grandparents came from. Imagine the irony of family moving back there in just two generations.
Golly. Eliminate nearly all domestic energy resources, bring in millions of unskilled violent savages and put them on welfare, and pull residency visas from skilled people like myself (ehem... white people) to make room for said savages, and what could go wrong???
Don’t count on that to last.
Nobody keeps Germany down for long.
Look at what it took last time.
Danke Jao Bai-din
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