Economy Germany in crisis: the end of an economic model?

[Maciamo]

The German economy is in crisis. After being dubbed the engine of Europe followed the 2007-8 financial crisis, it is now the slowest growing economy in Europe and many analysts predict that this is only the beginning of the country's economic woes.

VisualEconomik underlines three main issues:

1. Germany was the most dependent EU country on Russian gas. When the war in Ukraine started, the EU banned gas imports from Russia and energy prices skyrocketed. To make things worse, Germany had just closed all its nuclear plants and stubbornly refused to re-open them, even though it was a terrible decision both economically and ecologically (as they replaced them by coal plants).
2. Germany is far too dependent on China. Volkswagen, for instance, made 40% of its global sales in China. As the Chinese car makers are now making better and cheaper EV, German car sales in China are plummeting.
3. German society is the oldest in Europe and suffers from a major shortage of skilled labour. The country is having a hard time attracting foreign workers, despite having some of the most friendly immigration rules for such workers.

 

[Riverman]

The current German government has a vision, more so than the last ones. Unfortunately its the absolutely wrong one, kind of anti-German Ecofascism with Cultural Marxist societal and neoconservative foreign policies.

Now the cheap gas is gone, because Nordstream 2 was blown up and the German government doesn't have the balls and will to re-connect to Russia against the order of the American big brother. Instead, they pursue a radical ecological policy and immigration policy which completely ruins the country and will push other European countries into the same abyss. Austria has already a worse economic growth, largely because of the worsening situation in Germany.

 

[Maciamo]

The current German government has a vision, more so than the last ones. Unfortunately its the absolutely wrong one, kind of anti-German Ecofascism with Cultural Marxist societal and neoconservative foreign policies.

Now the cheap gas is gone, because Nordstream 2 was blown up and the German government doesn't have the balls and will to re-connect to Russia against the order of the American big brother. Instead, they pursue a radical ecological policy and immigration policy which completely ruins the country and will push other European countries into the same abyss. Austria has already a worse economic growth, largely because of the worsening situation in Germany.

I don't see how you can say that Germany has a "radical ecological policy" when it replaced its nuclear plants by coal plants. Coal plants don't just emit more CO2 than any other fossil fuel, the cause the most pollution and are linked to respiratory diseases.

 

[Riverman]

I don't see how you can say that Germany has a "radical ecological policy" when it replaced its nuclear plants by coal plants. Coal plants don't just emit more CO2 than any other fossil fuel, the cause the most pollution and are linked to respiratory diseases.

But they did it because of their ecofascist ideology, that's the stupidity of their policy in a nutshell. The Greens promised to plug off the nuclear power plants, which they did, without needing to, and then they wanted, even before the war in Ukraine, to get rid of Russian gas. Yet the renewable energies are not sufficient to provide Germany with enough power, which means Germany needs to run coal plants and buy nuclear and coal power, as well as LNG from foreign powers.
Its not climate friendly, its not ecological and its a catastrophy for the German people and economy, but they just don't want to give in on nuclear power or Russian gas, because they are strict ideologists and don't want to be proven wrong. There we are...

 

[Maciamo]

But they did it because of their ecofascist ideology, that's the stupidity of their policy in a nutshell. The Greens promised to plug off the nuclear power plants, which they did, without needing to, and then they wanted, even before the war in Ukraine, to get rid of Russian gas. Yet the renewable energies are not sufficient to provide Germany with enough power, which means Germany needs to run coal plants and buy nuclear and coal power, as well as LNG from foreign powers.
Its not climate friendly, its not ecological and its a catastrophy for the German people and economy, but they just don't want to give in on nuclear power or Russian gas, because they are strict ideologists and don't want to be proven wrong. There we are...

I agree that it was a very stupid and misguided decision.