6 ms·

It means now is a great time for the German government to make some investments into crumbling infrastructure, even if that means taking on debt.

by DasIch 5y ago

andi999 5y ago
So it is not important for the people?
NonContro 5y ago
Rebuilding a modern generation of modular nuclear power plants would be a good idea. Natural gas prices have just spiked in Europe because Russia is limiting supply. Solar and Wind can work but there are big demand management problems, and there doesn't appear to be any progress on allowing or requiring EVs to charge smartly (ie. based on the prevailing electricity price, including discharging).
- fundatus 5y ago
  > Rebuilding a modern generation of modular nuclear power plants would be a good idea. Never gonna happen in Germany. The last nuclear power plant in Germany will shut down for good at the end of next year. Last year the share of electricity generated from renewables was 46%.
  - WanderPanda 5y ago
    Don't forget that the remaining 54% (points) will be exponentially harder to replace
- fuoqi 5y ago
  >Natural gas prices have just spiked in Europe because Russia is limiting supply. Well, Russia simply plays by the rules Europe promoted itself. You don't want stable long term "take or pay" contracts with price tied to oil and instead you want to tie contracts to spot prices? What you ask is what you get. Don't blame others when they start to game those rules in their favor when situation is right.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Although in principle that is not a bad idea. Nuclear power plants are not a particularly attractive "product".
sparsely 5y ago
Someone should go tell the German government this, over loadspeakers, outside their homes at all hours until they actually get on with it and do it.
- dgellow 5y ago
  That's definitely not how German politics work
hnbad 5y ago
Shame we have the "debt brake" preventing any serious investments: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_brake_(Germany) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_brake_(Germany)
- Faaak 5y ago
  For the curious it's all defined historically here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A11992M%2FTXT https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A... (Article 1).
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
- DasIch 5y ago
  Yes, I think the debt brake should be removed. Although one could also change the restrictions the debt brake so that it allows to take on debt for investments that lead to more growth. The debt brake can be "disable" though, this is the case right now for COVID and Peter Bofinger has made an interesting argument that one might also be able to do this for investments to defeat climate change by declaring this is a natural disaster. Although anyone who tries that probably has to make that argument to the constitutional court.
  - hnbad 5y ago
    Oh, absolutely. Growth is arbitrarily defined too btw. Once you look into it, a lot of seemingly "objective" economic metrics are adjusted based on somewhat arbitrary factors like seasonal variation. The debt brake isn't based on economic considerations though, it's rather based on ideology, much like austerity (which is known to be counter-productive when used to "save the economy"). The correct solution would be to remove the debt brake and address the problems it is meant to prevent directly, but nobody involved wants that.
tonyedgecombe 5y ago
It's not that surprising that Germany is reticent to go on a spending spree after what happened in the twenties. These problems leave scars that last a long time.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Well, you can't maintain trade surpluses for all eternity. Export champions will become import champions.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
PestoDiRucola 5y ago
It's been a great time to do that for a while. But the CDU-led government has not done anything about it. If a CDU chancellor is elected again in September, we will be seeing the same situation.

It means now is a great time for the German government to make some investments into crumbling infrastructure, even if that means taking on debt.

by DasIch 5y ago

It means now is a great time for the German government to make some investments into crumbling infrastructure, even if that means taking on debt.

andi999 5y ago

So it is not important for the people?

NonContro 5y ago

Rebuilding a modern generation of modular nuclear power plants would be a good idea. Natural gas prices have just spiked in Europe because Russia is limiting supply. Solar and Wind can work but there are big demand management problems, and there doesn't appear to be any progress on allowing or requiring EVs to charge smartly (ie. based on the prevailing electricity price, including discharging).

fundatus 5y ago
> Rebuilding a modern generation of modular nuclear power plants would be a good idea. Never gonna happen in Germany. The last nuclear power plant in Germany will shut down for good at the end of next year. Last year the share of electricity generated from renewables was 46%.
- WanderPanda 5y ago
  Don't forget that the remaining 54% (points) will be exponentially harder to replace
fuoqi 5y ago
>Natural gas prices have just spiked in Europe because Russia is limiting supply. Well, Russia simply plays by the rules Europe promoted itself. You don't want stable long term "take or pay" contracts with price tied to oil and instead you want to tie contracts to spot prices? What you ask is what you get. Don't blame others when they start to game those rules in their favor when situation is right.
imtringued 5y ago
Although in principle that is not a bad idea. Nuclear power plants are not a particularly attractive "product".

sparsely 5y ago

Someone should go tell the German government this, over loadspeakers, outside their homes at all hours until they actually get on with it and do it.

dgellow 5y ago
That's definitely not how German politics work

hnbad 5y ago

Shame we have the "debt brake" preventing any serious investments: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_brake_(Germany) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debt_brake_(Germany)

Faaak 5y ago
For the curious it's all defined historically here: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A11992M%2FTXT https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX%3A... (Article 1).
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
DasIch 5y ago
Yes, I think the debt brake should be removed. Although one could also change the restrictions the debt brake so that it allows to take on debt for investments that lead to more growth. The debt brake can be "disable" though, this is the case right now for COVID and Peter Bofinger has made an interesting argument that one might also be able to do this for investments to defeat climate change by declaring this is a natural disaster. Although anyone who tries that probably has to make that argument to the constitutional court.
- hnbad 5y ago
  Oh, absolutely. Growth is arbitrarily defined too btw. Once you look into it, a lot of seemingly "objective" economic metrics are adjusted based on somewhat arbitrary factors like seasonal variation. The debt brake isn't based on economic considerations though, it's rather based on ideology, much like austerity (which is known to be counter-productive when used to "save the economy"). The correct solution would be to remove the debt brake and address the problems it is meant to prevent directly, but nobody involved wants that.

tonyedgecombe 5y ago

It's not that surprising that Germany is reticent to go on a spending spree after what happened in the twenties. These problems leave scars that last a long time.

imtringued 5y ago
Well, you can't maintain trade surpluses for all eternity. Export champions will become import champions.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

PestoDiRucola 5y ago

It's been a great time to do that for a while. But the CDU-led government has not done anything about it. If a CDU chancellor is elected again in September, we will be seeing the same situation.