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Things are not that simple unfortunately. The lack of an energy crisis this winter due to warm weather should not be mistaken for absence of economic harm, as i

Things are not that simple unfortunately. The lack of an energy crisis this winter due to warm weather should not be mistaken for absence of economic harm, as in demand destruction. A high gas import bill is problematic for European economies, especially the ones that have a well-developed heavy industry, which tend to be also heavy gas users. This means the Europeans won’t be able to compete on international markets due to the higher cost of energy. IIRC I read somewhere (dbresearch probably) that chemical industry shrank by ~21% in Germany in Q4. Lost production will have to be replaced by imports, adding to the trade deficit caused by higher energy prices/LNG.

dividedbyzero 4y ago
There is economical harm and that cannot be changed. But GP has a point in that Germany seems to have abandoned its stance of weathering crises by mostly waiting them out. The consequences of the Ukraine war for Germany are serious and will have to be dealt with, but there is a lot of potential to do so, and I agree with GP it's a good sign that there appears to be both willingness and ability to make use of that potential, though Germany will need a lot more of that in the coming months and years.