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Turns out shutting off nuclear and banning Russian imports of cheap gas means inflation & higher energy costs. https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/electricity

Turns out shutting off nuclear and banning Russian imports of cheap gas means inflation & higher energy costs. https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/electricity-price https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/electricity-price https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/DEU/germany/inflation-rate-cpi https://www.macrotrends.net/global-metrics/countries/DEU/ger... Combine the fact it’s significantly more expensive to manufacture in Germany, workers wages are feeling the pressure and revenue is flat https://m.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VWAGY/volkswagen-ag/revenue https://m.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/VWAGY/volkswagen-ag/... General trends are also non-favorable as the repo rate is increasing in the US https://www.thedrive.com/news/repos-spike-in-2024-as-fewer-americans-can-pay-their-car-loans https://www.thedrive.com/news/repos-spike-in-2024-as-fewer-a...

xadhominemx 2y ago
The Chinese have been catching up with German industrial equipment imports with local alternatives for 2 decades. Now, the Chinese manufacturers are globally competitive. The same has played out in accelerated fashion in the light vehicle industry. The Germans have lost in manufacturing, their technology industry is a joke, and their financial sector is a nepotistic fraud. The reliance on Russian energy imports is truly the cherry on top. Germany will quickly fade in global relevance and their purchasing power will stagnate, exactly like the UK in the past 15 years and Italy before that.
- trilbyglens 2y ago
  Sadly a common story in Europe. Too much nostalgia for former days of glory and no ability or willingness to break any eggs at all to make the omelette. The place largely operates as a living museum, and change and innovation is mostly tolerated rather than embraced. I do however see it as an important counter weight to the floppy ephemeral nature of America culture. America will flail around here and there, sometimes good sometimes bad, bit Europe basically stays right on the linear path they have been on for decades and decades.
  - twixfel 2y ago
    Living in Germany you really feel it. Everything is in decline but what's worse is Germans are in some perverse way proud of it, every shitty system, every fucked up backwards process is unavoidable and The Best Way To Do It (and also it's worse everywhere else in the world and Germany does it the best! (apparently)). There's so much low hanging fruit that could immediately improve people's lives but there's no appetite among the population to actually shake things up and change anything. The whole system is built to keep people in their lanes: the highest income taxes in the world, no tax efficient ways to save, huge costs associated with buying property, the huge cost of property... Everything is supposedly free but nothing is available. Honestly, you'd have to be stupid to move to Germany unless you are a refugee. I am not a refugee so my only excuse is that I was just stupid.

xadhominemx 2y ago

The Chinese have been catching up with German industrial equipment imports with local alternatives for 2 decades. Now, the Chinese manufacturers are globally competitive. The same has played out in accelerated fashion in the light vehicle industry. The Germans have lost in manufacturing, their technology industry is a joke, and their financial sector is a nepotistic fraud. The reliance on Russian energy imports is truly the cherry on top. Germany will quickly fade in global relevance and their purchasing power will stagnate, exactly like the UK in the past 15 years and Italy before that.

trilbyglens 2y ago
Sadly a common story in Europe. Too much nostalgia for former days of glory and no ability or willingness to break any eggs at all to make the omelette. The place largely operates as a living museum, and change and innovation is mostly tolerated rather than embraced. I do however see it as an important counter weight to the floppy ephemeral nature of America culture. America will flail around here and there, sometimes good sometimes bad, bit Europe basically stays right on the linear path they have been on for decades and decades.
- twixfel 2y ago
  Living in Germany you really feel it. Everything is in decline but what's worse is Germans are in some perverse way proud of it, every shitty system, every fucked up backwards process is unavoidable and The Best Way To Do It (and also it's worse everywhere else in the world and Germany does it the best! (apparently)). There's so much low hanging fruit that could immediately improve people's lives but there's no appetite among the population to actually shake things up and change anything. The whole system is built to keep people in their lanes: the highest income taxes in the world, no tax efficient ways to save, huge costs associated with buying property, the huge cost of property... Everything is supposedly free but nothing is available. Honestly, you'd have to be stupid to move to Germany unless you are a refugee. I am not a refugee so my only excuse is that I was just stupid.