Quick, one more incrrase in pensions so günther and franz josef can go for the third time to the maledives
Merz’ pledges are worth less than Chemical Ali’s pledges. Sadly the brain dead german boomers who voted him in don’t care, because sth sth wokism
I mean, the current government was sworn in in March, they could already do more than a pledge, but apparently had other priorities.
I think giving more money to the least productive group that also hoards most of the wealth should do it no? in the end they are the only ones who “worked hard” few decades ago and deserve to live in luxury at the expense of everyone else!
No shit, Sherlock!
that’s what happens when you let conservatives implement their opinions
The comments here are a clear example of how little people understand about economics & policy making.
First of all, let me begin by saying I absolutely despise Friedich Merz and everything his govt. represents.
On the other hand, the issues facing the German economy are deep seated and very hard to overcome – certainly not within months/years. The entire economy is heavily dependent on manufacturing industries built upon dependency on cheap energy from Russia, and is now getting absolutely decimated cos the cheap energy is no longer available and the foreign markets they depended on heavily for sales, have found cheaper and better alternatives. Anybody and their donkey could have seen this coming, but both policy-makers, and lobbies had no interest in upsetting the apple-cart and getting ahead of the problem when they could have, and are now bearing the fruit of decades of “why change what’s working”.
The country has been in desperate need of a sizable service-based pillar to prop up the economy for a while but the obsession with doing everything in German, mind-numbing bureaucracy and to some extent over-the-top labor laws make this a very hard place for anybody to start or run a reasonable service-based business here.
At least they have relaxed the debt-brake, but the increased spending is going to defense & infra. No idea how this will help the economy recover. At this point we can only hope for a miracle.
I mean, who really expected positive outcomes from doing essentially nothing?
Merz’s policies have nothing to do with reality. Example? 48h work week. Bro, the leading industrial companies are trying to reduce from 35h to 32h against the resistance of unions, yes, UNIONS ARE FIGHTING FOR MORE HOURS. 40h work weeks are already completely unrealistic for them.
Plus, the leading companies have already figured out that more hours do not equal more productivity. It is a non topic.
New investments are done poorly, with “Sondervermögen”, or more debt that will not show up on the official national debt but with interest payed by the official budget which is therefore gutted. this leads to the absurd effect that while we lend MORE money, we end up with having LESS to do stuff. Except of course the things that Sondervermögen is put in: Defense and “Infrastructure”
The former does help defense companies, but they are fully booked anyway currently, so further boosting them is not that effective. Plus, those investments take ages to have any effect at all.
The latter is even worse, as the entire thing is not very transparent and extremely buerocratic, and the projects the money goes to are less than important often, while very important topics are left with no money at all.
The most important thing is that actual high tier problems aren’t engaged at all or even made worse by the now necessary budget cuts (because we have to pay the interest to the Sondervermögen, remember, plus declining tax income). Cost of living is stupidly high in germany, driven mainly by astronomic rent prices. This is largely due to our low home ownership percentage, the lowest in the EU and second only to Switzerland. Combine this with high prices for essential services like internet, heating and electricity, and the cost just to survive is double than the monthly income of some other EU countries. That ultimately leads to wages to high for some jobs and dying parts of the economy (restaurants for example).
To battle our problems, the home ownership percentage must be driven higher, and rent prices must be brought DOWN, instead of supporting their increase even more. There are various easy to implement policies to achieve this, but they go against the personal interest of the people in charge, so they prefer lining their pockets instead of stopping our downfall.
But that is not enough. We are also plagued by incompetend leadership in industry and politics. Whiny little crybabies lead companies instead of actual leaders, with only few positive examples. Most of them have forgotten the strenghts of Germany and how to use them and wonder why they are failing when they copy american or even worse chinese management.
We can criticize Merz’s government for moving too slowly or being distracted with other issues, but the economic issues run deep, and it would be a miracle if they managed to reverse the course in the span of six months. Prepare for more headlines like this.
A related anecdote: my father-in-law works in Poland for a German chemistry company that has several plants in the EU and a few more outside of the continent. When he joined them a few years ago, the prospects looked great. Today, the situation is a bit nervous in the Polish branch because they lost a huge number of clients in the east (for obvious reasons). However, the situation is not better in other branches. For example, the French plant has been losing money for quite some time, but there appears to be a political reluctance to close down an outdated factory that is no longer economically viable. On the other hand, their Dutch branch decided years ago to stop manufacturing and instead order all products in China – it was easier and more profitable (I’m not sure if they moved all of the manufacturing, or only some products). This worked for years, providing steady profits. However, the local management never imagined that their Chinese partners would eventually figure out how to cut out the middleman.
No government can quickly and easily fix this style of management. There’s a reason why, two decades ago, Chinese cars were considered to be a poor-quality copy of Western designs, while German cars seemed reliable, high-quality, and worth the price. Today, Chinese companies are winning in Asia and Latin America, and gaining market share even in the EU, while German automakers have a reputation for producing over-engineered cars that are prone to breakdowns and expensive to buy and maintain.
Duh, there can be no rapid recovery with the stagnation around the West caused initially by us shooting ourselves in the foot with COVID restrictions, then by Russia’s war and subsequent restructuring of the energy imports, then by Trump’s tariffs shooting the US and us all in our feet, and finally by Chinese industry catching up with the Western production quality.
In the real world, and not in the childish “tax the rich and cut pensions!1” worldview of lefties on Reddit, everyone understands there’s going to be a year or two of stagnation before growth. No party would have achieved anything different in power.
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Shocked Pikachu face
Useless index
Quick, one more incrrase in pensions so günther and franz josef can go for the third time to the maledives
Merz’ pledges are worth less than Chemical Ali’s pledges. Sadly the brain dead german boomers who voted him in don’t care, because sth sth wokism
I mean, the current government was sworn in in March, they could already do more than a pledge, but apparently had other priorities.
I think giving more money to the least productive group that also hoards most of the wealth should do it no? in the end they are the only ones who “worked hard” few decades ago and deserve to live in luxury at the expense of everyone else!
No shit, Sherlock!
that’s what happens when you let conservatives implement their opinions
The comments here are a clear example of how little people understand about economics & policy making.
First of all, let me begin by saying I absolutely despise Friedich Merz and everything his govt. represents.
On the other hand, the issues facing the German economy are deep seated and very hard to overcome – certainly not within months/years. The entire economy is heavily dependent on manufacturing industries built upon dependency on cheap energy from Russia, and is now getting absolutely decimated cos the cheap energy is no longer available and the foreign markets they depended on heavily for sales, have found cheaper and better alternatives. Anybody and their donkey could have seen this coming, but both policy-makers, and lobbies had no interest in upsetting the apple-cart and getting ahead of the problem when they could have, and are now bearing the fruit of decades of “why change what’s working”.
The country has been in desperate need of a sizable service-based pillar to prop up the economy for a while but the obsession with doing everything in German, mind-numbing bureaucracy and to some extent over-the-top labor laws make this a very hard place for anybody to start or run a reasonable service-based business here.
At least they have relaxed the debt-brake, but the increased spending is going to defense & infra. No idea how this will help the economy recover. At this point we can only hope for a miracle.
I mean, who really expected positive outcomes from doing essentially nothing?
Merz’s policies have nothing to do with reality. Example? 48h work week. Bro, the leading industrial companies are trying to reduce from 35h to 32h against the resistance of unions, yes, UNIONS ARE FIGHTING FOR MORE HOURS. 40h work weeks are already completely unrealistic for them.
Plus, the leading companies have already figured out that more hours do not equal more productivity. It is a non topic.
New investments are done poorly, with “Sondervermögen”, or more debt that will not show up on the official national debt but with interest payed by the official budget which is therefore gutted. this leads to the absurd effect that while we lend MORE money, we end up with having LESS to do stuff. Except of course the things that Sondervermögen is put in: Defense and “Infrastructure”
The former does help defense companies, but they are fully booked anyway currently, so further boosting them is not that effective. Plus, those investments take ages to have any effect at all.
The latter is even worse, as the entire thing is not very transparent and extremely buerocratic, and the projects the money goes to are less than important often, while very important topics are left with no money at all.
The most important thing is that actual high tier problems aren’t engaged at all or even made worse by the now necessary budget cuts (because we have to pay the interest to the Sondervermögen, remember, plus declining tax income). Cost of living is stupidly high in germany, driven mainly by astronomic rent prices. This is largely due to our low home ownership percentage, the lowest in the EU and second only to Switzerland. Combine this with high prices for essential services like internet, heating and electricity, and the cost just to survive is double than the monthly income of some other EU countries. That ultimately leads to wages to high for some jobs and dying parts of the economy (restaurants for example).
To battle our problems, the home ownership percentage must be driven higher, and rent prices must be brought DOWN, instead of supporting their increase even more. There are various easy to implement policies to achieve this, but they go against the personal interest of the people in charge, so they prefer lining their pockets instead of stopping our downfall.
But that is not enough. We are also plagued by incompetend leadership in industry and politics. Whiny little crybabies lead companies instead of actual leaders, with only few positive examples. Most of them have forgotten the strenghts of Germany and how to use them and wonder why they are failing when they copy american or even worse chinese management.
We can criticize Merz’s government for moving too slowly or being distracted with other issues, but the economic issues run deep, and it would be a miracle if they managed to reverse the course in the span of six months. Prepare for more headlines like this.
A related anecdote: my father-in-law works in Poland for a German chemistry company that has several plants in the EU and a few more outside of the continent. When he joined them a few years ago, the prospects looked great. Today, the situation is a bit nervous in the Polish branch because they lost a huge number of clients in the east (for obvious reasons). However, the situation is not better in other branches. For example, the French plant has been losing money for quite some time, but there appears to be a political reluctance to close down an outdated factory that is no longer economically viable. On the other hand, their Dutch branch decided years ago to stop manufacturing and instead order all products in China – it was easier and more profitable (I’m not sure if they moved all of the manufacturing, or only some products). This worked for years, providing steady profits. However, the local management never imagined that their Chinese partners would eventually figure out how to cut out the middleman.
No government can quickly and easily fix this style of management. There’s a reason why, two decades ago, Chinese cars were considered to be a poor-quality copy of Western designs, while German cars seemed reliable, high-quality, and worth the price. Today, Chinese companies are winning in Asia and Latin America, and gaining market share even in the EU, while German automakers have a reputation for producing over-engineered cars that are prone to breakdowns and expensive to buy and maintain.
Duh, there can be no rapid recovery with the stagnation around the West caused initially by us shooting ourselves in the foot with COVID restrictions, then by Russia’s war and subsequent restructuring of the energy imports, then by Trump’s tariffs shooting the US and us all in our feet, and finally by Chinese industry catching up with the Western production quality.
In the real world, and not in the childish “tax the rich and cut pensions!1” worldview of lefties on Reddit, everyone understands there’s going to be a year or two of stagnation before growth. No party would have achieved anything different in power.
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