The German Economy Is in Serious Trouble 

As a German, I am furious about the decision to shut down ALL nuclear plants, before having a reliable and cost efficient alternative. It never made sense and still doesn't. Just to shut the idiotic Greens up. This is what happens when you let your emotions run the government , instead of data, logic and common sense

When a country's own government is the country's worst enemy ...

Calling it now: Germany is going to start using coal in the near future and advertise it as a temporary program

You didn't mention that it was Germany itself that banned Russian gas.

Maybe shutting down one of the worlds best nuclear power fleets was not a good idea….

"alternative cheaper energy? No thanks" - the german greens after deindustrializing

German tax law makes it hard to compete. We operate a financial services company and we basically can't compete as Germany has implemented double taxation

this is partly what happens when you have policies based on ideology rather than pragmatic facts. you should always do impact analysis on policies before green light them

As a Chinese, I think it is accurate to say most Chinese have long and profound respect for German Engineering, manufacture, and work ethics. Most of us find it inconceivable how German politicians, who were voted by the German public, made the decisions they made and led the country to where it is today... I am sure the media exaggerates everything, but still... So many questions just don't make sense... Why did Germany dismantle all their nuclear power plants? If Germany decided to enter an energy pack with Russia, which made perfect sense at the time, did not oppose aggressively to Ukraine entering Nato prior to the war? What did Germany expect Russia to do? When the Nord Stream, which was a huge German investment, got blown up by you know who, why was there no opposition? These days, Germany is stuck paying the high energy cost, seeing its manufacturing strength fading, and EU competitiveness and independence eroding... But it seems like Germany is still all-in on its current trajectory. Why? What does Germany stand to gain from all these madness?

A perfect example of Germany's inability to attract workers into the country comes from my family: Although I am a German citizen, due to the lack of social movement and the inability to prosper financially as easily compared to other EU countries, I decided to leave the country, whereas my mother who is in her 50s wants us to remain in Germany due to the stability and security it provides. The country is perfect for retirement but not so for personal and financial growth.

This is suspiciously similar to what is happening in Canada. Switch a couple of industries etc, basically the same. The western world is falling apart and fast.

9:05...I remember when Trump made a speech at the United Nations decrying the fact that gemany's dependence on Russian oil and gas would come to bite them in the ass and the whole German delegation was shown laughing at him...Not so funny now is it

I like the « Even France is doing better » 😂

Germany needs the free trade bloc of the eu to export its goods. It also needs cheap Russian energy. It also needs workers. It needs US navy securing the oceans for it to import raw materials and export finished goods. Everything is falling apart. They got problems.

Germany shipped out manufacturing.... 75% of all BMW's now built outside of Germany??? Banking slobs firmly in charge

I lived there for a year and the best job I was able to get was to be a delivery driver and paper boy as a second job. People hate you if you don't speak German. I came to the Netherlands where I am a senior datacenter operations engineer using only English language. They drive out talent then complain there aren't any skilled workers. Yet still thinking of leaving the EU. You get what you deserve...

I remember when i was a teenager in germany, i kept hearing economic growth % of gdp on the radio and i hated that everything was always about economic growth. Now i miss those days - having grown up and realized how important a functioning economy is.

Crazy how large Chinese car brands are in Europe, as an American I had never even heard of that brand.

The EU is stuffed if the power house of the EU, Germany, declines

Bureaucracy in Germany may cause PTSD.

« Merkel was not able to imagine what could happen »… maybe she could have paid attention to warnings from politicians and expert from the UK, US, France, Poland, the Baltics who regularly warned that the first economy in Europe being so much dependant of Russia was not a good idea…

Those sanctions an “decoupling” sure did backfire.

After ww2, Germany is an American colony.

How can that be? I remember 2015 as a master student graduating in one of the better universities in Germany, the german banks and the media loudly envisioning an economic boom the next years due to all the engineers and doctors entering the country from the levante and africa. What happened? Greetings from the toblerone country.

Germany had a terrorist attack earlier this week on an electric tower outside Berlin. Took out power to the Tesla factory, homes, hospital, etc.

Am I insane, or have I seen this same video pop up across like five different channels in the past week?

Nothing is done quickly in Germany

Fun fact, they tried to arm twist the RU to make gas even cheaper ( the whole spot price debacle 😅). How it turned out you know 😅

Trying to protect german manufacturers by targeting Chinese companies is gonna hurt in the long term. China with the largest domestic market will continue to innovate and leave their german counterparts in the dust if competition isn’t fostered. The car manufacturers have not even tried to make an affordable EV. Making luxury vehicles when the avg person is tightening their wallet shows that they are out of touch with reality

I have left Germany 14 years ago and sad to say, but I miss it *zero* ..

I deliver and pick up packages for about 70 companies in germany from various sectors. I do that for 3 years, always same companies. I can tell you that number of packages decreased for about 20% in last year. In last 2 months even worse. And dont hire new workers. Not sure general public is aware how bad is getting.Especialy for industry and production.

Premium cars? After 100k they brake down? Prices drop by 30% once you leave the lot? Get out of here

Why G7 falling ... G7 meeting: Focus On geopolitics for politicians interest. To divide and create/amplify conflict in others home for weapon sales, exploit. BRICS meeting: Focus On economy for the people interest. Food and better life for the people.

All businesses are leaving Germany anyway. They are fucked. When you pay your gas 4 to 5 times the price you where used to, you cannot be competitive anymore and you have to leave.

Germany shot itself in the foot.

Replacement of cheap Russia gas with more expensive alternatives was a big mistake.

*The current state of the economy is unduly difficult for most millennials, myself included. We've seen major increases across the board for rent, food and utilities; they are at least twice as high as a year and half ago. Talking about money, my primary concern is where to invest*

It is not correct that the decision of the Federal Constitutional Court surprised everyone. Rather it is the case that the long-standing top officials in the Ministry of Finance, who, in contrast to the Finance Minister and his state secretaries, are not elected, but owe their position through their, often, decades of service in the Ministry of Finance, warned the Finance Minister and his entourage from the start, telling them that the Federal Constitutional Court would have to declare this budget draft illegal. However, for unknown reasons, the political leadership decided to ignore all of this advice - which turned out to be on spot very soon

Who could've guessed that a country relying on Russian oil and gas would struggle once the sanctions hit It's hilariously tragic, but to each their own

too much power given to politicians..

Greetings from Germany. Here the price of electricity is now around 50c/kWh. This is a very high price and will create a lot of problems for many people who simply cannot afford it. No wonder that AfD is gaining ground in the polls. People are utterly fed up here.

Pretty accurate summary of the overall situation, the lack of thinking ahead by the leading politicians, the overreliance of many big Germany companies on those politicians and the ruling of the high Court in matter of the "Schuldenbremse" (from my p.o.v.). Sadly the problem doesn't stop at the federal level but also applies to the governments of the single federal states or "Bundesländer" and locale governments. The relationship between these three entities can be more difficult than trying to follow game of multidimensional chess after six "Herrengedecke" (A beer and a shot). For example there is the so called "Konnektivitätsprinzip" which defines when the federal or state government has to provide actual funding for policies they want to implement on a lower political level . There are situations where a local government actually has to finance the implementation of a policy ruled by the federal or state government all by themself, because due to "juristic black magic" the upper political level does not need to provide any money which they often take advantage of, due to the tight debt rules and the debt ruling is often much more tight on the state or local level. (Imagine like someone ordering food for you in a restaurant, no matter if you wanted it or not and leaving you the bill) Of course, this may sound like the situation is even much more worse, but on the other hand this can sometimes result into local governments, companies and other institutions having no other to rely on than themselves, resulting into them acting much more efficient and competent than any state or federal actor could. For example local SME working together with schools and local politicians in order to quickly integrate migrants into the local labour market or trying to develop the local potential of renewable energy. Of course this is not always the case and everything would be better with real financial support from the federal government instead of simply running on thin local resources and often nothing more than "good will" of single individuals. The situation is still "dire" but one should try not to lean to heavy into German doomerism. Germany should try to reinvent its own federal structures and try to focus more on the local level instead of upperclass bureaucrats in Berlin who make five figures a week and do not carry any responsibility.

Skip ideals and use pragmatic (less popular) solutions like cut down expenses and reduce taxes

Nothing is "on the brink". The current crisis was at least a decade in the making and really cannot surprise anyone with two eyes open. Germany is in a phase in which massive know how is leaving the labour markets due to the boomers retiring (entirely predictable), a phase in which the artificially cheap Russian gas is no longer flowing (entirely predictable that this was going to end sooner or later due to the expansionist state terror of Russia), and its export machine to China stutters due to shrinking domestic demand in China (entirely predictable). Germany must now solve its long standing issues concerning lack of investment in infrastructure and education, its developing country status concerning digitalization and modern public administration and solve its demographic crisis through a modern immigration law. Some of these, the current government has actually tackled quite well and that's within Germany's biggest crisis since the end of the war. Others, the government seems not to want to tackle or not be able to due to internal struggles. This will come back to bite us because everything that doesn't get solved now will have to be solved down the line, just more expensive. So this narrative that everything was so great 5 or 10 years ago and now has miraculously turned to shxxt may be an attractive narrative for a superficial online crowd, but 80% of what is happening now was entirely predictable 10 years ago. Main problem is similar to the UK's: Austerity in the 2010s when the money was cheap, and low productivity growth.

Toxic EU-Regulations and the phenomenal incompetence of the government are giving the economy a hard time at the moment. BUT, luckily we are living in a democracy and there will be both in Germany and the EU elections in the near future. 🇩🇪🇪🇺

When you trust your allies too much ....

Finally a good video, Josh!

I'm German, and I can't even begin to tell you how frustrated I am with the decisions of ALL of our politicians, both those in power and those in opposition. Worst of all is the AfD; their rise worries me awfully. ETA: And I have always disliked Ms. Merkel, now even more than before. Nearly all the problems we have to deal with now can be traced back to her!

The economic troubles inflicted on western countries is a direct result of integration with people from over a hundred countries because people will always wish to return to where they come from if living standards are not an issue. The lesson that the anglosaxon countries will never learn is that people who don't learn the lessons of the mistakes of history are destined to repeat the mistakes of history.

It's wild, I have a technical skill and have look tirelessly at how to immigrate to Germany for family reasons. One thing the Germans love are their TAXES. They make it so unappealing to live there with their tax laws I just say screw it and fly back and forth more frequently.

Nice analysis. I am a new subscriber to your channel.

Has anyone ever sat through a YT economic vid that didn't have a clickbait title and doom-scroll spin on contradictory information? Is there any country at any time that couldn't be said to have huge problems it needs to solve? The old joke holds true, "Economic experts have successfully predicted nine of the last five crises."

I would turn to Sharia law as becoming an Islamic state always fixes all economic and social issues.

Great Video!

If you are on the summit you catch a lot of wind.

You mention the difficulty of attracting skilled workers to Germany. I work for a German firm, but I live in South Africa 😁

The orange man bad warned them about getting reliant on Russian gas and they laughed in his face but they arent laughing now

From where I stand, it seems inevitable Germany will nosedive. I am early in my IT career and have had experience with a few German companies. They treat information technology like it's the factory of the 20c. Things are getting abstracted and complicated and it's painfully obvious they are not prepared. Like, I would go to my supervisor in an alleged startup and say "hey, this and this will improve the process or protect us" or something like that and they immediately shut everything down, protecting their comfort zone at any cost. No self-respecting foreigners will ever work for Germany, no matter how much money they throw at us.

all that strength in both UK and German economies were based on specific geopolitical conditions, change the conditions change the results. It's another proof yet that economies are as efficient as conditions allow

My solution. I already have a job in Switzerland 💪 and will also move there.

The ego will become ur end

thanks for the video. you missed that highly trained workers from germany are leaving in masses. already emigrated workers also almost never come back. wages are too low, costs are too high, social expenses exceed 50% of the budget this year.

Who would've thought that importing criminal from other countries that hate you and don't want to work is a bad idea.

3rd largest economy in the world. Contracting by 0.3% per quarter. Still has massive production capacity. Primarily, its energy supply issue was a problem. Hardly collapsing is it?

I was saying all this way back in 2019/20. In fact i probably comments on various videos on your channel, along with other economic channels. Economics isn't difficult, this issue is people look at the immediate problem, without assessing what happened in history in previous economies and the affects of similar policies to mitigate economic issues. I don't understand why people cannot do this, but i think economics is like tech people are scared of it and think it's out of their remit because of this

You should say banknotes not bills. Your content is always on point.

Housing or flat incentives could help increase the import of skilled workers, along with a generous vacation plan in my opinion. And also getting the word out that Germany has an excellent transportation system (reliable taxi and bus services) and travel system to skilled workers could increase hiring. Portable solar panel chargers are becoming more available and could be used to run laptops, portable heaters or charge cell phones, and power LED portable lights.

Germany is paying now for the stunningly stupid decision to close all of its nuclear plants, which couldn't have come at the worst time as it coincided with the war in Ukraine and the resulting skyrocketing energy prices. It's also paying for its short-sightedness regarding the car industry, namely being too slow to adapt to the hybrid and EV market. It's during a historic transition like this that companies stuck in their ways end up losing substantial market shares.

We are in a transition period. A big one! One that Germany still doesn't see coming. And it will hit hard, very hard.

I chose not to purchase a German vehicle recently as i like to keep my vehicles a long time and was concerned about parts availability/costs in the future.

Economic investigator Frank G Melbourne Australia is following this informative content cheers Frank 😊

Limit your harness on german shepherd 😂.......love from india ❤❤❤❤

Germany has been warned about depending on russian gas by the bad orange man...

I am a refractory engineer who build furnaces for industrial plants. Fuel is a MAJOR part of all industries. Cutting off your cheap source and buying overpriced fuel from USA is just economic suicide. By the way, China's industries are now benefiting immensely from cheap Russian gas.

A fiscal crisis isn't a economic crisis.

It's has a stupid system.... Avg netto salary of 2500 euro... Avg driving licence cost 2500 euro. 129€ for 90 min class 😥😥 WTF

Cheap energy is necessary

G it's almost as if an ally destroyed their main energy source

That court ruling regarding the "missing" 60 billion Euros surprised absolutely no one. It was well documented and established that this would be the outcome, but the ruling coalition chose to ignore the multiple, explicit warnings that were issued a year or so prior.

you can thank Merkel

Wir schaffen das!

You're spot on.

Maybe, just maybe they can stop putting plastic in the cars. I know it runs smoother, but man, it's a pain down the road.

Well to make one thing clear! Germany still performs much better than the UK ;) Just saying...

I remember Trump warning germany of thier reliance on Russian gas and they were just laughing at him. Now their arrogance came to bite them.

They should be figuring why the car manufacturers weren’t trying to take EVs seriously earlier on and find similar sentiments and attitudes in the rest of the economy

Tbh surprisingly sounds like German economical problem share a lot of similarity with Hong Kong current situation. Did all the foreign capital flow into Japan and India or what?

I’m actually quite frankly upset with German brands, my grandpa loved how the German garden/workshop German tools were. Now I buy the same brand I get some Chinese plastics with a German sticker that fall apart immediately. One year ago I bought one pair of branded “German” shoes 250€ at an airport boutique, I’ve used them twice, the third time the sole completely unglued from the shoe. I’m using Taiwanese made shoes now, they won’t last but they are 19€.

Remove a couple of pipes, and you will move business (and professionals ) in the right direction 😉 ( into the US)

Leaving clean nuclear was suicide

Yeah well let's just not forget about the heavy state subsidies for Chinese car manufacturers, tax discounts etc.

AUF DEN DOPPELWUMMS UND DAS GRÜNE WIRTSCHAFTSWUNDER JUNGS 💪🏻🤝🏻😂

The German economy as such is in serious trouble, but this does not necessarily extend to the DAX-listed companies, most of which are multinational enterprises. This allows them to relocate production to countries where energy costs are lower and skilled labor is more readily available. For example, chemical giant BASF recently announced that it will downsize operations in Germany, but invest an additional €6.5 billion in China.

I d agree with the 3 points made.Didnt know about the rest.Already had realized Germany will be hit harder with the energy crisis.They rely on industry, and that requires a lot of energy.Add the low temperatures that require a lot of heating and losing the cheap energy is a disaster.Doesnt help that many young Germans dont work or study (they have a term made for em but cant remember it)when the country seriously needs workers.

germany economy is in trouble because aging population , lack of workers, too much of immigration from war torn countries, low wages, handouts to them , rising cost of production , covid , russia ukraine thing which led to no access to cheap russian oil directly , and lastly baerbock foreign policy which will further accelerate germany to deindustrialization . india will eventually take over 3 rd spot in short term

How those migrant workers working out

Me and few of my friends with PhD degrees in engineering have been trying to apply for job in Germany for more than year. Up to now no one has been successful.

China also has rare earth metals required for EV batteries, whereas Germany has to source and import them.

I don’t see any problems. Plenty of mosques are being built.

When you sacrifice your economy for the US war on China.