this post was submitted on 31 Mar 2024
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El País: Why is the German economy so weak? (elpais.com)
submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago

There are some factors to consider:

  • They have a law called "schuldenbremse" since 2011 that forbids the state to take loans for investment/subventions. That kind of worked as intended https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/154798/umfrage/deutsche-staatsverschuldung-seit-2003/ but not investing at low interest rates (2010-2020 at ~1%) is controversial among economists. Also at corona there was a exception.
  • Germany's economy is export based. Now almost every country is struggling with post corona effects. Therefore everyone tries to support their local businesses. Germany has the schuldenbremse.
  • The real estate market was about 40% overvalued and bureaucracy with corona did it's best. Now the market is struggling to keep alive. No seller accepts the lower prices, banks already adapted and demand high securities. More people have to rent, rent rates hike, people struggle with rates and don't consume as much.

As personal experience: My wife and me are struggling to get a home in the range ~500-800k, we got 20% down payment and with income we are in the upper 10% of all dinks in Germany. Still struggling to get a home worth the price and getting credit for.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Oh well, turns out german engineering is not that good.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

it's as good as it ever was, but other countries are catching up in terms of quality, and now "German Engineering" doesn't carry the same competitive premium it used to.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Energy.

They ignorantly knee jerk reacted to Fukushima disaster, closed all their nuclear power plants, and now they are paying high $$$$ to import energy.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Complete bullshit. Our energy mix never contained a large percentage of nuclear power and most of the Russian gas issues are with heating, not electricity generation.

[–] [email protected] -4 points 7 months ago (2 children)

No one mentioned electricity, the point is about energy, like the one needed for heating

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago

Yeah, the one nobody with a gas heater in their home uses nuclear power for.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Ah yes. Nuclear fueled Home heating

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Where do you think a portion of electricity for electric heaters comes from?

From nuclear not anymore in Germany

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

And that's totally fine.

The share of electricity generated from renewable energies in the grid load in Germany was 56 percent in 2023 (2022: 48 percent).

Just yesterday, 7 of the most CO2-intensive coal-fired power plants in Germany were shut down forever.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

In addition, they also had their gas pipeline blown up forcing Germany to buy LNG at 10x the cost.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

That is not correct. The European Union had already developed plans to reduce gas imports from Russia before the attacks on the pipelines. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has presented a ten-point plan aimed at reducing dependence on Russian gas.

Germany stopped gas supplies from Russia on August 31, 2022, which was a response to European sanctions against Russia due to the war in Ukraine. The attack on the Pipelines took place afterwards on September 26, 2022.

The prices for gas internationally went up because of the war in Ukraine. The import of gas from Russia to Germany would have been stopped anyway, even if the attacks on the Nord Stream Pipelines had not taken place.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago

That is correct, the EU is currently still importing vast amounts of LNG from Russia through third parties while pretending to be cutting gas imports from Russia. These "plans" EU had were not realistic in any way, shape, or form. It's just political posturing for the benefit of the people who don't understand how energy markets work.

Germany did stop supply of gas from Russia voluntarily, however blowing up the pipeline ensured that it could not resume doing so when they realized how utterly fucked they were without cheap energy.

The prices for gas internationally did not magically go up because of the war. They went up as a direct result of the actions that western powers took.