Her stupid decision to open Germany’s borders she shares with Biden. In her decision to shut down the cleanest and most reliable source of electricity (nuclear) she stands alone. She has devastated her country.
She doesn't stand entirely alone concerning nuclear. It's been nearly impossible to build a new nuclear plant in the USA for decades. The greenies, clueless as usual, were sure that solar and wind were greener than nuclear. We've lost two decades worth of nuclear production to people who have exactly NO qualifications to decide such things.
The cognitive dissonance is a wonder to behold. To be fanatically concerned that over a hundred years a hundred workers and townsfolk might die from nuclear plant meltdowns (no matter the deaths of folks mining lithium and forging the city-blocks of concrete needed to plant windfarms into the earth (they're like icebergs)) and yet .. and yet: would not a BILLION deaths a century be worth the benefit of literally (according to these very same experts and activists) saving the untold TRILLIONS of lifeforms that within DECADES will go up in an EARTH ball of fire due to those selfish humans who took too long to swap out their incandescent lightbulbs.
Is this more evidence that Germans would rather be exactly wrong than approximately right? Germany seems to be sticking with the wrong strategies but executing them quite well.
Any informed environmentalist familiar with the significant dangers associated with a country not being energy independent today will call for nuclear energy development or now redevelopment. Even in the United States, a country with vast energy resources, the cry for nuclear power is heard, because it has become increasingly apparent that there is no chance of reducing the carbon footprint unless the nuclear power option is pursued with ever increasing speed. To leave a country like Germany without recourse to various and reliable energy sources borders on being criminal and ultimately leading to its demise in a serious downward spiral. China is exploiting all its resources and those of any country willing to provide the fuel. Their transcendent status in the world now reveals whose policies have proven more effective. Western civilization has been declining for some time in no small way aided and abetted by those who apparently don't understand or care about sustaining the foundations of societies, especially energy sources.
I wonder if we’ll ever find out who was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. That certainly did a lot of damage to their economy. It was a terrible thing to do to Germany, to Europe and to Russia.
Most likely, the Americans were behind it. After all, if there are a couple of countries, in Europe, that Americans hate with all their hearts and souls, they are Germany and Russia.
Agree with Bob, Americans don’t think often of Germany but certainly don’t hate or despise it. They likely think of Mercedes and BMW with fondness. But allowing Russia to fund their war machine with energy sales to Europe could not continue. So hats off to whoever pulled it off.
A thought provoking read Yascha. Looking beyond the disastrous austerity currently being inflicted on New Zealand, a strategic question begs an answer. Has New Zealand backed the right horses? I would argue they might not have. For example, like Germany, New Zealand is reliant on China for most of its growth. And growth cannot be infinite in a finite world. It’s just maths. New Zealand has also made significant bets on sunset industries like red meat and dairy. These industries are problematic in environmental, externality, and future-proofing terms. Plus, commodity trading is problematic by default. To that end, these industries are reliant on the rest of the world to maintain the integrity of the free trade system it relies on to import and export. That is a risk. How is it mitigated? Looking forward 20 years, how will New Zealand maintain or improve its standard of living and societal prosperity? Or has New Zealand entered a spiral of permanent linear decline? If not, why not? I’m struggling to see how New Zealand can prosper whilst maintaining the status quo? Does the country need a hard reset? If the answer is yes, how does that happen? A Labour coalition led by Hipkins is unlikely to be a ‘hard reset’ party. Meanwhile, domestic squabbling over hospitals, ferries, toll-roads, potholes, crime, and almost everything else, continues unabated. Outside of Godzone, the rest of the world is changing…rapidly.
Thought bubble extract here: “Germany’s crisis goes deeper than that. In the memorable formulation of Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Germany has long “outsourced its security to the United States, its energy needs to Russia and its export-led growth to China.” Merkel doubled down on all three of these bets. Since she left office, all three have gone belly up.
At dizzying speed, Germany has gone from economic powerhouse to the new “sick man of Europe.” Manufacturing in the country is down significantly. Its vaunted car industry has been particularly hard hit. Volkswagen, for example, recently announced that it would shutter some of its German factories for the first time in the company’s history. It is no exaggeration to say that Germany now faces its deepest crisis since the end of World War II.”
Everyone overthinks everything .. it's not that hard. New Zealand, for example, needs to simply ban purchases directly from TEMU, only via the New Zealand TEMU Department, which will in turn sell it at twice the price it pays to TEMU .. it will still be cheap and NZ will become rich enough to supply every citizen with their own milk cow, and more.
Inaction and indecision are the rotten fruits of boring, unimaginative spells of governance which nations unglamorously slip into in the name of *normalcy*, *peaceful relations*, and as a result of (the understandable) *human distaste for change*.
Leaders must be bold in their governing in order to make sweeping positive changes. Not just in their promises, like Scholz, but in their actions... which is unfortunately one of the reasons many provocative and action-taking far-right politicians have been embraced this decade. Seems like Merkel, and other leaders who operate with similar politics and approach, had hoped for things to blow over so they wouldn't have to make any tough decisions.
"In the future, perhaps during one of her Baltic walks, Angela Merkel might reflect that calling her memoir Freedom, as Ukraine fights for just that against a Russia she did so much to enable, didn’t exude good taste. But let us be fair. The 700 pages after the title are worse. In a book of tireless self-pity, people are always underestimating the author. You are meant to conclude that she proved them wrong. You come away asking if they had half a point."
What about the companies, corporations, business organizations, trade unions and leaders of these groups? Yes, government leaders are more to blame but non-government leaders are just doing what they are told?
Stasis ( not the former East German political police) comes to mind. The society has become incapable of solving its own problems. Reminds me a lot of Japan over the last decades.
Her stupid decision to open Germany’s borders she shares with Biden. In her decision to shut down the cleanest and most reliable source of electricity (nuclear) she stands alone. She has devastated her country.
She doesn't stand entirely alone concerning nuclear. It's been nearly impossible to build a new nuclear plant in the USA for decades. The greenies, clueless as usual, were sure that solar and wind were greener than nuclear. We've lost two decades worth of nuclear production to people who have exactly NO qualifications to decide such things.
The cognitive dissonance is a wonder to behold. To be fanatically concerned that over a hundred years a hundred workers and townsfolk might die from nuclear plant meltdowns (no matter the deaths of folks mining lithium and forging the city-blocks of concrete needed to plant windfarms into the earth (they're like icebergs)) and yet .. and yet: would not a BILLION deaths a century be worth the benefit of literally (according to these very same experts and activists) saving the untold TRILLIONS of lifeforms that within DECADES will go up in an EARTH ball of fire due to those selfish humans who took too long to swap out their incandescent lightbulbs.
Is this more evidence that Germans would rather be exactly wrong than approximately right? Germany seems to be sticking with the wrong strategies but executing them quite well.
Hilarious, but sadly true, comment.
Any informed environmentalist familiar with the significant dangers associated with a country not being energy independent today will call for nuclear energy development or now redevelopment. Even in the United States, a country with vast energy resources, the cry for nuclear power is heard, because it has become increasingly apparent that there is no chance of reducing the carbon footprint unless the nuclear power option is pursued with ever increasing speed. To leave a country like Germany without recourse to various and reliable energy sources borders on being criminal and ultimately leading to its demise in a serious downward spiral. China is exploiting all its resources and those of any country willing to provide the fuel. Their transcendent status in the world now reveals whose policies have proven more effective. Western civilization has been declining for some time in no small way aided and abetted by those who apparently don't understand or care about sustaining the foundations of societies, especially energy sources.
I wonder if we’ll ever find out who was behind the sabotage of the Nord Stream gas pipeline from Russia to Germany. That certainly did a lot of damage to their economy. It was a terrible thing to do to Germany, to Europe and to Russia.
“We will bring an end to it. I promise you.”
Joe Biden. Feb 7, 2022
Most likely, the Americans were behind it. After all, if there are a couple of countries, in Europe, that Americans hate with all their hearts and souls, they are Germany and Russia.
I don't thing Americans think or feel much at all towards Germany and Russia .. unless someone else forces them to.
That said .. maybe we did, maybe we didn't. I'm not tellin'.
Since when was Russia in Europe?
Agree with Bob, Americans don’t think often of Germany but certainly don’t hate or despise it. They likely think of Mercedes and BMW with fondness. But allowing Russia to fund their war machine with energy sales to Europe could not continue. So hats off to whoever pulled it off.
A thought provoking read Yascha. Looking beyond the disastrous austerity currently being inflicted on New Zealand, a strategic question begs an answer. Has New Zealand backed the right horses? I would argue they might not have. For example, like Germany, New Zealand is reliant on China for most of its growth. And growth cannot be infinite in a finite world. It’s just maths. New Zealand has also made significant bets on sunset industries like red meat and dairy. These industries are problematic in environmental, externality, and future-proofing terms. Plus, commodity trading is problematic by default. To that end, these industries are reliant on the rest of the world to maintain the integrity of the free trade system it relies on to import and export. That is a risk. How is it mitigated? Looking forward 20 years, how will New Zealand maintain or improve its standard of living and societal prosperity? Or has New Zealand entered a spiral of permanent linear decline? If not, why not? I’m struggling to see how New Zealand can prosper whilst maintaining the status quo? Does the country need a hard reset? If the answer is yes, how does that happen? A Labour coalition led by Hipkins is unlikely to be a ‘hard reset’ party. Meanwhile, domestic squabbling over hospitals, ferries, toll-roads, potholes, crime, and almost everything else, continues unabated. Outside of Godzone, the rest of the world is changing…rapidly.
Thought bubble extract here: “Germany’s crisis goes deeper than that. In the memorable formulation of Constanze Stelzenmüller, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, Germany has long “outsourced its security to the United States, its energy needs to Russia and its export-led growth to China.” Merkel doubled down on all three of these bets. Since she left office, all three have gone belly up.
At dizzying speed, Germany has gone from economic powerhouse to the new “sick man of Europe.” Manufacturing in the country is down significantly. Its vaunted car industry has been particularly hard hit. Volkswagen, for example, recently announced that it would shutter some of its German factories for the first time in the company’s history. It is no exaggeration to say that Germany now faces its deepest crisis since the end of World War II.”
Everyone overthinks everything .. it's not that hard. New Zealand, for example, needs to simply ban purchases directly from TEMU, only via the New Zealand TEMU Department, which will in turn sell it at twice the price it pays to TEMU .. it will still be cheap and NZ will become rich enough to supply every citizen with their own milk cow, and more.
Yeah-nah, Bob, not sure that will do the trick mate.
Inaction and indecision are the rotten fruits of boring, unimaginative spells of governance which nations unglamorously slip into in the name of *normalcy*, *peaceful relations*, and as a result of (the understandable) *human distaste for change*.
Leaders must be bold in their governing in order to make sweeping positive changes. Not just in their promises, like Scholz, but in their actions... which is unfortunately one of the reasons many provocative and action-taking far-right politicians have been embraced this decade. Seems like Merkel, and other leaders who operate with similar politics and approach, had hoped for things to blow over so they wouldn't have to make any tough decisions.
I found this review of her memoirs in the FT to be particularly good, and by good I mean scathing.
https://archive.md/xfeIZ
It starts
"In the future, perhaps during one of her Baltic walks, Angela Merkel might reflect that calling her memoir Freedom, as Ukraine fights for just that against a Russia she did so much to enable, didn’t exude good taste. But let us be fair. The 700 pages after the title are worse. In a book of tireless self-pity, people are always underestimating the author. You are meant to conclude that she proved them wrong. You come away asking if they had half a point."
And gets better from there
What about the companies, corporations, business organizations, trade unions and leaders of these groups? Yes, government leaders are more to blame but non-government leaders are just doing what they are told?
They could start by re-starting their nuclear and reversing their ideological and irrational approach to energy generation
Stasis ( not the former East German political police) comes to mind. The society has become incapable of solving its own problems. Reminds me a lot of Japan over the last decades.
Can't blame her for the dominoes set toppling by Biden's panicky abandonment of Afghanistan.