Category Archives: Heconomy

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong, or is going wrong”

October 24, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Other than that though, alles ist in Ordnung (everything’s OK).

Germany’s lost decade: How the Fortune 500 Europe giant is flirting with long-term irrelevance – There is an elephant in the room of the 2024 edition of the Fortune 500 Europe. It’s not a crisis-riddled company or scandal-hit CEO. Rather, it’s the whole German economy.

For most of the 21st century, economists and neighboring countries have looked to Germany with admiration and envy as it managed to weather economic storms with relative ease, capitalizing on trade with growing economies and expanding the power of its industrial giants in the process.

However, a shifting world order has pulled the carpet out from underneath Germany. The industrial quirks that once helped it outgrow its European peers are fast becoming a burden, and crisis after crisis has exposed a lack of planning at the top of government.

More debt is the answer!

October 22, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Higher Education, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Right? It’s always the answer. Just look at US-Amerika.

We should be commending the Germans for not going down that deadly road, not smirking at them.

Schadenfreude reigns as Berlin pays the price of its tough line on debt – “It’s karma, no?” said one European official.

Germany has long been the European Union’s penny pincher par excellence — a paragon of fiscal rectitude in contrast to its spendthrift neighbors. But now its insistence on balancing the books is coming back to bite it.

“Declining connectivity” in Germany?

October 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I wonder why.

It costs over four thousand euros for a commercial aircraft to leave a German airport. In other European countries it costs as little as 500 euros. Some say this has to do with German regulation and “green kerosene” madness but I’m sure there must be a more… reasonable explanation.

Lufthansa CEO concerned more airlines will cut German routes – After airlines such as Eurowings and Ryanair have cut back their connections in Germany due to excessive fees and costs, Lufthansa CEO Carsten Spohr fears a negative impact on Germany as a place to do business.

German of the day: “nicht zufriedenstellend”

October 9, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means not satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Year number two. Germany is on a roll.

Germany expects economy to shrink after cutting 2024 forecast – Government predicts rebound in 2025 after 0.2% decline this year.

Germany is facing its first two-year recession since the early 2000s, as the government downgraded its growth forecast for 2024, predicting a contraction of 0.2 per cent.

“The situation is not satisfactory,” Robert Habeck, economy minister, said on Wednesday.

German of the day: Auf Eis legen

September 17, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means to put on ice. As in put on hold.

Intel postpones construction of chip factory in Magdeburg – Haseloff against abandonment of the project.

The chip company Intel has put its plans to build a factory in Magdeburg on hold. According to company boss Gelsinger, construction will probably be delayed by two years due to cost-cutting measures. A total of 3,000 direct jobs were to be created on Magdeburg’s Eulenberg. Saxony-Anhalt’s state government assures that the semiconductor plant will nevertheless go ahead.

Or not.

Last one out turn off the lights

September 4, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Oh, sorry. Green energy already turned the lights off for you.

Germany in crisis: Intel and Volkswagen mull a multibillion-dollar withdrawal from the country.

For the first time in its 87-year history, Volkswagen is considering shutting down plants in Germany, where it employs around 300,000 people, as the company ramps up efforts to save €10 billion in costs…

Reuters reports that Intel will consider pausing or halting plans for its €30 billion ($33 billion) factory in the east German city of Magdeburg as the semiconductor manufacturer looks for cost savings. Germany had committed €9.9 billion ($10.9 billion) to the project when it was announced in June last year.

Not so quiet on the Western Front

August 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Chip War Western Front.

EU approves German state aid for $11 billion TSMC chip plant – Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab on Tuesday launched a major new computer chip plant in Dresden, Germany, expected to be a key supplier to European industry and carmakers after the EU Commission approved 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) worth of state aid.

The large aid award for the project, which will cost 10 billion in all, is the biggest approved so far under the EU Chips Act, and the first in Germany.

It is also the first project in Europe under TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, and is expected to improve Europe’s resiliency if a chip shortage of the type experienced during the COVID pandemic happens again.

Let’s diversify!

August 13, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Just like we did with our dependency on Russian gas a few years back.

It’s called diversification through more dangerous entanglement.

German investment in China soars despite Berlin’s diversification drive – Politicians warn of rising geopolitical tensions but country’s carmakers stick with Chinese manufacturing.

German direct investment into China has risen sharply this year, in a sign that companies in Europe’s largest economy are ignoring pleas from their government to diversify into other, less geopolitically risky markets.

A self-inflicted hostage-taking situation?

June 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why is it that big German automakers are worried about Chinese retaliation?

Because they voluntarily put themselves in the position to be retaliated against. Think Germany’s voluntary dependency on Russian gas recently. That didn’t work out very well either. But for whatever reason, this is what Germans do.

Germany launches 11th-hour bid to avert trade war with China – Germany wants the EU to set tariffs on electric vehicles at a low level to avoid severe retaliation from Beijing…

Germany’s position was “problematic,” he said: While big German automakers still entertain good ties with Beijing, that’s not necessarily the case for smaller businesses, meaning “the German economy as a whole has an interest in a more assertive policy towards China.”