Taps Coogan – January 2nd, 2024
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The following chart, via Jeroen Blokland, highlights the ongoing de-industrialization of Germany, which saw industrial output continue a decline that it first started in 2018.
The end of a business model in one chart:#Germany industrial production. pic.twitter.com/duF0JSSMIs
— jeroen blokland (@jsblokland) January 1, 2024
This decline represents one of the worst track records among developed economies since 2017 and has underperformed the US, Canada, Italy, and France.
Germany’s struggles reflect the unique challenges facing its economy which include: a shrinking working age population, non-sensical ‘green’ energy policy that has led to the double-failure of nearly the highest energy costs in Europe and among the highest carbon intensities, very high taxes, a business-hostile regulatory environment, an overreliance on a collection of auto brands with a deteriorating quality reputation, and an overreliance on the internal combustion auto industry. None of those problems are likely to improve in 2024.
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To be fair, German anal retentiveness is not specifically directed at business per se, but is an ingrained trait in all government offices, and within businesses as well. You can’t add a new flowerbed to your front yard without getting approval, in triplicate, from multiple gov’t agencies with overlapping authority.