GER politics thread

[Skybird]

https://www.nzz.ch/deutschland/der-f...&_x_tr_sl=auto

The Bundeswehr has just under 182,000 soldiers, including 214 generals and admirals, a good 39,000 officers, 95,000 non-commissioned officers and 46,000 soldiers with enlisted ranks. Never before has it had so few soldiers and at the same time so many organizational areas, staffs, commands and authorities as today. There is a term for this: top-heaviness. It makes for far too many interfaces and makes it difficult to assign and assume responsibility. This is a typical characteristic of a peacetime army. It produces bureaucrats and encourages them.

The Bundeswehr is an administrative army. This is ensured not only by more than 80,000 civilian employees, but also by tens of thousands of soldiers whose activities are more akin to those in large government agencies than to those of a force training for the real thing. These administrative soldiers do not generate combat power. In the event of war, they do not sit in trenches and positions, battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles, ships and submarines, but they do cost a lot of money. The Bundeswehr now spends half of its budget on personnel. But an army with too many "chiefs" for too few "Indians" is overwhelmed by the new confrontation in Europe. The war in Ukraine shows what matters in a conflict on the eastern flank.
(...)
The Ministry of Defense has been trying to conceal the low ammunition levels for more than a year with reference to national security. Inquiries to this effect from the opposition have come to nothing. But information about the situation keeps leaking out. One is that warships such as the Corvette 130 can only leave with half their cargo of ammunition because there is no more. Another one was recently published by "Der Spiegel". According to the report, the Bundeswehr has only 20,000 artillery shells. To put that in perspective: At the meeting of EU defense ministers in Stockholm in March, Estonia presented a paper stating that Russia consumes between 20,000 and 60,000 artillery shells per day.
(...)
But how do you prepare society and the armed forces in a democracy so that, in the event of war, they do not give up immediately after the first losses? That is a question of political leadership in an existential situation. Perhaps by saying today what would be expected: four percent casualty rate per combat brigade every single day or, in other words, 200 killed and wounded per 5,000 soldiers every day. This is how the Bundeswehr Medical Service predicted it four years ago in an internal study.

[Skybird]

Taiwanese chip producer TSMC invests billions into a chip factory in Dresden. This news comes shortly after Intel was lured by Germany with subventions worth 10+ bn into building such a factory in germany.

[Skybird]

Recently, the Institute of the German Economy reported that companies had never withdrawn so much money from Germany as they did last year. There was talk of a net outflow of 132 billion euros from Germany - the highest figure ever recorded.

Last year, for example, German companies made direct investments of 143 billion euros abroad, while foreign companies invested only 11 billion euros in Germany.

The chancellor merely grins smugly, giving himself top marks in press interviews at every opportunity and points out how fantastic and benchmark-like this government is for Germany. The "economy" minister says he is completely satisfied, without any self-doubt or remorse. Quietly, the increase in CO2 pricing was once again accelerated ahead of schedule. This week I discover that a bio-shop that I used has closed down because of declining customer numbers who can no longer afford the higher prices for organic products, and the two farms that operated the shop wanted to sell their land as building land, but now they sit deadlocked on growing red numbers because the sale has failed, because no more building investor is found who would be stupid enough to build in Germany: Building is over-regulated and from year to year deliberately more expensive. Public and private debts rise. Public services like transportation must be reduced, because they do not find sufficent employees anymore, the German railway becomes worse and worse with every year, the funding for infrastructure covers not even a fraction of the needed maintenance costs, and recently a whole city council has resigned because the accommodation of migrants, which the federal chaos troop forces them to provide, is consuming the entire municipal budget and there is not even money left over to cover even ongoing costs: they resigned because they said they could no longer decide anything and had no room for maneuver except to take on more and more debt that they could never repay.

https://www.nzz.ch/meinung/der-ander...&_x_tr_sl=auto

If all the red warning lights don't start flashing by now, you've really lost your marbles.

[Skybird]

The July statistics show almost a quarter more business failures than a year ago. This is not only due to higher energy costs and interest rates, but also to the lagged effects of the Corona policy. The number of insolvencies has been rising steadily since August 2022. The number of corporate insolvencies in Germany is since then rising rapidly. In July this year, there were almost 24% more corporate insolvencies in Germany than in the same month last year, according to the Federal Statistical Office. In June, the increase was already almost 14 percent.

I expect that the number of small and medium-sized businesses closing down because they can no longer survive in the business climate created by the traffic light government will increase. The Association of Medium-Sized Businesses said a few days ago that about 40% of the businesses are thinking of giving up.

Fourty percent...! In no other industrialised country is the "Mittelstand" (not to be mistaken with middle class) as important as in Germany. It is here that the model of vocational training for industrial and apprenticeable occupations that the rest of the world is so eager to copy from Germany is based. It is now crumbling. In addition, the number of young people entering job training is far too low.


Not in the long temr, but already in the medium term it is desaster looming. This collaps now happening is of a scale that I cannot imagine Germany to ever recover from that. And it is wanted by the Greens who since 40 year slobber for destroying the burgoise social order, free market economy and capitalism. Demography alone would already spell desaster for us, but the Greens are the catalyst that accelerate this process by facors. The chancelor grins, as always, thats what he does best, and its the only thing he does. The economic minister smirks: the Champagne and non-vegan party food is already ordered, the mission after 40 years is finally almost accomplished.


No pity for the Germans, please. They get what they deserve: they let this happen, they let this being done to them, they even applaude, and do not fight back. Dispicable.

[Skybird]

News from the splenid German Zeitenwende. Its practically over. Tagesspiegel has this:


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Government softens armaments targets: Union sees breach of promise on special assets

The CDU/CSU government wants to change the law on the 100-billion-pot for the Bundeswehr. It will no longer be possible to finance only investments in the future. Commitments on how to meet the NATO funding target will also be watered down.

Against the backdrop of the tight budget situation, the federal government is planning with looser rules for the use of the special assets of the Bundeswehr and lower increases in the defense budget. This emerges from a draft bill for a budget financing law available to the Tagesspiegel, which is to be approved by the federal cabinet next week.
Live on your cell phone Get all the latest news on the Russian attack on Ukraine with the Tagesspiegel app. Download it here for IOS and Android.

"These changes are drastic and contradict the political commitments of the traffic light during the negotiations on the special assets of the Bundeswehr, when the traffic light factions were dependent on the votes of the Union to amend the Basic Law," CDU budget politician Ingo Gädechens told the Tagesspiegel. He spoke of a "breach of promise by the federal government."


Specifically, the passage stating that NATO's two percent spending target will be reached "over a multi-year average of no more than five years" is to be deleted. Had it remained at that, after an estimated 1.57 percent of economic output for defense spending this year and the planned exactly two percent in 2024, the government would have had to reach percentages well above the two percent mark in the year thereafter to meet the average. Instead, the draft now states that the armaments target is to be achieved "annually starting in 2024" - the bottom line is that the government is thus reducing its own commitment.

Because, in the view of CDU man Gädechens, "the political will to make sufficient money available is lacking," this promise is "now simply being cashed in." The government paper, on the other hand, talks about the fact that the amendment to the law would "rule out" such a large "margin of fluctuation" in defense spending.

The new law would also significantly expand the scope of the 100 billion euro special fund, which was set up last summer with precise specifications. Instead of "equipment projects," such as the recent purchase of fighter jets, helicopters and a missile defense system, "projects" in general would be eligible for financing in the future. In theory, this could also include construction measures in the barracks or research projects in defense technology.

"With the change in earmarking," the Union MP said, "it will be easier to cover up the dramatic underfunding in the core budget." From circles of the Ministry of Defense was heard on Friday that it is also a matter of spending the special assets as quickly as possible because of the loss of interest. However, this could not only be done through major projects that would run and be paid off over many years.

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Nobody must cry that he got surprised by this news. I told you last year's february that Scholz' babbling means nothing and that the fond would be sacked in a creative way.


But Habeck's additional debts to finance green policy got a boost by 300 billion and violates the constitutional debt breake.German goivenrment of today knows no debts anymore, but labels them as "special foinds" and these then arwe no more debts. They ridicule and ,mock the meanign of the law and the constitutionm, make legal reliability a formality without meaning (like the EU does all the time) . Even Corona fonds that were not spent were illegally hijacked by Habeck. Legally it would be mandatorya to give the Corona moneys back to the taxpayer, its without alternative. But the Greens never had respect for law and order - only if these served their ideological views.

Scum. And the Bundeswehr? Will remain to be a running joke for all time to come. Germany has just days ago reported readiness and reserve numbers to the NATO headquarter and planners that simply do not exist, are fictions on paper only.

Here is the one big thing were Trump really was right, always.

[Skybird]

[Die Zeit] The German government has removed the so-called annual NATO quota from its current draft budget. This was reported by the Reuters news agency and the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, citing government representatives. According to a government representative, this was justified by reservations from the Foreign Office [led by Baerbock/Greens, Skybird]

Baerbock also torpedoed the forming of a German national security council when it was clear that it would be headed not by her, but the chancellor's office, like on every other nation with a comparable institution. Baerbock wanted the privilige to funnel defence spendings from the defence budget into development aid in the third world and available to her own ideas of what might be good spending. Nevertheless these moneys should have been counted as part of the defence budget, even if they build roads in Africa or a water purifier in a desaster zone. Thats all increasing German defence power.

Don't ask - its the Germans, stupid.

[Skybird]

[FAZ] Israel says it has received permission from the United States to sell Israel's Arrow 3 missile defense system to Germany. This was announced by the Israeli Defense Ministry on Thursday. This clears the way for the billion-dollar deal.

It is the largest arms deal in Israeli history, the ministry's statement said. The U.S. approval was seen as the last major hurdle for the historic deal between Germany and Israel. Negotiations on it had begun after Russia launched a war of aggression in Ukraine last year. Representatives of the Israeli and German defense ministries and Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) are expected to sign a declaration of commitment in the next step. After approval by the parliaments of both countries, the final contract is expected to be signed toward the end of the year.
(...)



Its Germany. Just saying. Dont be surprised about anything.

[Skybird]

Ready for a wild roller-coaster-ride through the German Irrenhaus? Enjoy, and dont forget to laugh loud and often. And think twice whether you really would want to invest in Germany. If i were an entrepreneur and would want to found a company, my first decision would be to leave Germany and better the whole EU.

https://www-focus-de.translate.goog/..._x_tr_pto=wapp

When Stella Pazzi wishes an employee a happy birthday, she violates the General Data Protection Regulation (DSGVO). She would first have had to get his consent to know his birthday - because that is protected data.

[Jimbuna]

Germany has been blasted for its “absurd” decision to drop its commitment to reach Nato’s spending pledge.

Olaf Scholz’s Government is instead planning to present interest payment as part of its defence expenses.

Berlin abandoned Nato’s legally binding commitment to spend two per cent of GDP defence on Wednesday.

Germany’s Green Party took exception to the pact’s clause.

The Greens hold significant power in Berlin as environmentalist MPs were called in Scholz’s coalition after the last general election.

The developments came as Germany’s Bild newspaper reported that the country’s defence ministry had been instructed to include debt-servicing payments as military spending for next year.

Germany is forecast to fall €14billion short of its spending commitment in 2024.

Berlin is trying to avoid the humiliating news by adding around €9billion debt servicing to its official expenditure.

Scholz’s Government is also looking to include €4billion of military assistance provided to Ukraine in its defence figures.

The decision has been criticised by an MP from the opposition centre-right CDU party.

Info Gadechens said: “The idea of categorising interest payments as defence expenses is outright absurd.

“While soldiers can protect our nation, interest rates certainly cannot.”

Germany has been criticised for failing to meet Nato’s spending commitments for several years.

Only 11 out of Nato’s 31 member states spend two per cent of GDP on defence spending in 2023.

The United Kingdom, United States, Poland, Greece, Estonia, Lithuania, Finland, Romania, Hungary, Latvia and Slovakia all spent the required amount.

A spokesperson from Germany’s defence ministry told The Telegraph: “In addition to the entire defence budget… defence expenditure according to Nato criteria can sometimes also include expenditure on other individual plans.”
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...8b3826bf&ei=28

[ET2SN]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Taiwanese chip producer TSMC invests billions into a chip factory in Dresden. This news comes shortly after Intel was lured by Germany with subventions worth 10+ bn into building such a factory in germany.

TSMC is spreading itself out due mostly to the PLA threat of invasion but also due to the log jams and shortages that were caused during the pandemic.

I believe they will rename the European fabs under "ESMC".
This also allows them to tailor chip production better to a region's needs.

You'll get better PC-based chips than the US plus they can also build a five year "fuse" into automotive chips for BMW.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by ET2SN

TSMC is spreading itself out due mostly to the PLA threat of invasion but also due to the log jams and shortages that were caused during the pandemic.

I believe they will rename the European fabs under "ESMC".
This also allows them to tailor chip production better to a region's needs.

You'll get better PC-based chips than the US plus they can also build a five year "fuse" into automotive chips for BMW.

They will not build latest chip technology and smallest chips here, but only bigger ones of older tech generation that can be used in car production.

[Skybird]

Tichy's Einblicke writes: https://www.tichyseinblick.de/wirtsc...len-vermoegen/


Neither on average nor on the mean does the Federal Republic of Germany rank among the top countries internationally in terms of wealth. Even within the EU, it performs poorly. Despite this, left-wing politicians are calling for even higher taxes. The Global Wealth Report 2023, which Credit Suisse uses regularly to measure global wealth distribution, reports two major trends for the past year: First, global inequality grew less strongly than before - but this was mainly because the decline on the stock markets in 2022 caused nominal wealth to shrink slightly overall, especially in the industrialized countries. At the same time, the middle class as a whole continues to grow worldwide, mainly due to the rise of Asian countries. This trend has been going on for more than two decades: Since 2000, the proportion of people globally with per capita net wealth between $10,000 and $100,000 has risen from 13.4 to 34.4 percent.

For Germany, however, the 2023 report shows very modest figures that clearly contradict the myth of the "rich country" that politicians and the media like to promote. The figures on the average and median wealth of the individual countries are interesting above all because they were not collected in such detail in earlier wealth reports. According to the ranking of the "Global Wealth Report," Germany is not among the world's top ten countries in terms of either average or median wealth per capita. Median wealth refers to the boundary that divides the bottom half of wealth owners from the top half. Median wealth refers to the boundary dividing the lower half of wealth holders from the upper half. A median figure therefore says more about the distribution than the pure average figure. According to Credit Suisse data, Germany ranked 16th globally in terms of average wealth in 2022, and 27th in terms of median wealth.

A comparison among industrialized countries in particular shows the differences in both fields. In terms of average wealth, Switzerland leads with an average net wealth of $685,230 per capita, followed by the USA with $551,350. The EU country with the highest average wealth - Denmark with $409,950 - is in fifth place. Germany, on the other hand, has an average wealth of $256,180, which is only slightly more than half as high. Three factors in particular put the Federal Republic relatively far behind in the comparison: First, because of the lowest EU home ownership rate of 51 percent, there are few properties in the hands of individual citizens here. Second, Germans still own far fewer shares than investors in most other industrialized countries. In the long term, securities provide good asset growth. And thirdly, many younger people in Germany in particular find it difficult to build up any assets at all because of the high tax and contribution burden - especially since real estate prices hardly allow average earners in urban centers to buy their own house or condominium.

The differences in median wealth are even more pronounced. Here, Belgium leads internationally with $249,940 per capita. Half of the adults own more than this amount, the other half less. In terms of median wealth, Switzerland ranks sixth with $167,350 per person, making it one of the countries that combine a high average wealth with a relatively broad distribution of wealth. The second, funded pillar of old-age provision, which is mandatory for the Swiss, contributes to this. With a median wealth of $133,630 per capita, France (10th place) also has a level of prosperity that is just over twice that of Germany. In the Federal Republic, median wealth in 2022 was just $66,735.

These figures are in stark contrast to the plans of Green and SPD politicians, who are calling for a wealth levy, justifying this demand with the allegedly high level of wealth in Germany. Recently, both Katrin Göring-Eckardt and SPD leader Saskia Esken have called for a "special levy" - even though the federal, state and local governments expect record tax revenues in 2023.

https://www.ubs.com/global/en/family...port-2023.html

[Jimbuna]

Germany now 'sick man of Europe' while Brexit Britain outstrips EU giant in growth

Germany has been branded "sick man of Europe" as forecasts from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suggest the country's economic woes are likely to continue for the foreseeable future.

The IMF predicts the nation's economy will shrink in 2023 which would make it the only G7 country to contract this year.

In the first quarter of 2023, Germany fell into recession after two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth while post-Brexit Britain grew by 0.2 percent in this year's second quarter.

In 1998, Germany previously held the moniker of the "sick man of Europe" as the country struggled with the challenges that arose from the reunification of East and West.

But in Britain, the term is most widely associated with the UK's decline in the 1970s.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/othe...7e351b82&ei=11

[Skybird]

https://www.nzz.ch/feuilleton/wie-di...&_x_tr_sl=auto

When the political center, whether liberal, conservative, or simply well-educated middle-class, is moved close to the AfD and thus delegitimized by a wave of indignation with every new proposal, for example to change European asylum and immigration law, the firewall [against the AfD] has already become a plank in front of the head [=to be a blockhead, to draw a plan k]

[Skybird]

[FAZ] The German government is missing its targets for the transformation of the automotive market. China has become the lead market for electromobility. Germany, meanwhile, is on a threefold wrong track.

After two years, the interim assessment of the Berlin traffic light coalition for the intended transformation of the automotive industry is sobering. "We will support the transformation process of the German automotive industry against the backdrop of digitalization and decarbonization," wrote the SPD, Greens and FDP in their coalition agreement in 2021. Germany was to become the "lead market for electromobility". With suitable framework conditions and support measures, they wanted to ensure that 15 million electric cars would be on Germany's roads by 2030.

This image-boosting goal is likely to be missed by a wide margin. For example, Stephan Bratzel, head of the Auto Institute CAM, believes that only seven to eight million such e-cars are achievable by 2030. So subsidies for the purchase of e-cars are now being quickly restricted. From September on, the purchase of business electric cars will no longer be subsidized, although more than two-thirds of all new registrations are business cars and company cars.

For private buyers, the subsidy will then be cut in 2024. At the same time, interest rates have risen, including for leasing, which is particularly important for e-cars. This is one of the reasons why Germany is heading for a lull in e-car sales next year. A recession is also on the horizon due to the poor auto economy.

Meanwhile, China has become the lead market for electromobility, although most cars there are charged with coal-fired electricity. China has the raw materials and the battery factories that Germany's industry and politicians have been too late to take care of. As a result, Chinese e-cars can now be built and offered much more cheaply.

Germany lacks the framework conditions both for a faster spread of e-cars and for investments by the auto industry. The network of public charging stations continues to grow very slowly. There is simply not enough power for broadly organized charging in private garages and underground parking lots.

The companies now planning to build battery factories and manufacture electric cars, and thus decide on the industrial locations of the future, lack the prospect of favorable energy prices in this country - not just for a few years, but for the lifetime of new factories. It is no wonder that German companies in the automotive sector are now particularly attracted to the U.S. and its subsidies, and that they are taking a large part of the investments planned for the next four years - almost 400 billion euros - abroad.

Instead of setting off in the direction of progress, Germany and its government's auto policy are on a threefold wrong track: Firstly, Germany's auto industry has been given a mandate to restructure in the direction of e-cars without creating good framework conditions for this. The policy is thus working for the green goal of limiting car traffic and production in Germany. Secondly, green climate policy wants to save the climate with a wide range of regulations for traffic and cars as well.

But even if Germany disappeared from the map, there would be hardly any detectable climate effect. Only with innovations for climate-friendly cars and production could Germany help the world turn the climate around, but we are far from that. Third, Germany would have new opportunities with climate-neutral e-fuels, but so far they have been missed for ideological reasons.

Not only the Berlin government, but also the EU Commission is doing a lot for a future without German car production. Although the ban on the registration of new internal combustion engines will take effect in 2035, the Commission is still quickly demanding an unnecessarily expensive Euro7 standard, planning an anti-innovation rule for artificial intelligence in cars, and calling for a blanket ban on many chemicals. Germany no longer has a vote in the EU Council of Ministers, because the Berlin coalition government is abstaining due to internal disputes. There was also little to be heard from the 96 German members of the European Parliament.

Even in a more favorable regulatory environment, it would still be far from certain that Germany would remain a major player on the global automotive market. This is where the fact that captains of industry and politicians were not as far-sighted in the past as they should have been from today's perspective takes its toll. The 2021 IAA auto show, opened at that time by Chancellor Angela Merkel, represented a late but hopeful departure in the direction of the e-car. The IAA 2023, opened this Tuesday by Chancellor Olaf Scholz, could be the beginning of a German decline.

https://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtscha...-19147656.html

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FYI, the industry energy prices in Germany are ~3.5 times higher than in the US and 2.7 times higher than the global average, electricity for private housholds costs 174% more in Germany than in the rets of the world (source: Verivox) - and is further climbing, planned and intentionally and preset. If you want to destroy the industry of a country and chase investments away - German thinking found the most effient way to acchieve that in no time it. German efficiency monsters!