Here is another in a line of inexorable “told you so’s.” At the beginning of August, I’d posted that the German Green dream was crashing more than just the Hofbräuhaus (tavern) budgets of burgermeisters’ rural citizens. It was coming for Germany’s vaunted industrial complex.

It’s not at all good news for what was once the industrial and economic powerhouse of the EU. And when the Italians, of all people, are eating your lunch?

Gads. That’s mortifying.

…The industrial decline in Germany, revealed by S&P Global’s purchasing manager index, has overshadowed the continued expansion in the service sector, impacting not just the nation itself but also having repercussions on other economies within the region. Shockingly, Germany is expected to be the only G7 nation experiencing economic contraction this year, a situation that demands urgent attention and action.

A couple of days ago, the WSJ flat-put said the Germans had “lost their mojo” economically.

OUCH

Germany Is Losing Its Mojo. Finding It Again Won’t Be Easy.
Europe’s biggest economy is sliding into stagnation, and a weakening political system is struggling to find an answer

Two decades ago, Germany revived its moribund economy and became a manufacturing powerhouse of an era of globalization.

Times changed. Germany didn’t keep up. Now Europe’s biggest economy has to reinvent itself again. But its fractured political class is struggling to find answers to a dizzying conjunction of long-term headaches and short-term crises, leading to a growing sense of malaise.

Germany will be the world’s only major economy to contract in 2023, with even sanctioned Russia experiencing growth, according to the International Monetary Fund.

This morning, the financial world was waiting on the July month-over-month figures. Even while prepared for a disappointment in some respect, German financial gurus were marginally hopeful for signs of a reprieve. After all, there’d been a bump in big orders (aerospace, etc) that saved June for them. Dare they hope?

Well, hello.

GERMAN INDUSTRIAL ORDERS MOM ACTUAL -11.7% (FORECAST -4.3%, PREVIOUS 7.0%) $MACRO

— Breaking Market News (@financialjuice) September 6, 2023

Yeah – that hit a leetle harder than expected when the numbers finally rolled out.

German factory orders fell more than expected in July, official data showed Wednesday, in the latest setback for Europe’s largest economy as it grapples with an industrial slowdown.

New orders, closely watched as a sign of future economic activity, plummeted by 11.7 percent compared with the previous month, federal statistics agency Destatis said.

Gruesomeness. In fact, the sharp rise in June made the July numbers even worse by comparison. Nothing like those apples, huh? Even when the aircraft orders were stripped away and a miniscule percentage gain eked out (.3%), indicators for the German manufacturing sector contracted badly. What Germany makes, no one really wants at the moment.

…“However, in view of the gloomy business climate and the weak global economy” there was no indication of “a sustained revival of industrial activity,” it added.

Foreign orders fell by 12.9 percent in July, while domestic demand was down 9.7 percent.

German companies are leaving – not because it’s a worldwide phenomena, but because these are problems systemic to Germany. A strangling, sclerotic bureaucracy, failure to improvise and innovate, and, most importantly, insane, suicidal energy policies driven by the climate cultists at the helm of the national government.

…In March, one of Germany’s most storied companies, multinational industrial-gas group Linde, delisted from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in favor of maintaining a sole listing on the New York Stock Exchange. The decision was driven in part by the growing burden of financial regulation in Germany. But also, Linde, whose roots go back to 1879, said it no longer wanted to be perceived just as German—an association that it believed was depressing its appeal to investors.

Germany today is in the midst of another cycle of success, stagnation and pressure for reforms, said Josef Joffe, a longtime newspaper publisher and a fellow at Stanford University.

“Germany will bounce back, but it suffers from two longer-term ailments: above all its failure to transform an old-industry system into a knowledge economy, and an irrational energy policy,” Joffe said.

The German Greens, led by Vice-Chancellor and arch-villain Robert Habeck, have what amounts to an economic Magic Bullet in their pockets, but they will not chamber it.

What would that be?

An “on-off” switch. In fact, they have seven of them.

AND THEY WILL NOT FLIP THEM, even as the German economy crashes, taking the German people with it.

For everything going to wrack and smoking ruin, they will not turn the cheap, reliable, safe, clean power back on.

Don’t ever let a Green tell you he’s “saving the planet” without asking him who he’s saving it for, as their policies are equally devastating across the board. There won’t be a damn thing left for anyone anywhere when they’re through “saving.”

On a personal note, it’s very fortuitous that my first post this morning is on German misadventures, why?

Because it was EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO TODAY that my first HotAir post appeared, and it, too, was on German misadventures.

WOOT!!

I wanted to take a quick second to thank Ed for the chance to torture you, and especially for you all allowing me to do so. This has seemed like the fastest year to blow by since I started working, because you all are terrific, so smart, and fun. I’ve learned bunches. I am so blessed that you spend your precious time reading and commenting on whatever I rattle on about.

Please know I am grateful beyond measure for your continued support. I am just so happy to be here with Ed, the rest of our awesomesauce crew, and, especially?

Y’all

God bless.