Merry Christmas!
Last week, ordering harsh new lockdown laws, Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel lashed out at Christmas shoppers, declaring, “The number of contacts is too high and reduction in contacts is insufficient.”
The Chancellor declared there will be no singing Christmas carols in Church. As of Wednesday, schools will be closed down, as will all businesses deemed “non-essential,” until at least 10 January.
People should work from home and employers are encouraged to allow employees to work from home; no drinking alcohol in public; only four immediate family adults from other households may be permitted to celebrate Christmas together; no New Year’s Eve fireworks.
Ms. Merkel said if her orders were not obeyed, this could be the last Christmas citizens would spend with “our grandparents.”
TRENDPOST: Since March, there have been 22,884 COVID deaths in Germany, a nation of nearly 84 million people or 0.027 percent of the population or 0.00302 percent per month.
As with much of the world, those dying from the virus are “grandparents” and those suffering from 2.6 pre-existing chronic conditions. Actually, the average age of a COVID victim in Germany, depending on the available data, ranges between 77 to 82 years old.
Therefore, rather than lock down the entire nation, destroying businesses, lives, and livelihoods, Germany, as with the rest of the world, should be advising those most at risk to take strict precautions.
TRENDPOST: This past November, several thousand Germans took to the streets of Berlin in protest of the new “Infection Protection Law” approved by the parliament, which gives the Chancellor the authority to issue coronavirus rules upon demand. The protestors compared the new law to the “Enabling Act of 1933,” which gave Adolf Hitler the right of dictatorship over the country.
TREND FORECAST: As a result of the latest announcement of the lockdowns, we forecast, as do other analysts, that Germany faces the risk of a double-dip recession.
“Germany must brace itself for a second recession,” said Jörg Kramer, Chief Economist at Commerzbank.
The German Bundesbank forecasts the economy will shrink 5.5 percent this year and grow 3 percent next year.
