U.S. chip maker Wolfspeed has suspended plans to build a €3-billion, cutting-edge semiconductor factory in Germany, damaging chancellor Olaf Scholz’s plan to transform the country into a high-tech hotbed as its flagship auto industry continues to decline.
What a difference a few decades make. Rheinmetall, Germany’s behemoth arms maker, announced last week that it will begin the production of gun barrels in the U.K. as part of a new defense agreement between London and Berlin—Europe’s two top military spenders.
In Germany, the highly-regarded ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment plunged from 19.2 in August to 3.6 in September. Analysts had expected a reading of 15.5.
Countries like France and Germany have seen a recent rise in populist political parties that were once written off as archaic extremists but have been picking up seats in governments because of a growing public frustration with the political establishment.
Germany’s economic model is under “massive pressure” as manufacturers making goods for export face a recession, the Federation of German Wholesale, Foreign Trade and Services (BGA) warned on 4 September after new data showed foreign trade continuing to decay.
The economic output of the 20-country Eurozone grew just 0.2 percent in this year’s second quarter, Eurostat, the European Union’s statistics agency, reported after previously estimating a 0.3-percent expansion.
Europe is dying, not just from yet another calamity of war, but because of the calamity of twisted Western modernity.
In a new ZEW Indicator of Economic Sentiment, investors’ outlook for the Eurozone’s business future plunged 25.8 points to 17.9, the biggest one-month tumble since early in 2020 when the COVID War began.
It’s global. The numbers are there for all to see. From developed to underdeveloped nations, economies are slowing down and/or contracting.
Russia announced last week that it will respond “without nerves, without emotions” to the U.S. decision to deploy longer-range missile systems to Germany.