Germany went from envy of the world to the worst-performing major developed economy.

Hey, why not both?

Actually, there's this:

These outside shocks have exposed cracks in Germany’s foundation that were ignored during years of success, including lagging use of digital technology in government and business and a lengthy process to get badly needed renewable energy projects approved.

Other dawning realizations: The money that the government readily had on hand came in part because of delays in investing in roads, the rail network and high-speed internet in rural areas. A 2011 decision to shut down Germany’s remaining nuclear power plants has been questioned amid worries about electricity prices and shortages. Companies face a severe shortage of skilled labor, with job openings hitting a record of just under 2 million.

For some reason, they don't mention the CxU though. I am also annoyed that they don't mention the debt-stop mechanism which CxU added to the constitution and which FDP is now leveraging to make shitty economic decisions.

die GRööönneennn

Not saying that the German solar industry was in great shape but ...

• The Chinese products were heavily subsidized as well.
• The German governments at the time also made sure to kill the domestic market, with its "breathing" installation limits for wind and solar.

The subsidies did not run out. They were cut overnight, without much warning, so the industry could not adapt. Even worse they cut legally guranteed subsidies of already finished projects, meaning nobody in the industry trusted the government anymore, as subsidies cut be cut at any point without warning.

Industry needs a stable planning enviroment. If you cut heavy subsidies do it over time in clearly communicated steps, not overnight and breaking previous gurantees.

Subsidizing them to kickstart them was absolutely right, both from a national and international perspective.

To not reap the reward but let it crumble was patently stupid.

The subsidies worked. Now we have matured, (somewhere else) mass produced technology on scale. It worked so well that now it's viable without subsidies.

2022 Chinese renewable energy subsidies totalled 600 million USD.

2020 Chinese renewable energy subsidies totalled 807 million USD.

Germany, meanwhile, allocated 4 billion euros annually to subsidize electricity prices for industry.

Two parts really. First of all Germany is using guranteed prices for renewables, but the plant operators still have to sell it on the electricity exchange. So when there is renewable elecricity the prices fall a lot. To still create a fair price the cost for those feed in tariffs obviously cost money, which was added on the electricity price of households and small companies.

The other one is lowering grid operating costs for large consumers to below market value. Those costs again needed to be paid, so they were added to households and small companies.

That ended up with half the cost of German household electricity being taxes and other payments to the government. That massivly delayed heat pump installations and electric car sales in Germany, as they were not able to compete as well with gas heating or combustion engines.

Nuclear power plants last 40 years or so, before they need a large scale refurbishment or be replaced. All but the last three plants were roughly at that age and even the last three were 35 years old at the time they were shut down. If you want to see why, just look at the issues France has with its aging nuclear power plants in the last couple years.

It's not that idiotic when you consider that they still look for an adequate place to store nuclear waste. It's been over 30 years now.

I'd say it's more the whole western world as a whole, not just Germany.

Can a welfare state still function with zero or temporarily negative GDP growth?

myGov has mandatory 2FA for all accounts. I'd be more worried about the hundreds of decades old systems that handle this data every day than a modern, convenient front-end for viewing and filing stuff

It's not though because it's all 2FA.

And it's not like you're forced to use it either, if you prefer to opt out you can still walk into a Govt service centre and be served in person without needing an appointment. Just walk in

Und nebenbei: Tausendmal besser als die ganzen Horrorgeschichten von Immigranten die monatelang auf einen Termin beim Einwohnermeldeamt warten weil alles zigmal länger dauert 🫢 Hier ginge das einfach online und während man auf das Visum wartet hat man ohnehin eine vorübergehende Aufenthaltsgenehmigung mit Arbeitsrecht usw. Deutschland ist dahingehend einfach ein Albtraum und überhaupt nicht der gegenwärtigen Situation angewachsen. Also laber mir nix. Lächerlich einfach

Norway also just has the same though spread over many sites and services, and also is two factor. The most common system is using a bank connected verification. Older people stick to the the old physical code generator that is shipped to you, while most use the more convenient "accept the phone popup" and input a pin there.

Its not the only way, but the one I use. And it works for a lot, down to insurance. It's honestly a great and somewhat safe (bar bad choices in developing the system of course) way to always have access to the big things if you need them. When I got a loan for my first house I pretty much only interacted through few phone calls and using my phone to access the bank and other relevant sites, while at work.

It is troubled in some ways, when that solution has technical problems it prevents access to a lot of other services. But even with delay, that seems way more fast than waiting for mail. It's also the very epitome of a system that fully has you tracked and connected through an online ID across platforms. But Norway isn't quite dystopian yet at least. I also think it gives you some trouble if you are immigrating or living here medium term, since you do not have access to all of this immediately.

i remember seeing videos of french firefighters getting attacked by police during protests. The image was completely surreal and very eye opening as to how dysfunctional french government is.

Even expanding the money supply doesn't "magic money up out of the air" in the sense to which I'm referring.

If the ECB expands the money supply, it generates inflation. That effectively taxes everyone holding euros or euro-linked assets and transfers the real wealth associated with that to whoever winds up with the new money being created.

Actually, it can't. The issue is not printing it, the issue is issuing it: The way reserve banking works is that when the central bank wants to increase the amount of money in circulation it lowers the interest rates banks have to pay for ECB euros, which the banks then use to give out loans in private bank euros (hence reserve bankings -- the banks can lend out more book money than they hold in ecb money).

The reason why the Eurozone has been in deflation or just barely scraped past is that the banks weren't willing to give out loans -- they were consolidating, reducing risk, because believe it or not they don't like being nationalised and having bureocrats breathe down their neck. (if nothing else that gets in the way of shady business).

There were talks about "helicopter money", that is, right-out giving every citizen money, no questions asked, to spend, an excellent idea but the thing never materialised not in the least because the infrastructure to do it simply isn't there and getting politicians to cooperate in something that looks suspiciously like a UBI (even if short-term and all in all a low amount) is an uphill battle. It's probably one of the reasons why the ECB is now thinking very loudly about a digital euro as then they could simply do it based on the stability mandate they already have.

As you point out, if it issues bonds, the government is going to pay that back, plus interest.

The issue isn't that Germany cannot get access to capital. The issue is that he can't assert that industry and workers shouldn't be hit with the bill, because they're going to be paying it, one way or another. It might be companies in a different sector than his own, which I expect is what he hopes to see. But one way or another, it's going to be workers and industry.