Germany’s Economic Backbone Suffers From Soaring Power Prices
High energy prices make a country poor as it limits what can be done productively. Companies start to contract in their minds, they put saving a buck above making a buck, experimentation with new models, techniques, and stuff goes down, … Germany has successfully put a wrench into their famed welfare machine and it’s going to get real ugly in the years to come. Germany might be the first economy brought to its knees by wind and solar. But the fanboys will cry foul and blame the fossil energy industry which in reality still saves the day. The madness has not even begun yet.
Bosses at a steelmaker in northwest Germany have ripped out old-style lighting in favor of LEDs, tinkered to make machinery more efficient and even locked staff into classrooms to teach them how to save energy. Across the nation, thousands of companies are doing the same to mitigate the hit from electricity costs that have doubled since 2016. These smaller, often family-run firms are collectively known as the Mittelstand and form crucial links in the supply chains for Germany’s biggest firms, employing almost 20 million people and producing more in sales than Spain’s economy.
