‘Germany is becoming a third world country,’ says outgoing CEO of its stock exchange
In a damning speech he describes Germany as “a junk shop” and says “It’s over, it’s over”
Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024
Meanwhile Brexit Britain’s economy is growing three times faster than the EU’s finest
In a speech just published on YouTube, the outgoing head of the German stock market - a highly-respected figure in that country - has laid bare the parlous state of this once-mighty economic powerhouse of the European Union, and has torn into the teetering German government of Olaf Scholz.
In a no-holds-barred 20 minute demolition of what used to be known as ‘the German economic miracle’, Dr. Theodor Weimer told the audience of senior business people some shocking home truths, as he sees them.
As his speech reverberated across Germany and to as far afield as Brussels and even New York, the German government scrambled to defend Germany’s honour, without much success.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Outgoing CEO of German stock exchange Dr. Theodor Weimer, speaking at the Wirtschaftsbeirat Bayern
Excerpts loosely translated by Facts4EU.Org
For German speakers, here is the link to the video of the speech.
What this titan of German finance said about its failing economy
“I have now had my 18th meeting with our Vice-Chancellor and Economics Minister Habeck, and I can tell you that it has been a sheer disaster.”
“I have direct knowledge of what international investors are saying about Germany… I don't want to spoil your evening tonight, but one thing is clear: our reputation in the world has never been as bad as it is now.”
“The discussions with investors are fatalistic in nature. The investors say that if you carry on like this, we'll avoid you even more, we'll get even further out of Germany. The truth is this: International investors only invest opportunistically in Germany because they say: ‘You are so cheap.’"
“We have become a junk shop… People in Singapore are now saying … ‘What kind of government are you actually running? You are well on the way to becoming a real old economy. You are the Japan of Europe… You no longer believe in growth.’”
“In terms of economic policy, investors say that we lack a compass, a regulatory compass… Economically speaking, we are on the way to becoming a developing [third-world] country.
“And the Americans tell me straight to my face: ‘Stop being a public economy that sits like a rabbit in front of a snake and waits for the snake to bite.’” "We have ruined the automotive industry"
“It hurts my soul when I talk to Zipse [BMW CEO], to Ola [Källenius, Mercedes-Benz CEO] and to others.”
“And yet we have allowed our business model to be ruined... We have allowed energy to be pulled upwards, forcing car manufacturers into the wrong corner with the CO2 targets from which they can no longer escape. And now Bosch is crying… saying: ‘Yes, how is this supposed to go on? And, by the way, we'll still have combustion engines for the next 35 years. What we are doing is madness!’”
“And then my supervisory board tells me: ‘Yes, yes, we also have to reduce CO2 and so on, we have to make company cars smaller.’ That's stupid stuff! We have to make company cars big again. That's what creates growth. That's the kind of investment we need.”
On migration policy
“In economic terms, migration means that if you have a shortage of skilled labour, you bring in people who work, who speak your language and who generate social product - but not people who collect 50% of the citizens’ income and send it somewhere else.”
‘We have overslept on defence’
“We overslept on defence in a way that is still unbelievable, special funds of €100 billion - we don't even know how to spend the money. We're spending it wrong again. Now we are cheating on the [NATO] 2% target. We are cheating by including pensions and the like in the 2%.”
“Do you think anyone in the USA doesn't realise what we're doing? Talk to Pappberger, the CEO of the biggest armaments manufacturer we have [Rheinmetall]! It's madness, we have ammunition for one-and-a-half to two days. That's the situation.”
‘Profit is no longer produced in Germany’
“In fact, German companies only make a fraction of their turnover in Germany... The problem is that the profit is no longer produced here. And because of the Inflation Reduction Act in the USA, all entrepreneurs have moved to the USA.”
“We have reached a point… where the entrepreneurs say again: ‘We're not going to take part any more.’ The state will not fix it, to put it bluntly, it will not fix it. Foreign investors are pulling out. According to all the rankings, not only are we now at the bottom, but the trend is heading further south.”
“The times when people would have said: ‘Please don't talk Germany down’, it's over, it's over…”
- Dr. Theodor Weimer, outgoing head of the German stock exchange, speaking in April but only just published
How is Germany doing compared to the UK?
The pro-EU elements of the British media have of course leapt on the latest UK GDP figures for April, which show no growth over the previous month. We have not reported on these because a single month’s estimates are unreliable and tell us nothing.
Below is the more realistic comparative information based on the first three months of this year. The contrast between Brexit Britain and the EU’s Germany is very apparent.
Despite what Rejoiners (and significant parts of the British media) say, the rest of the non-EU world represents a much bigger market for the UK than the EU27, and it is growing at a faster rate. The UK’s No.1 market by far is the United States, for example.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org Summary
Real GDP growth Q1 2024 – International comparison
[Sources: ONS and OECD, 10 May 2024.]
© Brexit Facts4EU.Org 2024 - click to enlarge
How the German government reacted
Herr Dr Weimer’s speech did not go down well in Berlin. This has of course been compounded by the abject misery suffered by the three ruling German coalition government parties in the EU Parliamentary elections which concluded on Sunday. Every one of the ruling parties was beaten by the right-wing eurosceptic AfD party, as we reported here.
Observations
In many ways perhaps the decline of the once-mighty German economy is a metaphor for the EU’s wider woes. Just as the EU has been losing its world market share of GDP, the German stock market has been on a downward trend. The contrast in Brexit Britain is very clear. While nothing in the English garden is rosy, it’s rosier than in the EU’s No.1 economy.
And of course this is all “despite Brexit”….
The French government of President Macron has already fallen. That of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is teetering, held afloat only thanks to the country’s constitution, which makes if very difficult to bring a government down.
Watch this space….
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[ Sources: Wirtschaftsbeirat Bayern ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.
Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 15 Jun 2024
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