‘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.]

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….

We must get reports like this out there

Reports like the one above take far longer to research, write and produce than many people realise. If they were easy, readers would see other organisations also producing these daily. However, there’s little point in the Facts4EU.Org team working long hours, seven days-a-week, if we lack the resources to promote them effectively – to the public, to MPs, and to the media. This is where you come in, dear reader.

Facts4EU.Org needs you today

We are a 'not for profit' team (we make a loss) and any payment goes towards the actual work, not plush London offices, lunch or taxi expenses, or other luxuries of some organisations.

We badly need more of our thousands of readers to become members, to support this work. Could this be you, today? It's quick and easy, we give you a choice of two highly secure payment providers, and we do NOT ask you for further support if you pay once. We just hope you keep supporting us. Your membership stays anonymous unless you tell us otherwise.

Please don't assume that other people will keep us going - we don't receive enough to survive and we need your help today. Could you help us? We rely 100% on public contributions from readers like you.

If you believe in a fully-free, independent, and sovereign United Kingdom, please join now by clicking on one of the links below or you can use our Support page here. You will receive a personal, friendly ‘thank you’ from a member of our team within 48 hours. Thank you.

[ Sources: Wirtschaftsbeirat Bayern ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Sat 15 Jun 2024

Click here to go to our news headlines

Please scroll down to COMMENT on the above article.
And don't forget actually to post your message after you have previewed it!

Something to say about this? Scroll down for reader comments

Since before the EU Referendum, Brexit Facts4EU.Org
has been the most prolific researcher and publisher of Brexit facts in the world.

Supported by MPs, MEPs, & other groups, our work has impact.

We think facts matter. Please donate today, so that we can continue to ensure a clean Brexit is finally delivered.

Any credit card user

Quick One-off

From £5 - £1,000

Monthly

From £3 per month

Paypal Users Only - Choose amount first

Quick One-off

Monthly

PLEASE NOTE IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO COMMENT : You can write your comment under any existing comments below. After you have clicked to preview your comment, you MUST then click on the CAPTCHA system and send you comment, for it to be published. Thank you!

Reader Comments 5

1. IAN SCHOFIELD , Saturday, June 15, 2024, 08:46:

Excellent article. A valuable insight to what is happening in the engine room of Europe. It doesn’t benefit the UK to have our near neighbours struggling but it’s now becoming quite telling that the EU and the ‘Orwellian’ nature of the media and governing elite are running us collectively into the ground.
It’s just a massive shame that we nearly got free of the shackles of the EU and Marxism, only to now be returning Labour into power with what is predicted to be a huge majority.
I’ll be voting for Reform… at least my conscience will be clear. Sadly after a Labour government, I also suspect my bank accounts and savings will be cleared out too!

2. Parky , Saturday, June 15, 2024, 10:35:

They should join the CPTPP. No tariffs on cars, cheaper parts from abroad, no cohesion commitments, reliable sources of raw materials. More countries trying to join all the time, no political union, no barriers to trade deals with other countries outside the agreement. Obviously they might have to sacrifice free data roaming within the EU and join a different, often shorter queue at the airport, so probably not worth it.
At least they can look forward to the UK shouldering more of the financial burden as the new government starts to pay increasing amounts for an ever closer one sided relationship.....

3. Gazzablack , Saturday, June 15, 2024, 10:56:

Ilaria Salis, the Italian far-left militant Antifa extremist has been released from house arrest in Hungary.
.
She was there on suspicion of attempted murder, but was released after she was elected into the European parliament and walked free thanks to MEP immunity.
.
She's expected to return to Italy within days and become an MEL member for the Italian Greens and left Alliance party.

4. Northern Muppet , Saturday, June 15, 2024, 11:09:

Energy, Energy, Energy! An industrial economy like Germany needs plentiful, cheap energy. Force the energy price higher and your manufacturing economy will struggle. That's basic economics, that is! And yet Germany's politicians are saddling more and more of this guff on their economy.
.
They're doing the same here - the absolute bonkers folly that is net (Nut!) zero will drag our economy way down the list. It won't be QUITE so stark here because of the nature of our economy. Historians will look back at our rush to 'de-carbonise' with a pitying amazement. Such strong countries - destroyed themselves for an 'idea'.
.
Something needs to change because what the tories have been doing for the last 14 years, labour will speed up and make much, much worse. There's a choice to make in a few weeks, and neither labour, nor the tories will be the answer!

5. NH , Saturday, June 15, 2024, 11:55:

This speech was made approximately 2 months ago in private to a professional audience so politicians attempts to claim it's a "Beer Tent Rant" are ridiculous. Next they will be trying to dismiss him as a far right extremist. The comments are verifiably factually correct and inline with what other German Company executives have said.
.
Maybe it's a coincidence that this speech remained private for almost 2 months and then was leaked the same week that the EU announced very high additional tariffs on Chinese EV's that the German motor manufacturers, and other EU motor manufacturers, strongly oppose. The speech was to the Bavarian Economic Advisory Council and the Bavarian economy is highly dependant upon the automotive industry (BMW, AUDI, MAN etc).
.
The problem with the EU model is when they impose these large tariffs the money goes to the EU and not to the nation state. This is presently approximately 26 Billion Euros and they also take a percentage of each countries VAT, approximately 24 Billion Euros which increase with tariffs. A trade war with China would raise prices for EU consumers but it would be highly lucrative for the parasites in the EU.
.
A high tariff economy would de disastrous for the UK's global economy but the EU can not afford to be anything but a protectionist high tariff economy.

Add comment:

Please note: Your email address is never published unless you choose to enter it.