From Peter Zeihan: On the chopping block today is Germany’s automotive and industrial sectors (with Volkswagen being our guinea pig).
VW is struggling for several reasons…and no, it’s not because hot-boxing it in the Scooby-doo vans has gone out of fashion. VW could blame increasing energy costs, competition from China, or electric vehicle challenges…they could even blame it on my favorite scape goat – demographics. Germany has a shrinking workforce which makes things more expensive, but global car demand is also shrinking, so it’s a double whammy. A combination of all these factors has made doing just about anything in Germany hopeless.
This isn’t just a Volkswagen issue though; these are problems that plague the entire German system and infect everything within it. Without some serious change, the flocks of skilled German workers emigrating will only grow.
Evan Feigenbaum: U.S., China are ‘strategic narcissists’
Evan Feigenbaum, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses how Asia-Pacific countries are navigating U.S.-China trade tensions. He says the…
Thought Leader: Evan Feigenbaum
Niall Ferguson: World War Three is a far greater threat than climate change
The 1920s were Roaring, the Sixties were Swinging, and the Nineties were Cool (as in ‘Cool Britannia’), but what will historians call the 2020s? As…
Thought Leader: Niall Ferguson
Robert Lighthizer: Want Free Trade? May I Introduce You to the Tariff.
Mr. Robert Lighthizer, the author of “No Trade Is Free: Changing Course, Taking On China, and Helping America’s Workers,” was the U.S. trade representative inwwsg.com…
Thought Leader: Robert Lighthizer
