Friday 22nd of November 2024
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the real reason why the nord-sea pipelines were blown up by the USA... and why olaf scholz is an idiot.....

Something absolutely stupefying is happening in Germany: its iconic auto company, VW, the darling of every Chancellor from Adolf Hitler to Olaf Scholz, appears to be in a death spiral. At the end of this story I’ll draw a link to the salutary lesson countries like Australia and New Zealand need to draw from the German experience if we are to survive and thrive in the coming world. 

 

Driving VW off a cliff: Germany’s lemming strategy and what it means for us    By Eugene Doyle

 

For the first time ever, Volkswagen intends shuttering factories across Germany and tearing up labour contracts with its workforce in a desperate bid to survive. VW saw its profit margin crater in the second quarter of this year — hitting an unsustainable 0.9% — a reflection of tumbling sales across the planet. Tens of thousands of staff will be let go in a drive to save €10 billion over the next two years. 

It is the latest case in what many analysts are seeing as a relentless breakdown in the once-mighty engine of Europe: the German manufacturing sector. The process — deindustrialisation — has multiple causes, but energy prices and labour costs are at the centre of this drama that is Wagnerian in its scale and implications for Deutschland and the rest of Europe.

Also heading for the off ramp — moving production offshore in a desperate bid to keep the wheels turning — are a host of other big-name companies. All are in sectors that not only rely on big brains and skilled workers — two things the Germans have long had in numbers — but access to affordable energy. Chemical giant BASF has moved significant production to China and the United States. Its flagship German plant uses more gas per day than Switzerland. Siemens Energy and whiteware manufacturer Miele are two of a host of German companies that are scaling down their home production in favour of lower-cost factories in China and Eastern Europe. The steel industry, once one of the backbones of German manufacturing, is struggling to survive as high energy costs are pricing its steel out of the market. The list goes on.

The war in Ukraine has affected Germany as much as it has Russia (Ukraine is obviously suffering the most). Regardless of your view on the war, by bowing to US pressure and turning off the spigot of cheap Russian energy and replacing it with expensive US liquified gas, the German Government has tipped the scales against its own energy-hungry manufacturing sector.

To build a car takes an awful amount of energy – something like 60,000 megajoules (a couple of years’ worth of domestic electricity consumption for a household). Huge pressing machines shape the car panels, robots twist and turn, pepper the body with thousands of spot welds and glue, and the paint shop alone is an energy guzzler. The whole production process, supported by large ventilation and extraction systems, burns through increasingly expensive energy.

Founded in the Nazi era, Volkswagen — the People’s Car — is facing a blitzkrieg of hits on multiple fronts, but several come back to two critical issues: energy costs and Germany being hit by US sanctions and subsidies.

The curiously-named US Inflation Reduction Act is partly a giant subsidy scheme into which the US is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars. The IRA is ostensibly designed to compete with China and re-industrialise the US for the future, but it is also sucking the lifeblood out of European manufacturing companies, particularly those centred on EVs, batteries and semiconductors. Companies, including VW, are being drawn like steel to a magnet by the huge subsidies the US is putting into building its own EV industry.

The Germans are getting it every which way: sanctions against Moscow means Russia has turned away from Europe towards China. China is reaping a dividend turning Russia into a big market for its automotive sector. At the same time, China is winning the technology, price and quality war, meaning the appetite for European brands is waning rapidly.

If you’re looking to understand why the far-right is again on the march in Germany, sweeping to victory in the latest regional elections in Saxony and Thuringia, it’s clear the working class in Germany is losing hope in their leaders’ ability to maintain their jobs and livelihoods.

An overwhelming majority of Germans also believe their elites, by breaking decades-long policy in 2022 and pouring money into a war zone, are doing more harm than good both in Ukraine and in Germany. There is also growing alarm at what will happen when their government welcomes a return of US medium-range, nuclear-capable missiles back into Germany from next year. This may suit the US, but few Germans like the idea of being a bullet in America’s gun – or a target for a Russian strike.

No single factor will kill off VW, but clearly Germany was offered and drank a poisoned chalice from its friend and ally – the US. If our elites place US geostrategic interests ahead of domestic imperatives — and we collectively fail to adapt to a changing world — the damage could be incalculable.

AUKUS, to me, is an example of this principle: endangering us economically and militarily in a confrontation with China that is fundamentally about the US maintaining primacy rather than any real threat to our own countries. It is a salutary lesson for countries across the Western world to understand and take heed – because, like the once-mighty German manufacturing sector, our own economies and our own national security could be sacrificed on the altar of America’s doomed jihad to retain its global hegemon status.

The Germans are learning, and we should too, that we can’t trust our captured elites to do anything other than Washington’s bidding. I’ll give the last word to the quote William F Buckley attributed to former US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in a private conversation with him: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal.”

https://johnmenadue.com/driving-vw-off-a-cliff-germanys-lemming-strategy-and-what-it-means-for-us/

 

 

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SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9touOSd3XU

GERMANY IN CRISIS: Biggest Companies Announce Closures as Germany Continues to Deindustrialize

 

 

US tech giant Intel is halting construction of two chip manufacturing plants in Germany as it struggles to counter shrinking sales and mounting losses, the company’s CEO Pat Gelsinger announced on Monday.

According to Gelsinger, the project in the city of Magdeburg in Saxony-Anhalt is expected to be delayed by around two years.

The company had planned to build two chip factories in Magdeburg worth over $33 billion, creating some 3,000 jobs as part of a larger investment plan for the EU. Intel had also signed an agreement with the German government for about $11 billion in state subsidies for the project, according to the DPA news agency.

The plans, however, have been put on hold as the US tech giant struggles to reduce losses and launched a cost-saving program earlier this year. Intel also said it is postponing a new factory in neighboring Poland.

“We must continue acting with urgency to create a more competitive cost structure and deliver the $10 billion in savings target we announced last month,” Gelsinger said in a letter to employees.

https://www.rt.com/business/604282-intel-germany-semiconductors-plant-suspension/

a multipolar world

 

Russia-China led Multipolar World

    Simon Westwood,    September 19

 

 

The remarkable and valiant fight put up by the Soviet Red Army during the Second World War actually put an end to the Nazi Germany and buried the Thousand Years Third Reich. Just after the war, the Allies were fearful of the politico-military power of the Soviet Union, and soon they came up with the Truman Doctrine to contain and deter the Soviet Union.

 

 

The Truman Doctrine was the cornerstone of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) political motivation, and concentrated their collective efforts to hurt the interests of the Soviet Union throughout the Cold War. However, during the 1980s, the hawks within the United States (US) accelerated their covert operations against the Soviet Union and helped its collapse in 1991. The collapse of the Soviet Union and the following disintegration of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was the most important development of the twentieth century.

However, in 2005, the Russian President Vladimir Putin called the collapse of the Soviet Union as “the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century.” President Putin was right, since the collapse of the Soviet Union was the result of the continued set of conspiracies of the West and resulted in the unrest in the international structure.

The Current International Structure

The basic reason for writing this article is to understand the current status of the international structure. In the contemporary world, the US and its allies seem ever busy in endorsing the sole leadership of the US, almost globally. However, the US is not now and has never been the sole superpower, and there is no such thing called as uni-polarity.

In reality, the current international structure is based on multipolarity, where Russia and China are formidable poles and continue to present open options to the peoples of the free world.

 

Russia and China defend the principles of a just and democratic world order based on international law, sovereignty, and equality.V. Putin

 

The US Unipolar Moment

Soon after that, the hawk within the US, especially the Neo-Conservatives or Neo-Cons started trumpeting the ‘US Unipolar Moment’ and the sole supremacy of the US in the international structure. They called it the ‘New World Order’. Charles Krauthammer was among the Neo-Cons who celebrated the demise of the Soviet Union and trumpeted the victory of the US. However, the US Neo-Cons were not aware of the fact that the International Relations are dynamic, and its dynamism turns the system against the will and desires of great powers.

The Russia-China-led Multi-polarity

The policymakers in Moscow, as well as Beijing, were closely monitoring the US-led New World Order, and were quite aware of the consequences of such an international order. Before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the international system was bipolar; however, after the collapse, the international structure became unipolar.

The unipolar international system was completely based on the US-led propaganda and completely neglected the grand strategic importance of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China. In 1997, Russia and China jointly wrote a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) to declare the multipolarity.

This is very important to know that why Russia and China jointly wrote the letter to the UN Secretary General. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US and its allies were emboldened and encouraged to establish their supremacy throughout the world.

The US supported the Mujahideen in Afghanistan and gathered all the like-minded Muslims to fight against the Soviet Union. However, just after the withdrawal of the Red Army from Afghanistan, the US as per the expectations abandoned the Mujahideen and a civil war started in Afghanistan that lasted for more than a decade.

Putin-Wang Yi Meetings

On September 12, 2024, the Russian President Vladimir Putin met the Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at Saint Petersburg in Russia. President Putin said that “Russia and China defend the principles of a just and democratic world order based on international law, sovereignty, and equality.” President Putin also said that “This approach is also supported by the like-minded nations of the Global South, the Global Majority, as demonstrated during the recent BRICS summit.”

The Chinese media reported that both Russia and China are willing to work together and “to advance a multipolar world” especially using the BRICS platform. It was reported that both countries are jointly working on expanding the BRICS cooperation and are actively working on the upcoming Kazan Summit to be held in Russia in October 2024.

In the February 22, 2023, meeting between the two leaders were also geared towards strengthening the multipolar world.

Conclusions

One can confidently conclude that Russia and China are relentlessly working together to free the nations of the world from the clutches of the West. Both, Russia and China, are against the so-called uni-polarity and the New World Order led by the US.

In reality, the New World Order is aimed to ensure the monopoly of the US in world affairs and to reduce the action space of independent nations.

In such a scenario, the Russia-China led multipolar world is a better option, where nations can grow together while cooperating with each other. The BRICS and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) are two very important multipolar platforms which can help in enhancing international cooperation and countering the threats.

 

Simon Westwood is a political observer or research analyst for regional and global geopolitical issues. He is an independent researcher and journalist working exclusively for “New Eastern Outlook”

 

https://journal-neo.su/2024/09/19/russia-china-led-multipolar-world/

 

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falling behind its peers....

German central bank issues warning on economy
Germany’s GDP could stagnate or even decline in the third quarter, Bundesbank has warned

The German economy has been shrinking over the past two years and will remain stagnant for the rest of the year as it continues to grapple with economic malaise, Bloomberg reported on Friday.    

According to a survey conducted by the outlet, the EU’s top economy has been stalling in the three months through September, marking a deeper-than-expected decline.    

Economists have already started downgrading their forecasts for this year, with some now seeing protracted stagnation or even another downturn.

“While we expect the market to see a mild recovery at the end of 2024 and in 2025, much of it will be cyclical, with downside risks remaining acute,” Martin Belchev, an analyst at FrontierView told Bloomberg.

He warned that the faltering automotive sector will further exacerbate downward pressures on growth as the top four German carmakers have seen double-digit declines.

The country’s central bank said on Thursday in its monthly report that the German economy may already be in recession. According to the Bundesbank, gross domestic product (GDP) “could stagnate or decline slightly again” in the third quarter, after a 0.1% contraction in the second quarter.

Economic sentiment in the country has suffered due to weak industrial activity, Budensbank President Joachim Nagel said on Wednesday.

“Stagnation might be more or less on the cards for full-year 2024 as well if the latest forecasts by economic research institutes are anything to go by,” he said.

German industry is struggling amid weak demand in key export markets, shortages of qualified workers, tighter monetary policy, the protracted fallout from the energy crisis, and growing competition from China, Bloomberg noted. 

The Eurozone’s largest economy has been falling behind its peers over the past years, largely due to a prolonged manufacturing downturn. Germany was the only Group of Seven economy to contract in 2023.

https://www.rt.com/business/604348-germany-economy-stagnation/

 

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trump hits bottom....

Claims by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump that he “killed” the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline were likely made in the heat of an election race, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. The gas inter-connector was badly damaged by a series of explosions in September 2022.

Peskov was referring to remarks Trump made during a live interview with conservative American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier in the day. 

“Nobody would kill it but me. I stopped it. The thing was half-built, dead,” Trump declared.

Peskov recalled that the Nord Stream 2 pipeline had actually completed, and that one line of the conduit, which physically consists of two pipes, remains operational. He said that Gazprom is ready to immediately restart supplies if Germany agrees to buy Russian gas.

“One line of Nord Stream 2 is intact and is ready for launch any time, as President Putin earlier said. Therefore, it is very difficult to guess what Mr. Trump meant,” Peskov told reporters.

“Probably, in the heat of this election race, we are hearing the statements that you’ve mentioned,” he added.

Nord Stream 2 was intended to increase Russian gas supplies to the EU. The pipeline had a potential capacity of 55 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year.

At a cost of $11 billion, the project was initiated in response to requests by the German government headed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. It was fully completed and ready for launch in 2021, pending certification by Germany and the EU.

The Trump administration was especially critical of the project and targeted it with sanctions in 2019. The US, eager to sell the EU more liquefied natural gas, said at the time that Nord Stream 2 would increase Russia’s economic leverage over the bloc.

Some of the restrictions were later removed by US President Joe Biden, who argued they were “counterproductive for European relations.”

In February 2022, days before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz suspended certification of the pipeline.

In September that year, the crucial energy route was ruptured by underwater explosions in an apparent act of sabotage.

https://www.rt.com/russia/606868-peskov-trump-nord-stream/

 

JOE BIDEN DID IT... THE WEST KNOWS IT.

 

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YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT.

 

“It’s hard to do cartoons without diving deep…”

         Gus Leonisky