Germany

The fall of Germany is evident by two years of recession and no sign of relief in sight. Germany is a manufacturing economy and depends heavily on trade which results in a favorable balance of trade with a high in 2017 of $261 billion. This allowed the country to avoid going into debt with the average debt being about $70 billion. This compares to $37 trillion in the US. Germany was so sure of its plans that in 2009 the constitution was changed saying the government could never borrow more that .35% of GDP vs the US which routinely borrows ten times that much. Germany’s problems began in 2000 with Covid which shut down trade and cut deeply into Germanys GDP. Next came the Ukraine War where Germany quit buying cheap Russian gas. This was followed by the US placing tariffs on German imports and most recently the US telling European countries that they would have to start paying for their own defense. The result is that Germany once again changed its constitution and now allows the government to borrow what ever is needed. They recently approved $500 billion to rebuild infrastructure and to help struggling steel, chemical and auto companies.