The unions and government leaders are howling but what must be done will be done.
Big Outcry Over Closures
DW reports VW’s Warning on Plant Closures in Germany Causes Outcry.
Volkswagen’s announcement on Monday (September 2) that it is considering closing factories in Germany is unprecedented in the German automaker’s 87-year history. Such plant closures were considered off the table for the Wolfsburg-based company.
To make matters even worse for the 680,000 VW employees worldwide, the management also feels forced to end its job security program which has been in place since 1994 and prevents job cuts until 2029.
The regional state of Lower Saxony still holds one-fifth of the company’s shares and a permanent seat on the supervisory board, meaning securing jobs and factories has always been seen as matters of state interest.
Last year, Volkswagen launched a cost-cutting program aimed at saving €10 billion ($11.06 billion) by 2026. However, the mass-market carmaker would need to cut an additional €4 billion, according to a report by German business daily Handelsblatt.
In a letter to employees on Monday, VW brand chief Thomas Schäfer described the situation as “extremely tense” and beyond the scope of “simple cost-cutting measures.” VW Group CEO Oliver Blume added that the European automotive market is in a “highly challenging and serious situation,” and that Germany has fallen behind in terms of competitiveness.
As a result, the 10 car brands within the VW Group must be comprehensively restructured, and “plant closures are no longer excluded,” Blume said, adding that layoffs through early retirement and severance packages are also no longer sufficient. Therefore, VW feels “compelled to terminate the employment protection agreement that has been in place since 1994.”
The Emden mayor has the backing of labor union leaders like Thorsten Gröger, who described the VW plant closures “irresponsible plan.”
The VW works council, meanwhile, is particularly enraged by VW’s reluctance to clarify who might be affected and how. “This puts all German sites in the crosshairs — regardless of whether they are VW locations or subsidiaries, in western or eastern Germany,” said Daniela Cavallo, head of the general works council. She announced “fierce resistance.”
CAR founder and director Ferdinand Dudenhöffer sees an “age-old VW problem” because the carmaker is “more like a state enterprise than a market-driven company.” The problem will persist, he told DW, as long as VW’s company structure remains “flawed.” Along with its 20% stake and a seat on the VW board, the state of Lower Saxony was also granted a blocking minority on key decisions.
Lower Saxon State Premier Stephan Weil has already criticized VW’s management, saying “the question of plant closures will not arise due to the successful use of alternatives.”
Easy to Spot Problems
- The state has no business owning shares. Letting government dictate business decisions is more than a bit problematic.
- Unions are obviously a problem.
- And for the situation to get this out of hand suggests VW management put off needed decisions too long.
No Realistic Choice
Saxony’s Prime Minister, Stephan Weil, says “the question of plant closures will not arise due to the successful use of alternatives.”
OK Mr. Weil, are you going to force VW to keep making cars nobody wants to buy?
There is no choice here. So look for a scapegoat: China.
Time to Blame Foreigners
The core problem of Germany and the EU is they are both stuck in the past. Eurointelliligence mentioned this yesterday.
It’s difficult to deny that the EU has a China problem. The union’s most important outside trading partner has turned into an existential problem for some of the key industries of the future, like cars or renewable energy infrastructure.
But it would be an equally serious mistake to see this as all about China, as opposed to economic and industrial policy decisions the EU has made too. We noted, for instance, a recent interview in Het Financieele Dagblad with Wopke Hoekstra, where the China issue was a major theme.
In the interview, Hoekstra acknowledged what he regarded as internal failings of the EU: labyrinthine bureaucracy, and the lack of a single, functional capital market. We would agree these are both problems. But if dealing with these internal problems is the expressed preference, the revealed preference is more to go after China. Progress on the capital markets union has been crawling along. Tariffs on Chinese electric cars have been swift by comparison.
The real core problem is that we have fallen behind, and done so because our economic and industrial system is stuck in the past. The Chinese electric car, battery, and solar companies that now dominate these markets are relatively new, and there are a lot of them. The US’s tech giants are more consolidated, but have also sprung up quite recently.
If you look at the largest European firms, in contrast, it really is the old continent. Most either date back more than 50 years themselves, or were derived from other firms that do. The trifecta of corporations, unions, and governments we have built does not easily allow for new entrants. This is not sustainable when you need them to gain a foothold in new technologies.
That was prophetic. Here’s an amazing rant blaming China.
Sorry State of Affairs in the EU
Innovation in the EU is in dead industries: Analog phones and diesel (by cheating).
The EU still strives to protect the small French farm. The EU lags the US and China on AI, EVs, phones, space exploration, and satellite launching.
Since the EU has zero participation in AI, it hope to regulate AI to death.
The only innovation we have seen in Germany is in diesel cheating.
Sorry Germany, Diesel is Dead
Flashback April 28, 2018: Bosch Announces Better Diesel Engine: Sorry Germany, Diesel is Dead
Sorry Bosh, diesel is dead. Upgrading diesel technology is mostly a waste of time and money even if Bosh is telling the truth this time.
The future is electric. Germany still wants to look backward.
Yes the future is electric.
My problem is not with the future, it has always been the path to get there on absurd schedules forced by the government with an infrastructure that still isn’t in place.
Biden mandated full electric instead of letting manufacturers develop hybrids. Losses have been immense.
Here’s a snip from Eurointelligence in my 2018 post.
This story reminds us of the German company that developed the last generation of analogue telephone exchanges in the 1990s, hoping to fight off the relentless advance of the digital technology. It was mature and stable. And probably with some technical advantages over the then still-not-fully-developed digital technologies. But it came too late.
We find it hard to believe that this technology can be introduced early enough and in sufficient quantities to prevent diesel bans in German and other European cities. And the latter is the reason for the acute sales crisis of diesel cars, which has turned into a self-fulfilling prophecy. At a time when the US and China are developing electrical smart cars, the fate of the ultimate diesel engine looks to be the same as that of the world’s best analogue telephone exchange.
Germany and the EU are still focused on the past and hoping to prevent an AI future. But good news, a scapegoat has been successfully identified.
Apple, Google, Microsoft, Tesla, and Nvdia could not exist in the EU because the regulators would have broken them up in the name of competition before they ever got big enough to be meaningful.
For Volkswagen, the Bumpy Road to Electric Vehicles Starts to Hit Home
The Wall Street Journal reports For Volkswagen, the Bumpy Road to Electric Vehicles Starts to Hit Home
EV sales in Germany have plummeted this year, with Tesla’s registrations in the country down 41% for the year through July, compared with the same period of 2023.
“There are plants dedicated to EVs that aren’t producing at the levels expected and costs are out of whack,” said Bernstein analyst Stephen Reitman.
Daniela Cavallo, the union leader who heads Volkswagen’s works council, vowed Monday to fight the move, which is a prerequisite for any potential plant closure in Germany.
Volkswagen can’t easily dial back its profit-sapping EV investments or production because its cars need to meet much stricter European emissions standards starting next year. Its fleet carbon emissions last year were 24.2% higher than they will need to be in 2025, according to data collated by Bernstein, compared with 19.6% for Mercedes-Benz and 9.7% for BMW.
Labor costs in Germany are the highest in Europe, according to an analysis by the German Association of the Automotive Industry. A German auto worker cost roughly €62 an hour last year—equivalent to roughly $68.50—compared with €23 for a Czech worker and €29 for a Spanish one. In Hungary, where BYD is building a factory to avoid European Union tariffs, auto workers are paid only €16 an hour.
Meanwhile, back in the US …
Ford Loses $132,000 on Each EV Produced
On April 26, I reported Ford Loses $132,000 on Each EV Produced, Good News, EV Sales Down 20 Percent
Ford (F) reports a huge loss on every EV. Sales are down 20 percent holding the losses to $1.3 billion.
Ford Cancels Plans for Electric SUV, Expects a $1.9 Billion Loss
On August 21, I noted Ford Cancels Plans for Electric SUV, Expects a $1.9 Billion Loss
Say goodbye to a vehicle that never should have been conceived in the first place. Customers don’t want it.
Lesson of the Day
Government setting outrageous goals, then telling business how they must deliver them never works very well.
Despite huge subsidies, Ford still cannot make ends meet on EVs.
Yet, due to government coercion, Ford is forced to try, try, and try again. If and when Ford succeeds, it will have more production capacity than it needs because EVs have less parts and are easier to build.
Yet VW made over $24Bn in profits in 2023….way to screw the worker and blame the union. Maybe claw back some executive salaries.
Unions are the worst, those workers should be first to go.
Source: MBA program
“Government setting outrageous goals, then telling business how they must deliver them never works very well.”
Not in Western countries, because government doesn’t have many engineers. In China, however, those things happen and they seem to be working.
How hard is it to set outrageous goals when you have only one government party dictating policy goals and your labor costs are next to nothing? If it fails it is just brushed under the rug and not acknowledged by all (sort of like when the Democrats fail, i.e. “failing forward”)
VW is far from getting bankrupt. Please read Q2 earnings report. The company is even making decent money. 80% to 90% of its debt is tied to car leasing or installment car sales. EVs are problem I agree. Audi sales in unit terms down 10% Y/Y. VW sales down 8% in Asia. Where is VW going to grow. New strategy and restructuring are necessary.
How much did they spend on dividends and buybacks?
…from diesel tech giant to cautionary tale in less than 20 years.
well done, Germany… you’ve parlayed post-war guilt into cultural extinction.
I understand.
But it’s not an either or.
The third modern alternative is for Government (any Government) bailouts by borrowing/printing money and screwing the hoi polli in the long run.
.
EV are not the future
they have a use case if you cant charge at home and don’t go further than 100 miles
so a city car which in the cities is a no go as most will live in towerblocks
so charging in the underground carpark is the only answer
and heres a prediction a EV will catch on fire while charging overnight
and the tower block will kill hundreds and EV will be consigned to history
Seems the bloom is off the rose … nobody wants these pcs of shit …
Except… JEFF GREEN!
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/why-slowing-demand-electric-cars-170153178.html
.Volkswagen has “a year, maybe two” to resize and adapt to lower sales in its home region, Europe’s largest carmaker has warned, as its plans to close factories in Germany faced fierce resistance from workers and politicians.
Speaking at a meeting with employees at the company’s Wolfsburg headquarters, VW’s finance chief Arno Antlitz said the drastic measures including job cuts announced this week were necessary as the company did not expect pre-Covid demand for cars to return in Europe.
The company turning back on a promise not to cut jobs in Germany before 2029 comes at a time when VW expects to sell roughly 500,000 fewer cars in Europe per year, compared with pre-pandemic, “the equivalent of around two [car production] plants”, he said
https://archive.ph/OTIT3#selection-2351.0-2373.156
Germany Runs Up Against the Limits of Renewables
Even as Germany adds lots of wind and solar power to the electric grid, the country’s carbon emissions are rising. Will the rest of the world learn from its lesson? After years of declines, Germany’s carbon emissions rose slightly in 2015, largely because the country produces much more electricity than it needs.
That’s happening because even if there are times when renewables can supply nearly all of the electricity on the grid, the variability of those sources forces Germany to keep other power plants running. And in Germany, which is phasing out its nuclear plants, those other plants primarily burn dirty coal.
https://www.technologyreview.com/s/601514/germany-runs-up-against-the-limits-of-renewables/
Are you not entertained?
Why Germany’s nuclear phaseout is leading to more coal burning
Between 2011 and 2015 Germany will open 10.7 GW of new coal fired power stations. This is more new coal coal capacity than was constructed in the entire two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall.
The expected annual electricity production of these power stations will far exceed that of existing solar panels and will be approximately the same as that of Germany’s existing solar panels and wind turbines combined. Solar panels and wind turbines however have expected life spans of no more than 25 years. Coal power plants typically last 50 years or longer.
At best you could call the recent developments in Germany’s electricity sector contradictory.
https://carboncounter.wordpress.com/2015/06/06/why-germanys-nuclear-phaseout-is-leading-to-more-coal-burning/
Why can’t the german govt subsidize VW autos… just like govts subsidize Tesla?
That would dramatically boost sales!
Tesla is not subsidized at all. Is that a joke? Any manufacturer can sell carbon credits. If a manufacturer is a dirty pos like legacy auto, that can’t happen.
This is the cost of Dieselgate.
Good riddance.
Competition in China is so cut throat, and broad based, that costs are falling 5% A YEAR.
Cutting edge companies in Germany are benefiting: The Chinese simply have to alternative to Bosch etc. for certain components and technologies. Heck, there are stuff even the Japanese have to go to Germany for. Similar to how there are no real alternatives to American chip-designers, for core parts of computing/communication devices, aerospace products etc. But the Chinese are free to improve. And aren’t stuck having to keep nearly as many leeching ambulance chasers, “investors”, “fund managers”, banksters nor “home owners” in unearned splendor, so they have the resources to improve,innovate and modernize fast. Unless Germany, and the US, QUICKLY shapes up and cut the aforementioned boat anchors loose so they can sink, the Chinese will catch up and then quickly pass them in ever more areas.
Or maybe the CCP is subsidizing the f789 out of everything to drive exports and GDP growth – in a desperate attempt to keep their economy from collapsing
China is F789ed. Totally F789ed
I go to Germany for the best schnitzel, dunkel, and heavy opera.
Mish,
A research company in Canada claims to have a Hydrogen breakthrough.
https://driving.ca/column/motor-mouth/motor-mouth-the-breakthrough-that-hydrogen-has-been-waiting-for
Needs to be verified of course but if it works like what’s described in this article its a game changer. Especially for larger vehicles (Semis, buses, construction vehicles, boats, planes etc) and maybe eventually for passenger cars.
When you start with the wrong premise, hydrogen electrolysis, you arrive at the desired result.
However:
“Hydrogen gas is produced by several industrial methods. Nearly all of the world’s current supply of hydrogen is created from fossil fuels.[1][2]: 1 Most hydrogen is gray hydrogen made through steam methane reforming. In this process, hydrogen is produced from a chemical reaction between steam and methane, the main component of natural gas.”
don’t you ever get tired of being lied to and played?
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20181119-why-flammable-ice-could-be-the-future-of-energy
Or just use EVs.
battery tech is toxic garbage, which means EVs are a bad joke.
Sounds too amazing to be true. Possibly related to cold fusion? Well, it’s not April 1.
And why are all the photos tagged as having been taken by Toyota Canada? What is Toyota’s role in this group/research?
One other choice: Accelerate the replacement of meat with robots, who will not need to be unionized.
WHY isn’t this happening quicker?
No layoff policy/politics (or onerous severance) means you have to keep and repurpose the meat.
Eventually they get sick and die. If the AI/robots were to manufacture a microbe to help the situation along…
Just a shout out to everyone who actually produces something for a living….Happy Labor Day!!!!!!
EU union workers climbed on a tree. VW mgt cut the tree. The hyenas are laughing at AI. NVDA might be a good buy.
Hopefully, VW isn’t considering shuttering some Skoda factories. It would be an irreparable loss, as the Czechs are much more nimble, and also don’t throw 30B down the elevator supporting doctors and engineers from Africa.
Look at the BIGGER picture . . . The E.U. is dying . . . which is a good thing . . . One Size doesn’t fit All . . . Never has. Germany, France and the U.K. are collapsing under the weight of stupid Politicians, Greed and Socialism . . . this is what is coming to the U.S.
the BIGGER picture : China is dying. It’s dragging us down.
No China is not dying . . . they are building a consumer consumption market it is the U.S. which is collapasing under the weight of its own debt which is how all Empires eventually end up . . . look at you history book . . .
i have been doing business in China for 20+ years … and I regret to admit … the country IS dying
https://www.msn.com/en-ph/money/markets/li-ka-shing-s-luxury-mall-sits-empty-as-chinese-spending-plunges/ar-AA1pSzsv
Name a country that is not dying… the entire world economy has been propped up by enormous amounts of debt and stimulus since 2008
Welcome to the world of legacy costs that eventually made the US auto industry noncompetitive
Diesel – perfectly fine for war machines yet verboten for private transport.
In the U.S. the updated CAFE standards earlier this century were more about eliminating diesel engines in passenger vehicles than environmental protection. The heavy lifting for improving air quality was already done before functionally eliminating engines that are significantly more efficient than gasoline-powered ones. This isn’t an endorsement of VW’s approach, but a criticism of the enacted regulations.
A fun fact about CAFE standards is they did not reduce the demand for petroleum in the USA. In fact, the demand went up with even more miles traveled per year by car.
Yet another example of the government deciding what is best for you.
“n the U.S. the updated CAFE standards earlier this century were more about eliminating diesel engines in passenger vehicles than environmental protection.”
CAFE was never about anything other than making it impossible for smaller, more efficient,specialized competitors to offer trucks, which is where all the Big3s “profits” have come from, ever since fins went out of fashion. Just like EVERY.SINGLE.GOVERNMENT.PROGRAM.EVER, Cafe never had ANY other purpose than entrenching those who spend their resources on lobbying, instead of inventing becoming more efficient.
Maybe. But to prevent foreign trucks from gaining a foothold here, the US imposed a 25% tariff on foreign trucks in 1964. It was called the Chicken Tax because it was in response to a European tax on US chickens. As far as I know, it is still in place. That tarrif was more important than cafe.
It (Chicken Tax) was.
CAFE wasn’t about domestic manufacturers vs Foreigners. It was about preventing lean, focused US startups from selectively going for the juiciest part of the Big3 pie.
In a free market, post Chicken Tax truck profits wouldn’t be sustainable for long at all. Everyone with trucks in Detroit, and plenty others, knew how easy that money was. Some would have acted on that, and set up shop down the street. That’s what wold have happened if Americans were still somewhat free.
Hence, to prevent that and since already by then Americans were not really meaningfully freer than Argentines and Russians: The Big3 did what big, connected leeches do in all societies totalitarian enough to facilitate it: Paid off Dear Leader to ring fence their ability to fleece the less connected among their captive audience.
With the result that A)The leeches got wealthier, B)Dear Leader did as well, C)Lobbyists ditto, D)And also ambulance chasers and the rest of the deadweights required to keep such net-negative programs running. While, at the same time: E)Almost all Americans got poorer from having to pointlessly overpay for under performing goods, and F)As did every competitively exposed business which needed trucks. Hence they couldn’t stay competitive and either went to China or out of business.
Just as is always the case in all non free hellholes where government gets to pass arbitrary laws without the people having the brains and balls to take Jefferson literally up on his Revolution a Generation missive.
Agree in this case, but I shy away from absolutes so I don’t go quite as far as yourself.
In this case it was played off as reducing S emissions so that’s why I referenced the environmental aspect. All those rotting VWs were a nice chaser to the cash4clunkers scheme that the planet benefitted from.
The World Is Struggling to Make Enough Dieselhttps://time.com/6315039/diesel-shortage/
If that were accurate then prices wouldn’t have come down.
No new refineries and a growing demand means tighter supplies (PapaDave has mentioned this occasionally), but the answer isn’t elimination of ICEs that are much more efficient than gasoline ones. Rule change was detrimental to the public, but a foreign company was ‘the bad guy’ and paid the price so everything is alright :-/
This is not about labor costs or government mandates, but about Germany giving cheap Russian energy. The solution is not to fire union workers, but the traffic light coalition in Berlin subservient to Langley.
Strongly Disagree
Very strongly: What the hell as Germany or the EU done with leading technology, investment, AI, or any innovation?
The answer is a big fat zero.
Cheap energy masked over a huge structural problem.
I suspect that job protection for assembly line workers has discouraged German companies from adopting the latest innovations or developing innovations themselves. Don’t German trade unions have representation on corporate boards?
Not the trade unions, but the Works Council (misnomered term) represents employees. They have legally mandated consultation rights with the board. The board is obligated to share information and to provide answers & argumentation to advice that the Council provides on major corporate decision making, as well as veto rights over changes to some personnel regulations (such as privacy, safety, review, and such matters).
Partially agree with you Mish but access to cheap energy is still vital and Europe sold out to the U.S. 18 months ago this is why German industry is in decline.
Neither has anything to do with VW’s business or its faltering.
This is about German stupidity — they pushed ‘renewable’ energy …. apparently not understanding that when the sun is not shining and the wind not blowing … they would have to rely on alternative energy sources — primarily coal fired power plants.
So they end up operating two generation systems — and you cannot just flick on a switch to power up a coal plant – it must run 24/7….
That has resulted in the Germans paying some of the highest electricity rates in the world – and that is making their industries unable to compete in the global markets
Rather, VW can shift production abroad, where energy cost is lower and labor, cheaper, like Eastern Europe and Latin America.
You think Volkswagen is NOT doing this? Strangely, you don’t see a lot of manufacturing shifting to Africa. I wonder why that is.
They have a big plant in Mexico. That’s where my Jetta came from.
VW has an overcapacity problem. Building new factories at any price is wasted money.
EU lags behind AI – as popularly understood in the US. Without manufacturing, AI is but a spawn of military industrial complex technologies, which happen to find use in data mining and surveillance.
With manufacturing base, it’s robotics and machine tools.
Where does Tesla go buying equipment for its factories: Kuka (robotics), ABB (robotics), Trumpf (lasers tools), IDRA (presses), machinery for machinery production.
It’s time to bring back the cheap air-cooled bug.
The convertible modelis called a sit-down lawn mower
There is another option – ongoing government bailouts of a problem the government and unions have created!
You are overlooking some points:
Things do not line up as univocally as you suggest.
Mostly agree, but this: modern chips aren’t possible without ASML. BS, cars (planes, nuclear plants, heavy machinery) probably use zero ASML technology chips, they might be ten generations behind smart phone gadgets which use ASML technology.
Modern cars are just iPhones on wheels. They all now contain a mandated GSM tracking chip – independent of the chip in your phone.
110 years ago BEV’s become redundant because of economic forcing. Government mandates never achieve economic rationality or they cause unexpected consequences
20 years ago European governments were trying to push the population into Diesel powered cars because they were more fuel efficient than Gasoline powered. The unexpected consequence was a massive increase of NOX gases. Then came the mandates to clean up the NOX – this resulted in engines so complicated and technology driven that they became too unreliable.
The concept of an affordable car, the “people’s car”, now belongs to BYD.
Kia & Hyundai come in a close…
but capitalism truly prefers the big profits associated with luxury cars & big trucks.
Volkswagen’s time has come and gone. It was a twentieth-century car co.
Such Limited thinking . . . Volkswagen will look to build their cars in the future in other countries where labor and possibly energy are cheaper . . . Far East or South America . . . it called economic advantage !
VW has been building a majority of their vehicles outside of DE for decades & decades… exporting the remainng last of their domestic/DE jobs will have a marginal impact, at best.
They said the same thing years ago when the Beetle finally fell out of massproduction for western countries. The Beetle was more or less VW’s only seller.
This will be happening very soon, to a Union(s) in America. It will start fairly soon imo, with the Union switch to EV production as a mandate. Slowly union jobs unnecessary due to a much lower skill set required, and therefore education and knowledge. With less of those requirements, comes less pay and benefits.
Next will be any areas that can be captured, as a way to lower cost. Anywhere but Government Employees of course, as they Are Protected for sure!
Minimum wage will become the new union starting wage, so a level playing will be assured. Those that follow along, listen well, and behave accordingly, will get the 10% raises, and the rest will look for work elsewhere or go without, or go along, to get along (the weak).
This or Vote Republican… JS.
More likely is auto companies divesting their production to outside contractors. This way the auto company can bid out each component, and assembly. The profit lies in the management of the process, design/engineering etc.
You need outside contractors to do that work for you. They are not around to do so. Ask Bud Light how that worked for them, in a similar type move you are referring to. Not like looking for roofers in the inner city on a Saturday either.
More likely is auto companies invest in infrastructure to move part assemblies around. They have/play a role in it all. A pocket of companies will emerge to fill what little requirements will be needed. No bidding is required, but a Signature yes.
As You say, “The profit lies in the management of the process” so why give it away, when it’s all that’s left with a mark up? They own it all already.
Dedicated electric vehicles at this stage of the game is dumb. But we also have to notice there is always enough money for the top 1%, but never any money for the working people. Same old story. Give the rich zero percent loans for 14 years (2006-2020) and what happens? The rich get richer, the poor get more numerous, and the middle disappears. Everytime.
The non-rich benefitted from the low interest rates as well, e.g., low mortgage rates. Don’t know what “money for working people” you feel was denied. The enormous deficit suggests plenty of spending has been going on.
Workers went from being the soda jerk where you could feed a family with one income, to today where even a two income family making $16 in retail in Chicago is stressed. Not sure which deficit you mean as there are so many right now.
What you get paid should be related to the value you create. A soda jerk merely fills the glass, which you can do yourself–exit the soda jerk. The cook at McDs will be replaced by a robot. Bank tellers largely went the way of the dodo bird. etc etc.
The problem is the dependency culture created largely by Democraps. When the government provides the food you eat, your self-respect goes to zero. Your motivation is to get more government support.
Well said!
The only benefit low interest rates yielded was increased asset prices (i.e. making it bearable for the proles to “afford” paying more for a house). Larger debt burden isn’t a benefit if one carries it for 30+ years while losing an increasing portion of the appreciation to annual taxes and tax increases.
Working people have difficulty in accumulating savings (income-consumption) to do anything–buy a car, a house, pay for education, prepare for retirement… Their savings used to go into bank accounts–when there was something called interest. It turned to bank fees.
To benefit from artificially low interest, one needs to be able to borrow. With ho equity, there is NO borrowing.
In the past few decades, well educated workers with valuable work skills have done much better than low skilled assembly line workers with no computer skills.
Alternatively, where is the value created? The person who attaches lug nuts, or the designer/engineer who creates the passion that brings you into the showroom, or the dealer.
Rheinmettal partnership to make electric tanks?
They may want to firm up the easily hacking of everything electric going on first and foremost. They turn around pretty quickly and fire at will, so we best have a handle on who can and will be able to operate them…
It’s all their companies. That’s what you get for giving up cheap energy and jumping on board the deep states’s crazy retribution train that is obsessed with getting back at the Soviets from over 100 years ago. I’m trying to get parts for a Bosch tool. The parts are on the site but none are in stock. I did own a VW Golf in the 80’s. Great car but I would never consider a VW again. That era is long gone.
The obsession with the Soviet Union/Russia belongs to neo-cons in the US.
US neocons pay dues to the UK neocon chapter house.
Worked for Bosch sales 25 years. Back Orders Sure Can Hurt was the acronym for BOSCH many customers used to say. We used to say whenever planning met their goals sales tanked. Huge company with many layers of bureaucracy and US vs Germany infighting was a normal fact of life.
“Such plant closures were considered off the table for the Wolfsburg-based company.”
Until…
Until the sabotaging of the Nordstream gas pipeline. German companies could not remain competitive paying high wages AND high energy costs. Who would have thought that US meddling in Ukraine back in 2014 (remember the Maidan Revolution?) would eventually lead to chaos in Western Europe as well?
They paid 12 billion in dividends last year and now they need to shut down factories and fire workers to save 4 billion over the next two years?
If the work that is being done by those workers is unprofitable yes. A business isn’t a charity.
I don’t think they have access to enough energy, to keep these plants running, so it may be a choice Made For Them, By Them…
Why support a nanny state full of liberal s*heads like Germany? I don’t buy VW.
TWO BIG ISSUES:
Both Range anxieties and a lack of Charging Stations are SO OBVIOUSLY the two BIG OBSTACLES that hardly anything is being done to resolve.
For EV’s only, correct! So why would anyone do anything about that? You’re talking about Billions in Infrastructure, for the vast few, who jumped the shark, along with Uncle Sam. Some, because of Family obligations, and I get that. Some to be first, so I don’t get that. Even rental agencies bailed, and that’s saying something…
Time to say good-bye for now on that ride. It will be back when it can be done more affordable, and many more have an interest.
battery tech is the achilles’ heel, not infrastructure.
there isn’t enough lithium, cobalt or nickel in the world to accomplish even a FRACTION of the globalists/idiots “green” dream.
NatGas is world’s true/inevitable energy source
ICE will be around for another century, at least.
Doesn’t Germany have millions of migrants? Fire the union workers and hire migrants instead. Get the ex-union factory workers hooked on fentanyl. Problem solved.
“The EU still strives to protect the small French farm.” We need to replace all EU family farms with large scale U.S. style factory farms producing GMO food soaked in pesticides and glyphosate. Problem solved.
Funny if not Sad . . .
Call Elon! How the gross salaries of upper management ,profiter from upper mgmt
There’s only one solution: Bangladesh and Thailand have to join NATO.