Even with the rest of the comments here, the single market has issues, especially in the energy sector.<p>I live in slovenia, and with some minor modifications we have enough electricity for our country (two factories shift to half-production, and we're there). We also don't use a lot of russian gas, but mostly rely on hydro, some coal (we even have a coal mine) and nuclear... so, no problem for us, we're safe for the winter.<p>But, we've joined a single market for electricity, and (to very very simplify it), all the power goes into a single "pool", and countries buy it "at an auction"). ... this means, that we will produce enough power for us, but that power will be on the market for foreign buyers, especially the ones who earn 2-3x as much as we do (monthly wages) and whose governments will add aditional taxpayer money to offset individuals prices... one of those countries is germany.<p>So the result will be, that instead of keeping our own, and let 'the big ones play politics, they're the ones who started this whole mess', we'll be fucked with reductions in power too.
Another round of blaming Germany!<p>I guess after the Nord Stream sabotage they need another issue. The whole of Europe took gas from Russia, but Nord Stream was the incarnation of evil. The press was full of Nord Stream articles and never mentioned the other pipelines.<p>Poland took gas well into May 2022, and only stopped after Russia demanded payment in rubles. The Yamal pipeline is still standing. Europe <i>still gets Russian gas via the Ukraine transit pipelines</i>.<p>So apparently the issue is that there must not be a direct connection between Germany and Russia, so the transit states have leverage.<p>What does Poland do itself? It routes the new pipeline from Norway via Denmark and the sea, avoiding transit via Germany.<p>Perhaps Germany should leave the EU like Britain if it is so horrible.
“In case anyone felt their nose insufficiently rubbed in German success”<p>All good things come to an end.<p>Also it feels like if the weather will suck tomorrow it will be blamed on germany. Where are the other countries in all this? Taking a nap?
If I had one euro for every time The Economist has said that the Euro/EU were wobbly/breaking/etc I could balance Liz Truss'es budget and have money left for some fish'n'chips.
This just helps Germany to avoid the repercussions of their gas supply going away.<p>After improverishing other European countries by pushing to them the IMF-style neoliberal loans after forcing them to bail out PRIVATE German banks in those countries back in 2008 and then blaming the people of those countres for 'being lazy', they will be scarcely motivated to help Germany that way.<p>Especially considering how German industry's competitiveness hangs on other countries' industries being weaker, bringing the Euro down to keep German exports competitive.<p>This is a chance for all the other European countries in recovering their industries back - German industry shutting down means that domestic and foreign markets that those industries were dominating will now be open to other European countries. Couple this with the Euro going down and making European products more competitive, you can understand that why other countries are not so enthusiastic in bailing out Germany.
> Because of healthy state finances, it can afford to borrow up to 5% of GDP to create a “protective shield” that will insulate Germans from the cost of higher energy.<p>I find this kind of insulting to Germans actually, since the energy prices were already high to begin with in Germany and the personal wealth of the lower 90% is actually so low that it is not hard to imagine how quickly society can collapse after the government has set so much money on fire just because they can.<p>The problem with this "protective shield" is not that the intent is unjustified, but it comes way too late and I don't think it is going to help for long. I am honestly not sure there is a solution at this point anymore. They print money to dampen the price hikes, therefore increasing prices/devalue currency, therefore they need to print money.
There is an excellent Real Life Lore video on "How Russia is Crippling Germany with Gas" that has quite a different take: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi74gPrn24Y&ab_channel=RealLifeLore" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi74gPrn24Y&ab_channel=RealL...</a><p>Peter Zeihan also has quite a different perspective.<p>> those in Europe’s biggest economy will be able to behave as if not much is going on<p>It seems like the shut down of the Nord Stream will have a big impact on German manufacturing. I'm not sure how they'll be able to "behave as it not much is going on".
The article is really about something called the NGEU:<p>> ... Thus, as the pandemic raged, a novel form of European solidarity was agreed in the form of a €750bn bail-out fund, Next Generation eu (ngeu). The money is a form of redistribution: it is borrowed by the eu, but will in effect be paid back by its richest members while being doled out to its poorest. This gave fiscal capacity for southern Europeans to stimulate their own economies in the recovery.<p>I can't imagine something like this is on the table now. Germany's balance of trade, peaking at 2.5 trillion euro in 2015 is now almost zero. That's fine for a country that issues its own currency, but not one like Germany that doesn't. The days of German largesse are in the rear-view-mirror now. Europe will need to find a way to cope without its economic Willy Wonka.<p><a href="https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/balance-of-trade" rel="nofollow">https://tradingeconomics.com/germany/balance-of-trade</a><p>Also, the title in the article is:<p>> A German aid package revives calls for solidarity with poorer EU countries<p>which is not as sensational as the HN title.
> Imagine queuing up at a food bank only for a millionaire to rock up in a BMW and announce he is snapping up the entire supply of grub<p>Except it's not a like foodbank; it's literally a market and this is the cost of markets and the reason many socialists oppose them.