Germany was a trashed economy that couldn't meet the needs of its people so it borrowed heavily and printed money. None of the rich Western nations that have autonomy over the issuance of currency have trashed economies, if they're doing poorly it's because their governments choose policies that have those unintended consequences. Australia for example produces enough food to feed around 80 million people annually, we could easily meet all the domestic demand for food, yet we have shelves empty as a result of supply constraint issues due to Covid and flooding, poor economic management and an obsession with austerity and budget surpluses.
Edit to add: I'm not going to tell farmers or manufacturers what they should be doing with their property, but an export market should be for goods surplus to the needs of the domestic market.
Edit to add: Is that telling farmers what they should be doing with their property?
The exorbitant energy costs (thanks, Greens) in Europe will absolutely trash their economy if it gets prolonged enough. The individual EU countries do not have autonomy over issuance of their currency, the ECB does. 'Club Med' member countries don't have the tourism coin rolling in as it used to, and their economies were in tatters already before Covid. And now they have 2 million++ refugees from Ukraine to feed and house.
Not to mention the EU is a protective customs union, they're geared for protecting the French farmers. I don't think there's an FTA in place between EU and Australia for all of Oz produce. Europe doesn't even have stockpiles of grain, as those were liquidated for currency.
I appreciate you're well insulated and thoroughly protected from these concerns, but some of us have family and friends in Europe, and I for one am worried all this is not looking good for the old continent.
