This entire article imho stinks. Some insurance company boss from the UK says that the EU, which the UK is no longer a part of is going to do something. Sure some actors would like that, but this seems strange. Especially with France and Spain being against it.
It is about Trump wanting German car companies to move their production to the US. Which is also really important to stress that a lot of cars made in the US are not made by the big 4, but by Toyota, Hyundai, Volkswagen, BMW, Subaru and other foreign car companies. A lot of countries are looking for similar set ups from China as well. So stuff like BYD building factories in Thailand and Hungary for example.
That is most certainly the first time, I heared the United States of America described as a nobody.
Germany had 2.8million new cars sold in 2024 and a production of 4million cars. So net export is 1.2million cars. The difference is that Germany imports 4x more cars China does.
About the absolute and per capita. That does not make that much sense for trade. Countries with a smaller population have to specialize much more and trade in other products. Iceland would be stupid, if it had its own car industry for example, but it has a massive aluminium overproduction, which it can then trade for say cars. However larger countries are able to produce a lot more internally. So they tend to export and import less on a per capita bases. So yes China can not do certain things other smaller countries do, just due to its size. In this case even 4x lower net exports of cars then Germany, still mean 4x more cars being exported in total, which causes trouble around the world.
Maybe you should actually read the article you linked. It clearly speaks about overcapacity.
Also China is by far the biggest car producer in the world making up a third of global production. The exports are also massive. Last year the exported 5.859 million vehicles and grew more then 19%. The only countries producing more cars then China exports(only exports) are the US, Japan and India. Also this up until September Chinas car exports grew by 14.8% compared to the same period last year. So that would overtake Indias total car production of last year.
They are phasing out subsidies to buyers of EVs, but not the ones applying to Chinese exports of EVs. The Chinese even aknowledge that their susbidies created a massive oversupply, which means artifically low prices for them. That creates a huge problem for the European car industry, which did not get those subsidies.
From the article:
China has sent a clear signal that it is willing to pull the plug on subsidies for its electric vehicle industry
That is a huge difference to having mostly phased out subsidies.
Yeah the only thing Germany got out of that deal was 80 years of peace and the ability to turn itself into one of the best countries to live in. That for the most part without being too big a part in the really shitty stuff the US does.
Did they watch to much Breaking Bad. As in stop the drugs from Venezuela and onshore drug production to the US using some badly paid chemistry teachers?
“Republicans will never allow articles of impeachment to be brought to the floor of the House of Representatives, and we know that’s the case,” Jeffries said at a press conference Monday.
Okay, but that is very different from not persueing an impeachment. Sometimes you do something, just to create a forum.
That is surely why the Canadian government claims to not have sold arms to Israel since 2024… /s
It is a combination of sanctions and a lot of infrastructure being broken. But a lot can be repaired relatively quickly. You do not need peak production levels to make a hell of a lot of money.
and that is why the oil industry funds the far right with such insane sums. It is also really good news, as a decline in oil consumption is really going to hurt the far right.
There is another option, which is Putin is couped out of office. The new Russian government wants to get rid of Putin and sending him to the Hague would mean he is locked up for life and all the problems Russia has can be blamed on him. It also creates some good will with the Ukrainians for peace negotiations. The Wagner revolt shows that this is certainly possible.
But the US has a lot of refineries on the Texan coast, which are designed to refine Venezuelan oil. Canadian crude can not be easily supplied, due to KeystoneXL having been blocked and Mexican crude is just not enough to run those refineries at capacity.
The regions Russia has invaded have large unexploited oil and more importantly gas reserves. Not only that, but some of the gas pipeline, which supply Russian gas to the EU run through that region. So if Ukraine holds them, it is fairly easy to them to replace Russian gas.
For the US the war is extremely usefull. Russia gave the EU a somewhat independent energy supply. But the war against Ukraine is just too dangerous. Especially with Russia threatening EU countries on a regular bases. So they turned to other suppliers and the biggest oil and gas exporter is currently the US. Due to the war a third of fossil gas used by the EU is from the US right now. That is a huge dependence.
As for oil, Ukraine is obviosuly very willing to attack Russian oil infrastructure. So the US is litterally taking out a competitor fairly long term here.
Something similar was happening with Iran. Israel actually attacked some oil and gas infrastructure in Iran as well. Obviously the entire region is always close to explode again.
This is also a good move against China. They import a lot of oil from Russia, Venezuela and Iran. So if the US can control Venezuela and take out Russia and Iran, then it is able to really punish China in a war. That is why China is going for EVs, renewables and coal. They can have those inside China. Something similar is happening inside the EU as well, but less strategic.
Also back to Ukraine. It is more complex then that. Ukraine is culturally close to Russia, so them removing a dictator might well be a bad example to the Russian people, from Putins point of view. It also acted as a buffer between Russia and EU/NATO, has a lot of farm land and due to Soviet legacy an economy, which integrates well into Russia, as well as a lot of Russian speakers. The war also helps Putin internally, as an excuse to strengthen the hold over the country and remove competition.
Holy crap do I really need to use the /s behind the first comment. I thought it was so bloody obvious, that it did not need to happen. The idea to walk around town, scan people sneakers and if they are legit Nike call them fascists. To me that idea is just so insane that it is funny.
At the same time, there are companies, which are worse and it is worth boycotting them. If you do so, then stand by that and do not buy some fakes. Seriously imagine trying to convince some guy that Nike sucks, while wearing full fake Nike gear. That is again a funny idea to me.
Do you seriously believe that anybody would be crazy enough to check other peoples clothes with a medical scanning device? Thank you.
We all have to exist in this system whether we like it or not, and unless you’re living 100% off grid in a hovel in the woods, you’re contributing to the slow ascent of fascism in one way or another.
When you know that an action supports fascism you do not do it and you warn others about it. Pretending to support fasism, is at least in this case really stupid.
$500-2000 depends on what sort of shoe, where you buy it and so forth. If you go to a poor country it can be had for a lot less though. It might well be worth to have that vacation and find a shoemaker. You certainly will not exploit them nearly as badly as Nike.
The German car industry is more then just the big car brands. They are aware of the Chinese competition and they have invested a lot to be able to compete. However for parts suppliers this is much more difficult. If you are a making some metal engine casts for example, you really do not have expertise, which translate well to EV production. So you probably go down. Those sort of ICE car part suppliers have fired 50k workers in Germany this year already. The transition is hurting them badly and they would love five more years.
The good news is that Germany is at 30% BEV production and rising fast. So those companies are already in a very bad place and so is their lobbying power long term. For Germany Spain and France blocking this is probably the best thing to happen. Oh and the EV industry did get buyers subsidies in Germany for the next five years.