Right, thread time. My latest for @TheEconomist looks at the global #manufacturing delusion. As a German, I have some experience dealing with people who fall for it.

Don't be those people. /1 economist.com/finance-and-ec… Manufacturing as a share of global output is shrinking, and will continue to do so. Between 1997 and 2021, #manufacturing output rose by 72%, services by 102%. If anything, the competition for manufacturing is over a declining relative pie. /2

(narrator: they didn't)

https://twitter.com/Culture_Crit/status/1632749561474080768

The foundation stone of the Dom in Cologne was laid in 1248. Plans were made, parts built. Then my fellow Colognians realized: can’t do it, really. Let’s just stop.

In this week’s @TheEconomist, I take a closer look at the economic costs of sexual harassment. They are huge. economist.com/finance-and-ec… My starting point is the second #MeToo moment in economics itself, where new and old cases have emerged, and female academics simply had enough.

Was curious whether #hydro power in Europe will make a comeback in 2023 (after a bad 2022), so I wrote a little explainer. economist.com/the-economist-… European #water reservoir levels in 2022 were very low. They are slowly recovering, in part because policy forced a refill.

The EU is responding to Germany's €200bn package with a @ThierryBreton / @PaoloGentiloni op-ed in FAZ.

In short: let's fund furlough schemes SURE-style at the European level, because national bazookas are unfair. faz.net/aktuell/wirtsc… @ThierryBreton @PaoloGentiloni Very much enjoyed their subtle subtweeting of Germany's track record on carbon emissions (terrible) and energy policy (godawful). Nominal debt, they argue, is just one measure.

Germany's consumption of around 1000 TWh of #gas per year just got a lot more expensive.

We used to pay <1% of GDP for gas. At €300, it will be ... 8.4% of GDP. Eightpointfourpercent. Any chance for a friendly discount, @Norway?

Germany is currently producing 47% of its power from #solar.

Imagine how much that would be, had #Merkel's governments not, mostly for fiscal reasons, killed the solar roll-out after 2012? (And the chart is in MW, not €. It is *a lot* cheaper now to build 10GW solar than it was a decade ago.)

That Annalena #Baerbock has a 74% approval rating for her handling of the #Ukraine war (it’s a war, @ZDF, not a crisis) is remarkable, esp compared to #Scholz’ dismal 50%. Germans’ support for “heavy weapons like tanks” deliveries to #Ukraine continues to be high, though I would have hoped this to be north of 60%. SPD scaremongering has a price.

Our cover this week. The briefing to go with that food crisis cover is of course a must-read: brilliantly written, very comprehensive. economist.com/briefing/2022/…