The war in Ukraine and its repercussions, compounded by structural problems such as an ageing population and a lack of investment, spell the end of the boom
Germany doing economic suicide for the sake of the US, and becoming another country to be exploited by them, welcome to the third world, your privileged position was only temporary
So part of the great plan concocted by these economists is to reduce dependency on China? So, they can't import from Russia, they can't export to China. Is the plan to make them absolutely dependent on the US?
I think that's exactly the plan, and I'd argue this has always been a secondary goal of the proxy war. The ideal scenario was to cause regime change in Russia, Balkanize it, and then create a bunch of puppet regimes that could be used to further surround China with military bases. The secondary objective was to ensure that Europe stays in US economic and political spheres. A lot of people in US were starting to get worried that Europe was getting entirely too cozy with Russia and China economically, and this would obviously translate into Europe moving away from US politically in the long term. Forcing Europe to become entirely dependent on US solves that problem.
On the one hand, I'm almost glad because it might knock some smugness out of the euros. On the other hand, I'm sad - because it won't. The Nordics will continue acting as if they're superior or different at all, those further west won't care, Poland will be giddy over the phantom of becoming the new big deal in central Europe.
And the saddest part? It all could have been avoided. German-Russian alliance could've created a pole of power to counterweight the Atlantic bastards. But noooo, the statedep pod people are too deeply entrenched. March on into the furnace, keep the NATO engine running a bit longer! And the fuckers who orchestrated all this? No punishment, of course. No blame even. Nice retirement in a villa at lake Como, clinking wine glasses and occasionally running speech tours for some shitty org.
I expect there is going to be a reckoning at some point. Europeans have not experienced anything comparable to what's coming in over half a century. People are still acting smug because they don't understand what's coming in the near future. However, we're already seeing a lot of political unrest in Europe because material conditions are rapidly eroding. Eventually, it's going to affect even the smug mainstream liberals.
I completely agree that all of this could've been avoided, but I'd argue this is precisely why US needed this proxy war to happen. Europe was becoming integrated with Russia and China economically, and that necessarily meant that it would drift away from US politically as well. This was completely unacceptable from US perspective, and the war ensured that Europe is going to be dependent on US in the foreseeable future.
Of course, as BRICS becomes increasingly more dominant, it's entirely possible that at least some European countries will jump ship.