Germany's Pension Ponzi Scheme Is Collapsing: What Comes Next
Rhetorically and politically sugar-coated as a 'pay-as-you-go' system — where today's workers finance the retirement of yesterday's — this bureaucratic redistribution leviathan is utterly dependent on an ever-growing pool of contributors. Problem is: Germany is aging, shrinking, and losing its industrial base.
Just in time for this demographic crunch — declining birth rates, increasing life expectancy, and longer pension payout durations — policymakers have decided to torch what's left of the country's industrial foundation in a green frenzy. Year after year, around €70 billion in value creation is being sent up the chimney, while more than half a million jobs have disappeared in recent years. That's half a million fewer contributors to the pension Ponzi.
Tax Payer´s Money To Maintain The Illusion
To keep the locomotive rolling — even as it barrels in the wrong direction — the federal government now plugs the pension system's gaping cash hole with roughly €123 billion annually from the general budget. In other words: workers pay a second time, in the form of taxes, to support the same unsustainable system they already fund through record-high payroll deductions.
With a government spending ratio now exceeding 50% of GDP, Germany has erected a full-scale hyperstate. Attached to its bloated bureaucracy are ever-growing administrative tentacles: layers of social insurance agencies and subsidized institutions now serving as the domestic enforcement arm of Brussels' self-destructive Green Deal.
The coming deep economic depression, which has been foreshadowed by three years of quasi-permanent recession, will test just how resilient — and solvent — the savings and wealth accumulation of past generations truly are. It may be their prudence that softens the blow of the present generation's green delirium.
Trapped in the Logic of a Ponzi Scheme and Keynesian Voodoo Economics
Entirely captive to the logic of Ponzi finance and Keynesian voodoo economics, Germany's new federal government now plans its grand escape from all woes. With a debt hammer of one trillion euros over the coming years, it aims to wipe away every problem while putting the economy back on track.
Broadly speaking, the money is supposed to raise the defense budget to 5% of GDP, as demanded by the latest NATO summit, pour into the country's crumbling infrastructure, and plug countless holes in the overstrained welfare apparatus.
Click here to read more…
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Tribune
5 days ago
- Daily Tribune
Russian drone strikes hit peak
July's record drone attacks kill 31 in Kyiv, as international outrage mounts and new air defences promised • EU slams Russia's 'depraved' tactics • Zelensky urges global pressure, air defenses • Germany to send more Patriot systems • Trump threatens new Russia sanctions Russia fired a record number of drones at Ukraine in July, an analysis showed yesterday, intensifying its deadly bombardment of the country despite US pressure to stop the war. Russian attacks have killed hundreds of Ukrainian civilians since June. A combined missile and drone attack on the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early Thursday killed 31 people, including five children, said rescuers. Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has consistently rejected calls for a ceasefire, said yesterday that he wanted peace but that his demands for ending the nearly three-and-a-half year invasion were 'unchanged'. Those demands include that Ukraine withdraw from territory it already controls and drop its NATO ambitions forever. 'We need a lasting and stable peace on solid foundations that would satisfy both Russia and Ukraine, and would ensure the security of both countries,' Putin said. Flowers for the Children In Kyiv, residents held a day of mourning for the 31 killed on Thursday, most of whom were in a nine-storey apartment block torn open by a missile. Journalists at the scene yesterday saw rescue workers pulling bodies from the debris. Iryna Drozd, a 28-year-old mother-of-three, was laying flowers at the site to commemorate the five children killed. The youngest, whose lifeless body was found early yesterday, was two years old. 'These are flowers because children died. We brought flowers because we have children. Our children live across the street from here,' she said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who announced rescue operations had ended yesterday, said later that only Putin could end the war and renewed his call for a meeting between the two leaders. 'The United States has proposed this. Ukraine has supported it. What is needed is Russia's readiness,' he wrote on X. "This despicable attack by Russia shows that additional pressure and sanctions on Moscow are necessary. This can only be stopped together: America, Europe, and other global actors." — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky 'We Can Wait' Putin made no mention of a possible meeting with Zelensky in his comments to reporters yesterday, and suggested Kyiv was not ready for further negotiations. 'We can wait if the Ukrainian leadership believes that now is not the time,' he said. He added that Russian troops were advancing 'along the entire front line', and that Moscow had started mass producing 'Oreshnik' — a nuclear-capable, hypersonic missile first fired on Ukraine last year. The Kremlin has consistently rejected a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying in July it saw no immediate diplomatic way out of its nearly three-and-a-half year invasion. US President Donald Trump on Thursday condemned Russia's actions in Ukraine, suggesting that new sanctions against Moscow were coming.
Gulf Insider
30-07-2025
- Gulf Insider
Trump Could Pull Up To 30% Of US Troops Currently In Europe
In line with its review of all troops stationed around the world, the U.S. could cut 30 percent of forces in Europe, according to sources close to the Pentagon cited by Politico. The Do Rzeczy news portal asks what this will mean for Poland. President Trump has already announced his intention to seriously revamp America's military strategy and presence, with final conclusions from the Global Posture Review expected this September. Reasons given have included the need to focus on new initiatives, budgetary concerns, and tensions in the Indo-Pacific region. New priorities are a big turnaround from the U.S.'s previous commitment to Ukraine, and on the chopping block are some 20,000 troops who deployed to the continent after that war began. Between 90,000 and 100,000 U.S. troops are currently stationed across Europe, with the largest contingent (35,000 troops) in Germany, home to the Ramstein Air Base, the center for U.S. air operations and satellite communications, and Grafenwöhr, the largest U.S. training ground outside of Poland. But given the size of the reduction cited, American forces in the CEE could also be sent home or elsewhere. Back in April, there were concerns regarding possible U.S. troop relocation in Poland, specifically from the base in Jasionka, which serves as the epicenter from which all transports are sent to Ukraine. Now, it seems even more likely that Trump may want to shift focus from the war there. The timing could not be worse for those who believe Putin is looking to potentially attack inside NATO territory. There is, however, also the concern from the U.S., specifically Trump's circle, that European countries must up their own military capabilities and spending. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has said, 'The United States cannot be the long-term guarantor of the entire continent's security,' as he calls on European allies to increase defense budgets and expand their armed forces within NATO.
Gulf Insider
23-07-2025
- Gulf Insider
Romania Strong-Armed Into Buying $2.3 Billion Israeli Anti-Aircraft Systems
Having managed to derail populist, NATO-skeptical presidential candidates through a variety of extraordinary means, Romania — bowing to pressure from NATO and President Trump — announced it will spend $2.3 billion on Israeli anti-aircraft systems to fend off the supposed Russian menace. The big-ticket, Israel-benefitting purchase comes even as Romania is poised to impose dramatic austerity measures to address its deteriorating financial condition. Romania's 2025 deficit will be the largest in the country's history. At roughly 9% of GDP, its deficit is also the EU's highest by that measure. The alarming numbers have triggered reprimands from the European Commission, which asked Romania to bring its deficit down to 2.8% of GDP by 2030. At last month's NATO summit, the organization's members bent to Trump's long-running demands, agreeing to more than double their targeted military spending — from 2% of GDP to 5% — by 2035. Working hard to rationalize the outlay, Reuters' report on the Israeli deal notes that Romania 'has had Russian drone fragments fall in its territory repeatedly over the past two years.' The Times of Israel bolstered the narrative with a headline claiming 'Romania [is] on edge over Russia.' Last year, Romania seemed poised to elect the deeply NATO-skeptical populist Calin Georgescu, who won the first round of Romania's two-round presidential election. Citing supposed Russian interference, the country's Constitutional Court threw out the election and ordered it to be started anew. In a May triumph for the EU establishment, centrist Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan prevailed. Romania's pending redistribution of $2.3 billion of its wealth to Israel's booming arms industry comes as the government is poised to unleash drastic austerity measures that are certain to stoke resentments. Potential moves include firing 20% of the country's civil service workers, increasing value-added taxes, and increasing taxes on profits and dividends from 10% to 16%. 'This correction is so extensive, so far-reaching, that pain cannot be avoided,' former finance minister and current head of the Romanian Fiscal Council Daniel Daianu told Politico . Click here to read more…
