WELL, LIKE MOST COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD THEY HAVE LOUSY POLITICAL LEADERSHIP: Germany Is Losing Its Mojo. Finding It Again Won’t Be Easy. Europe’s biggest economy is sliding into stagnation, and a weakening political system is struggling to find an answer.

Two decades ago, Germany revived its moribund economy and became a manufacturing powerhouse of an era of globalization.

Times changed. Germany didn’t keep up. Now Europe’s biggest economy has to reinvent itself again. But its fractured political class is struggling to find answers to a dizzying conjunction of long-term headaches and short-term crises, leading to a growing sense of malaise.

Germany will be the world’s only major economy to contract in 2023, with even sanctioned Russia experiencing growth, according to the International Monetary Fund. . . .The problems aren’t new. Germany’s manufacturing output and its gross domestic product have stagnated since 2018, suggesting that its long-successful model has lost its mojo.

You have to read pretty far into the article before you see a reference to Germany’s “irrational energy policy.”

UPDATE: From the comments: