Germany is the largest economy in Europe. Things are not going well there. It is less than four years ago that President Trump spoke at the UN and was openly laughed at by the German delegation. Trump’s laughable comments, as perceived by the Germans, were to warn of impending serious problems since Germany had deliberately wound back its power generation capacity in favour of long term access to Russian gas.

Now look what two stories appear on the same page of the FT:

The German economy is in trouble and this will reverberate through the rest of Europe. This is bad for Europeans in particular and others connected to Germany by trade, cultural or security ties.