Christian Odendahl Profile picture
European economics editor @TheEconomist. Tweets may contain humour despite my nationality. In German @OdendahlC.
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Jul 15, 2023 19 tweets 5 min read
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 Image
Mar 8, 2023 10 tweets 3 min read
(narrator: they didn't) 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.
Dec 8, 2022 12 tweets 8 min read
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.
Dec 6, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
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. ImageImage
Oct 3, 2022 6 tweets 2 min read
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.
Aug 25, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
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?
Aug 10, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
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.)
May 20, 2022 7 tweets 4 min read
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%. Image 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. Image
May 19, 2022 4 tweets 2 min read
Our cover this week. Image The briefing to go with that food crisis cover is of course a must-read: brilliantly written, very comprehensive. economist.com/briefing/2022/…