German auto companies in particular have shown strong profits despite a shortage of semiconductor components as global auto markets recover, particularly for the higher-priced vehicles sold by Mercedes-Benz and by Volkswagen’s Audi and Porsche luxury brands.

Makes one wonder what they actually mean by "economy". Normally it is the banks, stocktraders and people who have otherwise capital gains by, for instance, rent. I do not see that many people on the bottomside of society become healthier let alone wealthier. All I see (in my hometown) is more homeless people, longer lines at foodbanks, more closed shops and retail buildings/offices, empty for months, ready for new entrepreneurs (which aren't that many and if so, not for long). The real economy, the one where regular people trade and do business with things like food or goods, isn't doing that well for a few years. Covid was just the last push over the edge for many.

Governments still believe that having low interest rates will do good, but all it does is creating cheap money for said stocktraders and bankers. Regular people buy houses with cheap loans, but it's just waiting for the interest rates to rise and see a slew of new homeless people in the streets. Lot's of people live way above their means, all thanks to central banks and their old fashioned way of handling pretty much every economic crisis. Rings a bell? In 2007/2008 a very same thing happened when people borrowed money for way too expensive houses and goods and that fraud didn't end well for many, now did it?

Money is worth less and less, because it doesn't represent anything in return: no gold, no other valuable goods and is merely speculative, just like houses are a way to speculate and not use it where it's meant for. Lower the rent, print a little more, it's becoming really obvious the "West" is in a downward spiral. Let's hope the neoliberal way of acting and thinking is in decline, because that cancer needs to be done with. It's excesses are detroying society and I do not think any current politician is willing or able to remove that tumor. Growth for the sake of growth is the way a cancer-cell works.

Now, which one of you dear people bought a few Porsches and the newest Mercedes lately? I bought a bike. Not because I have shitloads of cash to spend, but because I need it for my job. I am a painter, but I repair bikes to survive. And guess what? I'm one of the lucky ones, so far. And you?