Scary demographics

As Halloween approaches, here’s a scary chart for the German economy. With baby boomers retiring, Germany is set to lose roughly one in ten workers over the next decade (UN WPP 2024 via Dr. Stefan Legge, University of St. Gallen). The working-age population is shrinking while the 65+ cohort swells—one structural reason growth has faded and GDP per capita has stagnated since 2018. The tough question: will retiring boomers vote for the painful reforms needed to restore competitiveness—even if that means trimming some of their own benefits?