I watched a video on the decline of Germany's economy, and in turn, much of Europe, including the UK.
A fascinating watch, even if somewhat depressing.
Anyway, much of their demise is claimed to have come from their pursuit of "Net Zero" – a luxury goal that could only be set by once-prosperous countries.
But here's where it gets sticky…
While this idealistic pursuit might make leaders and portions of the population feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, the reality is that it doesn't play nice with the real world of economics.
And Germany is proving that in real-time.
They went from being an export powerhouse — cars, precision engineering, the works — to being one bad economic call away from featuring in a charity aid commercial.
They shut down their nuclear power stations and swapped them for bird-killing wind turbines and solar panels that see sunshine 100 days a year if they're lucky.
All in a bid for that "sweet" green energy.
Only, it's sour.
Electricity prices have soared, crippling citizens and grinding manufacturing to a halt.
How can one expect to compete with the rest of the world when it costs you 8x as much to produce your goods?
Simply put:
YOU CAN'T.
As such, Germany has gone from a booming economy to one on life support.
It's the same way the UK has all but stopped producing steel because it's "dirty," only to import it from Chinese factories that are even dirtier — then we have it delivered via massive, diesel-burning ships.
Far worse than going broke, however, is that over-reliance has made these countries vulnerable.
Without being able to properly create their own energy and resources, they become dependent on their "feeders" and I don't know about you, Legionnaire…
Rarely does anything good come from over-reliance.
You become over-leveraged, and if you so much as fart too loudly, that pipeline can quickly halt.
The same thing applies to this much smaller world of the publishing biz I find myself in.
As I said in an earlier email this week, lots of authors are randomly having their accounts frozen or shut down without warning.
As such, entire lives are being turned on their heads.
Thankfully, only 30% of sales here at Watson HQ come from retailers, which is far less than Germany's 55% dependency and significantly less than the 80% of authors who sell exclusively via Amazon.
But I'd love to get that even lower.
So, in a bid to do just that, I have an offer:
**rolls up sleeves and cracks knuckles**
If you've been wanting to dive into The Divided Region but are yet to do so, allow me to present you:
THE COLLECTOR'S EDITION
Inside this edition, you get all five books of TDR so far, a printable world map (not available to purchase separately), and the digital world art of the world at a…
… fat 50% off.
(By the way, e-books come digitally signed by yours truly with a special afterword not found in retailer editions, should that tickle your pickle.)
To learn more about this bundle, head on here:
https://djjwatsonstore.com/products/TDR-Bundle
DJJW