Full record
25% righteconomyThe German manufacturing model will completely collapse within one to two years of October 2022
A scored prediction by Peter Zeihan, made on .
Scored prediction
25% righteconomy“so we are looking at nothing less than the complete collapse of the German manufacturing model in just the next year or two”
The German manufacturing model will completely collapse within one to two years of October 2022
- Made on
- 2022-10-17
- Outcome
- 25% right
- Importance
- 5 / 5
- Effect on score
- +1.4
What counted as right
- Status
- resolved
- Settled on
- 2024-10-17
By ~Oct 2024, German manufacturing suffers a near-complete collapse of its export-manufacturing model (e.g. catastrophic, broad-based contraction of industrial output)
Criterion (near-complete collapse / catastrophic broad-based contraction by ~Oct 2024) is NOT met. German manufacturing was in a well-documented multi-year slump — cumulative output down roughly 10% from 2022, autos down ~7% in 2024, capacity utilization at post-2020 lows — but this is a slow grind, not a collapse: the export-manufacturing model and major sectors (autos, machinery) continued operating and exporting. 'Complete collapse within one to two years' did not occur. Magnitude interpretation (what counts as 'collapse') is left for the quantify stage; evidence is unambiguous that output fell single-digit percentages, not by an order of magnitude. No credible source describes Oct-2024 German manufacturing as collapsed.
Sources
The Costs of Germany's Support for Ukraine
YouTube ·
Evidence of what happened
By Oct 2024 German manufacturing was weak and contracting but had NOT suffered a near-complete collapse. Q4 2024 manufacturing output fell 0.6% (seventh consecutive drop) and overall GDP slipped 0.2% q/q; industrial production was down 2.5% m/m in Sep 2024. These are meaningful but modest single-digit contractions, not a collapse of the export-manufacturing model, which continued to operate.
Official Destatis data: production in industry fell 2.5% m/m in September 2024; capital goods -4.0%, intermediate goods -1.6%, consumer goods -1.4% — a broad but single-digit monthly decline, consistent with a prolonged slump rather than a near-total collapse of output.
Cumulative context: German industrial output was roughly ~10 percentage points below its 2022 level by 2024, with 2024 production about 4.5% below 2023; the automotive sector specifically fell ~7.2% in 2024. Commentary notes that 'despite these severe declines, the automotive sector continues to operate — experiencing significant production contractions rather than complete shutdown.'
Corrections
No public corrections.
Effect on the score
+1.4- How sure they sounded
- 85%
- Outcome
- 25% right
- Importance
- 5 / 5
This page shows the scored prediction as published; the site doesn't recompute or adjust the score.
Where this came from
The German manufacturing model will completely collapse wit…- Methodology version
- v1.0.0
- Last computed
- August 2, 2026
- Made on
- 2022-10-17
How this profile was built
Scored by independent judges
Predictions gathered and sourced
Independently verified against sources