Double Whammy
As If There Were No Tomorrow
A Word Makes a Career
September 2022. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz steps before the cameras and announces a 200-billion-euro package to combat the energy crisis. He calls it the "Doppel-Wumms" — the double whammy.
The word was well chosen. Folksy, forceful, a little silly. It sounded like determination, like action, like a chancellor who gets things done. The media picked it up, the opposition mocked it, but everyone talked about it. Mission accomplished.
What no one asked: Whammy toward what? And who pays?
The Bill
200 billion euros. That is a number too large to feel. So let us translate it.
200 billion euros is about 2,400 euros per resident — from infant to elderly. For a family of four: 9,600 euros. Not as a gift, mind you. As borrowing authority — every euro drawn from it is a bill that must be paid eventually.
That was not the first whammy. Before that came the Corona packages. Short-time work benefits, business relief, vaccination campaigns, masks, tests. Over 400 billion euros in total. Then came the Ukraine war and the "special fund" for the military — another 100 billion. Then the double whammy.
In three years, Germany took on almost half a trillion euros in new debt — as much as it otherwise does in a decade.
The debt brake was not abolished. It was circumvented — through "special funds" that are not funds at all, but debts with a friendlier name.
The Principle of the Present
What is a whammy? Physically: a short, violent impulse. Politically: a measure that works immediately and is immediately visible. The whammy is the opposite of strategy. It is reaction, not design. It does not solve problems — it postpones them.
The gas price brake was a whammy. It dampened prices for consumers — by having the state pay the difference. The money did not come from nowhere. It came from the future. From debts that must eventually be repaid. By whom? By tomorrow's taxpayers. By the young, who are not yet allowed to vote.
That is the principle: The present consumes, the future pays. We live at the expense of those not yet born — or those still too young to defend themselves.
The Generational Balance Sheet
Germany has a demographic problem. The old are becoming more, the young are becoming fewer. In 2030, 1.4 million baby boomers will retire — and only 736,000 new workers will enter the market. The ratio of contributors to pension recipients is tipping.
In this situation, the sensible policy would be: save, invest, reduce debt, lighten the burden for the next generation. What does Germany do? The opposite. It piles up debt as if there were no tomorrow.
The phrase "generational equity" appears in every Sunday speech. In practice, it is a farce. Today's pensioners — the largest and most loyal voting bloc — receive their pensions. Tomorrow's pensioners will see what is left.
The double whammy was a gift from the old to themselves, paid for by the young, who were not asked.
What the Whammy Did Not Do
The double whammy subsidized energy consumption. It made basic consumption of gas and electricity cheaper — exactly what was in short supply. Economically, this is absurd. When something is scarce, the price should rise so that less is consumed. The whammy prevented exactly that.
What the whammy did not do: It did not build new power plants. It did not speed up approval processes. It created hardly any incentives for energy savings beyond what prices forced anyway. It did not invest in infrastructure, education, research. It only bought time — expensively, inefficiently, and without a plan for afterward.
What was drawn from the 200-billion framework went into consumption, not production. They maintained the status quo instead of changing it. They were a gigantic sedative for a society that did not want to hear that something must change.
The Addiction to the Whammy
The problem with the whammy: it is addictive.
Once the state has shown that it will step in with billions at every crisis, citizens expect the same next time. And the time after. The sense of entitlement grows. Personal responsibility shrinks. Why prepare when the state will step in during emergencies? Why save when the money will be devalued anyway?
The double whammy was not the last whammy. After the energy crisis comes the next crisis. And the next. And each time the call for state aid grows louder, and each time the aid becomes more expensive, and each time the debt grows larger.
This is not a conspiracy. It is a dynamic. A downward spiral in which each whammy makes the next whammy more necessary.
The Unspeakable Word
There is a word that no longer appears in German politics: sacrifice.
Sacrifice is the opposite of whammy. Sacrifice means: less today so that more is possible tomorrow. Sacrifice means: accepting limits, setting priorities, saying no. Sacrifice is uncomfortable, unpopular, unelectable.
So there is no sacrifice. Instead, distribution — of money that does not exist. Promises — of prosperity that was not earned. Postponement — of the bill that will eventually come due.
The double whammy was the refusal of sacrifice. The message was: You do not have to change anything. You do not have to heat less, drive less, consume less. The state will handle it. With money it does not have. For a future it does not plan.
Who Pays in the End?
Debts do not disappear. They are paid — through repayment, through inflation, or through state bankruptcy. Germany will not go bankrupt. So repayment or inflation remains.
Repayment means: higher taxes or lower spending in the future. Less money for education, infrastructure, research. Less room to maneuver in the next crisis. The children and grandchildren will pay the bill — with worse schools, crumbling roads, and a state that has no money left.
Inflation means: creeping expropriation. Money becomes worth less. Those who saved lose. Those who have debt win. The biggest debtor is the state. Inflation is a hidden tax that hits everyone — but the poor harder than the rich, because they cannot flee into real assets.
The double whammy was not aid. It was a loan taken out in the name of those who were not asked, for services consumed immediately, with interest that will come due later.
The Moral of the Story
There is an old saying: "There is no such thing as a free lunch." The double whammy was an attempt to disprove this saying. 200 billion euros, just like that, because there is a crisis.
But the lunch was not free. It was only ordered on credit. The bill is on the table — still face-down, but it is there. Someday it will be turned over. And then someone will have to pay.
Who? Not those who ordered. They will be retired by then. Or dead.
Those who pay will be the ones who were not present at the ordering. The young. The not-yet-born. Those who have no lobby and no voice.
An Obituary
The double whammy is history. The energy crisis has subsided. Gas prices have fallen. The media have turned to new topics. No one talks about the whammy anymore.
But the debts remain. Tens of billions of euros, plus interest. They stand in the books, they burden the budget, they narrow the room for maneuver. The whammy is over. Its consequences have only just begun.
"Double whammy" — the phrase will go down in history as a symbol of a politics that knows only the present. That reacts instead of designs. That distributes instead of invests. That promises instead of being honest.
It was the whammy of a generation that learned to live at the expense of the next. And that is not even ashamed of it.