fertility dropped by a stunning 20% last year, despite the government's efforts to reverse the one-child policy and encourage people to have more children. looking around, one sees problems in most major economies. german chancellor angela merkel is about to leave office after 16 years of steady, wise leadership. in an age of populist drama, anger, she's been an oasis of calm. but she let many of germany's economic problems fester. the country has been starved of public investment, leading to a decay of its infrastructure in almost every year, germany's energy policies are a strange patchwork of new and old, banning nuclear and thus getting 44% of its electricity from fossil fuels, one of the highest in the european union. and more broadly, germany remains a laggard in the digital