Blame it on Omicron, Vladimir Putin and Europe’s biggest war in decades, but the global economy is in a weaker position this year than anyone expected. So what exactly is the impact the pandemic and Ukraine crisis are having on businesses and consumers in Germany and the United States? And are key economic players doing enough to keep it from getting worse?

On the day Putin invaded Ukraine, hosts Soraya Sarhaddi Nelson and Rachel Tausendfreund talked with Jacob Kirkegaard, Senior Fellow in the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States and Sebastian Dullien, an international economics professor who is director of the Macroeconomic Policy Institute of the Hans-Boeckler Foundation in Duesseldorf.

This show was produced by Dina Elsayed and Abigail Megginson.