> And do you also believe what Merkel said that "it's purely a commercial venture"?

That's not the point here (and for what it's worth, Nord Stream should never have been started in the first place, and we should have cancelled it the day that "little green men" arrived in Ukraine).

My point was and is that Germany is traditionally very reluctant in handing out government funds and especially government-backed debt to private industry in general while the US has all but zero issues.

>Germany is traditionally very reluctant in handing out government funds and especially government-backed debt to private industry

Not true. Most of Germany's economic growth since 2022 has been due to massive government public spending, since private investments are down.

The problem is US finances startups who have to either scam private investors or actually innovate to survive, whereas german government funds only politically connected dinosaurs who don't innovate.