German business confidence slumps

The IFO business confidence survey for Germany fell again in August.  Business confidence sometimes leads the economic cycle, but in any event, the data are available before industrial production, employment, retail sales and other data are available.  Moral: the German economy is likely to keep on sliding.  There's little reason to think otherwise: there's no substantial stimulus; the CB discount rate is already at zero; trade wars are biting; Brexit is affecting confidence and orders and production; and the world outside Europe is also slowing.