This is CBS, I on the World. I'm John Batchelor. I welcome Judy Dempsey, Senior Scholar, Carnegie

Endowment for International Peace. She's in Berlin. And we begin in Berlin with a financial story

given the trade wars underway, the tariff talk underway, the extreme unpredictability of all markets,

that would be the equity markets, that would be the debt markets, that would be on every continent.

We begin, Reuters, dateline these hours. German investor morale plunges to lowest levels since start of Ukraine war, filling out the

detail. The economic sentiment indicator fell to minus 14 points from 51.6 positive in March,

according to Economic Research Institute. Analysts pulled by Reuters had pointed to a reading of only 9.5. In other words,

plunge is barely adequate. Judy, a very good day to you. We don't ordinarily talk German

investor class because they're very shrewd and they've been making good decisions for a long time.

Is this a surprise to you that they're so gloomy? Good evening to you.

Good evening, John. And thank you for having me on your great show. I suppose the depth of the

gloom and the extent of the gloom is surprising on one level. But on the other hand, investor confidence

requires investment decisions being made in Germany, but also in other countries and, of course,

in the United States. And this gloom is just not because of continuing war in Ukraine, it's because of the complete unpredictability

of the Trump administration that is making investment decisions very, very difficult to take

because they don't know which way to turn. They don't know the level of tariffs. They don't know

if they will change tomorrow. They don't know which

is sectors to actually focus on. So the gloom, it could be contagious and there's no doubt

that Trump administration is actually perpetuating this uncertainty in bloom.

Yes. Now, there's a new government coming in and and we need to speak of Friedrich Merz immediately.

The coalition is now settled, I'm told, inferentially, and he will take his post as Chancellor, Mr. Merritt, in May.

That is a moment for a reassurance or change in the markets.

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