Everything is rigged. Stock markets, forex, interest rates, gold, oil, aluminum…. After battling that rigged world all day, you finally get to take that first big gulp of beer to heal the wounds, knowing that it’s the one thing left in this wor…
The word dollar didn’t even come up when the Bundesbank signed the agreement with the People’s Bank of China. President Xi Jinping and Chancellor Angela Merkel looked on. It was serious business. Everyone knew what this was about. No one ha…
The intricate and convoluted connections between Germany and Russia can exude a peculiar aroma.
It took a while. But it had to come, the public warning shot – after some ferocious lobbying behind closed doors. No one in Germany is allowed to get in the way of the sacrosanct exporters. The German economy, to the chagrin of neighboring countr…
Danièle Nouy, chair of the ECB’s newfangled bank regulator that doesn’t exist yet, had a term for it: “do whatever has to be done” so that the banking sector “is seen as sound and safe and transparent.” Is see…
Not that 2013 was such a great year in Germany, economically speaking, with growth stalling at barely above the zero line. But it was a superb year for extracting taxes from hard-working people. And it shoved Germany deeper into two decades of retail q…
Since 2012, German economic growth has been back where it was when Germany was called the “Sick Man of Europe.” Only this time, Germany has been anointed the model economy for others to follow and admire.
Germany has its own JP Morgan, the bank that could do no wrong and got bailed out by the Fed and the taxpayer while CEO Jamie Dimon walked on water with a nimbus floating above his head, at least in the eyes of regulators and the government. Until someone had the gumption to peel away layers of obfuscation. What emanated was the acrid stench of internal putrefaction from the top down. After a series of legal battles, fines and settlements are piling up in the magnitude of tens of billions of dollars.
Apparently, it has been impossible to sell Greece any weapons at all, not even a water pistol, without bribing officials at the Defense Ministry. But it takes two to tango. And in holier-than-thou Germany, the defense industry has been all too eager to…
When Jens Weidmann, President of the emasculated Bundesbank, speaks, central bankers and money printers worldwide stuff wax into their ears. “Caution,” he started out, “the euro crisis is far from over.” Then he committed centra…