Author Archives: Hermann Observer
It’s Good To Be In A Crisis
Money is like water (or maybe like beer). It has to go somewhere. And 40 billion euros just made its way to Germany.
While fear has driven money away from Greece and Spain and co, making the government cost of repaying debt in these countries seem prohibitive, in Germany it has been quite different. Fear has boosted Germany coffers…
One thing is for sure, putting it in Greek bonds is risky. Spanish, Italian and Portuguese bonds don’t seem much safer either. But German bonds, in contrast, feel as safe as a safe house in a land with no crime. In fact so safe are German government bonds or bunds, perceived to be, that there have been times when the yields on some of them have been negative.
So actually, Germany has done rather well out of fear created by the euro crisis – or should that be the other way around – a euro crisis created by fear?
Warum hört eigentlich keiner mehr auf Amerika?
How come nobody listens to America anymore?
Good question. Beats the hell out of me.
“We have been very clear to the Assad regime — but also to other players on the ground — that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. “That would change my calculus; that would change my equation.”
“Ich habe bis jetzt kein militärisches Eingreifen angeordnet, aber für uns ist eine rote Linie überschritten, wenn eine ganze Menge chemischer Waffen bewegt oder eingesetzt wird.”
PS: And speaking of changing your equation, sometimes a man’s got to do what a man’s got to do.
Why Won’t Germany Finally Introduce Stricter Gun Control Legislation?
Oh, I forgot. They already have.
Three Dead After Shooting in Club House
This must be another anomaly or something.
Ein Mann schießt wild um sich, tötet und verletzt andere. Dann richtet er sich selbst. Die Frage nach dem Warum ist noch ungeklärt.
And We Don’t Trust That Dad Gum Internetz Neither
One in seven Germans shuns the Internet completely.
Those are actual Germans up there shunning the actual Internet with an actual laptop, I think.
Totally unrelated PS: Profiteering: Crisis Has Saved Germany 40 Billion Euros
We Don’t Trust That There NSA One Little Bit
But we’ll, uh, trust them this one time here, maybe.
Al Qaeda is plotting attacks on Europe’s high-speed rail network, German newspaper Bild reported on Monday, citing a leaked National Security Agency (NSA) report.
The NSA report is based on an intercepted conference call between top Al-Qaeda operatives, in which the terrorist attacks were reportedly a “central topic”.
Berlin has responded to the threat with discreet measures such as deploying plain-clothed police officers at key stations and on main routes, Bild reported.
Der Hinweis stamme vom US-Geheimdienst NSA.
German Of The Day: Bausünde
Bausünden are building sins. Or building blunders? Or architectural abberations? Whatever. Berlin knows how. It’s just what they do here.
Photographer Turit Fröbe has now published an illustrated book about some of the most awful abberations, which must have been pretty difficult to compile. I mean, there is just too much to chose from here.
I love them all, by the way. The more sinful the better.
“Gute Bausünden zu finden, ist viel schwerer, als man denkt.”
Meret O.
There Are No Jokes
Well, actually there are. But in this case I’m not so sure.
The satirical political party “Die Partei” gathered Thursday at Berlin’s Brandenburg Gate to debut its latest campaign demand: eradicating tourists from the German capital.
The protest is a play on a debate in recent years in Berlin on how mass tourism threatens to transform the Brandenburg Gate, an important historical site in the city, into a a cheap Disneyland-like attraction.
Ob Ost, ob West, nieder mit der Touri-Pest!
Strange German News Blackout Going On Right Now Sort Of
No one here seems particularly interested that a fifty-year-old man shot his wife and daughter in Essen yesterday. His daughter died. His wife might yet. Didn’t anybody ever bother to tell this creep that Germany has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world?
Nor is anyone all that concerned about the fact that the UPS cargo aircraft that crashed in Alabama yesterday was an Airbus A300 freighter (thanks, Murph). I’m not so sure that would be the case if the aircraft had been manufactured by Boeing.
There are just more imporant things out there to report about these days, I guess.
“It would be inappropriate for Airbus to enter into any form of speculation into the cause of the accident.”
PS: Catastrophic climate change 3,200 years ago? But where did they get all their CO2 from?
Observing Hermann 