Author Archives: Hermann Observer

Give us your Festplatte

May 18, 2010 By in Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Boy oh boy. Does Germany’s ever have big Google by the little googles now.

Caught accidently (Google says) collecting private data while collecting WLAN data for their Street View photo archive (the first Google mess-up vis-a-vis Germany, as far as I’m concerned – other than offering Google here in the first place, I mean), Hamburg’s data protection supervisor dude has demanded that Google hand over their hard drive for inspection, or else.

Good thing for Google he doesn’t know that they actually have more than one.
 
Google apologized for collecting what it described as fragments of information from unsecured WLANs, saying its actions were inadvertent and the result of a programming error.

Our debt doesn’t stink

May 17, 2010 By in Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Chart this. Bloomberg’s Chart of the Day (click on the graphic part) doesn’t put German households in a very good light – when compared to Greek ones.

The Greeks may kick butt when it comes to having the highest level of government debt as a percentage of gross domestic product, but its household debt is considerably less than that of Germany’s.

Thank goodness information like this gets published around here every once in a while is all I can say. I’m sure this’ll calm tempers back down again.

“Germany cannot become Europe’s paymaster.”

Bad comparison

May 14, 2010 By in Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Or should I say, eeevil? In the wake of loud criticism to Arizona’s SB 1070 immigration law, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has denounced comparisons of the 48th state to Nazi Germany.

Nazi Germany was actually much worse, they say.

Glad we got that one straightened up quick. Nevada could have been next. Although, come to think of it…

“When people are asked to show their papers, it brings back memories of Nazi Germany,” she said.

Standards schmandards

May 12, 2010 By in Heconomy, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

For all the talk about the profligacy of the Southern European nations, Germany itself falls short of euro area standards, calling for budget deficits of less than 3% and government debt below 60% of gross domestic product. The latest figures from Germany are 3.3% and 73%, according to Eurostat.

“If Germany weren’t in the euro area today, it wouldn’t be able to get in, because it violates both the debt and the deficit criteria,” Buiter said.

This really is alarming

May 11, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Word is out that every fourth baby born in Germany is born of foreign parents. You know what that means, don’t you?

Three quarters of the babies born here have German parents! Holy Scheiße, this has got to stop.

Von den rund 683.000 Neugeborenen des Jahres 2008 hatten rund 159.000 oder 23 Prozent zumindest eine Mutter oder einen Vater ohne deutschen Pass.

Zentral Park it ain’t

May 10, 2010 By in History Tags: , , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Although it’s about the same size. Tempelhof was a pretty cool airport though.

 But the bulldozers aren’t finished with Tempelhof just yet. Starting in 2013, the new park will undergo a four-year, 60-million-euro ($48 million) facelift to become the home of the 2017 International Garden Exhibition. By then, it should look a lot more like its storied New York counterpart.

“Change has come to Germany!”

May 9, 2010 By in Heconomy Tags: , , , , , , , 2 Comments

Or maybe it hasn’t. Let’s see.

If Angie Merkel’s CDU loses today’s big regional election in big North North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) big time, it would mean an end to her coalition’s majority in the upper house of parliament, the Bundesrat.

This would threaten long-promised tax cuts and health system reforms. And you know how it is; a long-promised promise is a long-promised promise.

And that would be the “change has come to Germany” part, see? It wouldn’t really change much of anything, in other words.

With the economic crisis dominating the campaign, Mrs Merkel tried to delay a decision on the hugely unpopular rescue package for Greece until after the poll, but failed. Meanwhile, local councils are sinking into debt. Kindergarten fees have gone up, libraries and swimming-pools are closing.