The Regulator Failed?

July 6, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: BaFin, Bureaucracy, Bureaucrats, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Government spending, Government Waste, Regulation, Regulators, Wirecard Leave a comment

Well, then let’s give the regulator more money and personnel.

To ensure that they keep on failing in the future? Government in action, folks. If it’s not too big to fail it’s too much of a failure to fail, I guess.

Germany to overhaul regulator after Wirecard scandal – Germany’s finance minister wants to beef up the nation’s financial regulator in the wake of the Wirecard scandal. The finance watchdog admitted its ineffectiveness in preventing the auditing disaster.

“If we come to the conclusion that BaFin needs more money, more jobs and more competency, I will make every effort to ensure that this happens.”

Just Say No

July 5, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Coal, Coal-Fired Power Plants, Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Government Waste, Industry, Nuclear energy, Renewable energy, Solar energy, Taxation, Wind Energy Leave a comment

No, not no to drugs. Just say no to energy. Electricity was yesterday.

No nuclear energy, no coal energy. Not much sun either for solar energy. There’s lots of wind in Germany, though. Hot air mostly but still.

Germany is first major economy to phase out coal and nuclear – German lawmakers have finalized the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say isn’t ambitious enough and free marketeers criticize as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Bills approved by both houses of parliament Friday envision shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 and spending some 40 billion euros ($45 billion) to help affected regions cope with the transition.

The plan is part of Germany’s ‘energy transition’ – an effort to wean Europe’s biggest economy off planet-warming fossil fuels and generate all of the country’s considerable energy needs from renewable sources. Achieving that goal is made harder than in comparable countries such as France and Britain because of Germany’s existing commitment to also phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022.

You’ll Be Pleading A Long Time, Joshua

July 3, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: China, Communism, Democracy, German, Germans, Germany, Hong Kong, Joshua Wong, Profit, Protests Leave a comment

And then all you’ll get will be some pious platitudes.

China can do no wrong in German eyes – with all those dollar/euro signs in there.

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads for Germany’s support – Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has called on Germany to intervene over a controversial new security law imposed by China. Police arrested hundreds after the law went into effect earlier this week.

“I ask the German government: Look at what is happening in Hong Kong and call it by its name.”

That Would Be A Great Step Forward

June 29, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Humility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Defense, Donald Trump, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, NATO, Nord Stream 2, Russia, Tariffs, Trade-War, Troops, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment

America’s relationship with Germany may never be the same again, Berlin warns.

Defense spending, a brewing trade war between the U.S. and Europe and the threat of U.S. tariffs on German car exports are all bones of contention, as well as the mega gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 (a German-Russian project) and, most recently, the Group of Seven (G-7) alliance and the U.S.’ decision to withdraw troops from Germany.

The Germans don’t want to cooperate, not in any of these areas and they’re playing the victim by putting all the blame on Dr. Evil. It’s a pretty easy tactic to see through and its been quite successful up until now. They got themselves into this mess, however. Germans always want an Extrawurst (an extra sausage, something for nothing). Trump sees this and is pointing the finger in the right direction. The Germans know that he sees this and they don’t like having been caught.

“We’re protecting Germany and they’re delinquent. That doesn’t make sense.”

Isn’t It The Other Way Around?

June 28, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Angela Merkel, Dominance, EU, Europe, Eurozone, German, Germans, Germany, Hegemony, Power, Ursula von der Leyen Leave a comment

Isn’t Europe doomed to be led by Germany?

Germany is doomed to lead Europe – The EU’s biggest member is in charge, whether Germans like it or not.

Walk into any meeting in Brussels and, most likely, a German will be leading it. In the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the former German defence minister, is in charge. For the next six months, German ministers will be cajoling their peers into signing off legislation as the country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency. In the European Council, where the bloc’s leaders butt heads, it might technically be Charles Michel, the former prime minister of Belgium, heading it. But it is Angela Merkel—longer in post than the leaders of France, Spain, Italy and Poland combined—who is the undisputed top dog. The EU’s main response to the covid-19 crisis—a flagship €750bn recovery fund paid for with debt issued collectively by the EU—is based on a plan cooked up in Berlin and Paris. The Germans are running the show.

How did Henry Kissinger put it? “Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world.”

PS: German oddity 5. Young adults in Germany have never known another chancellor other than Angela Merkel. She has been in office since 2005.

German Of The Day: Dax-Zombie

June 25, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Horror, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Blue Chips, Corruption, Crime, Criminals, DAX, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Stock Market, Stocks, Wirecard Leave a comment

That means DAX zombie.

For the first time, a DAX company, Wirecard, has gone broke but won’t be kicked out of the index until September.

Wirecard has filed for insolvency, just days after a $2 billion accounting scandal at the company burst into the open, crashing its stock and leading to the arrest of its former chief executive.

The digital payments company said in a statement Thursday it had opened legal proceedings in Munich “due to impending insolvency and over-indebtedness.” Share

Mit Wirecard ist zum ersten Mal ein Dax-Konzern pleite gegangen. Aus dem Leitindex fliegen dürfte der Konzern aber erst im September.

How To Avoid Getting Scolded By A German?

June 24, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Books, Culture, eBooks, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Oddities, Scolding, Travel Leave a comment

That’s easy. Practice very aggressive social distancing. You know. Like, move to France?

Have you ever walked on the bicycle lane? Put a refundable bottle into a regular bin? Asked a bus driver how much the ride costs? In Germany, these beginners’ mistakes might earn you a good scold. Here’s how to avoid it…

“The point is not whether they are right or not, it’s that anyone here thinks they’re allowed to educate you.”

German Oddity 177. Germany is what you might call a correcting culture. It is not uncommon for perfect strangers to publically reprimand you here if you do not abide by what is considered the societal norm. Newcomers are usually shocked when discovering that others have no qualms about telling you that you’re doing something wrong, as if you were a small child. If they don’t tell you outright there will at least be a display of disapproving headshaking.

Where On Earth Did I Put That €1.9 Billion?

June 22, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Business, Corruption, Crime, Dishonesty, German, Germans, Germany, Industry, Wirecard Leave a comment

I didn’t leave it in my other wallet now, did I?

Remember when Germany used to have that squeaky-clean image? Yeah. Me neither. Now Wirecard has stepped up to the plate.

German payments firm Wirecard says missing €1.9bn may not exist – Company thought money was in two Asian banks but search hits dead end in Philippines.

“The management board of Wirecard assesses on the basis of further examination that there is a prevailing likelihood that the bank trust account balances in the amount of €1.9bn do not exist.”

Everybody’s Doing It These Days

June 21, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hate, Helplessness, Hideology, Hostility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Antifa, BLM, German, Germans, Germany, Leftists, Looting, Riots, Rule of Law, Stuttgart Leave a comment

Another import from evil US-Amerika that one absolutely, positively has to have?

Germany: Riots and looting grip Stuttgart – The southwestern German city has seen a night of rioting and looting, with several police officers injured as hundreds of people took to the city center. “The situation is completely out of control,” the police said.

The media is still pretending not to know who is behind it although everybody in their right minds who aren’t on the left already know.

„Teile der linken Szene überschreiten hier gerade Linien, was wir für Stuttgart bisher so nicht gekannt haben.”

This Is The Real Problem

June 19, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Armies, Bundeswehr, Defense, Defense Spending, Donald Trump, EU, Eurozone, German, Germans, Germany, Military, NATO, Spending, Troops, Ursula von der Leyen Leave a comment

Not Donald Trump withdrawing American troops.

The Germans want a free ride and they’re offended at having finally been caught.

The Sorry State of Germany’s Armed Forces – Trump’s calls to withdraw U.S. troops from the country are impulsive, but Germany isn’t blameless.

The German armed forces are in a sorry state, and that’s not because Germany, more important to NATO’s efficacy as a collective defense pact than any other European member state, lacks the means to fix this problem. It does not.

Germany’s gross domestic product, valued at $4 trillion, ranks fourth in the world and first in Europe. The country is also Europe’s technological powerhouse. Indeed, in 2018, the World Economic Forum hailed it as the world’s leader in technological innovation.

And yet the German military remains riddled with problems. A damning 2019 report (available in an English-language summary) issued by the Bundestag’s then commissioner for the armed forces, Hans-Peter Bartels, summed up the problem.

PS: Please note here that the woman who ran the Bundeswehr for years and years and proved to be unable to fix it is now the woman EU technocrats (voters weren’t asked) have chosen to fix Europe.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Habitudes