Uh oh. This could be one of the worst WikiLeaks yet.
It might even force Germans to reevaluate their claims that the only reason the United States went to Iraq was for the oil.
Nah.
“Contrary to what many people believe, the Iraq war provided few advantages for the US oil industry. The diplomatic cables show that, in most cases, it was competitors to the Americans who often did better in the country.”
And the signal is: We think it’ll be safe enough for us now to start making money down there again.
German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle made a surprise visit to Baghdad on Saturday, calling for more economic engagement in that country (he means of the German kind), which really isn’t much of a surpise, if you ask me.
In particular, a bilateral deal on the protection of investments is expected to be signed with Industry Minister Fawzi Hariri, with the new accord helping improve “economic and legal conditions for German companies” working in Iraq.
There’s money here for everybody. Remember the financial crisis? Long, long ago (in Germany)?
It seems that the Federal Reserve’s emergency loan programs really helped out a lot after all–German banks, that is. Hey, what’s a few trillion among friends?
Deutsche Banken haben das Förderprogramm der US-Notenbank inmitten der Finanzkrise kräftig genutzt.
In an embarrassing embarrassment following Wikileaks’ leak of leaked US despatches, US diplomats in Germany have been caught making the very same derisive remarks about leading German politicians that Germany’s critical media makes.
Among other shocking revelations, it was revealed that US officials see Angela Merkel as being someone who “avoids risk,” Guido Westerwelle as being “arrogant” and Wolfgang Schäuble as being “an angry old man.”
“This is all just too embarassing to even describe,” said one anonymous high-level American diplomat wearing a brown paper bag over his head. “The leaking the leak part was bad enough, but to be caught red-handed like this expressing the very same views about German leaders that Germans themselves hold of them is just like, I dunno, I’m just so ashamed. And not worthy. But that’s not an official statement or anything. And turn that camera and mike off already, will ya?”
At least when it comes to Germany’s interest in benefitting from currency troubles, I mean. Hey Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Italy… Stay hard-up or shut-up.
”The key principle of German economic policy was to persuade the French and Italians to lower the value of the D-mark so as to make Germany more competitive.”
“The Berlin government’s intransigence over the debt issue, while politically understandable from a German point of view, seemingly pays little heed to the realities of the euro economy, which are heavily tilted towards Germany.”
“In pre-EMU days, if the German economy were growing at an estimated 3.7% as it is this year, the German currency and interest rates would both come under upward pressure – damping exporters’ performance and the growth outlook. Now, however, with all EMU economies shackled together, and devaluation an impossibility for the peripheral countries, the hard-up states have nowhere to hide. Germany continues to profit from excellent export performance — and it can self-righteously point the finger of blame for the euro area’s woes at those debt-ridden peripheral states.”
This is a very complex article, I grant you, a lot like that other one I mentioned recently, but with a little bit of effort I think I can somehow manage to summarize it for you thus (and I quote, more or less):
American society is breaking apart.
Everything is spiraling further and further into the abyss.
The American people are going through a Kafkaesque odyssey, the humiliation of which is hard to comprehend.
Help is not in sight, our government and our society have abandoned us.
Wall Street is preoccupied with chasing new profits again.
That old myth about working your way up, of bootstrap success and its ultimate prize, homeownership, has evaporated.
The middle class, America’s backbone, is crumbling.
The American Dream has turned into a nightmare.
Nothing’s going to happen because the political swing to the right is extremely hurtful and absolutely disastrous to the interest of the weakest.
Becoming unemployed is a devious trap. And on and on and tra, la, la until the amen part.
Like, you had no idea, did you? My fellow Americans, I mean. So there you have it. Yet again. And no, the O Word didn’t appear in this article either.
Guess who wins (these days, I mean)? Duh. But it’s only a paritial victory, as Germany tries to spin it (they don’t want to gloat all too much publically).
After China and Germany teamed up and publicly slammed the Federal Reserve’s decision to buy $600 billion in Treasury bonds last week, now they’re shoulder to shoulder at the G20 successfully resisting this EVIL infusion of cash (= dollar devaluation) together too. They are doing this because, well, only China is allowed to devaluate its currency, I guess. And a weak dollar also means a strong euro which would hurt German exports and, well, this isn’t allowed to happen either.
Strange bedfellows aren’t they? Sure. What can/will President Obama do about it? Not much, it seems. But at least everybody over there still really, really likes him. And that’s the main thing.
It’s a mystery, isn’t it? How we got here, I mean? Well, no. I guess it isn’t. But why this happened as it did is all too, uh, deep for me. It’s kind of like this current German hole within a hole conundrum going on.
I mean, don’t like two holes make a non-hole?
“Obama muss klein beigeben”
The charming landscape, the panoramic views, the armaments industries booming everywhere…
Of course none of these companies (or the communities that live off them) use terms like that if they can avoid it. They prefer calling them “security engineering” or “defense technology” businesses instead, for some strange reason. Maybe because like everwhere else in Germany, they’re all pacifists down here too? Interesting article.
“Genuine pacifists are hard to find around Lake Constance. Most have turned more pragmatic long ago–or maybe their name is Nena. The pop singer performed here last year at MTU’s 100th year anniversary company celebration. And she sang her peace song 99 Luftballons too, of course, and 14,000 guests sang along with her. Before Nena arrived, the celebration’s main attraction had been a Leopard II tank.”
“Laut dem schwedischen Friedensforschungsinstitut Sipri liegt die Bundesrepublik auf Rang drei hinter den USA und Russland–und das, obwohl die deutschen Exportkontrollen zu den strengsten der Welt zählen.”
The terror danger in Germany, I mean? It was a few weeks ago, and warnings about it where dismissed as being “alarmist.”
Now a suspicious package turned up at German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s office, just a few hours after small mail bombs exploded outside the Russian and Swiss embassies in Athens. Honestly, isn’t it alarming how all packages are turning out to be suspicious these days?
Of course we do have to remember that these particular attacks are being blamed on far-left extremists and are therefore, technically speaking, not really terror attacks at all. Not here anyway.
“No link has been made with the recently discovered Yemen-based mail bomb plot, which used much more powerful devices.”
Germany in danger too? How ya figure?
Wasn’t this the same German Interior Minister who claimed that warnings about possible Al Qaeda terrorist attacks in Germany were “alarmist” just a few weeks back?
Now he’s all alarmed himself and has cancelled a planned trip to Israel in order to address the alarming news that the package bombs from Yemen destined for New York were transferred in Cologne and nobody like, uh, was alarmed. Or even noticed.
I guess the main reason they’re all pissed off about not having known that they were dealing with bombs bound for the United States is that they couldn’t take the proper precautionary measures. Before going ahead and transfering them to flights bound for the United States, I mean. Ordnung muss sein (order is necessary).
„Wir nehmen den Vorgang ernst, auch wenn Deutschland wohl nicht Anschlagsziel war.“
Observing Hermann 