Tax evasion doesn’t pay

February 9, 2010 By in Heconomy Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Not unless you live in Germay maybe. Strange. Right in the middle of the latest craze around here these daze (a host of informants are selling stolen data about tax evaders to the German state), a court has ordered a Liechtenstein bank to pay over seven million Euros to a German tax evader “for not informing him on time” that his data had been stolen – thus opening him up to said informants, get it? I know, I don’t get it either, but things are complicated here.

“Had the claimant been informed of the theft in due time, he would have had the option of self-indictment and not have been obliged to pay a EUR7.3 million fine.”

Fair is fair, I guess, or all is fair in love and tax evasion. Or something else maybe. Damn, these Germans and their ill-gotten gains. And this rampant lawlessness seems to be getting out of hand everywhere these days. The next thing you know pensioners will start kidnapping their financial advisers…

The data was stolen and sold on to the German intelligence service by a former employee of former LGT unit LGT Treuhand AG.

Iran using tricks?

February 8, 2010 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hi-tech Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Really? Who would have thought that? After all these long years, I mean.

It must have been those tricky Avatar 3D glasses that finally tipped the Germans off.

Westerwelle told Deutschlandfunk radio that Iran would be judged by its actions and not by its words, and that only a serious return to negotiations would prevent further measures such as sanctions being imposed on the Islamic Republic.

A star is born

February 7, 2010 By in High Art, History Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Actually, it’ll end up being around forty or so later this year. Not terribly original, the idea, but still.

Who needs Hollywood, huh? Marlene Dietrich will be the very first US-Amerikanerin star ever to be immortalised on the streets of her home town on a brand new “Walk of Fame” which will be unveiled during the Berlin film festival this coming week.

Ten stars will be awarded a star each year during the festival festivities from here on out, all with a link to Hollywood, I mean German culture.

Like walk the talk already.

Self-intrest rates sure are high in Europe these days

February 4, 2010 By in Heconomy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Well they sure are here in Germany (see Greece).

“Germany’s heavy reliance on exports has already been controversial on the international stage, in a similar way to the Western world’s growing frustration with China over its dominance in cheap exports.”

“We can’t go back to the era where the Chinese or the Germans or other countries just are selling everything to us; we’re taking out a bunch of credit card debt or home equity loans, but we’re not selling anything to them,” Obama said.

“It’s all about how your body tolerates pain”

February 3, 2010 By in Health, High Art, Higher Education, History Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Anybody can run up the Empire State Building’s 1,576 stairs in roughly ten minutes and sixteen seconds.

But not many would be willing to do it twice. And like five times in a row?

Damn. That takes devotion. Or profound mental instability. Or maybe a little bit of both. But like they say, somebody’s got to do it – whoever they are.

At 10:30 a.m., a loud fog horn sounded to launch a mad dash from the lobby – where Dold grabbed an early lead and never looked down.

Privacy?

February 2, 2010 By in Heconomy Tags: , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Ever see Father Knows Best? Well over here it’s the state that always knows best, especially when it comes to dealing in stolen goods.

If Big Bruder wants to buy stolen secret Swiss bank account data on 1,500 alleged tax evaders from an informant, that’s OK here (Germans have always had a Herz für Informanten – a warm spot in their hearts for informers), but with Google, let’s say, by virtue of its very success here in Germany – having reached a substantially larger market share here over its rival search engines than it has elsewhere – this very success places it under immediate suspicion. Informants aren’t even necessary. Privacy is automatically in danger.

And then Big Bruder’s lawmakers, regulators and consumer advocates will invariably come in to “fix it” (fix what isn’t broken), all in the name of privacy of course.

With Google, nobody’s dealing in stolen goods – or are they? No, that’s eBay. But in both cases, whether it’s about Swiss bank accounts or Google’s success, one always has to play it safe here. It’s always guilty until proven innocent. Father knows best.

Google’s border-straddling scale and its brash ambitions raise alarms with some European politicians.

“I’m no scapegoat”

February 1, 2010 By in Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

I’m more like a Yeti, or abominable snowman, if you prefer.

“I don’t believe that the IPCC’s credibility can be damaged. If the IPCC didn’t exist, then why should anyone get worried about climate change?”

Ich glaube, die Glaubwürdigkeit des IPCC kann nicht beschädigt werden. Wenn es den IPCC nicht gäbe, warum sollte sich dann jemand Sorgen über den Klimawandel machen?

Ice not disappearing here up north either

January 31, 2010 By in Hard Facts Tags: , , , , , , , , 5 Comments

Forget about the Himalayas. Global warming is still a big problem in Germany these days too. Or the lack of it, I should say (Rostock got creamed yesterday).

Everyone is still waiting to hear when the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is going to give an Entwarnung (all-clear signal) here too, I guess.

“The United Nations’ expert panel on climate change based claims about ice disappearing from the world’s mountain tops on a student’s dissertation and an article in a mountaineering magazine.”

The revelation will cause fresh embarrassment for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which had to issue a humiliating apology earlier this month over inaccurate statements about global warming.