Does that stand for German Doldrums Party or something? Sorry, I’m still in my election time mode.
I’ve heard of the SPD and the FDP and even the KPD. But who are these guys and why are they starting to make the economy suck again? Is it time to call a rating agency yet?
“It is a regime shift. The period of exuberant growth is now behind us.”
Here in Berlin, almost. And I tell you what. If I could vote here, I might just look into these guys. Their arguments are, I dunno, compelling or something.
Remember when kids used to play cowboys and indians (not aliens)? Now everyone has “grown up” and all they want to do is play victims and perpetrators.
Damn. Where is Dave Chapelle when you need him? This Slutwalk event thingy (here in Berlin, too) brought one of his jokes to mind, you see.
You know, the one where he talks about women who dress like whores, women who wear “whore uniforms.” He hits on one in a bar and she tells him indignantly “Wait a minute! Just because I’m dressed this way does not make me a whore!” True, he admits. But ladies, he says, you must understand that this is confusing. That would be like him, Dave Chapelle the comedian, walking around the streets in a cop uniform. Someone might run up to him and say “Help us, officer!” and he would reply “Wait a minute! Just because I’m dressed this way does not make me a police officer!”
Confusing? Yup. And it could be, it just could maybe might be, that the women who take part on the Slutwalk are slightly confused about this themselves (this is the cue to accuse me of supporting rape and rapists, ladies).
“Theoretisch muss es möglich sein, dass eine Frau nachts halbnackt durch einen Park läuft und unbelästigt bleibt.“
Timing is everything. Today is of course the 50th anniversary of the building of the Berlin Wall, not that anybody actually feels like celebrating or anything.
So what does Left party leader Gesine Lötzsch do? What she always does. When not lecturing about “Paths to Communism” in the Junge Welt (communist, sorry marxist) newspaper, she likes to make other provocative pronouncements to keep her constituents happy. The most recent zinger: The building of the Berlin Wall was a logical consequence of World War II. In other words, it wasn’t us communists who did it (you know, good old German denial), it was those other guys. Not that she is a communist or anything, of course. She isn’t and never was and never will be and will tell you this time and time again until she is red, I mean blue in the face.
Times sure have changed in fifty years, haven’t they? Not for everybody, though. I’m sure there are still some folks out there who still believe the world is flat, too. Whatever. It’s amazing really, and funny, sort of, and I guess everyone has gotten pretty used to her comments by now so let the festivities begin or something.
Speaking of comments, the best comment I read about her was from the guy who said that when you listen to Frau Lötzsch you get the sneaking suspicion that she is that last government spokesman of the GDR.
“Frau Lötzsch wirkt wie die letzte Regierungssprecherin der DDR.”
PS: Just in case anybody was wondering, the Left party governs as part of the city government right here in Berlin this very day.
Or maybe not, hard to say for sure.
But according to billionaire investor and currency-crushing “Man Who Broke the Bank of England” and therefore absolute expert on the subject George Soros (HIMSELF), “Only Germany can reverse the dynamic of a European decay. Germany and other countries with an AAA rating (sorry USA, better luck next time) have to approve some sort of euro-bond regime. Otherwise, the euro will implode.” And nobody wants an implosion around here or anything, I don’t think.
Soros also thinks that German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s reaction to the sovereign-debt crisis has been too slow. Like duh? Even non-billionaire types know that. But hey, it’s just like back home I tell ya, somebody’s got to not do it (got not to do it?).
Die aktuelle Krisenstrategie mit Krediten für Griechenland und einem von verschiedenen Ländern garantierten Rettungsschirm (EFSF) sei untragbar, schrieb Soros. So müssten Italien und Spanien mehr Zinsen für ihre Staatsanleihen zahlen, als sie selber von Griechenland für Stützungskredite erhalten.
And less kissing. I like these guys, honest. There is too much kissing going on these days.
But I don’t think people should even shake hands anymore, or look sideways at each other for that matter, so don’t listen to me.
“The suspicion for many remains that there is, or may be, an erotic component to the kissing.”
No, I mean in Europe.
Gee, this sounds just like back home. The president of the Federal Association of German Banks has strongly criticized European leaders in general and German leaders in particular for their lack of leadership in all things debt crisis.
They just let things drift along and then get driven themselves, he says. Like I said, just like back home.
“If the euro really does end up in trouble then it won’t be because of Greece, the EU’s weakest member. The monetary union will then fail because Germany, its strongest member, won’t fulfill its leadership role and says what needs to be done.”
“Wenn der Euro tatsächlich Probleme bekäme, dann nicht wegen Griechenland, dem schwächsten Mitglied. Die Währungsunion würde dann scheitern, wenn Deutschland als stärkstes Mitglied seiner Führungsrolle nicht gerecht wird und sagt, wo es lang geht.”
PS: Speaking of leadership, or the lack of it, the yes we cans seem to be dropping like flies these days.
German utility RWE AG (RWE.XE) Tuesday said it swung to a net loss in the second quarter of 2011, driven mainly by additional costs related to Germany’s decision to exit nuclear energy by 2022 and a tax on nuclear fuel.
The early closure of reactors also resulted in an earnings shortfall, because RWE sold forward the electricity that should have been produced in its two shuttered reactors. To meet its supply obligations the company now has to produce that electricity in more expensive plants or buy power on the market, both of which hurts generation margins.
Wow. Even the Brave New Non-Nuclear World (in Germany) demands its tribute.
10,000 jobs at Germany’s energy giant Eon will have to go, for instance. But these folks will gladly take on this burden because its what “the people” want. Unfortunately, only about one third of those gladly taking on the burden will be German employees, but you can bet that there will be further opportunites for them to excel in the very near brave new future.
Das sind mehr als zehn Prozent der gesamten Belegschaft. Damit würde der Sparkurs des Konzerns viel härter ausfallen als bisher bekannt.
When it comes to the German economy and the jobs here, right?
Right. Sort of. Think again. Granted, Germans love nothing better than to bitch and moan about anything and everything they can, their jobs included, but the latest phase of a study done by the Universität Duisburg-Essen has shown that based on a scale from 1 (awful) to 10 (great) German on-the-job satisfaction has dropped from 7.6 to 6.8 during the past 25 years.
In an international comparison, German is even way down at the bottom of the list, the only workers being less satisfied coming from ex-East Block nations like Slowakia, Ukraine, Bulgaria and Russia. But at least now the West Germans are just as miserable as the East Germans are, the study says. So that’s progress, I guess.
Hmmm. I guess nothing ever is as it seems.
Im internationalen Vergleich rangiert Deutschland in der Studie weit hinten auf Rang 18 – nur in den ehemaligen Ostblock-Staaten Slowakei, Ukraine, Bulgarien und Russland seien die Arbeitnehmer demnach noch unzufriedener.
Observing Hermann 