Po’ Folks

November 16, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Budgets, Courts, Germany, Government, Political Parties, Spending, Waste Leave a comment

That face you make when you can’t spend as much of other people’s money as you’d planned.

German court deals 60 billion euro budget blow to Scholz government – The German government froze major spending pledges focused on green initiatives and industry support on Wednesday after a constitutional court ruling on unused pandemic emergency funds blew a 60 billion euro ($65 billion) hole in its finances.

The decision threw into disarray budget negotiations taking place this week within Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-way ruling coalition, whose popularity has slumped as Europe’s biggest economy teeters close to another recession.

What, me worry?

September 7, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Abuse, Employment, Germans, Germany, Government, Spending, Waste, Welfare, Work Leave a comment

About work? I live in Germany.

I’ll just live off the state (i.e., taxpayers). Everybody’s doing it!

Germans question value of working after new welfare increases, survey shows – More than half of Germans believe work is not worthwhile after the government’s planned increase in welfare payments and child benefits, a survey showed on Tuesday.

The government said it was raising benefits, first introduced in 2005, to fight child poverty and help citizens cope with inflation, but added it did not want to deter people from work altogether.

Welfare payments, dubbed “citizens’ money”, for more than 5.5 million jobless in Germany will rise to 563 euros ($605.06)from 502 euros per month for single people from next year.

PS: What you may not be aware of is that those who receive welfare payments in Germany also get their rent, healthcare and other entitlements paid for in addition.

But we’re just trying to make Germany greener!

July 27, 2023 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hypocrisy Tags: Environment, Germany, Greens, Landfills, Litigation, Poland, Trash, Waste Leave a comment

By dumping our trash in Polish landfills.

It’s kind of like how we got rid of nuclear energy here. We shut down all our nuclear power plants and then import nuclear power generated in France. If only the rest of the world would follow our example… But they can’t. For some reason. The hell if we know why.

Poland threatens to sue Germany over dumped waste – The Polish government says it may be forced to take Germany to court over waste, some of it toxic, being transported and stored in unauthorized landfills.

More Funds

September 23, 2022 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: Debt, Deficits, Dependency, Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Government Waste, Greens, Spending, Waste Leave a comment

Are always more fun!

Give me a break, people. Look, I’m burning this money as fast as I can!

German minister call for more funds for companies as debt debate intensifies – The German economy minister (Greens) on Thursday called for more government funds to support companies as a debate intensifies on whether Berlin should suspend its debt brake next year.

On October 31, 2020, BER Will Open

October 1, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings Tags: Airports, BER, Berlin, Corruption, German, Germans, Germany, Government Waste, Projects, Social Democracy, SPD, Waste Leave a comment

But don’t tell anyone, OK? It’s too embarrassing.

Berlin’s new international airport can open next month after an embarrassing nine-year delay despite the coronavirus pandemic taking a big bite out of air travel, its chief manager said Tuesday…

BER was set to open in 2011 but the date was repeatedly pushed back over a series of issues, including fire safety and corruption.

In the meantime, the cost of the facility exploded to 6.5 billon euros ($7.6 billion) from a 1.7-billion-euro budget initially.

“There won’t be a big party, just an opening.”

$1.5 Trillion?

June 11, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hysteria Tags: Consumers, Corona, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Debt, Government spending, Government Waste, Lobbies, Stimulus, Taxation, Taxpayers, Waste Leave a comment

There must be a better word than “stimulus” for that.

Wherever medication is given in huge and sudden doses, there’s a risk of unpleasant side effects. In Germany, and Europe generally, one of these may be a lasting shift in governing philosophy from market-friendly policies to state interventionism. That needn’t end in central planning. But even going part of the way would mean buying relief today at the price of misery tomorrow…

First, governments tend to confuse a company’s size with strength. Second, they’re usually worse than private investors at spotting winners, and always worse at pulling money out of losers. Third, they turn the economy into a big lobbying competition for businesses, which eventually hurts taxpayers and consumers.

Germany To Subsidize Tesla

June 4, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Automobile Industry, BMW, Daimer, Electric Cars, German, Germans, Germany, Government Subsidies, Government Waste, Subsidies, Tesla, VW, Waste Leave a comment

In a bold move to help the ailing German automobile industry, the German government will be spending billions of euros on subsidies for electric cars most likely manufactured by the American electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc. (Germans don’t do electric cars).

Germany raised the incentives to buy electric cars and cut the sales tax on more fuel-efficient internal combustion engines (ICE), but increased taxes on gas guzzling SUVs and sports cars which will hit the profits of the big auto makers.

„Wumms“ für Tesla und Nel. Geldregen für Wasserstoff und E-Auto – Daimler und Co stehen im Regen.

Austria Doing Germany’s Job Again

May 24, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Austria, Budgets, Corona, Debt, EU, Eurozone, France, Germany, Kurz, Macron, Merkel, Rescue Funds, Spending, Waste Leave a comment

Frugality? Refusing to pay other countries’ debts? That was “old Germany.”

Now the Germans need a country like Austria to take care of the problem for them – just like the Austrians took care of Merkel’s migrant madness by closing their borders way back when.

‘Frugal four’ nations counter Franco-German EU initiative – Four EU countries have teamed up, rejecting Macron and Merkel’s persistent lobbying for a €500 billion rescue fund. Instead, they have their own scheme on how to save Europe from economic fallout amid the pandemic…

The four countries also indicated that they will neither agree to a mutualization of debt nor an increase in the EU budget. Their draft proposal was seen by the German Press Agency (DPA) on Saturday.

“Our objective is to provide temporary, dedicated funding through the EU budgetû and to offer favorable loans to those who have been most severely affected by the crisis.”

I Got Your Quantitative Easing For You Right Here, Pal

May 5, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Horror, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Bonds, Bundesbank, Central Banks, Courts, Dept, ECB, EU, Euro, European Union, Eurozone, German, Germans, Germany, Law, Quantitative Easing, Rule of Law, Rulings, Spending, Waste Leave a comment

Imagine that. A nation state (member state) ought to have a say in how its money is spent. What a radical new concept.

Germany’s top court has ruled that the European Central Bank’s mass bond-buying to stabilise the eurozone partly violates the German constitution.

The ruling relates to government debt worth €2.1 trillion (£2tn; $2.3tn) bought by the ECB since 2015, but not purchases in the coronavirus crisis.

The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe says there is not enough German political oversight in the purchases…

The plaintiffs are a group of German academics, including a former leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), Bernd Lucke. They argue that the purchases violate the EU ban on one eurozone member subsidising the debts of another.

It is now up to the ECB to explain how its mass bond-buying programme is “proportionate”. The Bundesbank could pull out if it is not satisfied, in three months’ time – which would be a big blow to the eurozone.

Easy Money

April 19, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hustle (Hoax), Hysteria Tags: Corona, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Crime, Cyber Crime, Cyber Criminals, Cybercrime, Cybercriminals, German, Germans, Germany, Government Programs, Government Waste, Phishing, Scams, Waste Leave a comment

A government program that’s easy to scam? Wow. That’s never happened before.

It’s not the government’s money in the end anyway so who cares, right? Money for nothing and the click’s for free.

The government of North Rhine-Westphalia, a province in western Germany, is believed to have lost tens of millions of euros after it failed to build a secure website for distributing coronavirus emergency aid funding.

The funds were lost following a classic phishing operation.

Cybercriminals created copies of an official website that the NRW Ministry of Economic Affairs had set up to distribute COVID-19 financial aid.

Crooks distributed links to their sites using email campaigns, lured users on the sites, and collected details from locals. They then filed requests for government aid on behalf of the real users but they replaced the bank account where funds were to be wired.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Waste