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September 29 2011
Wikipedia -- World War I reparations
'The economic problems that the payments brought, and German resentment at their imposition are usually cited as one of the more significant factors that led to the end of the Weimar Republic and the beginning of the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler. -- #Current status: After Germany’s defeat in World War II, payment of the reparations was not resumed. There was, however, outstanding German debt that the Weimar Republic had used to pay the reparations. An international conference decided (Agreement on German External Debts, 1953) that Germany would pay some parts of the remaining debt only after the country was reunified, at that time an event thought very unlikely to happen. West Germany paid off the remainder by 1980. According to the agreement, the debt would be serviced for 20 years, leading to the last payments being due on 3 October 2010, the 20th anniversary of German reunification. About 10% of this debt, about 20 million euro, has not been claimed yet.' -- Debt repayment is a sin!
YouTube -- RussiaToday: Cash Sweet Poison: 'Greece victim of Europe cheap money' -
'Dr Markus Kerber, says that German taxpayers are fed up with being Europe's cash cow.' -- "There's a growing split between the German public and the political elite. Never ever before the split has been greater than today. The political elite is still united to support the Chancellor's policy of continuous bailout and the German public is more united than ever to oppose it. And sooner or later the European project is going to lose the popular support it has always had in Germany until now. So, we are really at a crossroad."
'Dr Markus Kerber, says that German taxpayers are fed up with being Europe's cash cow.' -- "There's a growing split between the German public and the political elite. Never ever before the split has been greater than today. The political elite is still united to support the Chancellor's policy of continuous bailout and the German public is more united than ever to oppose it. And sooner or later the European project is going to lose the popular support it has always had in Germany until now. So, we are really at a crossroad."
May 06 2010
The Daily Bell -- Merkel Gains Greece but Loses Germany?
'The EU has provided Germany with advantages thus far. It has stabilized the currencies of Southern Europe and made them more dependable purchasers of German goods. But now the bill is coming due. These client states are coming undone and the money that Germany made from them seems about to vanish out the back door. The customer has gone broke. If Germany wants to retain its consumer base, then Germany will actually have to provide funding—at least if Germany stays in the EU. Does this make sense? We have long maintained that the fractious tribes of Europe would tolerate the EU for just as long as there was something in it for them. Sure, there will be social insurrection amongst the PIGS, but there may well be a good deal of social discontent—and even violence in the North if EU leaders try to insist on massive bailouts. Both the South and North could riot over bailouts, but for different reasons.'April 13 2010
The Daily Bell -- Greek Deal Really Done?
'The crisis has been educational in so many ways. It has teased out the real power-positions of many European players. It has shown that France has a strong though not overwhelming voice in the EU experiment. Brussels has power, but not it seems the final word. Germany is a key player, yet its own citizens are ambivalent about its newfound kingdom. The EU-zone has been good to Germany, increasing the markets for its efficient industries and small- to medium-sized companies. But Germany dithers about Greece nonetheless, as it should. The German leadership may be ambitious for pan-socialism, but the German industrial sector obviously is not so hot on that failing ideology. ...the EU is a profoundly anti-democratic invention, the founding principles of which advocate that basic human rights are the bailiwick of the state—to be given and taken away at will. How anyone can support a system that advocates that basics of human survival can be disposed of this way is beyond us.'January 20 2010
The Daily Bell -- Merkel's Germany to Let Euro Die?
'Well, this is interesting. We've written articles expressing the idea that the EU itself is something of a German reconquest of Europe without the messy effects of a war. But even within this context we wondered how much German citizens would be willing to pay for their empire. In fact, German Chancellor Angela Merkel signals, not much. And really why should German citizens pay for such? Does the average German get up in the morning with a grin on his or her face over the idea that Germany may someday, in a back-door sense, gain additional economic sway over Europe? We doubt it. Absent the world-spanning ambitions of a seemingly sociopathic leader, German people would tend to be like any others. They want to be left alone to raise their families and put bread on the table as best they can.'November 09 2009
The Onion -- Alternate-Universe Sci-Fi Channel Show Asks What Would Happen If Germany Lost War
'"I think viewers all across the great worldwide National Socialist Empire are going to be terrified by the upside-down world we've created." Critics residing in the alternate realm have also responded positively to the show: Many praised its scarily realistic depiction of a postwar Russian-American union rising to economic dominance and superpower status with the help of gloating French and English allies. Hans von Winterstein, TV critic for the Deutsche-American Zeitung: "And Rolf Staal's performance as former cowboy actor Henry Fonda II, the monstrous American president who attempts to spread his country's insidious political and economic liberalism across the globe, will horrify even the most stoic among us."'June 05 2009
GoldSeek -- Gold Panic Inside The Oval Office
'"The Germans have demanded that gold bullion held in US custodial accounts be returned to their owners, with physical gold shipped back to Germany." I'll bet my last gold Kruggie that the Oval Office phone call was a desperate plea to buy more time before the Germans destroy the physical gold manipulation scheme. This together with rumblings of China, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Dubai scrambling to get their hands on physical gold has put the Obama Manipulation Team in major gold panic mode. It's amazing to see these few people in the White House scrambling to prolong a failed policy of trying to manipulate the gold markets of the world.' -- Time to sell the carpets.May 20 2009
Web of Debt -- TIME TO GET OUT THE WHEELBARROWS? ANOTHER LOOK AT THE WEIMAR HYPERINFLATION
'The dramatic difference in the results of Germany’s two money-printing experiments was a direct result of the uses to which the money was put. Price inflation results when “demand” (money) increases more than “supply” (goods and services), driving prices up; and in the experiment of the 1930s, new money was created for the purpose of funding productivity, so supply and demand increased together and prices remained stable. Hitler said, “For every mark issued, we required the equivalent of a mark’s worth of work done, or goods produced.” In the hyperinflationary disaster of 1923, on the other hand, money was printed merely to pay off speculators, causing demand to shoot up while supply remained fixed. The result was not just inflation but hyperinflation, since the speculation went wild, triggering rampant tulip-bubble-style mania and panic.'April 02 2009
Mises Institute -- There Will Be (Hyper)Inflation by Thorsten Polleit
'The demise of fiat-money regimes around the world has become unmistakable. They can only be kept alive by central banks creating ever greater amounts of base money and governments underwriting commercial banks' liabilities. Expanding the money stock through circulation credit sets into motion an illusionary boom, leading to malinvestment. However, the latter does not come to the surface as long as the credit and money supply keeps growing. If money supply growth slows down all of a sudden, however, investor expectations are disappointed, and investment projects, which were — in a world of ever more money and rising prices — considered economically viable, become unprofitable. The slowing down of money growth reveals that the production structure does not comply with actual demand, thereby unmasking the squandering of scarce resources. And so the artificial boom, induced by new money injections, turns into bust.' -- History repeating.March 22 2009
Mises Institute -- When Money Dies: The Nightmare of the Weimar Collapse
"The agony of inflation, however prolonged, is perhaps somewhat similar to acute pain — totally absorbing, demanding complete attention while it lasts; forgotten or ignorable when it has gone, whatever mental or physical scars it may leave behind. ...the process of collapse of the recognised, traditional, trusted medium of exchange, the currency by which all values are measured, by which social status is guaranteed, upon which security depends, and in which the fruits of labour are stored, unleashes such greed, violence, unhappiness, and hatred, largely bred from fear, as no society can survive uncrippled and unchanged."February 17 2009
Reuters -- Germany to break postwar taboo with new bank law
'Chancellor Angela Merkel's government appears ready to end weeks of intense debate and back a new law this week which would give Berlin the right to seize private property for the first time in the postwar era. ... the German government has agonised over an "Enteignung" of Hypo shareholders, a loaded term linked in the minds of many Germans to Nazi seizures of Jewish property in the 1930s and East Germany's assault on private business after World War Two. After the war, the desire to prevent Nazi-style interference in the economy was so high, that the authors of Germany's new constitution, included a special section on the issue of expropriation. Article 14 of the "Basic Law" states that government seizure of private property is only permissible when it is done for the public good. German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told best-selling daily Bild on Monday that [Ludwig Erhard] would "turn in his grave" were Berlin to go down this road.' -- Oh dear.
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