80% of Turkish Muslim Settlers in Germany Live off Welfare (Greek Translation underneath)

 by Daniel Greenfield 29 Comments

Turks came to Germany as ‘guest workers’. They were supposed to provide some “necessary cheap labor” and then leave. But it didn’t work out that way.
And the topic has obvious implications for our own Gang of 8′s guest worker plan, which is going to lead to non-workers bankrupting the social welfare system even further.

Three million Turks live already in Germany already, while 2.5 million of them have German nationality, and the majority of them are conservative Muslims.
Very few Turks in Germany have a regular job; about 20%. The other 80% live on the so-called Hartz IV (state social benefits). 70% of their children have no GCSE; they left school before they finished their basic education.
According to the German state benefit system, every adult citizen who possesses the German nationality, unemployed and cannot find an appropriate job, is entitled to get monthly 482 € ($627). Additionally, parents get for each child under 18 years old, 200 € ($261), plus all their monthly expenditures in terms of rent, heating, power, health insurance, and public transport.
“Amazingly enough some Turks who live on the generous state benefits can afford to buy a house or an apartment and drive luxurious cars like Mercedes or BMW.” Says

Hyperinflation and Weimar Germany

Weimar Germany had greeted with total horror the financial punishment of Versailles. If Germany had paid off the sum of £6,600,000,000, she would have remained in debt to the Allies until 1987 !! However, by signing the Treaty of Versailles, she had agreed in principle to the issue of reparations and in 1921, Germany just about managed to pay its first installment of 2 billion gold marks. Weimar Germany was allowed to pay in kind (actual materials) as opposed to just cash. Most of this 2 billion was paid in coal, iron and wood.
In 1922, Weimar Germany simply could not manage to pay another installment. This the Allies did not believe - especially France where anger towards Germany still ran deep - and the German government was accused of trying to get out of her reparations responsibilities. This apparent refusal was only four years after the end of the war, and the attitude of the public towards Germany was still very hostile - and not just in France.
In 1922, French and Belgium troops invaded the Ruhr; Germany’s most valuable industrial area. The French and Belgium troops took over the iron and steel factories, coal mines and railways. Those Germans who lived in the Ruhr and were considered not to be co-operating with the Germans were imprisoned. Food was taken. That this action by the French and Belgium broke the rules of the League of Nations - which both belonged to - was ignored by both countries. France was considered one of the League's most powerful members and here she was violating its own code of conduct.
Weimar’s government responded by ordering the workers in the Ruhr to go on strike and it ordered all people in the Ruhr to passively resist the French and Belgium soldiers. This meant that they were not to openly confront the French and Belgium soldiers, simply that they were not to help them in any way whatsoever. This lead to violence and over the next 8 months of the occupation, 132 people were killed and

Αν θέλουμε Δημοκρατία, πρέπει να πέσει η οικονομική Μαφία!

Merkel Says Euro Needs Closer Economic Coordination to Survive. (by Tony Czuczka)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that the euro risks falling apart unless European Union nations cede some sovereignty and work toward closer economic and budgetary cooperation.
“We have to talk about how we coordinate our national economic policies -- how much do we invest, what are our labor costs and many other things that also have to be coordinated” among EU countries, Merkel said during a WDR television panel discussion on Europe in Berlin today. “Otherwise, a joint currency can’t exist.”
Merkel cited the example of one country spending the equivalent of 3.5 percent of gross domestic product on research and another 0.1 percent, saying that if “this goes on over a period over 20 years, there will be such tension within the currency that we won’t be able to keep it together.”
The answer is “more coordination, not just on fiscal policy but on economic policy as well,” she said.
The comments are the strongest yet by Merkel, the key political policy maker during more than three years

Euro exit could benefit Germany says Hans-Werner Sinn Influential economist says ‘Germany can exist without the euro’

Economist Hans-Werner Sinn said Germany should help struggling countries leave the euro

Derek Scally

Germany would have nothing to fear and much to gain from exiting the euro area, according to influential economist Hans-Werner Sinn.

That claim by the outspoken Prof Sinn, head of Munich’s Ifo institute, is likely to put wind in the sails of Germany’s burgeoning anti-euro political party, Alternative for Germany (AfD).

“Naturally Germany can exist without the euro. The exit horror stories painted are all overblown,” Prof Sinn told Die Welt yesterday.

“In particular, it’s not true that the export industry would collapse.”

The economics professor said it was important to challenge mainstream thinking in Germany that, cut loose from the euro, a new deutschmark would rapidly increase in value, prompting a drop in sales of more expensive German products and a rapid economic slowdown in Europe’s largest economy.

“A bit of an increase in (currency) value would do Germany good because the cheap imports would more than balance up the worse export business,” he said.

The Munich economics professor suggested the Bundesbank might mimic the Swiss central bank, which intervened on currency markets to ease exchange rate pressures by swapping foreign sovereign bonds for Swiss francs.

But anyone who thought Germany’s most outspoken economist was, with his remarks, joining the ranks of

Economic Historian: 'Germany Was Biggest Debt Transgressor of 20th Century'

Think Greece's current economic malaise is the worst ever experienced in Europe? Think again. Germany, economic historian Albrecht Ritschl argues in a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, has been the worst debtor nation of the past century. He warns the country should take a more chaste approach in the euro crisis or it could face renewed demands for World War II reparations.

AP

Former German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer (left) during a meeting with the High Commission of the Allies in 1951: Eschewing of reparations demands "a life-saving gesture"

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Ritschl, Germany is coming across like a know-it-all in the debate over aid for Greece. Berlin is intransigent and is demanding obedience from Athens. Is this attitude justified?

Ritschl: No, there is no basis for it. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Most Germans would likely disagree.
Ritschl: That may be, but during the 20th century, Germany was responsible for what were the biggest national bankruptcies in recent history. It is only thanks to the United States, which sacrificed vast amounts of money after both World War I and World War II, that Germany is financially stable today and holds the status of Europe's headmaster. That fact, unfortunately, often seems to be forgotten.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: What happened back then exactly?
Ritschl: From 1924 to 1929, the Weimar Republic lived on credit and even borrowed the money it needed for its World War I reparations payments from America. This credit pyramid collapsed during the economic crisis of 1931. The money was gone, the damage to the United States enormous, the effect on the global economy devastating.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The situation after World War II was similar.
Ritschl: But right afterwards, America immediately took steps to ensure there wouldn't be a repeat of high reparations demands made on Germany. With only a few exceptions, all such demands were put on the backburner until Germany's future reunification. For Germany, that was a life-saving gesture, and it was the actual financial basis of the Wirtschaftswunder, or economic miracle (that began in the 1950s). But it also

Το δράμα «διάσωση» σε τέσσερις πράξεις.

Bundesbank Probing Claims of Deutsche Bank Losses During Financial Crisis -FT

Germany's central bank has opened an investigation into assertions that Deutsche Bank AG (DB) hid losses of up to $12 billion during the financial crisis, the Financial Times reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the situation.
Bundesbank is investigating claims that Deutsche Bank misvalued credit derivatives to hide losses, the FT reported.
Deutsche Bank told the FT that the allegations are "more than two-and-a-half years old" and were the "subject of a careful and thorough" investigation by a law firm that found them "wholly unfounded."
"Moreover, the investigation revealed that these allegations stem from people without responsibility for, or personal knowledge of, key facts and information," Deutsche said in its statement to the FT.

German Economist: 'Europe's Citizens Now Have to Fear for Their Money'

AFP

Cypriots show their palms reading "No" during a protest against an EU bailout deal outside the parliament in Nicosia on Monday.

For the first time, bank customers in a crisis-plagued euro-zone country are being forced to contribute to its bailout. In an interview, German economist Peter Bofinger warns the strategy is "extremely dangerous" and could lead to a run on banks.

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Bofinger, Cyprus will be saved -- and every Cypriot bank customer will have to pay up. Whether that person is Greek or Russian, whether they have €1,000 or €10 million in their account, part of that person's savings will be taken. Is this a good strategy?

Bofinger: It is the worst possible. Making small-scale savers pay is extremely dangerous. It will shake the trust of depositors across the Continent. Europe's citizens now have to fear for their money. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Do you expect that despositors in Spain, Italy, Portugal and other crisis-plagued countries will make a run on their accounts because they, too, might have to pay someday?
Bofinger: Yes. These fears will now be stoked. The Spaniards, Italians and Portuguese may not run to the banks today or tomorrow, but as soon as the crisis intensifies in a euro-zone country, the bank customers will remember Cyprus. They will withdraw their money and, by doing so, intensify the crisis.
SPIEGEL ONLINE: The Cypriot government wants to minimize this panic effect. The Wall Street Journal reported today that the latest proposal in Nicosia would include only a 3-percent one-time levy for small-scale depositors rather than the 6.75 percent tax included in the deal reached in Brussels over the

All in the Family: Chancellor Merkel's Heritage Pleases Poles

By Christina Hebel

Archiwum Panstwowe w Poznaniu

An official document from the city Poznan, Poland, shows the registration of Ludwig Kazmierczak,
who was born in the city and is Angela Merkel's grandfather.

It was revealed this week that German Chancellor Angela Merkel's grandfather came from Poland and that her original maiden name was Kazmierczak, not the Germanized Kasner. The news may seem trivial, but it could further improve relations between the neighboring countries.

He calls her "Dear Angela," she calls him "Dear Donald" -- the chancellor and the Polish prime minster get along quite well. Donald Tusk once said in an interview with SPIEGEL ONLINE, "I am incapable of being angry at Angela Merkel." At the time, tensions had been growing within the European Union about the possibility of a two-speed Europe, with non euro-zone states like Poland being left behind. These days, though, Tusk is even giving his German counterpart Polish lessons. "A. Merkel asked how you correctly pronounce Kazmierczak," he tweeted at the most recent EU summit in Brussels. "She got it on the second try :)"

Kazmierczak is the original name of Merkel's grandfather and father, a secret of the chancellor's family history that Stefan Kornelius, a prominent journalist at Germany's respected Süddeutsche Zeitung, revealed

"Greece has to be competitive in the area" = Wages comparable to Boulgaria Η Merkel το είχε πει από τις αρχές του 2012. Γιατί εκπλήσονται όλοι τώρα;

H Eλλάδα στο καρναβάλι της Γερμανίας! Έλληνας ζωγραφίζει μουστάκι του Χίτλερ στη Μέρκελ!

Τρομερές φωτογραφίες…

Στο καρναβάλι της Γερμανίας και συγκεκριμένα στην παρέλαση αρμάτων που έγινε στην Κολωνία, τα φλας έλαμψαν για το άρμα με θέμα την Ελλάδα…

Απεικονίζεται ένας Έλληνας (σκασμένος στα γέλια) να ζωγραφίζει μουστάκι του

Did Deutsche Bank Really Hide Its Bad Audits In A Closet?

 
Halah Touryalai, Forbes Staff

There's a chance that the mortgage fraud allegations made by Preet Bharara are not unique to Deutsche Bank.

Imagine giving a friend with a gambling problem your debit card and asking him to bet only when it’s in your best interest.
That’s pretty much what the federal government does when it gives lenders like Deutsche Bank the authority to put a government seal of approval on certain mortgages.
A program dubbed the Direct Endorsement Lender gives a  number of lucky banks, mortgage companies and saving and loans institutions the authority to decide whether or not the mortgages they underwrite are eligible for government insurance that would protect the lender if the homeowner defaults.
Deutsche Bank was one of those banks and it turns out it wasn’t using its power appropriately. That’s  according to allegations in a lawsuit filed today by Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara against the German bank. The suit claims that Deutsche Bank  made false representation about mortgages it was endorsing for Federal Housing Authority insurance–which would protect the bank if the mortgage went into default–and then sold the mortgages for a profit to investors.
The government says the bank failed to uphold its end of the bargain as a Direct Endorsement Lender. For instance, according to the suit, the bank  did not have proper quality control procedures in place that would

Germany’s local finances

Hundreds of mini-Greeces

The economy booms, but many municipalities are strapped for cash

THE heart of Wuppertal is the Schwebebahn, a trolley dangling from a rail above the Wupper river. It is the lifeline of this river-hugging city of 350,000, Germany’s 17th-largest. Perhaps because it is unique, it is also expensive. The 110-year-old contraption is undergoing a €500m ($715m) modernisation; it drains €27m a year from the city’s budget. “Wuppertal is unthinkable without the Schwebebahn,” says the mayor, Peter Jung. “Nobody talks about whether it makes economic sense.”
Wuppertal has other glories, including an orchestra and a dance troupe. It embodies the belief that high culture belongs in the provinces as much as in bigger cities. But Wuppertal is poor. Textile production shrivelled by the 1970s. High earners left; needy immigrants arrived. Wuppertal now has a debt stock of €2 billion and pays its way with an overdraft. If it were a company, “it would have to file for bankruptcy”, wrote its treasurer recently.
Germany’s 11,000-odd municipalities had a deficit of €7.7 billion last year, the second-highest ever. The pain is uneven. Towns in the rich south were hit by recession. In other regions, including parts of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), the slump came on top of long industrial decline and years of fiscal rot. Municipalities face a “debt spiral” as interest rates start rising, says Martin Junkernheinrich of the University of Kaiserslautern.

Mayors think of municipalities as cradles of democracy where citizens meet government close up. They build

ICH BIN EIN BERLINER για την Πορτογαλία με υπότιτλους.

Why Germany Wants to See its US Gold

DPA

For decades, almost half of Germany's gold has been stored deep below the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Now, with the euro crisis swirling, German politicians are asking their central bankers to take stock of the reserves. Some even say that the gold should be shipped home.

Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann wanted to personally convince Peter Gauweiler that the German gold was still where it should be. Early this summer, the head of Germany's central bank took the obstinate politician from the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), a party that is a member of the government coalition in Berlin, and a number of his colleagues into the Bundesbank's inner sanctum: the gold vault.

There, 6,000 gold bars are stacked on industrial-strength shelves in a purpose-built building in Frankfurt. An additional 76,000 bars of bullion are stored in four safe boxes, in sealed containers. But even this personal inspection wasn't enough to reassure the visiting member of parliament -- on the contrary: "The Bundesbank monitors its domestic gold in an exemplary fashion," Gauweiler says, "and this makes it all the more incomprehensible that the bank doesn't look after its reserves abroad."
For quite some time now, Gauweiler has been pestering the government and the Bundesbank with questions concerning where and how the country's reserves are stored, and how often they are checked. He has submitted requests and commissioned reports on the topic.
Last week, Gauweiler celebrated his greatest triumph to date in his gold campaign, which has been a source of some amusement for many fellow German politicians: A secret report by the Federal Audit Office had been made public -- and it contained stern criticism of the German central bank in Frankfurt. The Bonn-based auditors urged a better inventory system, including quality checks.
This demand, which even the bank's inspectors saw as nothing more than routine, alarmed the Berlin political establishment. Indeed, the partially blacked-out report read like the prologue to an espionage thriller in which the stunned central bankers could end up standing in front of empty vaults in the US.
'Grotesque Debate'
For decades, German central bankers have contented themselves with written affirmations from their American colleagues that the gold still remains where it is said to be stored. According to the report, the bar

Germany wants Greece to hand over more budget control

Masa Serdarevic

It looks like Germany has decided that Greece hasn’t given up quite enough of its sovereignty yet. We know that Wolfgang Schaeuble wants to set up an escrow account to make sure loan installments stay out of Athens’ reach (in order to guarantee that debt repayments are made to creditors). But it seems that Berlin also wants to put any money from a Greek primary surplus into that account as well.
That’s according to Kathimerini, which says it has seen the latest proposals from the German Finance Ministry, leaked to them by Pasok officials. From the docs (emphasis ours):

“A dedicated receipt (such as part of VAT income) in the volume of the requested GRC primary budget surplus could be transferred monthly to the trust account (as earmarking of GRC contribution to debt service),” the proposal says.
“The volume of the primary surplus is to be defined in the MoU. The trust account and the earmarking of revenue secure the delivery of the primary surplus and therefore the GRC contribution to the debt service.”

And if there’s no surplus? Germany wants Athens to be forced to decrease spending or increase

Η ΑΠΟΤΥΧΙΑ ΤΟΥ ΕΥΡΩ ΚΑΙ Η ΑΝΑΓΚΗ ΕΘΝΙΚΩΝ ΝΟΜΙΣΜΑΤΩΝ

The Euro Crisis: Origins and Consequences with David L. Smith

German economic boom fails to reverse debt

Germany's sovereign debt remained above 2 trillion euros ($2.58 trillion) in 2011, despite additional revenues on the back of robust economic growth. And the national debt clock is bound to keep ticking away.

At the end of 2011, Germany had accumulated exactly 2,025,400,000,000 euros in sovereign debt, which was 0.7 percent more than in the previous year, according to data published by the German Federal Statistics Office, Destatis, Thursday.
In broken down figures, this amounted to 24,771 euros of debt for every German, Destatis said.
The debt of the national government was by far the highest, standing at 1.28 trillion euros, even though Berlin