A Lehman Brothers kerfuffle erupted, this time in Germany, in broad daylight. With a stunning amount: up to €800 million ($1.04 billion) in fees for the insolvency administrator. It blows away the German record of €70 million. Hedge funds are raising a ruckus, on the surface to shame the insolvency administrator into backing off. It worked. Almost. But suddenly, there are new allegations—against the hedge funds.
Europe
Stimulating The Public Sector, Suffocating the Private Sector: A French Dichotomy
by Wolf Richter • • 6 Comments
Moody’s, when it stripped France off its AAA rating, had a laundry list of laments that were a reflection of the awful details seeping from every crack in France’s picturesque veneer: relentlessly rising unemployment, declining production and orders, collapsing automobile sales, plunging home sales…. You’d think France is in a depression. Yet, third quarter GDP edged up by 0.2%. What gives?
Sacrificing The Will Of The People On The Altar of The Euro
by Wolf Richter • • 10 Comments
The Eurozone debt crisis is exacting its toll. Convoluted undemocratic taxpayer-funded bailouts of bondholders and banks designed to keep the Eurozone together can’t kick the can down the road far enough. But the price has been huge, and people have expressed their anger in massive protests. Now, these efforts are also tearing up the fabric of the 27-member European Union: the first one out may be the UK.
Putin and Merkel Tango in Moscow, Gazprom Stirs Up Old Ghosts, But Deals Are Signed
by Wolf Richter • • 2 Comments
Last week, the German Parliament passed a resolution that asked Chancellor Merkel to needle Russian President Putin about the resurgence of repressive, antidemocratic tendencies in Russia. It did not go unnoticed at the Kremlin. And it paved the way, so to speak, for her trip to Moscow on Friday—to re-cement their “strategic partnership.”
The Curse Of The “Irreversible” Euro
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
Young educated Greeks face a wall of unemployment. With little chance of finding a job in their field, they’re competing for any kind of job. Wages have plummeted. The economy has shriveled by 19.4% since 2007. Promises that education would open doors to a better future have evaporated. And Germans march around, telling Greeks how to run their country. Because the euro has become a religious dictum.
Bundesbank Slaps Fed In The Face
by Wolf Richter • • 2 Comments
“Yellen and Cisco lift US stock futures,” the headline read enticingly in the morning. Priceless. Their pronouncements were driving up the markets. But by the time the markets closed, the manipulative power of Fed Vice Chairman Janet Yellen had dissipated; the DOW was down 1.45%. And across the Atlantic, the German Bundesbank issued a tough warning about the very policies Yellen was propagating.
French Minister Whines: “Le French Bashing” Is Terrible
by Wolf Richter • • 4 Comments
Unintended Consequences Of Bailouts: Greece Gets Slammed
by Wolf Richter • • 6 Comments
Bailouts have become known for their so-called “unintended consequences”—however intended they might have been. And now, unintended consequences strike again. The ECB’s purchase of decomposing Greek debt—an under-the-radar bailout of banks and insurance companies—are making the favorite solution to the Greek crisis, namely another deep haircut, legally impossible, says Bundesbank President Jens Weidmann.
Germany’s Fear And Desperation Leak Out
by Wolf Richter • • 20 Comments
A hullabaloo erupted between France and Germany that both are trying to silence to death: it seeped out that the German Finance Minister broached an unprecedented topic with Germany’s Council of Economic Experts. Could they produce a reform concept for the troubled French economy? It revealed a threat that terrorizes the German government.
Merkel Has A Dream
by Wolf Richter • • 11 Comments
On Wednesday, German Chancellor Angela Merkel set foot in the European Parliament for the first time since 2007 and addressed the only democratically elected European institution—by design, an emasculated one. There, she laid out her plans to bring European nations together to where their budgets and other matters would become part of her “domestic policy.”