Germans pay a lot of taxes. The value added tax was raised to 19%. The state grabs 42% of any income above €52,882 and 45% above €250,731. There’s the church tax, solidarity tax, gasoline tax…. Not much is left over when a German is done paying taxes. So, during the campaign, Chancellor Merkel’s party pledged categorically not to raise taxes.
Europe
Mostly Cloudy With Occasional Drones In The Afternoon
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Mostly Cloudy With Occasional Drones In The Afternoon
Marseille has a problem: “account settlements” – a guy machine-gunned at close range for a drug deal gone awry. So the city is getting drones to keep an eye on hot neighborhoods. It’s not the only city. One more element in how privacy is traded in for corporate profits, governmental controls, spookily personalized ads, and harebrained hype about security.
Fear, Loathing, and Collective Amnesia in Crisis-Ridden Spain
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Fear, Loathing, and Collective Amnesia in Crisis-Ridden Spain
By Don Quijones: If Spain and Catalonia were playing real, rather than figurative, Russian Roulette, the revolver would be loaded with two or three bullets. Now an extra one was slipped into a chamber: prize-winning economist Juan Valerde announced that Madrid may have to “bomb Barcelona” in order to put a halt to the region’s rising separatist aspirations.
Europe Turns Blind Eye to US-UK Snooping Antics
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Europe Turns Blind Eye to US-UK Snooping Antics
Countries like Germany and Turkey have demanded explanations from the U.S. and U.K. governments regarding the NSA’s and GCHQ’s surveillance and wire-tapping program. But Spain’s Rajoy regime has remained conspicuously silent – despite the fact that this surveillance is a clear infringement of Spain’s domestic and external affairs.
The Big Shift: Chinese, Russians Replace People From (Formerly) Rich Countries As Big Spenders At Parisian Airports
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Big Shift: Chinese, Russians Replace People From (Formerly) Rich Countries As Big Spenders At Parisian Airports
In Paris, “Chinese” has a new meaning: money. This phenomenon shows up by the busload at luxury retailers where sales staff say a few words of bad Mandarin, instead of bad English, in hawking overpriced handbags and glittery baubles. Now Aéroports de Paris has put a number on it. A glimmer of hope for France, though perhaps of the wrong kind.
Spanish Government Caught Erasing Evidence in Corruption Case
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Spanish Government Caught Erasing Evidence in Corruption Case
Bad Hair Day In Two Decades Of German Retail Sales Quagmire
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Bad Hair Day In Two Decades Of German Retail Sales Quagmire
Germany’s industrial conglomerates and the vibrant Mittelstand (privately held enterprises that were world leaders in their niche until the Chinese came along), decorated with real wage declines since the heyday of Reunification… all have been bandied about as economic model for troubled, if unenthusiastic Eurozone countries. But there is a darker side.
German Election Finally Gets Messy: “Euro Is More Than A Currency” And Greece “Shouldn’t Have Been Allowed In”
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on German Election Finally Gets Messy: “Euro Is More Than A Currency” And Greece “Shouldn’t Have Been Allowed In”
No debacle is allowed to interfere with Chancellor Merkel’s efforts to hang on to her job, and debacles get swept under the rug at least until after the elections on September 22. Every time uppity opposition voices stir up some controversy, it’s brushed off, denied, ridiculed, or minimized – and it has worked admirably well so far. But suddenly there’s Greece again.
German Gov. CONFIRMS: Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 with TPM 2.0, Fearing Control by ‘Third Parties’ (Such As NSA)
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on German Gov. CONFIRMS: Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 with TPM 2.0, Fearing Control by ‘Third Parties’ (Such As NSA)
I expected the German Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) to contact me in an icily polite manner and make me recant, and I almost expected some goons to show up with an offer I couldn’t refuse, and I half expected Microsoft to shut down my computers remotely and wipe out my data. But none of that happened. Instead, the BSI confirmed the key points.
LEAKED: German Government Warns Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 – Links The NSA
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on LEAKED: German Government Warns Key Entities Not To Use Windows 8 – Links The NSA
Experts at the German Federal Office for Security in Information Technology (BSI) determined that Windows 8, the touch-screen enabled, super-duper, but sales-challenged operating system is dangerous for data security. It allows Microsoft to control the computer remotely through a backdoor – with keys likely accessible to the NSA.