EU Justice-Commissioner Viviane Reding called German major companies to do more to support the euro as they benefit enormously from the single market and the currency union.
German business must to do more save euro: EU’s Reding
“I would expect Germany’s major companies and their top executives to come out more in support of the European cause. After all, they’ve benefitted enormously from the single market and from currency union,” Reding told the weekly Manager Magazin’s latest edition to be published on Friday.
Reding, a Luxembourg national, expressed dismay at the widespread criticism in Germany of the eurozone’s proposed banking union and guarantees for fellow euro members.
Luxembourg had already made more money available per capita than Germany in the fight against the debt crisis, she said.
“But we think this is okay because we understand the need for the solidarity union,” she said.
Germany, Europe’s biggest and strongest economy and effectively its paymaster, should not forget that it, too, had profited greatly “from the great confidence placed in it by its neighbours,” Reding said, pointing to European countries’ support for German reunification.
The current debt crisis cannot be resolved without mutual trust.
“We won’t get any further if we think in categories of incentives and sanctions,” Reding argued, referring to Berlin’s rejection of pooling debt in the single currency area. (AFP)
Many here (prolly the majority) instead suspect that the costs for supporting the Eurozone are already higher than the profits. After all, Germany has been a major export nation, fairing pretty well, before the Euro.
Germany was not doing at all well before the euro. It could not compete on the globak stage and was on the long road of decline. The only country that has definitively benefited from the euro is Germany, which continues the whole charade because on its own the country cannot compete.
Germany is a parasite economy, which sucks the blood of weaker countries.
Germany simply is successful with its economic policies. And your pathological hatred of us is really ridiculous.
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The big problem of course being that the indeed successful German economic policies were conceived and implemented from a position of dominance.
The purpose of policies created from a postion of dominance is to maintain, if not increase that postion of dominance. And as we, the others in Europe know only too well, somebody has to pay for that.
As for the pathological hatred , I agree. Waste of time. We should just nuke the lot of yez and get it over and done with 🙂
Krautland’s success comes only from building cars – this is already a major crime against the suffering masses – and selling that toys to Chinese slave drivers who love also child labour.
Krautland has got no own resources and gets it only from corrupt terror regimes like Gaddafi’s who steal it their population.
Krautland has also no right to exist: Not only because by not paying the war reparations they show the whole world how ugly they really are and they also don’t have a legal constitution; it’s all a fraud.
Krautland’s success is only imperialism, corruption, lies and laughing into the faces of the victims.
Their main success was not paying war reparations while their victims were starving and legalizing all the infrastructure they pillaged all over Europe and robbed the Jews and then creating the Euro with nearly the same letters that were used in the contracts of the 21 occupied and allied states that used the same money.
I remember they were also building television sets and coffee machines. they were expensive and robust. When German companies moved their production units outside Germany due to high labour costs, prices dropped but also the quality.
To have a coffe machine (bought for 30 DM) repaired it would cost you at least 25 DM. and there is went: you threw it to garbage and bought a new one. The lowest the prices the shorter their life expectancy. My 1st coffe machine lasted some 10+ years. Now I change every 2-4 years/ average price 30 euro (60DM).
but I’m glad my money circulates securing jobs in Greece and China and income to German managers. (I still buy German brands in coffee machines).
Try it Italian?
Bialetti Brikka!
Your a total ignorant, Yoghurt. Cars are the German product most regularly mentioned in the media, but all people who really know a bit about international trade will you that Germany’s export success is even more based on investment goods of all kinds. It’s medium sized companies (mittelständische Unternehmen), producing high quality tools and machines, that are the backbone of the economy here. How about informing yourself instead of simply parroting cheap talking points?
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“Germany’s export success is even more based on investment goods of all kinds”
You mean like all those cheap loans based on German interest rates instead of peiphiral interest rates, deliberately handed out by German banks to periphiral banks so that people could buy the German export products, thereby creating a massive financial bubble which you now claim total innocense on?
If you are going to give kids an unlimited supply of sweets, don’t come complaining about having to pay for the cost of the dentist later…
I’m talking about real goods, not those phony financial “products”. Do you confuse us with the US or the UK, maybe?
No, I’m not. This is the reality that you refuse to face. While behaving impecably in Germany itself, German bankers were nothing short of financial prostitutes abroad, lending money to every pimp who simply thought of asking. I don’t think the total sum has been totted up yet, but some six months ago, the figures looked something like this. German banks had “invested” some 21 billion in Icelandic banks, about 100 billion in rogue Irish banks, roughly 60 billion is USA subprime backed bonds, and God know how much in Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Korea (where the next banking scandal is now brewing!). You should look up the comments made by the German economist Henrik Enderlein, lecturer at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin. According to him the banks worst hit by the whole sorry mess are the German banks. And they are playing billiards trying to make up for their losses by using the ECB and the EU, through systems of bailouts, to salvage insolvent banks in Ireland, Greece, Spain etc in order not to draw attention to their own situation. to quote him:
“There had never been any innovation in German banking. You gave money to some company, and the company paid you back. They went virtually overnight from this to being American. And they weren’t any good at it. They are playing billiards. The easier way to do it would be to give German money to the German banks and let the Foreign banks fail”.
If you really want to know (do you?) about the dirty German banking practices between 2003 and 2008, maybe you want to take a look at banks like IKB, Rhineland, WestLB just to name a few. These are the people who did the unthinkable for which all of us are paying now, including you (you just don’t know it yet).
I never claimed German bankers are better than others. Their stupid investments have cost the taxpayers enormous sums for bailout. But they wasted their money with old fashioned credits for overpriced real estate and with buying risky bonds. They didn’t offer fancy “invesmtent products” like CDS on a large scale, like the US banks did.
Anyway, what’s your point? What do those bad investments have to do with German export goods? Are you confused about the phrase “investment goods” (Investitionsgüter), maybe? I suggest you look that up.
I’m not confused about anything. Dodgy German banks bought dodgy derivates backed mainly by dodgy US real estate deals (who called the Germans the “ultimate suckers” for buying the stuff!). That money found its way to dodgy Irish, Greek, Spanish etc banks, who pushed this on their customers as “cheap” credit, resulting in a real estate bubble in Ireland and Spain, but while the bubble was being built, also resulting in a massive boom of German exports like BMW etc. The whole vicious circle was however backed up with nothing. Repacked mortgage deals from the USA worth millions on paper, and having millions paid for them, turned out worthless. The stroy of Lehmans…. And all this virtual money, for that is what it is, VIRTUAL money, is what is backing your “vibrant export economy”. It might as well be hot air, you would probably stand a chance of rescuing something with hot air.
Meaning, it’s backed by nothing. Also meaning the bailouts various EU countries have been forced into are in reality bailouts of German banks, not EU countries.
Which is exactly what Enderlein says. So make it easy and bail out the German banks directly instead of wasting billions in trying to hide the real reason by attempting to bail out insolvent Irish, Greek, Spanish etc. banks.But then, it’s the Germans who pay for it, and you will all end up seeing that the emperor has no clothes…
That is why the EU went so bananas when the Icelanders said “Nein” and let the banks go to the wall. Bye Bye money, this time real money, becasue they had the deposits that came from mainly UK and Dutch municipalities and pension funds. And shock horror, they ended up having THEIR money used to pay for the virtual money bubble. By using it’s position of power, Germany is indeed playing “billiards” with all of this, and while succeeding in thoroughly confusing the whole thing, it’s not going to do anything other than drag a load more people down with it, and end up costing billions more than it should. It is also costing the wrong people!
World Trade is a death machine. No matter if cars or any other “modern” consumers shit supplied by corrupt and terrorist resourcers that is transported by airplanes and ships that all use oil and therefore must be forbitten to save the planet.
Your comments make me feel glad that I only very seldomly eat yoghurt. Looks like that stuff isn’t good for mental health!
:rolleyes:
I suggest that you consult some competent German economists. Clearly, you have no idea of what you are talking about.
That wouldn’t help. Many economists have no idea what they’re talking about, neither. Just look at Krugman and his rant about Estonia. Without any specific knowledge about that country, he belittled its impressive efforts to create a recovery, even going so far as distorting the data by using the credit bubble inflated year 2008 as a reference. Turns out that Estonia, as a very small currency zone threatened by international speculators, had very good reasons to opt for austerity and for joining the Euro:
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-07-19/krugmenistan-vs-dot-estonia
If even Noble Price winners in economics engage in making premature, lazy statements about foreign economies, why should I care too much about their brouhaha? I’ve spend more time reading about Greece in the last years than most economists. My opinion probably isn’t less valid than theirs.
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Debatable on it’s validity, but undenyably a lot more biased…
Gray
The most important question remains regarding the undeniably robust German exports. Were major German companies involved in unfair, anti-competitive and even criminal practices around the world? German companies such as Ferrostaal AG, Rheinmetall Air Defence AG, HDW, MAN, Siemens and others have been involved in bribery schemes in Greece, Portugal, India, the US and other countries. Some of the known bribery cases are the following:
1)In December 2009 Siemens AG agreed to pay about $1.6 billion to American and European authorities to settle charges that it had paid an estimated $1.4 billion in bribes to secure huge public works contracts around the world. About $800 million was paid to the United States, the largest fine ever imposed under American anti-bribery laws.
2) On Dec 20, 2011, the German company Ferrostaal AG was fined €140 million by a Munich court, in bribery cases involving corrupt and greedy Greek and Portuguese officials in order to secure the procurements of its submarines by both Greece and Portugal.
3) On Mar 9, 2012 the German company Siemens AG reached an out of court settlement with the Greek government worth € 270 million. Siemens admitted having a slush fund used to bride some Greek government ministers or ex ministers in order to win Greek government contracts.
Gray on many occasions you have blamed some Greek corrupt government officials and politicians for the economic problems the country is facing right now, and rightfully so. But, you have refrained from assigning any blame to the instigators of criminal activities, which in some cases were German companies. To make you comprehend the magnitude of these illegal activities, according to the German court documents Ferrostaal AG paid € 110 million to bribe Greek officials in order to secure two submarine contracts. The actual procurement cost for 4 new subs and the modernization of 3 old subs of the Greek Navy was € 3.1 billion.
Until recently, Germany didn’t have strict anti-bribery laws, allowing some German companies to bribe government officials around the world in order to secure both public works and military contracts. The extend of the bribing scandals isn’t yet known since many countries haven’t completed their own investigations. Hence, the next important question remains, were the known bribery cases involving German companies merely exceptions to the rule or just the tip of the iceberg?
iceberg, iceberg
“iceberg, iceberg”
salad, salad
It’s a rethorical question, and the answer is YES YES YES YES YES YES…
It’s important to understand that money is needed to buy votes. Without votes democracy won’t work:http://www.grreporter.info/en/bribe_faulty_german_submarines_was_carried_suitcases/7363
Why do you single out the Germans? Do you have solid evidence that the corporations from other nations are any better? This seems like yet another shameless case of applying double standards to me.
Who is applying the double standards here, those who do the bribing, or those who point out that it’s wrong? Sounds more like shooting the messenger rather than heeding the message…
Whether those engaged in the practice are German or not is really besides the point, and I don’t think this is a complaint about specific German bribery. It just so happens that one of the pillars of German Industrialism was caught with its pants down, and hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The important concept here is not German, it’s bribery…
When a country is riddled with corruption, like Greece, it’s quite hypocritical to expect foreign companies to be the only ones who play by the rules (and consequently never get a contract). You would have a point if Greece wasn’t a pigsty of corruption, but under the real circumstances, it’s simply ridiculous.
SIEMENS was fined for bribes in USA, international media reported. So it seems to be SIEMENS policy. Nevertheless it takes two to tango…
That US case is about Siemens allegedly bribing officials in ARGENTINA (yet another hotpot of greedy politicians)! I guess what’s behind that is that US corporations are pissed off because the Germans bet them in that fakelaki competition.
You should try to understand that fakelaki and bribes are two totally different things.
Gray
You wrote “That US case is about Siemens allegedly bribing officials in ARGENTINA (yet another hotpot of greedy politicians)! I guess what’s behind that is that US corporations are pissed off because the Germans bet them in that fakelaki competition.” Hence, the employees of Siemens involved in bribery schemes AROUND THE WORLD should be given awards, bonuses and additional paid vacation time for being better crooks and criminals that their competitors.
Siemens not only agreed to pay € 270 million to the Greek government for bribing politicians and officials in order to secure government contracts, but also issued a written apology. You can use the word alleged as many times as you want but it doesn’t change the fact that some German companies have settled bribery cases and paid a lot of money.
does the name Karlheinz Screiber makes a click in your mind? or Dieter Holzer?
The fines Siemes received came from the USA and Germany itself. The Greek government? Settled for a payment of 270 million…
Meanwhile, as far as I know, contracts have been awarded again.
You really do need to wake up to the fact that although there is a serious corruption problem in Greece and Ireland (86% of the Irish belive it is what is causing all the problems there, latest poll!), that doesn’t mean that everybody else is therefore squeeky clean. And that includes amongst others one of Germany’s biggest corporations.
Bribes are not paid because of competition but to sell the stuff too expensive, also stuff that isn’t working proper. That’s the reason the Olympics were 2,3 times more expensive than in Sydney or Barcelona.
More interesting is the fact that the corrupters are protected by German justice and don’t need to fear any trial in Greece.
Really? It was the German judicial system that brought the Siemens scandal to light in Greece. Had Germany not brought Siemens to trial it probably would never have been known in Greece. Have you forgotten?
None of the Siemens managers in Greece was under trial in Germany, all three wanted by Greek justice don’t get deported simply because they have German passports. That’s pure imperialism.
and the Greeks just let them go away #flee #escape
Gray
There’s little doubt in my mind that some European, and American companies have been involved in bribery scandals. The fact that other companies around the world have done it doesn’t exonerate German companies. Two wrongs don’t make a right.
By mentioning the bribery cases involving German companies I simply wanted you to comprehend: A) The sheer magnitude of the crimes committed, B) That there’re two parties entangled in these illegal activities. Blaming one party and absolving the other party of any responsibility and liability is simply erroneous, and C) That the jury is still out on whether Germany’s export dominance was partly due to unfair, anti-competitive and illegal practices conducted by large and medium size German companies.
Well, Nicholas, when Greece gets into problems with Germany because of the submarine deal, and then suddelnly a German corporation is prosecuted (but NOT the Greek officials who made the deal!), while the phony F-16 deal with the US doesn’t receive any attention, it’s rather difficult to believe in the impartiality of Greek justice. There’s countless opinion pieces by Greek journalists who criticize the very high political interference in the court system. Just look how cheap corrupt Greek politicians and VIPs get away, if they have to face court at all!
Sorry, but I will continue to suspect that Siemens was deliberately made a scapegoat while it’s a political choice to ignore all the other cases. Or do you seriously want to claim there’s any large scale contract in Greece that is awarded without fakelakis changing hands? Come on. Where are all those other bribery cases?
@Gray, you have a talent (?) to avoid answering questions about German top bribes givers lol
Fakelaki is only for doctors.
true. bribes come in suitcases and baby diaper-boxes
@ktg: Thx for the compliment! Maybe I should apply for the position of spokesperson of a German corporation?
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oh that was a compliment? just diplomatic language. #twisting_realities
I understand you have first hand knowledge, kt. So, that’s how lobbyists and interested parties pay for reporters twisting the truth in their favor? Suitcases full of money, that makes sense, but “baby diaper-boxes”? Weird. Have you been pregnant when working for the media?
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@@Gray, you have a thorough lack of knowledge of Greek scandals, check “Koskotas scandal” and you will learn about the diaper-boxes.
In Finland, according to a poll undertaken last week, 66% of public are strictly against increasing the guarantees given by the state, even if those were to stabilize the economy. Slightly over 20% were in favour of more such guarantees.
This is quite an interesting outcome, especially assuming that more requests for aid/extensions of aid are likely to surface (once the ESM is up and running, if not sooner).
interesting. thanks.
Which is the whole point, isn’t it? As long as there is profit to be had, in any which way possible, nobody cares. Even if that profit is knowingly generated at the future cost of other nations.
But now that the shoe is on the other foot and there is no more profit to be had becasue the whole place has been robbed blind, the willingness to participate suddenly becomes a lot less enthousiastic…
What profits? You mean, profits from exporting to Greece? Those have been already eaten up by the losses of the financial sector and the costs of the bailout. Fact is, Greece enjoyed some years of unearned prosperity in the mid 2000s, and this came at the expense of future generations in Northern nations. If anybody made a profit, it was the fat cats in Greece.
Reding from Luxembourg? Dear Lord, bring back Rosa Luxemburg, please!