The German left | Troubled times | Economist.com
The German left
Troubled times
Oct 11th 2007 | BERLIN AND DUISBURG
From The Economist print edition
Why the rise of the Left Party has cast the Social Democrats into a gloom
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ASK Ralf Pietras why the Left Party is growing in Duisburg and he offers a ready answer. The coal mines are exhausted, steel is forged by machine and old folk scavenge for bottles to reclaim the deposits. Duisburg, a gritty town at the junction of the Rhine and the Ruhr, has lost 35,000 good jobs in 15 years. In such adversity, the Left Party thrives. Its local membership has quintupled since it began in 2005, to 330. Mr Pietras, spokesman of the Duisburg branch, dreams of 1,000. The local Social Democratic Party (SPD), which ruled the city for 56 years until 2004, has lost half its membership in two decades.
Frighteningly for the SPD, this is a national trend. It has been governing in Berlin, from 1998 to 2005 under Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, since then as the junior partner in Angela Merkel's “grand coalition”. But as the Left Party gnaws away at its working-class base, the SPD is starting to panic. The clearest sign is a call by the SPD's boss, Kurt Beck, to extend the period for paying unemployment benefit to older workers. Franz Müntefering, the SPD vice-chancellor under Ms Merkel, has denounced the idea as a “U-turn” from reforms enacted by the Schröder government. The press is speculating that his resignation may be imminent. Mr Beck threatens the foundations of the grand coalition, the Christian Democrats claim.
Why is a small party founded by east German former communists causing national ructions? One reason is that the economic upswing has left so many Germans behind. Unemployment is at its lowest level since the early 1990s, thanks partly to the reforms that Mr Beck now wants to roll back. But many of the new jobs offer lower pay and less security than those lost during the downturn, notes Markus Grabka of DIW, a research institute in Berlin. Relative poverty has jumped, with 17% of Germans earning less than 60% of the median in 2005, up from 12% in 1999. Income-tax cuts have helped the rich; the middle class has shrunk.
On these matters the Left Party is saying what most Germans seem to be thinking. According to one recent poll, 82% of Germans want to lower the retirement age from 67 (reversing another reform), two-thirds want a minimum wage and 72% think the grand coalition should do more to promote social justice. Half want German troops out of Afghanistan, but the Left Party is the only one that unqualifiedly agrees. Unlike the Greens and the Free Democrats, it has no reason to flirt with either party in the grand coalition (the SPD refuses to consider it as a potential partner at federal level). It likes to claim it is Germany's only real opposition party.
This has come about mostly by luck. The Left Party is the third incarnation of East Germany's Socialist Unity Party, which had 2.3m members when the regime collapsed in 1989. It struggled back to life as the Party of Democratic Socialism, trying to be a normal party by catering to Ossis who felt swamped by unification. The Left Party is still strongest in the east: it wins almost a quarter of votes in the six eastern states, has been in a coalition in Mecklenburg-West Pomerania and is now the SPD's partner in the city of Berlin.
It was a bust-up within the SPD that gave the Left Party its purchase in the west. Social Democrats dismayed by Mr Schröder's reforms broke away to form Alternative Labour and Social Justice (WASG), which fought alongside the PDS in the 2005 election. Between them they took almost 9% of the vote. They formally merged into the Left Party in June.
This hybrid works mainly because there is no risk of its assuming national responsibilities anytime soon. It has two leaders: Lothar Bisky, a film-studies professor from Brandenburg (though Gregor Gysi is the party's true eastern star), and Oskar Lafontaine, a firebrand from Saarland given to populist rhetoric, who was once SPD chairman. The SPD loathes Mr Lafontaine for abruptly quitting as Mr Schröder's finance minister in 1999. It has just published “Oskar's World”, a supposedly incriminating compendium of remarks by and about him.
The Left Party's policy documents drip with hostility to capitalism. It leans toward pacifism in foreign policy and against the hawkish European Central Bank. The long-term goal, says Dietmar Bartsch, its general secretary, is “another society” to be achieved by “evolution, not revolution”. Higher taxes and lower defence spending would bring greater equality.
The party's eastern wing has communist remnants (and a libertarian strain, exemplified by Saxony's Julia Bonk, who favours a “right to get high”). But its leaders have been sobered by proximity to power. In the city of Berlin, the Left Party has abetted austerity measures such as pay cuts for public workers that would be deemed heresy in parts of the SPD. Such decisions show that “we are not merely a fair-weather party,” says Harald Wolf, Berlin's economy minister.
Pragmatism is less evident in the former WASG, which is dominated by the politics of protest. Though less inclined to call themselves socialists, the westerners care less about fiscal responsibility. Lacking experience in power, they are unwilling to get it by compromise. André Brie, an eastern moderniser, recently warned westerners (and some easterners) against “black and white thinking” reminiscent of communist times. The Left Party's democratic credentials are often questioned, but Dan Hough says in a new book* that its leaders are all democrats. The main obstacles to co-operation with the SPD in the west are Mr Lafontaine and the stigma of the party's communist past.
The Left Party's short-term aims are thus modest. In most western states its vote is close to the 5% level needed to get into the legislature. It has already cracked Bremen's and could enter up to three more next year. Even in fertile Duisburg, the SPD's shrunken membership still dwarfs that of the Left Party and it dominates the local media, complains Mr Pietras. Hence the immediate ambition, says Mr Bartsch, “to shift the axis of politics to the left.”
The SPD's troubles suggest this may be happening. That does not guarantee the Left Party a bright future. It could be hurt by a more populist SPD, by greater prosperity (incomes have picked up during the revival of the past two years) or by its own internal contradictions. But it could also evolve into a permanent candidate for coalition with the SPD (and perhaps the Greens), including at federal level. The risk then would be of losing what makes it distinctive. But the SPD's panic may not truly subside until the Left Party becomes a potential partner, not a competitor.
* “The Left Party in Contemporary German Politics”, by Dan Hough, Michael Koss and Jonathan Olsen. Palgrave Macmillan, $74.95 and £50
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Projekt Gutenberg-DE - Kultur - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Projekt Gutenberg-DE - Kultur - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurzer Abriß der Nationalökonomie
Nationalökonomie ist, wenn die Leute sich wundern, warum sie kein Geld haben. Das hat mehrere Gründe, die feinsten sind die wissenschaftlichen Gründe, doch können solche durch Notverordnungen aufgehoben werden. Über die ältere Nationalökonomie kann man ja nur lachen und dürfen wir selbe daher mit Stillschweigen übergehn. Sie regierte von 715 vor Christo bis zum Jahre 1 nach Marx. Seitdem ist die Frage völlig gelöst: die Leute haben zwar immer noch kein Geld, wissen aber wenigstens, warum.
Kurt Tucholsky
Kurzer Abriß der Nationalökonomie
Nationalökonomie ist, wenn die Leute sich wundern, warum sie kein Geld haben. Das hat mehrere Gründe, die feinsten sind die wissenschaftlichen Gründe, doch können solche durch Notverordnungen aufgehoben werden. Über die ältere Nationalökonomie kann man ja nur lachen und dürfen wir selbe daher mit Stillschweigen übergehn. Sie regierte von 715 vor Christo bis zum Jahre 1 nach Marx. Seitdem ist die Frage völlig gelöst: die Leute haben zwar immer noch kein Geld, wissen aber wenigstens, warum.
FTD.de - Handel + Dienstleister - Nachrichten - Bahn fährt harten Kurs
FTD.de - Handel + Dienstleister - Nachrichten - Bahn fährt harten Kurs
Der Konflikt zwischen Lokführern spitzt sich weiter zu: Die Bahn lehnt Zugeständnisse im Tarifstreit mit der Gewerkschaft GDL strikt ab. Auch die Bundesregierung will sich raushalten. Nun erwägen die Lokführer, künftig ohne Vorwarnung zu streiken.
Der Konflikt zwischen Lokführern spitzt sich weiter zu: Die Bahn lehnt Zugeständnisse im Tarifstreit mit der Gewerkschaft GDL strikt ab. Auch die Bundesregierung will sich raushalten. Nun erwägen die Lokführer, künftig ohne Vorwarnung zu streiken.
Merkel: "Es war ein sehr bewegender Moment für mich" | Welt | Deutsche Welle | 06.10.2007
Merkel: "Es war ein sehr bewegender Moment für mich" | Welt | Deutsche Welle | 06.10.2007
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel hat sich nach ihrem ersten persönlichen Treffen mit dem ehemaligen südafrikanischen Präsidenten Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg sichtlich bewegt gezeigt.
Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel hat sich nach ihrem ersten persönlichen Treffen mit dem ehemaligen südafrikanischen Präsidenten Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg sichtlich bewegt gezeigt.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
Barclays gibt Kampf um ABN AMRO auf | Wirtschaft | Deutsche Welle | 05.10.2007
Barclays gibt Kampf um ABN AMRO auf | Wirtschaft | Deutsche Welle | 05.10.2007
Nach einem langen Übernahmekampf hat die britische Großbank Barclays ihr Angebot für den niederländischen Konkurrenten ABN AMRO zurückgezogen. Damit ist der Weg frei für das Konsortium um die Royal Bank of Scotland.
Nach einem langen Übernahmekampf hat die britische Großbank Barclays ihr Angebot für den niederländischen Konkurrenten ABN AMRO zurückgezogen. Damit ist der Weg frei für das Konsortium um die Royal Bank of Scotland.
Friday, October 05, 2007
Ein Chronist deutscher Geschichte | Buch | Deutsche Welle | 05.10.2007
Ein Chronist deutscher Geschichte | Buch | Deutsche Welle | 05.10.2007
Er war einer der beliebtesten und am stärksten verbreiteten deutschen Gegenwartsautoren: der Schriftsteller Walter Kempowski. Er verstarb im Alter von 78 Jahren.
Er war einer der beliebtesten und am stärksten verbreiteten deutschen Gegenwartsautoren: der Schriftsteller Walter Kempowski. Er verstarb im Alter von 78 Jahren.
Thursday, October 04, 2007
Tarifautonomie: Bahn-Streik versetzt Verkehrspolitiker in Alarmstimmung - Wirtschaft - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Tarifautonomie: Bahn-Streik versetzt Verkehrspolitiker in Alarmstimmung - Wirtschaft - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Pendler im Bahn-Chaos, Güterzüge, die ihr Ziel nicht erreichen: Der für Freitag vorgesehene bundesweite Streik der Lokführer schreckt die Verkehrsexperten der Parteien auf. Jetzt mischt sich die Politik in den Arbeitskampf ein - und fordert von den Tarifparteien, endlich Frieden zu schließen.
Pendler im Bahn-Chaos, Güterzüge, die ihr Ziel nicht erreichen: Der für Freitag vorgesehene bundesweite Streik der Lokführer schreckt die Verkehrsexperten der Parteien auf. Jetzt mischt sich die Politik in den Arbeitskampf ein - und fordert von den Tarifparteien, endlich Frieden zu schließen.
Joschka Fischers Buchvorstellung: "Eine Abrechnung sieht anders aus" - Politik - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Joschka Fischers Buchvorstellung: "Eine Abrechnung sieht anders aus" - Politik - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Der selbsternannte letzte Live-Rock'n'Roller der deutschen Politik hat heute sein erstes Soloalbum vorgestellt: Die Memoiren seiner Außenminister-Jahre, Band eins. Joschka Fischer genießt seine neue Rolle als unabhängiger Großkommentator und Elder Statesman.
Der selbsternannte letzte Live-Rock'n'Roller der deutschen Politik hat heute sein erstes Soloalbum vorgestellt: Die Memoiren seiner Außenminister-Jahre, Band eins. Joschka Fischer genießt seine neue Rolle als unabhängiger Großkommentator und Elder Statesman.
Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Kurz vor dem Streik: Bahn-Belegschaft schlägt sich auf Seite der Lokführer - Wirtschaft - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Kurz vor dem Streik: Bahn-Belegschaft schlägt sich auf Seite der Lokführer - Wirtschaft - SPIEGEL ONLINE - Nachrichten
Die Stimmung in der Bahn-Belegschaft kippt: Bisher standen die Lokführer mit ihrer Forderung nach einem eigenen Tarifvertrag ziemlich isoliert da. Doch jetzt solidarisieren sich immer mehr Mitarbeiter mit der Gewerkschaft GDL - aus Ärger über die Konzernleitung.
Die Stimmung in der Bahn-Belegschaft kippt: Bisher standen die Lokführer mit ihrer Forderung nach einem eigenen Tarifvertrag ziemlich isoliert da. Doch jetzt solidarisieren sich immer mehr Mitarbeiter mit der Gewerkschaft GDL - aus Ärger über die Konzernleitung.
FT.com / Companies / Financial services - Deutsche Bank shares rise in spite of losses
FT.com / Companies / Financial services - Deutsche Bank shares rise in spite of losses
Deutsche Bank shares rise in spite of losses
By Chris Hughes and Gillian Tett in London and Ivar Simensen in Frankfurt
Published: October 3 2007 10:08 | Last updated: October 3 2007 10:08
Deutsche Bank on Wednesday became the latest big investment bank to see its shares rise after revealing it had suffered billions of dollars worth of losses in the recent credit turmoil.
In spite of announcing that its investment banking unit would post a third-quarter pre-tax loss of up to €350m, after €2.2bn ($3.1bn) of charges relating to leveraged loans, structured credit products and trading, shares in the German bank closed up 2 per cent as investors welcomed clarification of the extent of its losses.
However, Deutsche also said third-quarter net profits for the group would top €1.4bn, boosted by tax credits. It also reiterated its pre-tax profits target for 2008. However, Jeremy Sigee, analyst at Citi, said the announcement represented a profit warning.
Josef Ackermann, chairman of Deutsche’s management board, said the group saw “substantial opportunities in investment banking after this period of correction”.
The comments were made ahead of an investor conference hosted by Merrill Lynch in London, where Brady Dougan, chief executive of Credit Suisse, echoed Mr Ackermann’s optimism by predicting that his bank could gain market share from rivals once the credit squeeze eased.
Deutsche’s clarification came in the wake of Monday’s profit warnings from rivals Citigroup, UBS and Credit Suisse. These have given investors confidence that the financial cost of the credit crisis is becoming measurable after weeks of uncertainty.
UBS gained 1.4 per cent Wednesday, closing at SFr67.35, while Credit Suisse closed up 1.1 per cent at SFr81.55. US peers including Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase were also up in early trading.
The global sector is up 2.5 per cent this week.
The rally continued against a backdrop of continued weak sentiment in the money markets, in spite of the vast volume of liquidity that central banks have pumped into the system in recent weeks.
Huw van Steenis, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the banks’ disclosure, coupled with expectations of rate cuts, was attracting long-only investors to increase their exposure to banks. This was forcing hedge funds to close short positions.
“The market views the writedowns at the investment banks cathartically,” he said. “UBS’s profit warning was an inflection point for European banks.”
Robert Law, banks analyst at Lehman Brothers, said: “The capital market banks have taken marks on their exposure and that builds confidence.
“One of the biggest issues with the sector has been that people haven’t really known where these exposures are, and how much they are.”
But others questioned the market’s newfound confidence.
Steve Russell, investment director at Ruffer, the London-based asset manager, said: “The worse the news is, the more the market goes up. As uncertainty is reduced, it should make sense to attempt some bottom-fishing – but we think it is far too early to do so.
“The real issue is that a whole area of [capital markets] banking business is now closed off for a long time. There’s a big elephant of a credit crunch around the corner and we haven’t seen anyone adjust their earnings forecasts for that.”
Crispin Odey, founder of Odey Asset Management, the London-based hedge fund, said hedge funds that had bet that banks’ shares would continue to fall were having a ”really painful” week. “Everyone involved in the interbank market can’t believe how strong the equity markets are,” he said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Deutsche Bank shares rise in spite of losses
By Chris Hughes and Gillian Tett in London and Ivar Simensen in Frankfurt
Published: October 3 2007 10:08 | Last updated: October 3 2007 10:08
Deutsche Bank on Wednesday became the latest big investment bank to see its shares rise after revealing it had suffered billions of dollars worth of losses in the recent credit turmoil.
In spite of announcing that its investment banking unit would post a third-quarter pre-tax loss of up to €350m, after €2.2bn ($3.1bn) of charges relating to leveraged loans, structured credit products and trading, shares in the German bank closed up 2 per cent as investors welcomed clarification of the extent of its losses.
However, Deutsche also said third-quarter net profits for the group would top €1.4bn, boosted by tax credits. It also reiterated its pre-tax profits target for 2008. However, Jeremy Sigee, analyst at Citi, said the announcement represented a profit warning.
Josef Ackermann, chairman of Deutsche’s management board, said the group saw “substantial opportunities in investment banking after this period of correction”.
The comments were made ahead of an investor conference hosted by Merrill Lynch in London, where Brady Dougan, chief executive of Credit Suisse, echoed Mr Ackermann’s optimism by predicting that his bank could gain market share from rivals once the credit squeeze eased.
Deutsche’s clarification came in the wake of Monday’s profit warnings from rivals Citigroup, UBS and Credit Suisse. These have given investors confidence that the financial cost of the credit crisis is becoming measurable after weeks of uncertainty.
UBS gained 1.4 per cent Wednesday, closing at SFr67.35, while Credit Suisse closed up 1.1 per cent at SFr81.55. US peers including Merrill Lynch and JPMorgan Chase were also up in early trading.
The global sector is up 2.5 per cent this week.
The rally continued against a backdrop of continued weak sentiment in the money markets, in spite of the vast volume of liquidity that central banks have pumped into the system in recent weeks.
Huw van Steenis, analyst at Morgan Stanley, said the banks’ disclosure, coupled with expectations of rate cuts, was attracting long-only investors to increase their exposure to banks. This was forcing hedge funds to close short positions.
“The market views the writedowns at the investment banks cathartically,” he said. “UBS’s profit warning was an inflection point for European banks.”
Robert Law, banks analyst at Lehman Brothers, said: “The capital market banks have taken marks on their exposure and that builds confidence.
“One of the biggest issues with the sector has been that people haven’t really known where these exposures are, and how much they are.”
But others questioned the market’s newfound confidence.
Steve Russell, investment director at Ruffer, the London-based asset manager, said: “The worse the news is, the more the market goes up. As uncertainty is reduced, it should make sense to attempt some bottom-fishing – but we think it is far too early to do so.
“The real issue is that a whole area of [capital markets] banking business is now closed off for a long time. There’s a big elephant of a credit crunch around the corner and we haven’t seen anyone adjust their earnings forecasts for that.”
Crispin Odey, founder of Odey Asset Management, the London-based hedge fund, said hedge funds that had bet that banks’ shares would continue to fall were having a ”really painful” week. “Everyone involved in the interbank market can’t believe how strong the equity markets are,” he said.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Monday, October 01, 2007
FT.com / Home UK / UK - End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside
FT.com / Home UK / UK - End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside
End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside
By Hugh Williamson in Berlin
Published: October 1 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2007 03:00
An era in German politics ended at the weekend when Edmund Stoiber exited national politics, leaving the future of wealthy Bavaria in the hands of the country's toughest law-and-order -politician.
Mr Stoiber, premier of the southern German state since 1993, was central in building one of Europe's most powerful regional economies, attracting thousands of hi-tech, engineering and media companies and reducing unemployment to half the national average.
Delegates from his Christian Social Union gave him a warm send-off at a weekend congress in Munich even though his departure - first announced in January - was tinged with anger. He was forced to step down earlier than planned after mishandling a scandal and alienating many CSU members.
The 66-year old urged the party to remain the "flag-bearer" in Germany of conservative, pro-family values.
Mr Stoiber - who in national elections in 2002 came within 6,000 votes of toppling former chancellor Gerhard Schröder - is due to take up an unpaid post heading European Union efforts to cut red tape.
He will be replaced as premier by Günther Beckstein, Bavarian interior minister since 1993, who is well known for his regular calls for tougher security laws and tighter controls on -foreigners.
Mr Stoiber handed leadership of the CSU to Erwin Huber, the Bavarian economics minister, who won a rare election run-off for the post, fending off bids from Horst Seehofer, national farming minister, and Gabriele Pauli, whose anti-Stoiber campaign in January triggered his exit.
A smooth political transition in Bavaria is crucial for Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and her Christian Democrats - the CSU's larger sister party - if she is to win re-election in 2009. The CSU regularly gains more than 50 per cent of votes in Bavaria, compared with 30-40 per cent for the CDU, but support dipped this year after the turmoil over Mr Stoiber's departure.
The chancellor praised Mr Stoiber at the CSU congress, but will be relieved that one of her most powerful political irritants has stepped aside.
Mr Beckstein - due to be elected premier on October 9 - promised "continuity" with Mr Stoiber's mix of liberal economic policy and arch-conservative social values.
In the short term any changes will be more in style than substance. Despite his tough image Mr Beckstein has a more genial, inclusive approach than the austere Mr Stoiber, who lacks Bavaria's famous joviality. Mr Huber, a former tax inspector seen as competent but uncharismatic, promised to retain the CSU's absolute majority, in place since 1962, in state elections next year.
In the longer term the two men - rivals until a few months ago - may struggle to maintain Mr Stoiber's impressive record. His decisions in recent years to sell off most of the state's assets and introduce long-term austerity measures leave them with only limited room for manoeuvre. Mr Stoiber's pledge, only days before stepping down, that Bavaria would help build a high-tech rail link from Munich airport to the centre of the regional capital could also prove costly.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
End of an era in Germany as Stoiber steps aside
By Hugh Williamson in Berlin
Published: October 1 2007 03:00 | Last updated: October 1 2007 03:00
An era in German politics ended at the weekend when Edmund Stoiber exited national politics, leaving the future of wealthy Bavaria in the hands of the country's toughest law-and-order -politician.
Mr Stoiber, premier of the southern German state since 1993, was central in building one of Europe's most powerful regional economies, attracting thousands of hi-tech, engineering and media companies and reducing unemployment to half the national average.
Delegates from his Christian Social Union gave him a warm send-off at a weekend congress in Munich even though his departure - first announced in January - was tinged with anger. He was forced to step down earlier than planned after mishandling a scandal and alienating many CSU members.
The 66-year old urged the party to remain the "flag-bearer" in Germany of conservative, pro-family values.
Mr Stoiber - who in national elections in 2002 came within 6,000 votes of toppling former chancellor Gerhard Schröder - is due to take up an unpaid post heading European Union efforts to cut red tape.
He will be replaced as premier by Günther Beckstein, Bavarian interior minister since 1993, who is well known for his regular calls for tougher security laws and tighter controls on -foreigners.
Mr Stoiber handed leadership of the CSU to Erwin Huber, the Bavarian economics minister, who won a rare election run-off for the post, fending off bids from Horst Seehofer, national farming minister, and Gabriele Pauli, whose anti-Stoiber campaign in January triggered his exit.
A smooth political transition in Bavaria is crucial for Angela Merkel, German chancellor, and her Christian Democrats - the CSU's larger sister party - if she is to win re-election in 2009. The CSU regularly gains more than 50 per cent of votes in Bavaria, compared with 30-40 per cent for the CDU, but support dipped this year after the turmoil over Mr Stoiber's departure.
The chancellor praised Mr Stoiber at the CSU congress, but will be relieved that one of her most powerful political irritants has stepped aside.
Mr Beckstein - due to be elected premier on October 9 - promised "continuity" with Mr Stoiber's mix of liberal economic policy and arch-conservative social values.
In the short term any changes will be more in style than substance. Despite his tough image Mr Beckstein has a more genial, inclusive approach than the austere Mr Stoiber, who lacks Bavaria's famous joviality. Mr Huber, a former tax inspector seen as competent but uncharismatic, promised to retain the CSU's absolute majority, in place since 1962, in state elections next year.
In the longer term the two men - rivals until a few months ago - may struggle to maintain Mr Stoiber's impressive record. His decisions in recent years to sell off most of the state's assets and introduce long-term austerity measures leave them with only limited room for manoeuvre. Mr Stoiber's pledge, only days before stepping down, that Bavaria would help build a high-tech rail link from Munich airport to the centre of the regional capital could also prove costly.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Thursday, September 27, 2007
FTD.de - Finanzdienstleister - Nachrichten - Experte rechnet mit Milliarden-Abschreibung bei Merrill Lynch
FTD.de - Finanzdienstleister - Nachrichten - Experte rechnet mit Milliarden-Abschreibung bei Merrill Lynch
Der US-Investmentbank Merrill Lynch droht nach Ansicht eines Analysten von Goldman Sachs im dritten Quartal ein Verlust im Anleihegeschäft in Höhe von 1,5 Mrd. $. Schuld daran ist auch die Subprime-Krise.
Der US-Investmentbank Merrill Lynch droht nach Ansicht eines Analysten von Goldman Sachs im dritten Quartal ein Verlust im Anleihegeschäft in Höhe von 1,5 Mrd. $. Schuld daran ist auch die Subprime-Krise.
FTD.de - Deutschland - Nachrichten - Was in Deutschland teurer wird
FTD.de - Deutschland - Nachrichten - Was in Deutschland teurer wird
Nicht nur die niedrigen Nettolöhne schränken den finanziellen Spielraum vieler Bundesbürger ein. Die Ausgaben des täglichen Lebens steigen derzeit deutlich. Das gilt nicht nur fürs Einkaufen und Bahnfahren.
Nicht nur die niedrigen Nettolöhne schränken den finanziellen Spielraum vieler Bundesbürger ein. Die Ausgaben des täglichen Lebens steigen derzeit deutlich. Das gilt nicht nur fürs Einkaufen und Bahnfahren.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
FT.com / Companies / Europe - Berlin takes slow train
FT.com / Companies / Europe - Berlin takes slow train
Berlin takes slow train
By Paul Betts
Published: September 26 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 26 2007 03:00
Deutsche Bahn set off towards privatisation a decade or so ago. It has been a long and tiring journey. But this summer it looked as if the German railway was reaching its destination when the cabinet approved the bill to sell off up to 49 per cent of the state company.
Yet like autumn leaves on the lines, politicians from left and right are creating obstructions that risk derailing the process.
Parliament has started debating the bill partially to privatise the train operator and giving it the right to operate the rail network, but the final vote will only take place next year.
Some socialist members of Angela Merkel's grand coalition are raising objections to the partial sale to institutional investors. They are suggesting that if the sale does take place it should be directed entirely to small German shareholders. They would be granted non-voting shares paying a hefty coupon. This would keep the railway firmly in state hands.
Some members of Ms Merkel's rightwing CDU party are rallying behind their leftwing coalition partners, for reasons of their own. They are not so much opposed to the partial sale, but do not like the idea of privatising the train operator as well as the rail network. The problem is that splitting the operator and the network, which would remain wholly state-owned, would make any sale difficult, given that what attracts international funds and infrastructure companies is the idea of investing in an integrated railway group.
A number of regions have joined the debate, making it clear they do not like the sell-off and will do all they can to block it.
Ms Merkel has so far remained on the fence. But she can hardly keep quiet over such an important policy decision designed to show Germany's free-market credentials. Allowing the politicians, after all these years, to sabotage this partial privatisation would send an uncomfortable signal to the international investment community and Germany's European partners.
It would make other future privatisations - the government's remaining 32 per cent in Deutsche Telekom, its 30 per cent stake in the post office, airports, eventually even motorways - more complicated. Worse, it would highlight the country's continued protectionist instincts and doubtless undermine Ms Merkel's own position.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Berlin takes slow train
By Paul Betts
Published: September 26 2007 03:00 | Last updated: September 26 2007 03:00
Deutsche Bahn set off towards privatisation a decade or so ago. It has been a long and tiring journey. But this summer it looked as if the German railway was reaching its destination when the cabinet approved the bill to sell off up to 49 per cent of the state company.
Yet like autumn leaves on the lines, politicians from left and right are creating obstructions that risk derailing the process.
Parliament has started debating the bill partially to privatise the train operator and giving it the right to operate the rail network, but the final vote will only take place next year.
Some socialist members of Angela Merkel's grand coalition are raising objections to the partial sale to institutional investors. They are suggesting that if the sale does take place it should be directed entirely to small German shareholders. They would be granted non-voting shares paying a hefty coupon. This would keep the railway firmly in state hands.
Some members of Ms Merkel's rightwing CDU party are rallying behind their leftwing coalition partners, for reasons of their own. They are not so much opposed to the partial sale, but do not like the idea of privatising the train operator as well as the rail network. The problem is that splitting the operator and the network, which would remain wholly state-owned, would make any sale difficult, given that what attracts international funds and infrastructure companies is the idea of investing in an integrated railway group.
A number of regions have joined the debate, making it clear they do not like the sell-off and will do all they can to block it.
Ms Merkel has so far remained on the fence. But she can hardly keep quiet over such an important policy decision designed to show Germany's free-market credentials. Allowing the politicians, after all these years, to sabotage this partial privatisation would send an uncomfortable signal to the international investment community and Germany's European partners.
It would make other future privatisations - the government's remaining 32 per cent in Deutsche Telekom, its 30 per cent stake in the post office, airports, eventually even motorways - more complicated. Worse, it would highlight the country's continued protectionist instincts and doubtless undermine Ms Merkel's own position.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The Weimar Republic | The best and the worst | Economist.com
The Weimar Republic | The best and the worst | Economist.com
The Weimar Republic
The best and the worst
Sep 20th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy
By Eric D. Weitz
Princeton University Press; 448 pages; $29.95 and £17.95
Buy it at
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
NEARLY a century has passed but the Janus face of the Weimar Republic appals and attracts as much as ever. On the one side, hyperinflation, mass unemployment and political assassination; on the other, dazzling creativity in the arts and sciences—not to mention myriad forms of nightlife to suit every taste, however odd. It was indeed, as Dickens said of the French revolution, the best of times and the worst of times, the spring of hope and the winter of despair.
Did Germany's convulsive experiment with democracy between 1919 and 1933 ever stand a real chance? One might well think not. Born in chaos after the slaughter of a war lost through what many Germans wrongly construed as a “stab in the back”, the fledgling republic was hamstrung from the start. It concocted a “perfect” constitution that gave as much scope to its foes as to its friends, and it was saddled by vengeful victors with reparations demands that were all but impossible to meet. Towards the end of the republic's life, one-third of the labour force was jobless. When Hitler's matchless ability to tap resentment and hatred is added to this poisonous mix, Weimar's plunge into dictatorship looks to have been inevitable.
Or was it? The real wonder is not that Weimar failed but that it lasted as long as it did—longer, after all, than the 12 years of Hitler's “1,000-year Reich”. For a while, from 1924 when the currency was stabilised (or rather re-invented) and the economy recovered, it even seemed to be succeeding against all the odds. In the 1928 general election, extremists of left and right were trounced and the Nazis in particular were close to despair—until, that is, the Wall Street crash and subsequent depression gave them a new, finally decisive boost. Through all these peaks and troughs, writers and artists and composers and the rest, as though rightly aware time was not on their side, flung out one formidable modern classic after another.
The literature on Weimar is immense, but we could well do with a single, authoritative, jargon-free volume that pulls all the strands together. Eric Weitz, a professor at the University of Minnesota, has made a valiant stab at producing one, but he does not quite succeed. He is a reliable guide through Weimar's political and economic maze, and a good one on the social revolution that made many women (far from all) less dependent on husband, hearth and home. In one of his best chapters, Mr Weitz takes us on a ramble through the sleepless metropolis of 1920s Berlin: from the glittering cafés around Potsdamer Platz to Isherwood's cabarets and seedy bars, from the bracing beaches of Wannsee Lake to the dank and stifling dwellings of the workers' quarter, Wedding.
The author's touch is less sure when he turns to literature and music. Naturally Mr Weitz had to be selective: but does it, for instance, make sense to devote six pages alone to Thomas Mann's “Der Zauberberg” and next to nothing to the bitterly satirical work of Thomas's elder brother Heinrich, who better saw where Weimar was stumbling? No quarrels with the choice of the Brecht/Weill “Die Dreigroschenoper” as a Weimar work par excellence; but there is next to nothing on Schönberg (who spent 1925-33 in Berlin) nor on Berg or Krenek, nor on the Kroll Opera House, which under Klemperer and Zemlinsky presented Weimar's—perhaps the world's—most daring repertoire and stagings. Nor will fans of the peerless Berlin Philharmonic easily forgive Mr Weitz for identifying their orchestra as the (more lowly) Berlin Symphony.
More seriously, Mr Weitz's account badly lacks a context. We learn much about the (astonishing) development of social security under Weimar, about seething anti-Semitism and diplomatic blunders. What we lack is a scene-setting chapter explaining the background to all these things. Nor is enough sketched about life in other great European cities to explain what made Weimar unique. Were women less liberated in London, were artists less bold in Paris? Why was the political left bitterly split in Germany but not in Austria, which had lost not just a war but an empire?
Whatever the flaws, this remains an often gripping (and splendidly illustrated) work from which two main lessons can be drawn. One is how quickly democracy can slip away. In 1928 the Nazis won just 2.6% of the vote; five years later Hitler was in power. The other, which Mr Weitz rams home in his last pages, is how often democracy is under most threat not from enemies abroad but from those who use its institutions and claim to speak in its name. These lessons are hardly new. But they are well worth stressing at a time when, in the name of the fight against international terrorism, individual liberties in democratic societies are being steadily curtailed.
Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy
By Eric D. Weitz
Princeton University Press; 448 pages; $29.95 and £17.95
The Weimar Republic
The best and the worst
Sep 20th 2007
From The Economist print edition
Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy
By Eric D. Weitz
Princeton University Press; 448 pages; $29.95 and £17.95
Buy it at
Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk
NEARLY a century has passed but the Janus face of the Weimar Republic appals and attracts as much as ever. On the one side, hyperinflation, mass unemployment and political assassination; on the other, dazzling creativity in the arts and sciences—not to mention myriad forms of nightlife to suit every taste, however odd. It was indeed, as Dickens said of the French revolution, the best of times and the worst of times, the spring of hope and the winter of despair.
Did Germany's convulsive experiment with democracy between 1919 and 1933 ever stand a real chance? One might well think not. Born in chaos after the slaughter of a war lost through what many Germans wrongly construed as a “stab in the back”, the fledgling republic was hamstrung from the start. It concocted a “perfect” constitution that gave as much scope to its foes as to its friends, and it was saddled by vengeful victors with reparations demands that were all but impossible to meet. Towards the end of the republic's life, one-third of the labour force was jobless. When Hitler's matchless ability to tap resentment and hatred is added to this poisonous mix, Weimar's plunge into dictatorship looks to have been inevitable.
Or was it? The real wonder is not that Weimar failed but that it lasted as long as it did—longer, after all, than the 12 years of Hitler's “1,000-year Reich”. For a while, from 1924 when the currency was stabilised (or rather re-invented) and the economy recovered, it even seemed to be succeeding against all the odds. In the 1928 general election, extremists of left and right were trounced and the Nazis in particular were close to despair—until, that is, the Wall Street crash and subsequent depression gave them a new, finally decisive boost. Through all these peaks and troughs, writers and artists and composers and the rest, as though rightly aware time was not on their side, flung out one formidable modern classic after another.
The literature on Weimar is immense, but we could well do with a single, authoritative, jargon-free volume that pulls all the strands together. Eric Weitz, a professor at the University of Minnesota, has made a valiant stab at producing one, but he does not quite succeed. He is a reliable guide through Weimar's political and economic maze, and a good one on the social revolution that made many women (far from all) less dependent on husband, hearth and home. In one of his best chapters, Mr Weitz takes us on a ramble through the sleepless metropolis of 1920s Berlin: from the glittering cafés around Potsdamer Platz to Isherwood's cabarets and seedy bars, from the bracing beaches of Wannsee Lake to the dank and stifling dwellings of the workers' quarter, Wedding.
The author's touch is less sure when he turns to literature and music. Naturally Mr Weitz had to be selective: but does it, for instance, make sense to devote six pages alone to Thomas Mann's “Der Zauberberg” and next to nothing to the bitterly satirical work of Thomas's elder brother Heinrich, who better saw where Weimar was stumbling? No quarrels with the choice of the Brecht/Weill “Die Dreigroschenoper” as a Weimar work par excellence; but there is next to nothing on Schönberg (who spent 1925-33 in Berlin) nor on Berg or Krenek, nor on the Kroll Opera House, which under Klemperer and Zemlinsky presented Weimar's—perhaps the world's—most daring repertoire and stagings. Nor will fans of the peerless Berlin Philharmonic easily forgive Mr Weitz for identifying their orchestra as the (more lowly) Berlin Symphony.
More seriously, Mr Weitz's account badly lacks a context. We learn much about the (astonishing) development of social security under Weimar, about seething anti-Semitism and diplomatic blunders. What we lack is a scene-setting chapter explaining the background to all these things. Nor is enough sketched about life in other great European cities to explain what made Weimar unique. Were women less liberated in London, were artists less bold in Paris? Why was the political left bitterly split in Germany but not in Austria, which had lost not just a war but an empire?
Whatever the flaws, this remains an often gripping (and splendidly illustrated) work from which two main lessons can be drawn. One is how quickly democracy can slip away. In 1928 the Nazis won just 2.6% of the vote; five years later Hitler was in power. The other, which Mr Weitz rams home in his last pages, is how often democracy is under most threat not from enemies abroad but from those who use its institutions and claim to speak in its name. These lessons are hardly new. But they are well worth stressing at a time when, in the name of the fight against international terrorism, individual liberties in democratic societies are being steadily curtailed.
Weimar Germany: Promise and Tragedy
By Eric D. Weitz
Princeton University Press; 448 pages; $29.95 and £17.95
Monday, September 17, 2007
FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy
FT.com / Companies / US & Canada - Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy
Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy
By Reuters, September 17
Deutsche Telekom’s mobile phone division T-Mobile USA has agreed to buy SunCom Wireless Holdings for about $1.6bn, the companies said on Monday.
Deutsche Telekom said in a statement it would also take on SunCom debt of almost $800m and it saw synergies from the transaction of about $1bn.
SunCom shareholders will receive $27 a share, a 22.7 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price, the companies said.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2008.
SunCom, founded in 1999, operates in the south-eastern US and in the Caribbean. It had more than 1.1m customers by the end of June and posted first-half revenue of $242.5m.
The acquisition will further enhance T-Mobile’s network coverage through the addition of SunCom’s markets and customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, Deutsche Telekom said.
”With the acquisition of SunCom, we will continue to implement our strategy to `grow abroad with mobile’, which is part of our overall group strategy,” said Rene Obermann, chief executive.
Mr Obermann said in March he would pursue acquisitions in the mobile phone sector, which is expected to see continued growth.
Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest operator measured by sales, last month won permission from the European Commission for its T-Mobile Netherlands unit to buy the Dutch unit of rival France Telecom’s Orange division.
© Reuters Limited Click for restrictions
Deutsche Telekom in $1.6bn US buy
By Reuters, September 17
Deutsche Telekom’s mobile phone division T-Mobile USA has agreed to buy SunCom Wireless Holdings for about $1.6bn, the companies said on Monday.
Deutsche Telekom said in a statement it would also take on SunCom debt of almost $800m and it saw synergies from the transaction of about $1bn.
SunCom shareholders will receive $27 a share, a 22.7 per cent premium to Friday’s closing price, the companies said.
The deal is expected to close in the first half of 2008.
SunCom, founded in 1999, operates in the south-eastern US and in the Caribbean. It had more than 1.1m customers by the end of June and posted first-half revenue of $242.5m.
The acquisition will further enhance T-Mobile’s network coverage through the addition of SunCom’s markets and customers in North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands, Deutsche Telekom said.
”With the acquisition of SunCom, we will continue to implement our strategy to `grow abroad with mobile’, which is part of our overall group strategy,” said Rene Obermann, chief executive.
Mr Obermann said in March he would pursue acquisitions in the mobile phone sector, which is expected to see continued growth.
Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest operator measured by sales, last month won permission from the European Commission for its T-Mobile Netherlands unit to buy the Dutch unit of rival France Telecom’s Orange division.
© Reuters Limited Click for restrictions
FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - Deutsche Telekom buys US operator
FT.com / Companies / Telecoms - Deutsche Telekom buys US operator
Deutsche Telekom buys US operator
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt
Published: September 17 2007 20:54 | Last updated: September 17 2007 20:54
Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telephone group, underlined its determination to do business in the US on Monday by paying $2.4bn for SunCom Wireless, a mobile phone operator in south-east US.
In the spring, René Obermann, DT chief executive, pledged to expand DT’s T-Mobile in existing markets, including the US, in response to falling sales in its domestic fixed-line business.
In June, DT agreed to buy France Telecom’s Dutch mobile unit for €1.3bn ($1.8bn), a move pending approval from Orange Netherlands’ works council.
The Bonn-based company has been shaken by client flight in Germany as customers ditch old-style phone connections for broadband and mobile phones – services DT rivals have been able to offer far more cheaply.
DT’s two largest shareholders, the German government with 32 per cent and Blackstone private equity with 5 per cent, in November installed Mr Obermann to push through cost cuts and shepherd growth abroad.
In the acquisition of SunCom, T-Mobile USA will pay $1.6bn in cash and assume $800m in debt in order to boost its client base by 1.1m to more than 28m. This represents about one quarter of T-Mobile’s 113m-plus customers worldwide.
Instead of relying on roaming agreements, T-Mobile will now be able to serve directly customers in four south-eastern states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – and so gain access to 98 of the top 100 markets in the country.
However, this will do little to close the gap on T-Mobile’s three larger US rivals, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, which have been buying regional US service providers. AT&T has 61m customers, more than twice the number that T-Mobile USA will have after this deal.
Mr Obermann has said that the US can stomach a fourth player, especially one stressing service rather than size. “This acquisition will fit perfectly with our strategy to grow abroad with mobile,” he said in a statement.
DT agreed to pay SunCom investors $27 per share, 23 per cent more than the stock’s closing price on Friday. The US company’s share price leapt 17 per cent at the start of US trading to settle at about $26 level in mid-morning trade on Monday. DT’s share price was flat at €13.70.
DT took a close look at Telecom Italia’s mobile unit TIM when it almost went on sale last year – but Mr Obermann has stressed DT’s current focus on curing its domestic ills.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
Deutsche Telekom buys US operator
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Frankfurt
Published: September 17 2007 20:54 | Last updated: September 17 2007 20:54
Deutsche Telekom, Europe’s largest telephone group, underlined its determination to do business in the US on Monday by paying $2.4bn for SunCom Wireless, a mobile phone operator in south-east US.
In the spring, René Obermann, DT chief executive, pledged to expand DT’s T-Mobile in existing markets, including the US, in response to falling sales in its domestic fixed-line business.
In June, DT agreed to buy France Telecom’s Dutch mobile unit for €1.3bn ($1.8bn), a move pending approval from Orange Netherlands’ works council.
The Bonn-based company has been shaken by client flight in Germany as customers ditch old-style phone connections for broadband and mobile phones – services DT rivals have been able to offer far more cheaply.
DT’s two largest shareholders, the German government with 32 per cent and Blackstone private equity with 5 per cent, in November installed Mr Obermann to push through cost cuts and shepherd growth abroad.
In the acquisition of SunCom, T-Mobile USA will pay $1.6bn in cash and assume $800m in debt in order to boost its client base by 1.1m to more than 28m. This represents about one quarter of T-Mobile’s 113m-plus customers worldwide.
Instead of relying on roaming agreements, T-Mobile will now be able to serve directly customers in four south-eastern states, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands – and so gain access to 98 of the top 100 markets in the country.
However, this will do little to close the gap on T-Mobile’s three larger US rivals, AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel, which have been buying regional US service providers. AT&T has 61m customers, more than twice the number that T-Mobile USA will have after this deal.
Mr Obermann has said that the US can stomach a fourth player, especially one stressing service rather than size. “This acquisition will fit perfectly with our strategy to grow abroad with mobile,” he said in a statement.
DT agreed to pay SunCom investors $27 per share, 23 per cent more than the stock’s closing price on Friday. The US company’s share price leapt 17 per cent at the start of US trading to settle at about $26 level in mid-morning trade on Monday. DT’s share price was flat at €13.70.
DT took a close look at Telecom Italia’s mobile unit TIM when it almost went on sale last year – but Mr Obermann has stressed DT’s current focus on curing its domestic ills.
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007
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