Articles about Economy

You Ought not Insult Foreigners!

Sarrazin, a manager of the German Central Bank, has lost his responsibility after having insulted foreign people in Germany. He said that Turks would take over Germany by procreating and that most Turks and Arabs would not be productive with exception of selling fruits and vegetables.

His comments have led to protests of other people resulting in his removal from parts of the management board. However, Sarrazin is still responsible for two sections: IT and risk-controlling.

I do not really understand how he could say something like this in an interview. Something like this could maybe happen when you are in a private talk, but you usually think about your statements more accurately talking with media. I do not want to say that insulting foreigners is OK, but of course talking with friends something stupid could just slip out. Yet, this is not allegeable in interviews!

Introduction of Personalized e-Mail System?

The German state wants to introduce a personalized e-mail system. This would mean that you could create an e-mail account at certified providers connected with your identity card. Germany is hoping to enable legally binding online communication.

Many computer freaks around me say that this was a stupid idea, because they are afraid that the state could observe their messages by cooperating with the providers (who should encrypt the data, but they could give the unencrypted data to the state). A more important argument is that there are already free and open source encryption and signing methods (GnuPG) and some are afraid that you could be forced to buy such an account if enough companies require it.

On the one hand I (personally) like the idea of being able to send legally binding emails, but on the other hand I prefer open solutions, e.g. normal e-mail provider and free encryption method. Deutsche Post once wanted to introduce a lifetime e-mail address, but they had to give up. Now they want to compete against the secure e-mail system of the state. For this reason I am not really sure if the new project will work as desired.

Buyout or Expropriation?

A congress of the German bank Hypo Real Estate (HRE) has taken place on October 5, 2009. The state, currently holding 90% of the stocks, wants to take over the bank to rebuild it on its own. The Hypo Real Estate had the most problems in Germany due to the financial crisis. Therefore the state has offered a lot of financial help which should not be wasted now.

Investors fighting for their stocks

Many investors now say that this was illegal expropriation, because it is based on a special law for this case. It was passed in February to take over HRE in the financial crisis. Normally small investors may only be dropped when 95% of the investors agree, but in this case 90% are enough (due to the special law). Investors owning 94.73% of the capital have agreed and therefore the rest now has to sell the stocks for 1.30€ per stock having bought them for more than 40€ sometimes.

Investors came to the congress with signs to demonstrate against the intervention of the state. They want to have at least a right to rebuy their stocks if the share price will rise again. Their hope are suits at court, if needed up to the European Court of Justice.

Legal notice

The image Money Grab was taken by Steve Wampler.

Biggest Health Insurance to be Founded

Germany's biggest health insurance will probably be founded within the next days by combining Barmer (6.9 million customers) and GEK (1.7 million customers). The newly created company will then have 8.6 million customers which even exceeds the 7.3 millions of TK (Technicians' Insurance).

It will, however, be another question if the fusion really is of any use for the customers or if there will be acts of so called optimization leading to worse support and less indemnification.

International Motor Show in Frankfurt

Currently, the International Motor Show (Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung) takes place in Germany. News reports say that it was not as big anymore as it had been in the past. Some exhibitors from Asia had not not come this year and the numbers of visitors were also expected to decrease.

Most exhibitors on the IAA (that's the official abbreviation of the exhibition also taken in international context) want to show that they produce ecological cars. Yet, environmentalists say that they do not try hard enough. They only did as if they were very green, but at the same time they tried to keep their old concepts.

The IAA is visited by people from all over the world reaching about 1.000.000 people (2005: 940.000). This year it takes place from September 17 until 27.