Sunday, March 21, 2010

Profits = Bombs, According to German Government

"Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Bundestag on March
16 that the country may have to consider ordering 'intelligence agencies to
set up surveillance of who is getting together with whom for which kinds of
speculative processes, and where' to protect the euro...Intelligence
agencies could use techniques honed in the fight against money laundering
and terrorist funding if they wanted, said Vanessa Rossi, a senior research
fellow in the international economics program at London’s Chatham House.
'Within continental Europe there are those that do think that financial
speculators are sort of terrorists,' said Rossi. 'In their lexicon it is
economic terrorism, so they may view this as more serious than the U.S. or
U.K....'
“I find it sinister and silly, it is a complete overreaction,” said Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform, a pro-European Union research institute in London. “There is a certain school of thought in continental Europe that everything is always the fault of hedge funds.” Schaeuble’s comments reflected “a longstanding paranoia about the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism.”
" [Bloomberg]

I guess the mistake was having the East come over to the West. Apparently, the German gov is now going to restore the glory days of the Deutsche Demokratische Republik. Now THOSE folks knew how to prevent terrorist acts like free speech, travel, and profits. "Erich Honecker, table for 1! Herr Honecker, your table is ready!"

Of course, this view of profits is hardly new. There was that Schicklgruber guy*, who said, "Gold is not neccesary. I have no interest in gold. We will build a solid state, without an ounce of gold behind it. Anyone who sells above the set prices, let him be marched off to a concentration camp. That's the bastion of money."

*Okay, his name was Hitler, never Schicklgruber. That's an urban legend, it appears.

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