My aunt sent me this article on MONKEY BUSINESS last week--the very week that the German government set a record for the bailout package for a single bank, namely the German Commerz(Commerce)Bank. The cost to German tax payers is 18,000,000,000 Euros.
Many Germans are not happy with this fact, especially since many of the Commerz Bank actors are too cozy with the government--just like in the USA´s situation in October.
This article on the boondoggle of bank bailouts around the globe these two years (2008-2009) can be found here,
however, no known author is given. Here is the nursery tale:
MONKEY BUSINESS METAPHOR
Once upon a time a man appeared in a village and announced to the villagers that he would buy monkeys for $10 each.
The villagers, knowing there were many monkeys, went to the forest and started catching them. The man bought thousands at $10 and, as supply started to diminish, the villagers stopped their effort.
He then announced that he would buy monkeys at $20 each. This renewed the villagers efforts and they started catching monkeys again.
Soon the supply diminished and people started going back to their farms. The offer increased to $25 each and the supply of monkeys became so scarce it was an effort to even find a monkey, let alone catch it!
The man now announced that he would buy monkeys at $50 each! However, since he had to go to the city on some business, his assistant would buy on his behalf.
The assistant told the villagers, "Look at all these monkeys in the big cage that my boss has already collected. I will sell them to you at $35 and when my boss returns, you can sell them to him for $50."
The villagers rounded up all their savings and bought all the monkeys for 700 billion dollars.
They never saw the man or his assistant again, only lots and lots of monkeys!
Now you have a better understanding of how the WALL STREET BAILOUT PLAN WORKS !!!
It doesn't get much clearer than this........
HESSEN; GERMANY JANUARY 18, 2008
Tomorrow in Frankfurt, Wiesbaden and in the whole Bundesland (State of Hessen) in Germany voters will have there first chance to respond to the federal government in Germany´s largesse to the financial sector after spending years cutting spending on welfare--sounds like America.
I would bet money (the government's money of course) that both the Green Party and the Links Party do better than ever in Hessen in the elections tomorrow. Hessen on January 18, 2009 is the first of a series of major state elections in Germany which will later culminate in a national election (probably at the end of September 2009)
Here are what newspapers are saying about tomorrows vote--as over 40% of the voters remain undecided.
NOTES ON MAJOR PARTIES
The following web links provide fairly up-to-date info on the five major parties: CDU/CSU, SPD, Die Linke (The Left), The Greens, and FDP.
