The deluxe DVD features a helpful presenter’s pack and live segments by Chris (
http://www.e24.se/makro/varlden/merkel-morkar-tyska-trubblet_2853531.e24
This is copy/paste and google translated from the link above.
There are always the winners who write history. When the smoke from the burnt-out wrecks of state finances as Greece and Ireland are spreading across Europe, it is easy to forget how it all began. There was a time when almost all EU countries felt it was important to follow the rule book. Even the section of the budget deficit must not exceed 3 percent of GDP was taken seriously. One of the most vocal proponents of strict budgetary discipline was Germany. At least until the country itself began to break the rule in the early 2000s. Today, respect for this fiscal traffic light was zero. Last year, only Finland and Luxembourg of the Euro countries that stayed on the right side of the law. Today the roles are reversed to say the least. Angela Merkel has become the euro neighborhood pawnshop lady there luspanka neighbors turning to mortgage future generations in exchange for new emergency liquidity assistance. In return for saving countries such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal, Germany has insisted that they must learn to household economy, ABC, for example, expenditure must not be greater than revenue. Among others, Angela Merkel has proposed that the EU introduces a new system with a kind of "debt brake" to prevent wasteful countries to borrow more money even in a pinch. The model is the system that Germany itself has set its own state government and to eliminate all deficits by 2020. The problem is that it does not appear to work even at home. The other week, overshadowed by the debate surrounding Greece's potential bankruptcy, the news came that Germany has decided to launch an economic point guard of four states that despite the tough new rules continue to show deficits. The measure is unique because the Länder, or federal states as the units in Germany, has a high degree of autonomy. When it comes to collecting taxes, they certainly are tied by federal regulations. However, it has been freedom to borrow money. They have also done on a massive scale over the past decade. Several of the German states are as large borrowers as some European countries. The most populous, North Rhine-Westphalia with 18 million inhabitants, has an equally large outstanding debt to Portugal and Ireland. Several are also severely indebted. Little Bremen with barely 700,000 inhabitants has a debt per citizen at 27 000 euros, on a par with Greece. We often talk of the poor finances of the largest U.S. state of California. But where the corresponding debt only 5 percent of national GDP. Almost all German states is several times higher. In Berlin, the figure is 65 percent. The poor regions is dependent on a steady stream of money from his wealthy and more well-behaved state neighbors, exactly the kind of contribution Union that German politicians are trying to fight in Europe. At the local level, in Germany's municipalities, the situation is in some places even worse. Europe's richest country can hold hundreds of mini-Greece, said recently the British magazine The Economist. All this has contributed to the debt for all of Germany surged to a record level of 80 per cent of GDP. It is certainly lower than in many other countries in Europe, but the problems pile up with a population that is aging. If the cost of future pensions and medical care included are Germany's real national debt 250 percent of GDP, some economists argue. Although the Germans learn words sooner or later be forced to prepare themselves for tougher times, although it right now looks brighter than ever with a German export industry that turns sales records to sell records. Even more troubling to Angela Merkel is the German banks. Here too the provinces play a key role, since they own more of the very shaky most financial houses that were saved from bankruptcy in the financial crisis. Nordea chairman Wahlroos has gone so far that he called the German banking system insolvent and the worst in Europe. The German think tank DIW German banks have assets at a staggering 7600 billion, three times Germany's GDP, but only a paltry 350 billion in equity. Even more nervous, it will be to discover that these banks lent a total of 230 billion to corporate and government borrowers in crisis countries, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain. Then still enormous assets removed from the banks and put in state-controlled sopupplag of stinky problem loans, where the German taxpayers may bear the losses. Every time it warned of a new banking crisis in Europe, Angela Merkel is every reason to start squirming and flat with her eyes. Perhaps that is why she is the last week seems to have swung and is ready to once again send a new round of money to Greece, without requiring that the banks are sitting on the Greek government should be forced to swallow the losses. The longer the grim poker party on the future of the euro going on, the clearer it becomes that the losers are many and the winners get. Even the richest player sits with half shabby cows
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