Poor in the City: Urban Poverty on the Rise in Germany

Poor in the City: Urban Poverty on the Rise in Germany: Germany is weathering the economic crisis across Europe relatively well in comparison to its southern neighbors. Yet the prosperity appears to be leaving a large section of the country behind, as a recent study finds urban poverty to be growing at an alarming rate.

Researchers Emphasize the Need to Monitor Rivers for Triclosan

Researchers Emphasize the Need to Monitor Rivers for Triclosan: Ever heard of triclosan? As an antibacterial and antifungal agent, it is used in everything from toothpaste, to soaps, socks and trash bags. While the US Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the European Union all regulate triclosan, the chemical is not monitored and often gets absorbed into sewage sludge after wastewater treatment. Researchers from Germany and Slovakia are claiming that triclosan is harmful to the ecology of rivers and are calling for further monitoring of the chemical. After monitoring the Elbe river basin, concentrations of the chemical at various test sites were found to exceed the predicted no-effect concentration for algal communities. From the 500 river basin-specific pollutants investigated, triclosan ranked sixth as one of the most particularly harmful substances in Europe.

Germany pushes for free trade with India

Germany pushes for free trade with India: German Economics Minister Philipp Rösler has urged India to reconsider its reservations about a free trade zone with the European Union. The topic is high on the agenda of a German industry meeting in New Delhi.

Big Jump In German Retail Sales

Big Jump In German Retail Sales:

German retail sales jumped 1.5 percent in September, blowing past expectations for a 0.3 percent gain according to Bloomberg.
Markets are rallying around the world.
Germany's DAX is up a solid 0.7 percent.

Berlusconi and 15 Other Convicted Heads of State

Berlusconi and 15 Other Convicted Heads of State:

Silvio Berlusconi at a press conference in Rome, June 2000. (Abriel Bouys/AFP/Getty Images)

After fighting numerous criminal allegations and court trials for two decades, former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was found guilty of tax fraud Friday.

A Milan court accused him of purchasing film rights at inflated prices from companies also under his control in order to evade taxes. Should the sentence be upheld by a higher court, the media mogul will have to serve a prison sentence and will be barred from holding any public office.
Berlusconi joins a growing group of former prime ministers and presidents who have been indicted, tried, or even convicted.
A 2009 book, “Prosecuting Heads of State,” diagnosed a “meteoritic rise of in trials of senior leaders” since 1990. It counted 67 cases of former heads of state or heads of government who have been or were in the process of being prosecuted, most of them for serious human rights violations or financial crimes.
Here is a list of another 14 former state leaders who were convicted over the last two decades, either by domestic courts or international tribunals.

Thaksin Shinawatra

Jacques Chirac, as mayor of Paris, plays a game of billiards, Nov. 1985. (Pierre Guillaud/AFP/GettyImages)

Thaksin Shinawatra, the older brother of the current Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, served as Thailand’s prime minister from 2001 to 2006. He was found guilty on corruption charges and sentenced to two years in prison in 2008. Two years later, Thailand’s Supreme Court allowed the government to seize $1.4 billion of Thaksin’s assets as part of the conviction. Thaksin currently lives in exile in Dubai.

Hosni Mubarak

Hosni Mubarak, as Egyptian President, attends a meeting in Cairo, Feb. 2011. (Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)

The former president ruled Egypt for almost three decades (1981-2011). The Criminal Court of Egypt in June 2012 found him complicit in the deaths of demonstrators during the Arab Spring protests that led to his ousting in early 2011. While in frail health, he was convicted to life imprisonment.

Charles Taylor

Former rebel leader Charles Taylor (C) speaks with troops, July 1990. (Pascal Guyot/AFP/Getty Images)

The former African leader was the first former head of state to be convicted by an international tribunal since World War II. The UN-sponsored Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) found Taylor guilty of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity in May 2012. The court deemed Taylor from 1997-2003 “individually responsible” for the gross violations committed by rebel forces during the devastating civil war in the 1990s that included pillage, rape, enslavement, amputations, and use of child soldiers.

Jean Kambanda

Jean Kambanda, as Prime Minister of Rwanda addresses the media in Gitarama, May 1994. (Alexander Joe/AFP/Getty Images)

Kambanda as Rwandan prime minister oversaw one of the worst crimes against humanity: the 1994 Rwandan genocide. The massacre took more than 800,000 lives, mostly from the Tutsi minority population. The U.N.-sponsored International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda (ICTR) based in Tanzania charged Kambanda, a member of the Hutu majority, with six crimes of genocide. In May 1998, he pleaded guilty, which constituted “the first time in history that an accused person has acknowledged and affirmed his or her guilt for the crime of genocide before an international criminal tribunal,” according to the ICTR Kambanda was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Jorge Videla

Joe Videla (R) stands next to former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet (L), 1978. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)

Videla ruled as president during the brutal military rule in Argentina from 1976 to 1981. The former Lieutenant General is seen as co-responsible for the so-called Dirty War: a campaign of suppression that killed up to 30,000 citizens. After Argentina returned to civilian rule, he was convicted in 1985 for homicide, robbery, aggravated false arrests, and torture. In 1998 he was put under house arrest and has been imprisoned since 2008. In July 2012, a court sentenced him to 50 years in prison for the systemic abduction of babies from political prisoners.

Egon Krenz

Egon Krenz, as communist leader of East Germany, speaks at a press conference. (Vitaly Armand/AFP/Getty Images)

Krenz served as the last General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Socialist Unionist Party (SED) in East Germany. Krenz tried unsuccessfully to save the communist regime from collapsing. After the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989 and amid massive protests, he was forced to resign. In 1997, a Berlin state court sentenced him to more than six years in prison for manslaughter. The court saw him complicit in the shootings of fleeing East Germans at the inner-German border. After serving four years he was released.

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein, as Iraqi president, fires into the air during the Eid al-Fitr festival in a village near Baghdad, Jan. 1999. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

Having ruled Iraq from 1979 to 2003, Hussein directed two unsuccessful military campaigns against Iran and Kuwait. The United States and allied forces attacked Iraq in March 2003 over charges of harboring weapons of mass destruction. When troops seized the capital Baghdad in April 2003, Hussein fled into hiding, but was captured eight months later. The Iraqi High Tribunal found the former president of Iraq guilty of the retaliatory murders of 148 Shiites in the village of Dujail in 1982, among other crimes against humanity. During the nine-month trial, Hussein interrupted the court proceedings repeatedly. He was sentenced to death by hanging in November 2006 and executed one month later.

P. W. Botha

P.W. Botha, as President of the apartheid regime of South Africa, addresses the media, Jan. 1998. (Anna Zieminski/AFP/Getty Images)

Botha served as prime minister and state president of the apartheid regime of South Africa from 1978 to 1989. After the end of the institutionalized segregation, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was set up in 1995 to bring transparency and healing to the atrocities committed under the apartheid regime. The commission offered amnesty to those who were willing to testify. In 1997, Botha was fined and received a suspended sentence after he refused to appear in front of the commission. He died in 2006.

Alberto Fujimori

Alberto Fujimori, as President of Peru, poses with soldiers in the Cenepa river, Feb. 1995. (AFP/Getty Images)

The controversial former Peruvian president who ruled from 1990 to 2000, was convicted in four trials and given sentences between 15 months and 25 years. Peru’s courts found Fujimori guilty of abuse of power, illegal wiretapping, bribery, extra-judicial killings, kidnappings, and embezzlement of state funds.

Mengistu Haile Mariam

Mengistu Haile Mariam, as the communist leader of Ethiopia, stands next to Fidel Castro (C) and Raul Castro (L) in La Havana, Cuba, April 1975. (AFP/Getty Images)

The communist dictator ruled Ethiopia from 1977 to 1991, he initiated a Red Terror campaign that took hundreds of thousands of lives. Mengistu was forced into exile in 1991 amid coup attempts and inner crises. In 2008 an Ethiopian court found him guilty of genocide, and sentenced him to death, while he remains at large in Zimbabwe.

Ehud Olmert

Ehud Olmert, as Israeli Deputy Prime Minister, speaks at a press conference in Istanbul, Turkey, July 2004. (Mustafa Ozer/AFP/Getty Images)

Olmert served as Israeli prime minister from 2006 to 2009. He was forced to step down over charges of corruption. He was later found guilty by a court for breach of trust and has been handed a suspended one-year prison sentence.

Joseph Estrada

Joseph Estrada, as Phillipini President, addresses a crowd in the City Hall in Manila, Philippines, Oct. 2007. (Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Getty Images)

Estrada served as president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001. The former movie star was convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison for plundering. However, a month after his conviction in September 2007, Estrada was pardoned by his successor, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

Samak Sundaravej

Samak Sundaravej, as leader of the People Power Party, talks to the press at his house, Dec. 2007. (Chumsak Kanoknan/Getty Images)

The former governor of Bangkok served as Thai Prime Minister for nine months in 2008. Samak had to step down in September 2008 amid mass protests by the opposition against him as well as corruption charges. The Constitutional Court found him guilty of accepting payments for hosting a cooking show during his premiership. A different court upheld a upheld a two-year jail sentence for defamation.
Sundaravej left to the United States, supposedly to receive cancer treatment and died in 2009.

Yulia Tymoshenko

Yulia Tymoshenko, former Ukranian Prime Minister, reacts as a judge of the Kiev Pechersky court reads her verdict on October 11, 2011. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images)

Tymoshenko was a key figure during Ukraine’s Orange Revolution in 2004 that led to the ousting of then—and now—president Victor Yanukovych. She served as Prime Minister of Ukraine from 2007 to 2010. After an unsuccessful bid for the presidency, she was convicted in October 2011 over accusations of abuse of power involving a gas deal that she had signed with Russia during her term that allegedly disadvantaged Ukraine. Her supporters at home, as well as human rights groups and Western governments, have criticized her sentencing and accuse President Yanukovych of using the trial as a political weapon to get rid of his main rival.

Novartis flu vaccine ban extends to Germany

Novartis flu vaccine ban extends to Germany: Geneva (AFP) Oct 25, 2012



Germany became the fourth country Thursday to ban sales of flu vaccines made by Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis, following embargoes by Italy, Switzerland and Austria.

Announcing the latest ban, German health authorities said four batches of the Begripal flu vaccine - also marketed as Agrippal - and one batch of the Fluad vaccine were no longer for sale.

Germany wary of new EU drug tests

Germany wary of new EU drug tests: German doctors voice concern about EU plans to speed up and streamline clinical drug trials across the 27-nation bloc.

Catholic Church closes its doors to German non-taxpayers

Catholic Church closes its doors to German non-taxpayers: Roman Catholic churches in Germany have implemented a new decree designed to keep congregants from leaving the faith for tax purposes. If they don't pay the state church tax, they can't go to confession or Communion.

Siemens denies Iranian nuclear sabotage claims

Siemens denies Iranian nuclear sabotage claims: FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Germany's Siemens on Sunday denied allegations by an Iranian lawmaker that it planted explosives in equipment sold to Iran for use in its nuclear program.

Bernhard Schlink: being German is a huge burden

Bernhard Schlink: being German is a huge burden:

Author and philosopher who has broken taboos in confronting Nazi past says war legacy haunts each successive generation
Germans are still shackled to their past and it greatly influences the way they deal with Europe and the wider world, according to one of the country's foremost writers and thinkers.
Bernhard Schlink, author of The Reader and a series of other works that tackle the guilt of his and other generations about the past, says that German children today still have to deal with the difficult hand history has dealt them. In an interview with the Guardian to start a week-long series looking at Europe's pre-eminent power, the 68-year-old author says he sometimes experiences his own Germanness as a "huge burden" that he has come to accept.
And he adds that the reason the European crisis is so agonising for Germany is that the country has been able to retreat from itself by hurling itself into the European project. An unravelling of the European ideal would deprive the Germans of an "escape from themselves". "I can't say I'm thankful about being German because I sometimes experience it as a huge burden," Schlink says. "But it is an integral part of me and I wouldn't want to escape it. I have accepted it." The former judge, whose main home is in Berlin, cites examples of friends and colleagues who have done much to disguise their Germanness, to assume other identities in an effort to escape the sometimes overwhelming historical responsibility.
"I remember one of the nicest things a colleague of mine in the United States said when he introduced a lecture of mine: that he had never met a German in academia in the United States who so little tried to hide that he's German," he says "I certainly know German colleagues in the US who try to be Americans, try to melt into Americanism, even before they get married and become American citizens. But I've never tried that."
The burden of nationality has very much shaped the way in which Germans view themselves and their responsibilities within Europe, Schlink says. It is a subject he covers in depth in a volume of essays, Guilt About the Past, in which he argues: "We Germans tend to prefer to see ourselves as world citizens of a world society, as free citizens of a free world, as Atlanticists or Europeans rather than as Germans." The wish, he says, is symptomatic of another desire, to escape what it means to be German, including the solidarity, responsibility and guilt attached to that.
Europe, he agrees, as a wider community in which Germany is only one part, is a place in which Germans have tried to retreat from themselves. "I think that turning to Europe is an attempt to escape a difficult identity in favour of a more simple one … This idea will always fail, because a German who goes to France, England, the United States and presents him or herself as simply a European, this is not what he is, he is not just a European, he's a German and those who travel learn that the world is not as cosmopolitan and international as we'd like it to be."
An innate sense of German fatalism is also playing into the way Germans are reacting to the current crisis – which after all has yet to directly affect them – as well as a melancholic streak. "I sense some sort of fear of revenge for the fact that historically speaking, and in comparison to many parts of the world, we have it good right now," Schlink says over the phone from his US home in the Berkshires, Massachusetts. "It's interesting, my son is 40 years old, a dentist, with a good life, two lovely kids, a lovely wife and everything's going well for him, but even he said to me: 'Well, don't you think maybe we've had it too good for too long?' I said to him: 'It's up to us to use this crisis as a chance.'"
The writer sees the German sense of melancholy and pessimism for which its people are sometimes ridiculed as national traits that mean that even though most Germans are enjoying a comfortable standard of living, low unemployment, and a booming export economy, they are unable to view it without sensing the doom that might be about to come.
"Germans have a melancholic, a pessimistic streak, which cultural historians trace back to the thirty years' war [a series of wars between 1618 and 1648 that devastated much of Europe including large parts of Germany]. There are these beautiful comparisons of German, English and French soldiers' war songs, and the English and French ones, they're all about hope and victory, and the German soldiers' songs are all about losing comrades, or imminent death. This pessimism I think leads people to ask now: 'Have we had it too good?'"
Most of Schlink's literature is tangled up in the German past – from his 1997 bestseller The Reader, about the affair between a teenager and a woman who is later tried for war crimes (which was made into an award-winning film with Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes), to a trilogy of detective novels surrounding about a character called Selbs with a shadowy Nazi past, and the novel Homecoming, whose protagonist goes on the hunt for a father he never knew.
Even his latest work, Summer Lies, while focusing on modern-day love stories that all have a sad twist to them – although nothing to do with the war – touches on the subject of hidden pasts and the convoluted stories people tell to keep up appearances.
This summer, he postponed work on his latest novel (whose subject is top secret) to concentrate on a script for a film set at the start of the first world war. "I don't know for how many years, but definitely for the foreseeable future Germans will be shackled to their past and that will influence the way they act in Europe," says Schlink. He believes all this makes Germans intensely keen to show solidarity with the rest of Europe.
"But I think what Germans rightly say again and again is that if we are to give up our sovereignty and our prosperity or share our prosperity with others, then [it will be] only in the context of more of a political union."
Growing accusations that the current German government has faced from across Europe, of being a fourth reich or having imperialist tendencies, "is the expression merely of a sentiment of mentality shaped by history … I think in substance Germany couldn't be further from wanting to dominate Europe," he says.
The calls for Germany to offer more leadership are problematic, he says, not least because that is not the way Europe is constructed. "The very constitutional structure of Europe is such that one country alone cannot lead. What I think this question is really about is the expectation that Germany shares what it has even more generously and in as undemanding a way, as it is right now. And I think it's right that Germany says: 'Yes, we're willing to share but only in a context of a political union where the responsibilities are shared too.'"
Schlink says he does not feel particular pressure to follow in the postwar tradition of German writers opining on issues of moral responsibility, but rather feels he has a duty as a citizen and a constitutional law professor. "As a citizen and someone who was a judge on the constitutional law court for 18 years, I feel whenever I can raise my voice with the hope of being heard I need to do it, but I wouldn't assign a special wisdom and responsibility to writers."
On that note, he is highly critical of the great doyen of modern German literature, Günter Grass, who has lately drawn criticism for two poems he wrote, one warning against Israeli aggression towards Iran and criticising the fact Germany provides Israel with nuclear submarines, and another criticising Germany's austerity measures against Greece. "I didn't like the poems and the sad thing for me with Grass was the way he made his SS affiliation public: not the affiliation itself, I wouldn't hold that against him – but that he demanded openness from others for such a long time while hiding this," says Schlink, referring to the revelations in 2006 that the Nobel laureate had been drafted into the Waffen SS at the age of 17. "That, in a way, took away some of the moral authority he had and I was so sorry that he'd lost it. These two poems have a shrillness that maybe reflects this loss of moral authority. He senses that maybe he isn't heard the way he used to be, so he becomes louder and shriller in these poems. I just find it sad."
Schlink, whose father was a Lutheran pastor, believes Germans will remain ensnared in their past for some time, though the burden will become weaker from generation to generation. "Already, it makes a difference as to whether it was your father who was in the SS, or your grandfather. Was it a grandfather whom you actually met, maybe loved? Or is it a grandfather who's just a picture on the wall with other family photos? Already, I see that my son has a different relation to the German past than I did. But even my two granddaughters [aged four and eight] will still have to cope with it. When they go abroad and go to Britain and see all these movies that still deal with 'bad Germans' ... and they will have to find a way to cope with it, and to understand that at least what they owe others is a sense of tact.
"They will have to learn where this anger comes from, that it comes from real wounds that still torment people."

Germany's former first lady takes legal action over internet search slurs

Germany's former first lady takes legal action over internet search slurs: Germany's former first lady Bettina Wulff has taken legal action against Google to stop the words "prostitute" and "escort" from appearing as internet search suggestions next to her name.

Lufthansa cancels hundreds more flights as strikes hit

Lufthansa cancels hundreds more flights as strikes hit: FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Deutsche Lufthansa cancelled hundreds more flights on Tuesday as cabin crew launched a second round of strikes in a row over pay and conditions that threatens to drag on for weeks and cost Germany's biggest airline tens of millions of euros.

German pharmaceuticals firm Merck announces job cuts

German pharmaceuticals firm Merck announces job cuts: German chemicals and pharmaceuticals company Merck has announced that its massive restructuring program will also involve laying off over 1,000 employees in Germany. The firm is struggling to increase profitability.

Germany's Export Collapse

Germany's Export Collapse:

The grimmest aspect of today's German PMI report concerned exports:

Companies that reported a decrease in production levels in August generally linked this to lower
volumes of new business and fewer outstanding workloads at their plants. August data highlighted a
sharp fall in new order levels, although the rate of contraction eased slightly from July’s low. The slower pace of decline largely reflected a less marked drop in domestic demand, as new export work fell at the steepest rate since April 2009. 

Survey respondents commented on a general slowdown in global demand and particular weakness in new business inflows from Southern Europe. Investment and intermediate goods producers recorded the steepest reductions in new export orders. Meanwhile, August data signalled a rapid fall in outstanding business at manufacturing firms, which extended the current period of contraction to 12 months. 

First refugees from Libyan conflict arrive in Germany

First refugees from Libyan conflict arrive in Germany: The first of 900 refugees have arrived in Germany under a resettlement program agreed to in 2011. Nearly all of them were displaced during the conflict in Libya that deposed Moammar Gadhafi.

Alpine club examines historical ties to Nazis

Alpine club examines historical ties to Nazis: Because it was the first major sporting group to exclude Jews in the 1930s, the German Alpine Association examined its role in Nazi Germany and how climbing feats became fodder for Hitler's propaganda machine.

Lufthansa paralyzed by small trade union

Lufthansa paralyzed by small trade union: A flight attendant strike against Germany's flagship airline Lufthansa has left passengers stranded all across Europe. The question now is: How will the trade union dispute be resolved?

Germany -- Insane Or Just Plain Stupid?

Germany -- Insane Or Just Plain Stupid?: After the tsunami destroyed the Fukushima plants, Germany moved quickly to shut eight nuclear power plants, and made plans do away completely with their nuclear capability. Despite the best safety record of any industry in the country, and the critical role nuclear plays in fueling German industry, Germany?s past experience with large tsunamis was just too horrific to ignore. And Germany?s strong economy and commitment to protect the environment were small prices to pay for Chancellor Merkel to shore up her weak coalition with the Greens. Maybe she can ask Greece for help later.

An ECB Member Gave A Speech In German That Laid Out The Plan To Save Europe

An ECB Member Gave A Speech In German That Laid Out The Plan To Save Europe:

What will happen next in Europe? We just asked that question to analyst Lorcan Roche Kelly of Trend Macrolytics.
His answer: Check out the latest speech from ECB executive board member Jörg Asmussen, who hails from Germany.
The speech is in German, but Google Translate does a good job with it, and indeed it spells out the latest path forward.
There are really three parts:
The first is the reminder that the ECB has a mandate to preserve stability and to not bail out states.
The second part is an explanation of how the ECB can stay within its mandate, while also doing something to alleviate the current crisis.
According to Asmussen, disruptions in the sovereign debt market are hampering the transmission of monetary policy and warrant action.
Says Amussen:

...the ECB has announced the beginning of August, a new bond purchase program, which will ensure better transmission. Compared to the old bond purchase program SMP will include the following improvements:

• The ECB will only act in parallel with the EFSF and the ESM later. For this purpose, a State must submit an alternative claim and extensive economic support fulfillment. Hinaussollte In my opinion, the EFSF and the ESM at the request of the country concerned to intervene in the primary market before the ECB intervenes. Such a request is only the necessary condition for action by the ECB. The Governing Council will continue shall act independently of whether, when and how the ECB's bond purchases on the secondary market. With this method, to ensure that the affected country also implements all necessary and agreed reform measures. The error with Italy in the summer of last year, as the ECB has bought Italian government bonds and the time was unfortunately not used for necessary adaptation measures may not be repeated.
• In addition, the new program will be set up so that the problem of the perception of a preferred creditor status of the ECB will be addressed. Because this perception complicates the countries concerned to return to the capital market, because their status as private investors feel insecure and turn away from the country concerned.
• Finally, the ECB will buy under the new program, only bonds with short maturities. The control of short-term Geldmärkt is the classic job of monetary policy. In addition, the distortions in the short end of the yield curve in times of crisis are particularly strong.

The technical and operational details of the program are currently being developed. The Governing Council will deal extensively with all these aspects of the program at its meeting in a few days. The whole discussion is led by the proviso that any concerns of a non-conforming state funding be withdrawn. We will act only within our mandate.

Because let me emphasize this: the central bank can and can not pay for the mistakes of the fiscal and financial market policies. Governments through a resolute reforms restore its credibility. The former president of the Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pohl summed up the task briefly and concisely: "It is not natural, that we can live on an island of stability. That has to be earned through a consistent policy of stability. "

So this scheme to depress short interest rates is happening, but the technical details haven't been worked out yet (which explains why Mario Draghi had to cancel his plan to speak at Jackson Hole this Saturday. It's clear we'll get something at the September 6 meeting.
And though Asmussen makes a point to say that depressing short interest rates is not the same as financing governments, it's also true that short-term borrowing does the 'heavy lifting' for European sovereign borrowing needs, so this is a de facto form of central bank debt monetization.
Finally, Asmussen lays out the real long game, which involves financial, fiscal, economic, and political union. The EMU is not complete yet, and has serious flaws, but there is a path involving work on all these areas.
A key point that Asmussen makes, which is very in keeping with the German stance, is that he's more concern with the quality of reforms than the speed. This may be frustrating to investors, or politicians on electoral timetables, but if the Euro is going to last lifetimes, decisions can't be made in a rush to respond to market reactions.
And of course, just talking about all this doesn't mean it will work. There's still the problem of Spain (or Italy or anyone else) requesting the help necessary to trigger the bond buying. And the ECB has to buy with commitment. And a Greece exit if it happens could ruin confidence in the whole thing. But at least the roadmap has been spelled out (by a German no less!).
Read the whole Google Translate version of the speech below
---------------

Speech by Jörg Asmussen, a member of the Executive Board,
Parliamentary Evening of the Bundesbank headquarters in Hamburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein,
Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg, 27 August 2012

Dear Madam President,
Dear Senator Tschentscher,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
"Helps even more Europe?" Headlined Time in its edition of 21 June. That was the exact day a week before the heads of state and head of government of the EU took a first step toward financial union. They ordered also the President of the European Council, Herman van Rompuy - and I quote the summit conclusions literally - "in close cooperation with the President of the Commission, the President of the Euro Group and the President of the ECB, a specific timetable with deadlines for achieving real economic and monetary union work out. "
At first glance it seems that the question of time has already been answered 7 days later. But it is not so simple. If "more Europe," the response to the crisis, then that automatically raises new questions: for example, how new integration steps should be constructed politically and institutionally. The debate on this has just begun. And the discussion in this country about possible referendums show that there must be a broad debate. Many thanks to the colleagues of the Bundesbank for the opportunity to discuss this important issue with you here. On three main areas I want to focus on:

• First, the current situation on the financial markets and the state of the economy in the euro zone in general, and in selected countries;
• Second, the monetary policy of the ECB;
• Third, the steps necessary to develop the monetary union, with a special focus on financial Union and the future role of the ECB in a common banking supervision.

First Economic situation

1.1. The situation in financial markets

The situation in the financial markets in the euro area has deteriorated since the middle of last year again. The risk premiums demanded by investors in government bonds reflect since been proved not only the risk of insolvency of individual states, but also an exchange rate risk, which it theoretically should not exist in the monetary union. That is, the markets pricing in a breakup of the euro area. Such doubts are systemic dramatically - and not for the European Central Bank acceptable. Only one currency, to their constituents, there is no doubt, is a stable currency.
No less disturbing is the increasing fragmentation of the European financial market. While in the early years of monetary union, financial markets of the Member States together grew more and more, have been in the wake of the crisis - metaphorically speaking - the barriers rebuilt. For example, the share of cross-border loans in the money markets between mid-2011 and plummeted from 60 percent to 40 percent. In several countries, foreign bank deposits have reached their lowest level since early 2008. Banks are increasingly using domestic security in access to ECB facilities.
This has serious consequences for the common monetary policy: a monetary policy signal, as we have set, for example, with the rate cut in July comes, inconsistent or in some cases not at all to the real economy. The fed funds rate, the "lead" is actually supposed to do, this is only limited.

1.2. The general economic situation

The outlook for the euro area point to a weak economic development in the coming months. The IMF predicts a slightly negative growth (-0.3%) for this year, and a moderate recovery of 0.7% for the next. Accompanying a moderate inflation, a weakening of the high rate of inflation this year, and an inflation rate in the coming year is less than 2%. The key for our policy inflation expectations are firmly anchored. The just mentioned tensions in financial markets - including various disaster scenarios - have a negative impact on morale and confidence in the economy.
In this total, some might not exactly rosy outlook an observer, and perhaps one or two of you who may feel the euro as a currency is in crisis. And that monetary union has strayed from the fundamental price.
The euro itself is not in a crisis: We are currently experiencing a sequence of different crises in Europe: Some countries have to deal with the national debt, is in others it primarily a crisis in the banking sector and in some is more the private sector debt, the most pressing problem . In some states, the most serious problem the year-long loss of competitiveness and, in some occur simultaneously on the aforementioned causes, such as in Ireland, where we are experiencing a banking crisis at a high personal debt. Overall, it is now a major crisis of confidence has become. This is why we try - together in Europe - to tackle this crisis. Adjustment programs, bailouts, deeper integration, ECB's Special Measures. The list of important strategic position, taken within the past two years is long. Certainly not always the process was effectively and quickly. But whenever decisions were needed, they were also taken.
The bottom line is there is a fear that more new bailouts are just waste of money, that the problem countries are manifestly incapable of reform or reform reluctantly. I'm always amazed at how lightly spoken about other inhabitants of the common European home. Here is the game with national stereotypes of the complexity of the situation is not just.
The facts say otherwise. Even in Greece - probably the most difficult case - there has been progress. Despite a weak economic development, the primary deficit of -10.4 per cent of GDP in 2009 to -2.2 percent in 2011 to be reduced. Painful adjustment processes, such as wages and salaries, were begun.
These findings should not, however, mask the reform process in India has come because of the elections in the spring to a halt and that what has been achieved so far, is far from sufficient. It is also clear that any delays in reforms, every aspect of the adaptation period, costs money. Money that can be saved either elsewhere, or will be provided by the partners must be available.
However, the public perception of the adjustment programs in general is dominated by the very slow progress in Greece. Take the example of Ireland: In early July, the country the first time three-month government bonds worth 500 million euros and an interest rate of 1.8 percent in the market place. For Portugal, the yield on government bonds is the end of August at levels, as it was achieved before jumping in the bailout package for the last time. ^{[ 1 ]} These are the first tentative steps on the road back to normality. In relation to the core objectives of the adjustment programs - the reduction of government deficits and to restore access to the market - that initial success can be reported.
In the short-termism of the financial markets is always forgotten that profound structural changes require a lot of patience. We know also from the German experience, either. With reunification or the conversion of the labor market These days the media are full of "10 years Hartz laws." Their positive effects we feel really only recently. The "overhaul" of the economies of the countries in crisis or breakdown of internal and external economic imbalances - that no matter of two or three years. Patience and perseverance are also required.
Results when the analysis is more inclusive, and not just the problem countries are considered, for the euro area as a whole a much more nuanced reviewed in terms of fiscal policy key figures of other major economies, is the euro area as relatively good. The fiscal deficits in the euro countries, taken together, make about 4% of gross domestic product. That is much less than in the U.S. or Japan, where budget deficits are at 9 ½%, or 10% of GDP even higher than that of Greece (9.1%). Even with the sovereign debt in the euro area is around 87% of GDP in the U.S. (around 103%). And Japan's debt surpasses almost 230% of GDP even significantly by Greece (165%). ^{[ 2 ]} By this I do not gloss over the situation in the euro zone, but it must also be seen in an international context. The problems in the euro area are concentrating on individual countries, and must be solved primarily by those countries.
Nevertheless, market uncertainty and a feeling of disorientation among the citizens. Some wonder whether the economic and monetary union has a fundamental design flaw. This is first of all to the complexity of the issue itself. Columns of newspaper publishers and online bloggers, open letters from professors, in their own interest-based analysis of market participants in Germany and around the world: there is no shortage of studies, reviews, scenarios of seemingly inevitable disasters, and suggestions on what "politics", or more simply yet, "the Central Bank" but please do, or have to leave. This brings me to the second part of my remarks - the role of the ECB.

Second Role of the ECB

Europe has a very successful monetary order. The German Bundesbank was to model. The four key pillars to achieve:

• First, price stability as the primary objective of monetary policy;
• Second, the independence of the ECB and the national central banks
• Third, the ban on state funding through the Federal Reserve
• Fourth, the prohibition on the assumption of liabilities of other Member States (the so-called 'bail-out' clause)

I am aware that some people ask, quietly or publicly, whether for these pillars are still standing. These concerns we must take seriously and respond to them. Let me do so now.
First of all, the ECB remains committed to price stability, no ifs or buts. The facts speak for themselves for the first 13 years of the monetary union, the euro area average inflation stood at 2 percent, Germany at 1.6 percent. This good result is not obvious, because the challenges for monetary policy - the bursting of the dotcom bubble, the 11th September 2001, the sharp fluctuations in oil prices and the current crisis - were and are significant.
We must recognize that some of the standard tools of monetary policy in these turbulent waters no longer apply. The uniform transmission of monetary policy of the Eurosystem is increasingly hindered - with obvious consequences for the real economy. In program countries since the end of 2010 interest rates rise for corporate loans, although the interest of the central bank facilities have remained low.
Than the standard tools were no longer sufficient, they were accompanied by specific measures. For example, the long-term refinancing operations of up to 3 years duration. For this purpose we had in the fall of 2011 decided in a critical situation, to avert a panic situation in the financial markets and a credit crunch. Both would have incalculable consequences for the real economy, and thus for growth and jobs.
In both 3-year operations granted to banks secured loans totaling around 1,000 billion euros. The net cash flow amounted to only half. The participating banks were not only large banks, but also many smaller institutions, such as community banks and savings banks. Exactly those institutions loans primarily awarded to SMEs, which form the backbone of the economy in the euro area. So it was about ensuring that banks are able, their primary function - to lend to firms and households - can meet. And thus able to pass on the central bank's monetary policy impulse.
The uniform transmission of monetary policy of the ECB is still hampered by the severe disruption in the government bond market. Particularly speculation about a single outlet crisis states - coupled with a devaluation - impair the functioning of the interbank market massively.
Therefore, the ECB has announced the beginning of August, a new bond purchase program, which will ensure better transmission. Compared to the old bond purchase program SMP will include the following improvements:

• The ECB will only act in parallel with the EFSF and the ESM later. For this purpose, a State must submit an alternative claim and extensive economic support fulfillment. Hinaussollte In my opinion, the EFSF and the ESM at the request of the country concerned to intervene in the primary market before the ECB intervenes. Such a request is only the necessary condition for action by the ECB. The Governing Council will continue shall act independently of whether, when and how the ECB's bond purchases on the secondary market. With this method, to ensure that the affected country also implements all necessary and agreed reform measures. The error with Italy in the summer of last year, as the ECB has bought Italian government bonds and the time was unfortunately not used for necessary adaptation measures may not be repeated.
• In addition, the new program will be set up so that the problem of the perception of a preferred creditor status of the ECB will be addressed. Because this perception complicates the countries concerned to return to the capital market, because their status as private investors feel insecure and turn away from the country concerned.
• Finally, the ECB will buy under the new program, only bonds with short maturities. The control of short-term Geldmärkt is the classic job of monetary policy. In addition, the distortions in the short end of the yield curve in times of crisis are particularly strong.

The technical and operational details of the program are currently being developed. The Governing Council will deal extensively with all these aspects of the program at its meeting in a few days. The whole discussion is led by the proviso that any concerns of a non-conforming state funding withdrawn. We will act only within our mandate.
Because let me emphasize this: the central bank can and can not pay for the mistakes of the fiscal and financial market policies. Governments through a resolute reforms restore its credibility. The former president of the Bundesbank, Karl Otto Pohl summed up the task briefly and concisely: "It is not natural, that we can live on an island of stability. That has to be earned through a consistent policy of stability. "

Third The evolution of the monetary union

Ladies and gentlemen,
The crisis has shown that a true "culture of stability" in the framework of the monetary union has not yet sufficiently anchored. The original architecture was incomplete. A working stability policy is not just from the monetary policy, but also needs the fiscal policy, economic policy, and above all a clear democratic mandate.
Europe is now at a crossroads. Either we complete the integration of the euro area, by also fiscal policy, economic policy and democratic control, sharing sovereignty in Europe. Or we choose the other way, a decentralized Europe. This then also the dismantling of the monetary union, and probably also of significant parts of the internal market.
Both ways are possible and ultimately lead to a stable equilibrium, as we call economists. The balance of disintegration, however at a lower level of prosperity. For this reason I believe we should not turn back the clock. Rather, we should complete the Economic and Monetary Union.
The decisions of the European Council of the end of June they represent an caesura, as the leaders of the EU have the President of the European Council, Commission, euro group and the ECB issued a mandate to make proposals for the completion of economic and monetary union. The four presidents will submit to the European Council in October, an interim report. This will propose measures in the short term - can be implemented - and especially without the EU Treaty change. In December, the European Council expects a final report. This will include proposals, such as the euro area might look like in ten years, and what changes in the European treaties would be required to do so.
Before I get to talk to potential content blocks, two constraints:

• First, the deepening of economic and monetary union is primarily a matter of the 17 euro countries. These 17 states have chosen the single currency to a deeper integration, which now needs to be consolidated. At the same time it must not be forgotten that 8 of the 10 non-euro countries have committed to joining the EU to adopt the single currency in the foreseeable future and to meet the convergence criteria as well. Therefore, they must be in the upcoming process of change EMU also closely involved.
• Second, quality counts and not the speed of change. The euro countries should take the time that is needed to create a sophisticated product. But it is important that we create a vision as early as possible, an endpoint such as the euro zone will look like in 10 years. This builds trust between the citizens and the financial markets. Positive expectations for tomorrow in turn affect calming effect on the present.

Now to the content itself: The June report of the four presidents has already outlined four building blocks for the upcoming reforms. They provide a good basis for discussion represent the four elements are:

1. A financial Union
2. A fiscal union
3. A genuine economic union
4. A political union

These four blocks go together and are interdependent.

First Financial Union

First Union on financial market. Due to the acute situation in some Member States there is priority action here. The strong financial entanglement between the banking sector and public finances in some Member States has resulted in a weak economic environment to a downward spiral. As soon as the budget situation worsens a state does that on government bonds in banks' balance sheets. The banks have problems refinance themselves adequately. Device a large, systemically important bank to falter, the government has to step in again. And thus the downward spiral continues.
This spiral must be broken as soon as possible. The longer we wait the more expensive it will end. For this, the architecture of financial supervision in the euro area be re-examined. At the end of this process, the new architecture should have the following features:

• First, a European Banking Supervisors, which has adequate policies and penetration skills to provide a uniform implementation of European regulation safely. These banking supervision must also be able to close non-viable institutions.
• Second, a fund financed by the financial services industry, which stands in an emergency to handle systemic banks available without that national budgets and taxpayers will be charged. This exercise must be a single European rulebook for handling systemically important banks.
• Thirdly, the deposit guarantee will be organized at European level. Could serve as an example here, the U.S. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). The lack of a deposit insurance system has exacerbated the crisis in some euro area countries also. Doubts about the safety of the deposits could attract strong capital flows by itself. The euro has facilitated the transfer of deposits within the euro area even as then no exchange rate risk arises.

All three elements are interdependent, with the first step, the efficiency of the European banking supervision must be ensured. Banking supervision can only act effectively and useful if they also have complete information as to the deposit insurance has and they can also only show teeth when they can order such as the settlement of an institution.
The Commission on 11 September to present their proposals to move the transfer of supervisory tasks to the European Central Bank (based on Article 127 (6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union).
The ECB, together with the national central banks willing to take on responsibility in this regard, but only under certain conditions:

• First, the primary mandate of price stability will remain untouched. Therefore, the monetary policy of the bank supervision outward and inward organizational and personnel are also strictly separated. Some feel that a central bank should always stay out of institutional supervision. But the fact is that today 14 of the 17 national central banks of the euro area have supervisory responsibilities. This rich knowledge must be part of the European supervision. Because it is clear that many supervisory tasks can only be performed tomorrow on site.
• Second, the ECB will ensure that their independence in monetary policy can hamper in any way. At the same time it is clear that functions of banking supervision must be under a parliamentary and judicial control, for banking supervision is sovereign act by which can intervene in fundamental rights of the persons concerned. We stand to greater parliamentary scrutiny of European Banking Supervision at the ECB with an open mind.
• Third, the law must provide the ECB with all the instruments that are necessary to perform the tasks of a bank supervision effectively. This means in particular access to all necessary information, intervention and, as mentioned, the right not to close viable banks. Without this minimum configuration, the ECB is not responsible, the risk to the reputation of the institution would be too great.

Until the implementation of the Commission's proposals must include these aspects that are especially close to heart, yet another important design issues to be addressed, such as the exact split between the ECB and other European regulators.
The leaders of the euro area to see the creation of a single banking supervision for the euro area as a prerequisite for direct recapitalization of the banks by the European Stability Mechanism (ESM). This linkage between the funds and control is essential. Responsibilities for solidity and solidarity are inseparable and should be exercised at European level.
The coming months will be of great importance in this respect, and it will be a key concern for the ECB to provide an incentive compatible regulatory structure.

Second Fiscal union

This brings me to the second block, the fiscal union. The aim of the fiscal union is to prevent domestic policy failures in individual Member States stress the other Member States or the monetary union as a whole. With the reform of the Stability and Growth Pact and the so-called fiscal pact an elaborate set of rules with different limits for national fiscal policy was developed. There is also an application of the excessive deficit or debt. However, it is still unclear how to deal with the euro area Member States that do not comply with the requirements of the regulations. Figuratively speaking: The house rules in the European house is. But what to do if in an apartment still violate the house rules and the halfway house is under water? So far, we are then faced with a more or less closed doors.
In an emergency that threatens the fabric of the whole House, the international community must intervene. There are several considerations. In a first step could be to issue public debt securities are subordinated beyond the agreed limits of a European licensing. In particularly serious cases, "Brussels" may, subject to strict criteria impose an output stop.
These interventions involve a strong engagement in national sovereignty. Therefore need to be democratically legitimized. Furthermore, all interventions are designed so that the principle of national ownership is not undermined.

Third Economic Union

The third component - the true economic union - is aimed towards further integration of the European market. For monetary union for better integration is particularly urgent. Because since 1999, the competitiveness of the euro countries have developed very differently. In consequence incurred serious imbalances in trade and capital flows.
To prevent such undesirable development, there is now the so-called "process by macroeconomic imbalances". I also feel better coordination of national tax systems is particularly important. To do business in other Member States must be fiscally simpler. The Commission's proposals for a common consolidated tax base for the corporate round are a step in the right direction. Furthermore, Member States could benefit if it employees would still be easier to find a job in another EU country. But the mobility of workers has other important aspects that need to be rules to get here to improvements. For example, must also pension and retirement claims are becoming more mobile. When a change of job in another European country should also be a transfer of claims to another social security system should be possible.

4th Political Union

So I have arrived at the fourth block: the political union. The debate about the political union is as old as the monetary union, or even older. But what exactly does the term "political union"? For me it is a fundamental principle that where the European level to create new skills, to take place also in an appropriate decision-making and a full democratic control. We need therefore institutions, the legal and technical competence have to perform these functions of decision-making and control.
Many wonder how democracy can be strengthened at the European level. The only answer is the full involvement of the European Parliament in the legislative, personnel order and control? What role remains for national parliaments? Is the involvement of the European Parliament in the euro-zone format imaginable? These are complex issues that need to be discussed in the coming months and years. The important, deep integration steps that are before us, without the serious discussion by all of us, the citizens of Europe. Here, too, and right now in Hamburg. Sure am glad.
Thank you for your attention.

Circumcision benefits outweigh risks, say doctors

Circumcision benefits outweigh risks, say doctors:

Influential pediatricians' group falls short of complete support for procedure, saying parents should make final decision
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued guidelines saying the health benefits of infant circumcision outweigh the risks of the surgery, but the influential physicians' group has fallen short of a universal recommendation of the procedure for all infants, saying parents should make the final call.
The change was prompted by scientific evidence that suggests circumcision can reduce the risk of urinary tract infections in infants and cut the risk of penile cancer and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV and the human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical and other cancers.
The AAP's guidance, published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics comes down in favour of the procedure, saying the health benefits of newborn male circumcision "justify access to this procedure for families who choose it".
"We're not saying you have to have it," said Dr Andrew Freedman, a pediatric urologist at Cedars-Sinai medical centre in Los Angeles, who chaired the AAP's circumcision taskforce. "We're saying if a family thinks it is in the child's best interests, the benefits are enough to help them do that," he said.
Circumcision, the surgical removal of the foreskin of the penis, is a ritual obligation for infant Jewish boys and is also a common rite among Muslims, who account for the largest share of circumcised men worldwide. Other populations, including wider US society, adopted the practice due to potential health benefits but those advantages have become the subject of debate, including recent efforts to ban circumcision in San Francisco and Germany.
Based on a review of more than 1,000 scientific articles, the taskforce said male circumcision does not appear to adversely affect penile sexual function, sensitivity of the penis or sexual satisfaction.
The AAP said parents should be given unbiased information about the procedure and be allowed to make their own decision.
But the group did say it was imperative that those performing circumcision were adequately trained, used sterile techniques and offered effective pain relief.
Last week, an unnamed doctor in Germany filed charges against a rabbi for performing ritual circumcisions on infant boys, two months after a court in Cologne angered Jews and Muslims by banning the practice.
Rabbi Shmuel Goldin, president of the Rabbinical Council of America, said circumcisions done for religious purposes did not typically involve pain medication but he noted that the procedure was quick and had a long tradition of success.
"We've performed it for centuries with no adverse effects to our children," he said. "For us, it is such a critical component of our religious life that an attempt to eradicate it is an attempt to eradicate our religion. To have this happening in Germany, given our history, is particularly saddening to us."
In the US, the guidelines may begin to turn the tide on infant circumcision, which has begun to fall in recent years as insurers have balked at paying for a procedure without a strong medical justification.
In as many as 18 states the public Medicaid programme has stopped paying for the procedure, a trend some doctors fear could significantly increase US health costs because of a rise in cases of urinary tract and HIV infections.
In a statement issued on Friday in anticipation of the guidelines, the anti-circumcision group Intact America said most of the studies underlying the guidelines were based on research done on adult men in Africa.
"The taskforce has failed to consider the large body of evidence from the developed world that shows no medical benefits for the practice, and has given short shrift, if not dismissed out of hand, the serious ethical problems inherent in doctors removing healthy body parts from children who cannot consent," said Georganne Chapin, the group's executive director.
Dr Douglas Diekema, a pediatric bioethicist from the Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington who served on the taskforce, said the group considered a wide range of ethical issues, including pain experienced by the child and whether parents have the right to make the decision without the child's consent.
"There is no decision you can make that doesn't potentially put a child at risk. If you choose to circumcise, there is a risk he'll grow up to be a man who wishes he wasn't circumcised," Diekema said.
Waiting until the child was older to make the choice about circumcision would lose much of the early benefits, and because the foreskin was thicker in teenagers the procedure carried more risks, he said.
"I really don't think there is an easy answer … [but] we were unanimously agreed that it's inappropriate to do this procedure without adequate pain control. That, in many ways, is one of the biggest ethical issues."