Wall Street Meltdown Hits Germany: "Thanks, America!"

Think the meltdown on Wall Street just impacts American institutions and investors?  Think again: German taxpayers will now feel the sting in a big way:

"Anger mounted in Berlin on Wednesday, Sept 17, after it emerged that German state development bank KfW transferred 300 million euros ($427 million) by mistake to Lehman Brothers hours before the US investment bank folded. The news overshadowed calls in the parliament by Chancellor Angela Merkel for an improved regulatory framework following continuing turmoil on Wall Street.

A KfW spokesman told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that there had been "an erroneous swap payment on Monday ... the reasons for which are being examined internally.""

KfW is ultimately owned by the German taxpayers.  Up to now, taxpayers funded KfW's bailout of the IKB Deutsche Industriebank AG, owned by KfW, to the tune of billions of Euros, only to see the bank (and its shares) taken over by an American private equity fund.

Germany used to look to Wall Street for innovation and funding opportunities, but now there is anger at how the US has mismanaged its financial system through excessive deregulation.  "Vergesst Wall Street / Forget Wall Street" urges Robert von Heusiger in the Frankfurter Rundschau. '

Wenn es richtig schlecht läuft, werden die Steuerzahler in Europa - auch in Deutschland - Milliarden Euro für die Rettung hiesiger Banken aufbringen müssen, wird sich die Rendite aus Lebensversicherungen und anderen Altersvorsorgeprodukten für die Menschen hierzulande kräftig reduzieren, wird die Krise Europa Millionen Arbeitslose bescheren. Danke, Amerika! (If things get much worse, the European taxpayers - also in Germany - will have to pay billions of Euros to save our local banks, the return on life insurance policies and other pension annuities will be drastically reduced, and millions of Europeans could lose their jobs.  Thanks, America!)

 

Comments

[Hattie]

Gosh, not only are the capitalists going to rip off the American taxpayers, they are going to rip off taxpayers worldwide.
That's globalization, baby!