There is a preoccupation with Germans in general.....to find the best deal. I won't say they all have this tendency.....but most Germans are seeking that one discount, that one special deal, that one contract that beats all other contracts. And this is how Christian Wulff, President of Germany (not Chancellor).....got into a bit of trouble.
For a brief introduction to Americans who might not grasp the big picture. Wulff came out of the CDU (the right-leaning party of Germany) and ended up as the ceremonial President of Germany. It's a position that you tend to hand folks who are clean-cut and without issues.
Somewhere along life's trail.....Wulff came to a point where he wanted to buy his dream house.....worth roughly 500k Euro (figure $650k roughly). There are various points to the story. No one argues over the value of the house or that he paid full price for the house. Based on most stories.....I would imagine that he went far and wide to find the best place to borrow the money. He probably had quotes from various banks in the area, and eventually was standing with a family friend....who happened to be the wife of a regional millionaire.
You can imagine this conversation taking place......he likely talked about the high rates.....no real deals.....and how he'd like to save some money. Edith (Egon) felt sorry for her associate, and like a good neighbor....offered up this great loan deal. We can admit it was better than any bank could offer.
For an American, we've all heard stories where some friend or relative came up and offered to finance a house purchase for someone....avoiding the bank and their profits. Wulff probably sat there and added this up a dozen times and simply couldn't resist the deal. To be honest, I doubt if there is a single German law that he violated. There in, lies his misfortune.....that he simply looks corrupted. No normal German gets great deals on house loans....so how can Wulff get it, without doing a favor for his friend? This question, we can't really answer.....because no one has yet shown a flipped deal on this.
The misery has kinda lasted more than a week or two, and most political experts would have predicted Wulff stepping down....but he hasn't done that. But in the last week.....we have this second episode where Wulff sought out this great discount (.5 percent isn't much to brag about) with Volkswagen and a leased car deal. When all the smoke cleared.....he got a half percent lower rate than you'd expect. Based on comments said.....he likely saved around 1,200 Euro (figure $1600). The news media is hot over this (they rarely get any good corruption episodes with political figures).
So onward we go with Wulff in the hot seat. I'm guessing that he's briefed his wife and he intends to pay full price on just about everything from this point on out.....even avoiding discount grocery chains, cheaper gas stations, and maybe skipping the cheaper Tuesday night movie discounts.
At this point....no one has found a single corruption issue to stick on the guy. Secretly, I'm guessing that a quarter of the German adult population quietly admire the guy because he's done exactly what they would have done. Meanwhile, numerous German political figures are talking about making up new rules to combat corruption in Germany and prevent political figures from ever getting into discount deals ever again. If they are successful....I'm also guessing that a payraise will be required for all the Bundestag members.....to make up for the various deals that they were all working.....quietly under the table.
For an American watching over the events....I'm kind of thinking that we wish.....we had a few guys like Wulff around in the US, because our level of political corruption make President Wulff like the Pope.
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