John Kerry....is our our new Secretary of State.
He's visiting in Germany this week. He got into a crowd of young Germans today.....who asked a bunch of questions. Most were confused, and felt that Americans are acting pretty stupid in world affairs.
John Kerry stood there, and spoke right back at the German crowd: "In America, you have a right to be stupid, if you want to be... and we tolerate that."
My general opinion....knowing Germans pretty well....they probably stood there in shock.
No one in Germany would ever admit in public that you have the right to be stupid, or that people have to tolerate stupidity. I'm guessing they stood there for several minutes....thinking it was a bad translation, and then realized.....no, Secretary of State Kerry spoke those precise words.
It's not written down in the Constitution, or handed out by some Presidential order. It's just a simple fact.....all three hundred million of us....are allowed to be stupid.
We can cuss.
We can fuss at people who cuss.
We can buy lousy Chrysler cars.
We can drink one-star beer.
American women can flash guys at football games.
American guys can get stupid and marry some gal who will spend all their money.
American families can get credit cards and spend themselves into debt.
We can allow dead people to vote in national elections.
We can elect dead guys to Congress.
We can force school cafeterias to serve only nutritional food, then discover that no idiot high school kid will eat the nutritional food.
We can build houses on swampy soil.
We can put up $500k houses on beaches hit by hurricanes every twelve years.
We can order fools to clear out of New Orleans for a hurricane, and they will stay.
We can ask women not to show their nipples on national TV, but they do it anyway.
We can put a show like Amish Mafia on TV, and just pretend it's fake reality TV.
And we can elect about anyone into the Presidency.....because there's really no other clear choices.
I'm guessing that eighty million Germans are sitting....mostly in shock. They just never thought that being stupid....was acceptable. And now? Hour upon hours will be spent....wondering if stupidity is a good thing to allow into society. And maybe....at the end of this analysis.....twenty million Germans will suddenly drift over to occasionally act stupid....just to see how it feels.
Tuesday, February 26, 2013
Monday, February 25, 2013
Cyprus in the News
It has made onto page one news for Germans several times over the last two months. Cyprus is in serious economic woes, and they'd like to have a "sugar-daddy" to sweep in and loan them some money for the current mess. Later, they won't mention this part....but they'd like for part or most of the loan to be forgiven. Germans aren't exactly eager to play this role....since they've been helping several other European countries out over the past year.
The elections in Cyprus yesterday....laid out the future for next couple of years. A conservative party came to win the election results (around fifty-eight percent of the national vote). There is some belief that some budget cuts, and improved spending habits....might lay out the way toward a small loan of sorts from the Germans to simply get the Cyprus folks clear of the immediate mess.
What everyone generally talks about (various media organizations)....is that the Russians have turned Cyprus into a money-laundering operation. For this reason, German economic experts are against any help toward Cyprus.
The truth to the matter? The Russian bankers in Cyprus could loan enough money and get various inside deals to make Cyprus another Switzerland in ten years....if they desired such an atmosphere. I don't think the Russians are that stupid. They probably see a very loose government with bad spending habits, and easy situations for Russian mafia giants to roam at well. Why help them?
Connections from Cyprus back to Greece? Yeah, it's not commonly mentioned in the press....but Greece's current economic mess is simply a magnet to their buddies in Cyprus. Both governments are free-spenders and highly corrupted.
My humble guess is that the CDU-led government in Germany will work up a very minor loan....which eventually comes from the EU....which might run from ten to fifteen billion Euro. None of the money moves unless Cyprus does several major changes to their tax structure (hint: the Russians might have to clean up a bit).....and I doubt if more than a quarter of the loan will ever be forgiven.
The elections in Cyprus yesterday....laid out the future for next couple of years. A conservative party came to win the election results (around fifty-eight percent of the national vote). There is some belief that some budget cuts, and improved spending habits....might lay out the way toward a small loan of sorts from the Germans to simply get the Cyprus folks clear of the immediate mess.
What everyone generally talks about (various media organizations)....is that the Russians have turned Cyprus into a money-laundering operation. For this reason, German economic experts are against any help toward Cyprus.
The truth to the matter? The Russian bankers in Cyprus could loan enough money and get various inside deals to make Cyprus another Switzerland in ten years....if they desired such an atmosphere. I don't think the Russians are that stupid. They probably see a very loose government with bad spending habits, and easy situations for Russian mafia giants to roam at well. Why help them?
Connections from Cyprus back to Greece? Yeah, it's not commonly mentioned in the press....but Greece's current economic mess is simply a magnet to their buddies in Cyprus. Both governments are free-spenders and highly corrupted.
My humble guess is that the CDU-led government in Germany will work up a very minor loan....which eventually comes from the EU....which might run from ten to fifteen billion Euro. None of the money moves unless Cyprus does several major changes to their tax structure (hint: the Russians might have to clean up a bit).....and I doubt if more than a quarter of the loan will ever be forgiven.
Sunday, February 24, 2013
How to Fail as a Company in Germany
In 1997, Wal-Mart made the move into Germany. To be honest, they brought their US business model with them. They figured....it worked in the US and various other nations....so it'd work in Germany.
By 2006, Wal-Mart admitted defeat, put up a plan to leave, and in roughly nine months....were gone from Germany.
The Wal-Mart experience into Germany was deemed a failure by the company.....but the explanation has a curious twist to it. Some journalists will point to using the purchase of InterSpar as a jumping board in the beginning, and that InterSpar was never much of a success....so that failure just blended into future problems of Wal-Mart and brought them down.
Here's the big picture.....Wal-Mart has a general plan as they move into each town. They put up a major building and they want cut their prices to the bare minimum, gut the competition just in that town, and within three years....start seeing the competition in that town shut down. At that point, the prices at that one single Wal-Mart will rise by two-to-four percent overnight. Then they can relax because they've got customers glued into shopping at the store, and occasionally offer up some great deals, but not like the original first three years.
The German stumbling block is that German stores really don't like new competition appearing in their town. So they go to the local city council and make life miserable for Wal-Mart as they apply and try to get property/building space. In a number of cases....like Kaiserslautern....the city council just wouldn't allow them to go forward.
Then the competition business came around to pricing. Wal-Mart has a secondary trick of going to Pepsi and Coke.....buying massive truckloads of soft-drinks, and then selling each drink for five percent less than they paid for the 'unit'. For each drink, there's zero profit, and even a loss which would normally appear on the books.
Strangely enough, there is a German law forbidding this type of aggressive pricing (you can't sell less than what you bought the item for). So week after week.....they were taken into court. Court costs, lawyer fees, and fines were deemed fairly excessive after a couple years of this practice.
Wal-Mart just simply kept looking at this practice as one of their major ways to get ahead and get addicted shoppers. At some point, between the hostile competition situation, and the fines....the leadership of Wal-Mart deemed Germany as a place where you can't launch and make a profit with the business model that the company uses.
Rather than change a business model proven successful, Wal-Mart packed up in less than nine months and left. They will never come back....as long as the current business model stays the same way.
Yes, Wal-Mart has used this business model in roughly fifteen countries. Currently their China operation is surging ahead, and there's an awful lot of optimistic views in India over what Wal-Mart may accomplish in the next decade.
Most people who study business and how failures occur, will readily that Germany has a unique atmosphere. There are rules to protect business operations, jobs, and to ensure a stable business environment. To the public, it all makes perfect sense. To a guy wanting to establish a new business or bring an international business into Germany....it's a pain.
In plain terms....business in Germany isn't a simple task. Even Germans, with German business models, end up every year with failed businesses.
By 2006, Wal-Mart admitted defeat, put up a plan to leave, and in roughly nine months....were gone from Germany.
The Wal-Mart experience into Germany was deemed a failure by the company.....but the explanation has a curious twist to it. Some journalists will point to using the purchase of InterSpar as a jumping board in the beginning, and that InterSpar was never much of a success....so that failure just blended into future problems of Wal-Mart and brought them down.
Here's the big picture.....Wal-Mart has a general plan as they move into each town. They put up a major building and they want cut their prices to the bare minimum, gut the competition just in that town, and within three years....start seeing the competition in that town shut down. At that point, the prices at that one single Wal-Mart will rise by two-to-four percent overnight. Then they can relax because they've got customers glued into shopping at the store, and occasionally offer up some great deals, but not like the original first three years.
The German stumbling block is that German stores really don't like new competition appearing in their town. So they go to the local city council and make life miserable for Wal-Mart as they apply and try to get property/building space. In a number of cases....like Kaiserslautern....the city council just wouldn't allow them to go forward.
Then the competition business came around to pricing. Wal-Mart has a secondary trick of going to Pepsi and Coke.....buying massive truckloads of soft-drinks, and then selling each drink for five percent less than they paid for the 'unit'. For each drink, there's zero profit, and even a loss which would normally appear on the books.
Strangely enough, there is a German law forbidding this type of aggressive pricing (you can't sell less than what you bought the item for). So week after week.....they were taken into court. Court costs, lawyer fees, and fines were deemed fairly excessive after a couple years of this practice.
Wal-Mart just simply kept looking at this practice as one of their major ways to get ahead and get addicted shoppers. At some point, between the hostile competition situation, and the fines....the leadership of Wal-Mart deemed Germany as a place where you can't launch and make a profit with the business model that the company uses.
Rather than change a business model proven successful, Wal-Mart packed up in less than nine months and left. They will never come back....as long as the current business model stays the same way.
Yes, Wal-Mart has used this business model in roughly fifteen countries. Currently their China operation is surging ahead, and there's an awful lot of optimistic views in India over what Wal-Mart may accomplish in the next decade.
Most people who study business and how failures occur, will readily that Germany has a unique atmosphere. There are rules to protect business operations, jobs, and to ensure a stable business environment. To the public, it all makes perfect sense. To a guy wanting to establish a new business or bring an international business into Germany....it's a pain.
In plain terms....business in Germany isn't a simple task. Even Germans, with German business models, end up every year with failed businesses.
The Amazon World
Over the past week or two....a great deal of government man-hours have been put into looking at Amazon and how it works. There's a general gut feeling.....at least expressed in media reports and interviews....that the German government isn't happy about way that Amazon works.
Working hand in hand with the government leadership....are journalists....who are simply journalists. They aren't business graduates from some university....they usually are journalist graduates. So they've taken to the Amazon story with some humble mistakes attached to their reporting.
Unlike business operations of sixty years ago....today, if you want to start any company and you've been through the MBA program and understand processes, then you have a business model.
You basically write a concept. You develop the idea. You have a few standards that are set in stone as how you operate the business, and cut corners. By the time that you move into a community....you've set your advertising into place, given a dozen people hand-outs to do every Saturday for a month or two, and devised specials to get the original crowd of devoted customers into accepting your operation.
Business models are the lifeblood of a business. You can write a great plan, implement, and twelve months into the attempt....admit defeat. There were simply variables that went beyond your model (local political figures uncooperative with your business, limited parking as growth started, advertising never achieving results, etc). Most people consider these failed attempts as simply a lesson learned, find a job for a couple of years, regroup, and make another run five years later. You learn from mistakes.
So you start to look at comments from German Federal Employment Agency's chief, Frank-Juergen Weise. Herr Weise is an expert on employment and the ethics of such. Has Herr Weise ever written a business model? I doubt it. From the internet, it appears most of his education background has been in economics and social sciences.
From the Die Welt interview, you get the impression that Herr Weise would like to limit government regulations to only occasions that really demand a significant change. The agency will readily admit that they are still looking into allegations against Amazon. It may be months before they come to a clear conclusion.
The comments from journalists that these 'new' companies entering into Germany have only American managers? Mostly all false. What Amazon probably did do was bring some other European managers with background in the business model and put them through a German language class in a hurry. Grammar checkers? Oh my....that would be great, but typically German companies don't hire such people. But German newspapers...like the Die Welt journalists....have the grammar checkers to ensure things are always written right.
So we finally to the Amazon business model. It works primarily because your real profit season is early fall until after Christmas. You need more employees for a four-month period. For the rest of the year, you manage with a normal staff.
The old German model was that you had your regular staff simply go to longer hours for solely the month of December, and you did the best you could....without hiring any more employees. If you couldn't react to larger-than-normal sales....no big deal. You just accepted the fact that if the sale couldn't be made, it wasn't a big deal.
Amazon has a business model which says they bulk up to maximum strength. They've done the research and know the right number of employees to have at critical times. They can forecast it and have proven the bulk-up tactic works in every single case. They can even go back and say the Christmas season of 2012 was a complete success....then turn to admit bringing in the Spanish workers might not have been smart, and the security team had issues.
In business, you admit mistakes, learn from them, and hope to never repeat them again.
So we turn to the journalists.
Journalists have no business models. Oh, they will admit they know interview procedures, how to quote, how to write damning articles, or how to lay out facts when necessary. Whether the newspaper or news team ever makes a profit....is not their business. It's the job of the editor to count up subscriptions, advertisements, and eventually determine a profit margin. Pay-raises only come....if you sustain a profit. Better journalists only move up....if the paper can show income to sustain them.
The ARD and ZDF folks don't worry much about this. They know the TV tax angle to this and have a business model related to that. They can't lose....unless the public starts to get the politicians angry and hostile over TV taxes.
Business models are a nasty reality to the modern business world. You can't survive without them anymore. In the German business world....you upsize or downsize at the right times, and squeeze every Euro out of what you make. Success....is more about a good business model, than a bad business model.
Working hand in hand with the government leadership....are journalists....who are simply journalists. They aren't business graduates from some university....they usually are journalist graduates. So they've taken to the Amazon story with some humble mistakes attached to their reporting.
Unlike business operations of sixty years ago....today, if you want to start any company and you've been through the MBA program and understand processes, then you have a business model.
You basically write a concept. You develop the idea. You have a few standards that are set in stone as how you operate the business, and cut corners. By the time that you move into a community....you've set your advertising into place, given a dozen people hand-outs to do every Saturday for a month or two, and devised specials to get the original crowd of devoted customers into accepting your operation.
Business models are the lifeblood of a business. You can write a great plan, implement, and twelve months into the attempt....admit defeat. There were simply variables that went beyond your model (local political figures uncooperative with your business, limited parking as growth started, advertising never achieving results, etc). Most people consider these failed attempts as simply a lesson learned, find a job for a couple of years, regroup, and make another run five years later. You learn from mistakes.
So you start to look at comments from German Federal Employment Agency's chief, Frank-Juergen Weise. Herr Weise is an expert on employment and the ethics of such. Has Herr Weise ever written a business model? I doubt it. From the internet, it appears most of his education background has been in economics and social sciences.
From the Die Welt interview, you get the impression that Herr Weise would like to limit government regulations to only occasions that really demand a significant change. The agency will readily admit that they are still looking into allegations against Amazon. It may be months before they come to a clear conclusion.
The comments from journalists that these 'new' companies entering into Germany have only American managers? Mostly all false. What Amazon probably did do was bring some other European managers with background in the business model and put them through a German language class in a hurry. Grammar checkers? Oh my....that would be great, but typically German companies don't hire such people. But German newspapers...like the Die Welt journalists....have the grammar checkers to ensure things are always written right.
So we finally to the Amazon business model. It works primarily because your real profit season is early fall until after Christmas. You need more employees for a four-month period. For the rest of the year, you manage with a normal staff.
The old German model was that you had your regular staff simply go to longer hours for solely the month of December, and you did the best you could....without hiring any more employees. If you couldn't react to larger-than-normal sales....no big deal. You just accepted the fact that if the sale couldn't be made, it wasn't a big deal.
Amazon has a business model which says they bulk up to maximum strength. They've done the research and know the right number of employees to have at critical times. They can forecast it and have proven the bulk-up tactic works in every single case. They can even go back and say the Christmas season of 2012 was a complete success....then turn to admit bringing in the Spanish workers might not have been smart, and the security team had issues.
In business, you admit mistakes, learn from them, and hope to never repeat them again.
So we turn to the journalists.
Journalists have no business models. Oh, they will admit they know interview procedures, how to quote, how to write damning articles, or how to lay out facts when necessary. Whether the newspaper or news team ever makes a profit....is not their business. It's the job of the editor to count up subscriptions, advertisements, and eventually determine a profit margin. Pay-raises only come....if you sustain a profit. Better journalists only move up....if the paper can show income to sustain them.
The ARD and ZDF folks don't worry much about this. They know the TV tax angle to this and have a business model related to that. They can't lose....unless the public starts to get the politicians angry and hostile over TV taxes.
Business models are a nasty reality to the modern business world. You can't survive without them anymore. In the German business world....you upsize or downsize at the right times, and squeeze every Euro out of what you make. Success....is more about a good business model, than a bad business model.
Monday, February 18, 2013
The German Apprentice Topic
Last week, the President stood up at the State of the Union Address, and spoke on one particular idea that America should focus on.....bringing high school kids into a position where they would have a stronger career-orientated focus, with a technical degree equal to a US community college.
For a week, I've been looking over the comment, and pondering the way that the German system works. Basically....you'd have to flip the American education sector upside down, and radically change everything we do....to make it work like the German system.
Germany has a path set. As a kid....you get four years of good basic education like all the other kids. Then the teachers sit there and split up the "herd" into a couple of categories.
If you are rather gifted, very agreeable to homework, and show some basic art and music talents....you can move onto a trail that usually results in university results.
If you are somewhat gifted, with decent grades, but have some limits.....then you will move onto a highly technical field....and later a chance, if you show it.....for university or the apprentice program.
Finally, you average kids, who didn't put much effort into homework or study that well....you've got the apprentice program.
By the eighth grade.....most kids have hit their peak, and the emphasis on finding the right apprentice program is what really bears on the nerves of these kids.
You pump out letters and look around locally, and maybe your mom talks up business with someone who might give you a chance for a three-year apprentice deal.
The German apprentice program is simple. You agree to a contract with the company, and then spend roughly twenty hours a week at the office. The boss assigns an initial trainer....usually a tough guy to grill you and make life lightly miserable....because work isn't play like you'd desire. You can't screw up at work....like you did at school last year. The trainer will handle you for three months, and then you kind of rotate around the company to learn different functions within your trade area.
The other twenty hours a week....because there's a school deal attached to this....requires you to study your profession....take some business related classes....some computer classes....some math classes....and then take a few tests. The school is in the local town, and all the other kids in your profession....show up at this school.
This whole thing works well....because kids all live in villages near the big town....where public transportation picks them up (remember they are 15 and 16 at this point in time, without cars). They go to school some days, and to work the other days.
A US rural area? It won't work.
So the kid spends three years doing this. Some kids....maybe one out of twenty....will come to state that this just isn't for them and ask for a second chance to do something else. They will come to realize that they just can't cook, or fix a car, or do butcher work.
At the end of three years....the kid takes two tests. One is simply a written test, and it's fairly tough. The instructors from the school will give you all kinds of study material, and help in every way possible to pass. But then comes this verbal test with the Chamber of Commerce in every big town, where they ask some questions just to make sure you know what you studied.
The passing average? It goes up and down. I'd take a humble guess that eighty out of a hundred kids will pass on the first test. Another ten will pass on the second attempt. And these remaining kids fall into different categories.....some will spend an entire extra year trying to get smart. Some will never pass the exam and thus never be qualified in their area. They might get jobs later in life.....but it'll always be a question mark if you know much about your field.
For Americans, this all sounds good but it would only work in an urban environment. Companies will to sign up kids? Only if you offered tax credits, would some go for this. Abusive use of the kids and no knowledge gained at jobs would likely come out of the initial efforts. The smarter kids would benefit from programs like this....but it's to see any American success in using this in the same manner as Germans.
So the bottom line? Like a hundred things that Americans always want to talk about as great German things that ought to work in the US.....the same one hundred are never successfully introduced because of limitations. In other words...talk is talk, and never translates into much of anything else.
Oh, and if you were thinking of introducing German autobahns and unlimited speed limits....forget it....we just wouldn't be able to accept that unlimited speed business.
For a week, I've been looking over the comment, and pondering the way that the German system works. Basically....you'd have to flip the American education sector upside down, and radically change everything we do....to make it work like the German system.
Germany has a path set. As a kid....you get four years of good basic education like all the other kids. Then the teachers sit there and split up the "herd" into a couple of categories.
If you are rather gifted, very agreeable to homework, and show some basic art and music talents....you can move onto a trail that usually results in university results.
If you are somewhat gifted, with decent grades, but have some limits.....then you will move onto a highly technical field....and later a chance, if you show it.....for university or the apprentice program.
Finally, you average kids, who didn't put much effort into homework or study that well....you've got the apprentice program.
By the eighth grade.....most kids have hit their peak, and the emphasis on finding the right apprentice program is what really bears on the nerves of these kids.
You pump out letters and look around locally, and maybe your mom talks up business with someone who might give you a chance for a three-year apprentice deal.
The German apprentice program is simple. You agree to a contract with the company, and then spend roughly twenty hours a week at the office. The boss assigns an initial trainer....usually a tough guy to grill you and make life lightly miserable....because work isn't play like you'd desire. You can't screw up at work....like you did at school last year. The trainer will handle you for three months, and then you kind of rotate around the company to learn different functions within your trade area.
The other twenty hours a week....because there's a school deal attached to this....requires you to study your profession....take some business related classes....some computer classes....some math classes....and then take a few tests. The school is in the local town, and all the other kids in your profession....show up at this school.
This whole thing works well....because kids all live in villages near the big town....where public transportation picks them up (remember they are 15 and 16 at this point in time, without cars). They go to school some days, and to work the other days.
A US rural area? It won't work.
So the kid spends three years doing this. Some kids....maybe one out of twenty....will come to state that this just isn't for them and ask for a second chance to do something else. They will come to realize that they just can't cook, or fix a car, or do butcher work.
At the end of three years....the kid takes two tests. One is simply a written test, and it's fairly tough. The instructors from the school will give you all kinds of study material, and help in every way possible to pass. But then comes this verbal test with the Chamber of Commerce in every big town, where they ask some questions just to make sure you know what you studied.
The passing average? It goes up and down. I'd take a humble guess that eighty out of a hundred kids will pass on the first test. Another ten will pass on the second attempt. And these remaining kids fall into different categories.....some will spend an entire extra year trying to get smart. Some will never pass the exam and thus never be qualified in their area. They might get jobs later in life.....but it'll always be a question mark if you know much about your field.
For Americans, this all sounds good but it would only work in an urban environment. Companies will to sign up kids? Only if you offered tax credits, would some go for this. Abusive use of the kids and no knowledge gained at jobs would likely come out of the initial efforts. The smarter kids would benefit from programs like this....but it's to see any American success in using this in the same manner as Germans.
So the bottom line? Like a hundred things that Americans always want to talk about as great German things that ought to work in the US.....the same one hundred are never successfully introduced because of limitations. In other words...talk is talk, and never translates into much of anything else.
Oh, and if you were thinking of introducing German autobahns and unlimited speed limits....forget it....we just wouldn't be able to accept that unlimited speed business.
Germans and TV
There's an interesting survey that came out of Germany over the past week. YouGov went and asked Germans how they felt about the TV-tax. Frankly, the results were pretty much what you'd expect....a very negative view of the tax and it wasn't worth the money.
There was a very strong showing of comment over ARD and ZDF needing improvement. The survey tended to show a negative view of the tax and where this was going.
For an American standing over German TV options....it's an interesting offering.
Public-run TV (ARD, ZDF, and the twenty-odd channels under them....try to be all things. The issue is that they really can't deliver a product that all generations of Germans appreciate. So you have to pay careful attention to the schedule and settle for three or four shows a week that might be worth watching.
The commercial TV crowd? RTL, SAT, ProSieben, RTL2, and the other various channels offer a fair amount of US programming, German reality TV, and tend to lead to the younger German population. Most Germans over sixty rarely frequent these channels.
German cable or satellite will talk up the fact that a German family has close to a hundred channels now to watch (to include the CNN folks, some Austrian TV, and the sales channels). You can toss in the travel networks, the religious channels, and all the oddball stuff leftover.
An American would admit after a while, that it's about the same situation in the US.....a bunch of channels with limited value, and you might flip on a 1956 cowboy movie because there's really not that much to select from.
What tends to make German society a little bit different....there are still some Germans who view the scheduled events for tonight, and simply turn the TV off, and then retreat to the garage to clean tools, or work up a sweat in the kitchen making unplanned muffins, or read two chapters out of a Mexican vacation murder mystery.
My present view is that the public-TV guys are working up a sweat. More and more younger Germans are voicing negative views over the TV tax, and making this known to political parties. Eventually....there will be enough hostility to the tax, and there's going to be a meeting with the state-TV folks over cutting the tax. Someone....down the line....will have to give up a channel or two from the state-TV lineup. The trend will continue over the years, and probably reshape German TV over the next two or three decades.
As for the German youth trend? Delivery via the internet and Wi-Fi is increasing. If I had to pick a culture that would adapt to personalized TV choices over the next twenty years....the German society would be the best choice to settle on. It wouldn't surprise me if someone in Germany fixed up a daily soap-opera show....where each evening after the show....a poll would go out to ask where the next day's script ought to go, and give viewers their own choices. Dramatic and historical pieces will not be high in their priorities.
Finally, for those state-TV management folks. I wish you luck, but it's a tough situation that you've brewed, and I don't see how the tax stays around for the indefinite future.
There was a very strong showing of comment over ARD and ZDF needing improvement. The survey tended to show a negative view of the tax and where this was going.
For an American standing over German TV options....it's an interesting offering.
Public-run TV (ARD, ZDF, and the twenty-odd channels under them....try to be all things. The issue is that they really can't deliver a product that all generations of Germans appreciate. So you have to pay careful attention to the schedule and settle for three or four shows a week that might be worth watching.
The commercial TV crowd? RTL, SAT, ProSieben, RTL2, and the other various channels offer a fair amount of US programming, German reality TV, and tend to lead to the younger German population. Most Germans over sixty rarely frequent these channels.
German cable or satellite will talk up the fact that a German family has close to a hundred channels now to watch (to include the CNN folks, some Austrian TV, and the sales channels). You can toss in the travel networks, the religious channels, and all the oddball stuff leftover.
An American would admit after a while, that it's about the same situation in the US.....a bunch of channels with limited value, and you might flip on a 1956 cowboy movie because there's really not that much to select from.
What tends to make German society a little bit different....there are still some Germans who view the scheduled events for tonight, and simply turn the TV off, and then retreat to the garage to clean tools, or work up a sweat in the kitchen making unplanned muffins, or read two chapters out of a Mexican vacation murder mystery.
My present view is that the public-TV guys are working up a sweat. More and more younger Germans are voicing negative views over the TV tax, and making this known to political parties. Eventually....there will be enough hostility to the tax, and there's going to be a meeting with the state-TV folks over cutting the tax. Someone....down the line....will have to give up a channel or two from the state-TV lineup. The trend will continue over the years, and probably reshape German TV over the next two or three decades.
As for the German youth trend? Delivery via the internet and Wi-Fi is increasing. If I had to pick a culture that would adapt to personalized TV choices over the next twenty years....the German society would be the best choice to settle on. It wouldn't surprise me if someone in Germany fixed up a daily soap-opera show....where each evening after the show....a poll would go out to ask where the next day's script ought to go, and give viewers their own choices. Dramatic and historical pieces will not be high in their priorities.
Finally, for those state-TV management folks. I wish you luck, but it's a tough situation that you've brewed, and I don't see how the tax stays around for the indefinite future.
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Temp Workers in Germany
Being an American, you generally see a fair amount of temp workers used throughout the US. Companies got smart in the 1970s, and began to ramp up a hiring program every fall (usually around October), and bring temp workers to handle the Christmas rush.
In the US, you have a number of groups to go out and recruit from. There's the recently unemployed folks who are eager for anything....even if it's only a job for twelve weeks. There's the college kid crowd, who'd ready agree to forty hours of night work throughout a week....just to help pay on some of their bills. Then you have the crowd who are already working forty hours during the regular job, and would like a second job which pays for an additional twenty to forty hours.
Over the past week or two....the Amazon guys in Germany have walked into some bad PR stuff. They did what they typically do in the US....carry a minimum staff for eight months out of the year, and then bulk up for Christmas. It would appear that they weren't doing fabulous business before 2012....just continually building each year. And in summer of 2012.....they knew this was going to be a big moment for the company....so you needed real manpower for Christmas of 2012.
The problem is....as the weeks went by in late summer and early fall, the Amazon guys appear to have discovered that temp workers just weren't going to be plentiful temps to hire. No college kids, no recently unemployed, and no folks looking for their second job to bulk up their pay situation.
So Amazon looked at the EU hiring rules, that Germany has to agree and work with. As long as you hire a EU guy from any country.....Germany has to accept it. So it appears that Amazon hired up a number of Spanish unemployed folks, and transported into Germany....with various guarantees (even some temp housing in the deal). As bad as the employment situation is in Spain....this temp deal in Germany sounded great.
So they arrived and found black uniformed Hess security guards at the warehouse....fairly tough and stringent on security. The pay? Some German news sources talk of the normal German taxes taken, and then some money taken to pay for their housing (which maybe the Spanish temps thought this was all free and part of the deal). At the end of this whole mess....the temps were unhappy and finally spoke up about this stuff.
Some German employment office folks are going to come out and visit.....ask for records, and ask Amazon to explain the accusations.
My humble guess is that Amazon will show that they went by the EU rule book, and they will be correct on that matter. The guards? They probably were excessive, and the appearance they gave of Nazi security was probably a serious blunder. The housing deal? They might have stumbled on this part of the situation, the government investigation might show that.
But we come to this odd moment....there's barely seven months left now....before the next round of serious Amazon build-up for Christmas 2013. What do you do? You really screwed up in 2012. You can't go back to Spain because no one there will dare work for you.
The German worker possibility? You've gotten a bad reputation so far for hiring temps, so you'd have hire folks at premium levels and significant pay. That's not the traditional Amazon way.
About the only way they will slide out and solve the next Christmas rush....is hire some company with a friendly name and let them act as the warehouse operation management team. Remove the Amazon logo on the front of the building, and invent something new and generic to reinvent the reputation of Amazon.
Germany just isn't a place where temp workers exist, and if you do find some....they are in small quantities.
In the US, you have a number of groups to go out and recruit from. There's the recently unemployed folks who are eager for anything....even if it's only a job for twelve weeks. There's the college kid crowd, who'd ready agree to forty hours of night work throughout a week....just to help pay on some of their bills. Then you have the crowd who are already working forty hours during the regular job, and would like a second job which pays for an additional twenty to forty hours.
Over the past week or two....the Amazon guys in Germany have walked into some bad PR stuff. They did what they typically do in the US....carry a minimum staff for eight months out of the year, and then bulk up for Christmas. It would appear that they weren't doing fabulous business before 2012....just continually building each year. And in summer of 2012.....they knew this was going to be a big moment for the company....so you needed real manpower for Christmas of 2012.
The problem is....as the weeks went by in late summer and early fall, the Amazon guys appear to have discovered that temp workers just weren't going to be plentiful temps to hire. No college kids, no recently unemployed, and no folks looking for their second job to bulk up their pay situation.
So Amazon looked at the EU hiring rules, that Germany has to agree and work with. As long as you hire a EU guy from any country.....Germany has to accept it. So it appears that Amazon hired up a number of Spanish unemployed folks, and transported into Germany....with various guarantees (even some temp housing in the deal). As bad as the employment situation is in Spain....this temp deal in Germany sounded great.
So they arrived and found black uniformed Hess security guards at the warehouse....fairly tough and stringent on security. The pay? Some German news sources talk of the normal German taxes taken, and then some money taken to pay for their housing (which maybe the Spanish temps thought this was all free and part of the deal). At the end of this whole mess....the temps were unhappy and finally spoke up about this stuff.
Some German employment office folks are going to come out and visit.....ask for records, and ask Amazon to explain the accusations.
My humble guess is that Amazon will show that they went by the EU rule book, and they will be correct on that matter. The guards? They probably were excessive, and the appearance they gave of Nazi security was probably a serious blunder. The housing deal? They might have stumbled on this part of the situation, the government investigation might show that.
But we come to this odd moment....there's barely seven months left now....before the next round of serious Amazon build-up for Christmas 2013. What do you do? You really screwed up in 2012. You can't go back to Spain because no one there will dare work for you.
The German worker possibility? You've gotten a bad reputation so far for hiring temps, so you'd have hire folks at premium levels and significant pay. That's not the traditional Amazon way.
About the only way they will slide out and solve the next Christmas rush....is hire some company with a friendly name and let them act as the warehouse operation management team. Remove the Amazon logo on the front of the building, and invent something new and generic to reinvent the reputation of Amazon.
Germany just isn't a place where temp workers exist, and if you do find some....they are in small quantities.
Thursday, February 14, 2013
The Hobby Story
There's an interesting German legal piece in the Wiesbaden Kurier today....over taxes and 'hobbies'.
Out of the Munster area....there's this guy who ran a legal office, with several folks hired as lawyers for his company. It's not clear if this was a major operation or just a small operation, but as profits went....this lawyer and his company had an interesting yearly event.
For a number of consecutive years....he ran with his team....on significant losses. Bad luck? Don't know....that was never laid out in this tax case.
The thing is....he claimed these losses (five and six figures) on his taxes each year. If he had done this one year, then skipped a year, and done it again in the third....no one would have noticed much or said anything. But when he does for a number of years....always noting significant losses, the German tax folks just weren't going to accept that. You can't be that screwed up (at least in their mind).
So the court came out with an interesting ruling, which is local in nature, and may be taken to the national court. They said....he ran his legal operation as a 'hobby', not as an authentic office. And in the area of hobbies, you can't claim losses (or profits for that matter). There's no hint of the next step....but it might interest enough folks to have it checked at the national court level.
The judge noted at some point, that the guy never even wanted to clear a profit....he seemed more bound to note all the losses as part of this guy's tax scheme.
As an American, I'm always amazed by the twists and turns of the German legal system. Course, I'm also amazed how a guy could run year after year....with losses...and still be in operation. Frankly, if I knew he was this unsuccessful as a lawyer....I might not even want to hire the guy.
Just observations.
Out of the Munster area....there's this guy who ran a legal office, with several folks hired as lawyers for his company. It's not clear if this was a major operation or just a small operation, but as profits went....this lawyer and his company had an interesting yearly event.
For a number of consecutive years....he ran with his team....on significant losses. Bad luck? Don't know....that was never laid out in this tax case.
The thing is....he claimed these losses (five and six figures) on his taxes each year. If he had done this one year, then skipped a year, and done it again in the third....no one would have noticed much or said anything. But when he does for a number of years....always noting significant losses, the German tax folks just weren't going to accept that. You can't be that screwed up (at least in their mind).
So the court came out with an interesting ruling, which is local in nature, and may be taken to the national court. They said....he ran his legal operation as a 'hobby', not as an authentic office. And in the area of hobbies, you can't claim losses (or profits for that matter). There's no hint of the next step....but it might interest enough folks to have it checked at the national court level.
The judge noted at some point, that the guy never even wanted to clear a profit....he seemed more bound to note all the losses as part of this guy's tax scheme.
As an American, I'm always amazed by the twists and turns of the German legal system. Course, I'm also amazed how a guy could run year after year....with losses...and still be in operation. Frankly, if I knew he was this unsuccessful as a lawyer....I might not even want to hire the guy.
Just observations.
Horse Meat Episode Continued
I think the authorities throughout Europe were hoping on a quick conclusion to the horse meat episode. Based on various news sources today....I'd say we might only be half-way through the mess.
One source reports that a French company, who imported from eastern Europe (Cyprus, Romania, etc), was involved.
Another news source says that testing concludes some portions of the horse meat has horse pain-killers noted, which is very illegal by European regulations.
At least one news report indicates that Ireland has found some products....which were supposed to be one-hundred percent beef.....instead....was one-hundred percent horse meat.
Real, which is a major German super-market store....has been yanking a couple of products off the shelves and trying to ensure there is absolutely nothing out there....that might contain horse meat.
Interestingly enough....even Burger King Europe got into the mess....dumping their purchase of Irish and British beef....suspecting it to be contaminated, and buying German beef right now instead. It's not considered a long-term move to buy German beef (usually more expensive than most), and the business reporting indicates this is a short-term matter to make customers feel sure about the source of their burgers.
The final word on this? A British paper (Walesonline) interviewed a German professor who is an expert in just about every meat in existence....a Doctor Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow. The Doc says that generally....there's nothing bad about horse meat, and that it's simply a taboo meat. As he points out....we've all adapted to not eating companion meats. He might have a point on that.
As a news item....I'm guessing it'll stay in the top five German discussed items for another five days....until there are no more surprises out there.
One source reports that a French company, who imported from eastern Europe (Cyprus, Romania, etc), was involved.
Another news source says that testing concludes some portions of the horse meat has horse pain-killers noted, which is very illegal by European regulations.
At least one news report indicates that Ireland has found some products....which were supposed to be one-hundred percent beef.....instead....was one-hundred percent horse meat.
Real, which is a major German super-market store....has been yanking a couple of products off the shelves and trying to ensure there is absolutely nothing out there....that might contain horse meat.
Interestingly enough....even Burger King Europe got into the mess....dumping their purchase of Irish and British beef....suspecting it to be contaminated, and buying German beef right now instead. It's not considered a long-term move to buy German beef (usually more expensive than most), and the business reporting indicates this is a short-term matter to make customers feel sure about the source of their burgers.
The final word on this? A British paper (Walesonline) interviewed a German professor who is an expert in just about every meat in existence....a Doctor Victor Benno Meyer-Rochow. The Doc says that generally....there's nothing bad about horse meat, and that it's simply a taboo meat. As he points out....we've all adapted to not eating companion meats. He might have a point on that.
As a news item....I'm guessing it'll stay in the top five German discussed items for another five days....until there are no more surprises out there.
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
The Horse Meat Saga
If you follow European news....horse meat stories have popped up over the last two or three weeks. Basically....you've got one butcher shop (based on reports, it's only been identified to one)....that screwed up, and mixed horse-meat with the beef, and let go out the front door.
Generally, this is coming from an American who has observed this.....a butcher in Germany is usually a butcher who generally does a lot of different butchering jobs (pork, beef, chicken, etc), but horse butchers have a unique shop and they stay separate.
My first introduction to such a deal was the Kaiserslautern city fair....where I discovered that one single butcher trailer was set up at the end of the whole operation.....with a funny smell. My wife kind of explained this to me, and I simply observed from the distance.
Growing up in the American south.....you just don't come across horse meat too often, and generally would turn it down quickly. Yeah, we'd accept goat, ostrich, and even gator-meat.....but horses just aren't an acceptable thing there either.
How many Germans get into it? I'd make a guess that every community has a couple of folks, but it's likely in the range of three Germans out of a hundred (my humble numbers)....maybe even less than three. You'd always see a few folks at the fair trailer....making purchases, but it wasn't a significant crowd.
This scandal? Well...for around three months....this butcher company pumped out meat that was mixed up with regular beef, and it went to various production companies that made different meals. German authorities are all over this and really want to ensure the 'purity' of their market items. I'm guessing that the sooner they feel sure the problem is ended....the quicker you will see this story disappear from the press.
The butcher company at fault? From past episodes in Bavaria where bad meat was sent out and the press got into the whole mess....the companies tended to fold up or be bought out quickly. Once you get a bad reputation for anything in the marketplace....it's hard to operate from that point on. Your reputation....as a German business...is always at stake, and you rarely see screw-ups like this. Note: this was a Luxembourg company....not a Germany company.
So if you ever hang out at a big-town fair and you sense this funny smell in the air....you can take a fair guess what it is and just make a 360-degree circle to find the trailer with the horse-meat.
Generally, this is coming from an American who has observed this.....a butcher in Germany is usually a butcher who generally does a lot of different butchering jobs (pork, beef, chicken, etc), but horse butchers have a unique shop and they stay separate.
My first introduction to such a deal was the Kaiserslautern city fair....where I discovered that one single butcher trailer was set up at the end of the whole operation.....with a funny smell. My wife kind of explained this to me, and I simply observed from the distance.
Growing up in the American south.....you just don't come across horse meat too often, and generally would turn it down quickly. Yeah, we'd accept goat, ostrich, and even gator-meat.....but horses just aren't an acceptable thing there either.
How many Germans get into it? I'd make a guess that every community has a couple of folks, but it's likely in the range of three Germans out of a hundred (my humble numbers)....maybe even less than three. You'd always see a few folks at the fair trailer....making purchases, but it wasn't a significant crowd.
This scandal? Well...for around three months....this butcher company pumped out meat that was mixed up with regular beef, and it went to various production companies that made different meals. German authorities are all over this and really want to ensure the 'purity' of their market items. I'm guessing that the sooner they feel sure the problem is ended....the quicker you will see this story disappear from the press.
The butcher company at fault? From past episodes in Bavaria where bad meat was sent out and the press got into the whole mess....the companies tended to fold up or be bought out quickly. Once you get a bad reputation for anything in the marketplace....it's hard to operate from that point on. Your reputation....as a German business...is always at stake, and you rarely see screw-ups like this. Note: this was a Luxembourg company....not a Germany company.
So if you ever hang out at a big-town fair and you sense this funny smell in the air....you can take a fair guess what it is and just make a 360-degree circle to find the trailer with the horse-meat.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Fifty Years Later
Rumors indicate today that President Obama is working up a schedule for June....which either at the start or finish....stops off in Berlin, where he will deliver the Kennedy speech (50 years to the day).
It was roughly a five-minute speech. The key element....fifty years ago...was that the United States was going to lay down a secondary card, after the Berlin Airlift, to indicate that it wasn't going to put West Germany down on the world's totem pole. Americans were going to be willing to puts troops and military power down to ensure West Germany stayed free.
For the most part....it was a five-star speech and didn't really change much of anything. We already had troops in Germany, and weren't planning any significant changes.
It was a speech to be a demonstration to the Germans. A five-star speech? Yeah, probably one of the ten best speeches of the century, without doubt. Short, to the point, and arousing to the crowd.
A repeat of the speech? President Obama could just repeat the words and leave it there. He could try to trump Kennedy's Berlin speech. He could simply lay out a bold new version of where the world should go.
The crowd? I'm of the mind if the weather cooperates (it's always a 50-50 thing on weather in June)....it could be a 500k person crowd. Put in bad weather? Figure closer to 250k. I'm one of those folks who ran remember a June bar-b-q from twenty years ago where it was too cold except around the fire itself to stand.
Will Gitmo matter? Well....most Germans know it's still an issue. The drone stuff? It's turning into a negative anchor right now. The Aghan war? Well....it's still going but there's an end to the mess in sight.
I anticipate that this will likely be the last swing through Germany for President Obama for the remaining four years, and he'll try to deliver a Kennedy-dramatic piece.
It was roughly a five-minute speech. The key element....fifty years ago...was that the United States was going to lay down a secondary card, after the Berlin Airlift, to indicate that it wasn't going to put West Germany down on the world's totem pole. Americans were going to be willing to puts troops and military power down to ensure West Germany stayed free.
For the most part....it was a five-star speech and didn't really change much of anything. We already had troops in Germany, and weren't planning any significant changes.
It was a speech to be a demonstration to the Germans. A five-star speech? Yeah, probably one of the ten best speeches of the century, without doubt. Short, to the point, and arousing to the crowd.
A repeat of the speech? President Obama could just repeat the words and leave it there. He could try to trump Kennedy's Berlin speech. He could simply lay out a bold new version of where the world should go.
The crowd? I'm of the mind if the weather cooperates (it's always a 50-50 thing on weather in June)....it could be a 500k person crowd. Put in bad weather? Figure closer to 250k. I'm one of those folks who ran remember a June bar-b-q from twenty years ago where it was too cold except around the fire itself to stand.
Will Gitmo matter? Well....most Germans know it's still an issue. The drone stuff? It's turning into a negative anchor right now. The Aghan war? Well....it's still going but there's an end to the mess in sight.
I anticipate that this will likely be the last swing through Germany for President Obama for the remaining four years, and he'll try to deliver a Kennedy-dramatic piece.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
More on the Check Guy
Over the past twenty-four hours....a little more has come out over the Iranian guy with the 54 million Euro check attempting to enter Germany.
The customs guys now say that the fine will be around one million Euro...more or less. After that....they don't care what he does.
The guy? Well, this starts to become interesting. He is Tahmasb Mazaheri. He was the head of the central bank of Iran for a period of about a year (around 2008, being relieved).
Based on commentary, there was a fair amount of difference between his vision of the central bank and that of the national leadership. The national leadership wanted significant sums of money shifted from the bank....to the nation's poor, to demonstrate that country was taking care of them. The act....if carried out...was summed up by Mazaheri as the trigger for creating massive inflation. If you look over the current trends in Tehran....Mazaheri was probably right about run-away inflation.
It would appear that over that brief year....he found various ways to shuffle money around, and deposit it in Venezuela, with a bank there. The check....is drawn upon that South American bank, not a bank in the Middle East.
His intentions? I'd now guess that he was seeking a way of hiding in Germany, and utilizing the money for himself and his family. He probably had an upscale house in mind....a body-guard or two....and just quietly exist in Europe.
Now? The Iranians would need to react fairly quickly on Monday and ask to stall his release. They might want to check out his various transactions and create some crime paperwork.
The guy? I'm guessing that he's begging the Germans at this point to allow him out, and to find a German bank here on Sunday....that would open and accept his check....pay the customs folks....and disappear immediately.
Staying in Germany? If I were the guy....I'd forget about this option. The Germans probably aren't going to agree to any visa deal. He'd best start looking for some Caribbean island where he can pretend to be some washed-up Bombay former movie star.
The customs guys now say that the fine will be around one million Euro...more or less. After that....they don't care what he does. The guy? Well, this starts to become interesting. He is Tahmasb Mazaheri. He was the head of the central bank of Iran for a period of about a year (around 2008, being relieved).
Based on commentary, there was a fair amount of difference between his vision of the central bank and that of the national leadership. The national leadership wanted significant sums of money shifted from the bank....to the nation's poor, to demonstrate that country was taking care of them. The act....if carried out...was summed up by Mazaheri as the trigger for creating massive inflation. If you look over the current trends in Tehran....Mazaheri was probably right about run-away inflation.
It would appear that over that brief year....he found various ways to shuffle money around, and deposit it in Venezuela, with a bank there. The check....is drawn upon that South American bank, not a bank in the Middle East.
His intentions? I'd now guess that he was seeking a way of hiding in Germany, and utilizing the money for himself and his family. He probably had an upscale house in mind....a body-guard or two....and just quietly exist in Europe.
Now? The Iranians would need to react fairly quickly on Monday and ask to stall his release. They might want to check out his various transactions and create some crime paperwork.
The guy? I'm guessing that he's begging the Germans at this point to allow him out, and to find a German bank here on Sunday....that would open and accept his check....pay the customs folks....and disappear immediately.
Staying in Germany? If I were the guy....I'd forget about this option. The Germans probably aren't going to agree to any visa deal. He'd best start looking for some Caribbean island where he can pretend to be some washed-up Bombay former movie star.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
The Check Guy
It's one of those odd stories that pop up in Germany once or twice a year and you doubt the story.
There's the Iranian guy....arriving at a German airport....and the customs guys ask if he has cash of 10k or more. The guy says no....at least in terms of cash....he was right.
But the customs guys go through his bags and eventually find this odd check. It's only a check. It's somewhere in the area of 54 million Euro. Course, there's some things. It's drawn on a Venezuelan bank, and it's in Venezuelan Bolivares.
The guy? Well...the cops say (mostly because the guy just won't talk much) that he came out of Iran, went through Turkey, and his final destination was Germany.
I'm guessing that the trick question of cash on hand was truthfully said by the guy....but the sad thing is that checks on you....even a cashiers check....counts as well. When the customs guys ask you....you just can't overlook that check you are carrying.
What was the guy up to? Well...I would make a guess that he was going to present the check to someone who was going to hold the check as a deposit for something. These days....depending on the bank you deal with....there might not be any limit to the period of validity for the check. You could give the check to some guy for five years....come back and reclaim the check for some reason, and the money would still be there.
How would you claim the actual physical cash? Well.....you'd have to walk into the Venezuelan bank where the money is held, present the check, and only then get the cash. An electronic transfer? My gut tells me that it'd be rare that someone would move all that cash electronically....to most western countries, because of tax issues.
Few people remember the Don Johnson story from around a dozen years ago. Don had flown into Germany on a private jet with a couple of guys....got into a limo, and was just about to cross the border into Switzerland when the German customs guys asked to check the car. Don was carrying over a billion dollars in bank checks. They didn't stop Don, but they photo-copied everything and sent the info onto the authorities. My humble guess is that once back into the states....Don met quietly with the IRS folks and identified each and every person that he was carrying checks for. You never heard a word about this.....ever again.
How many folks transit Germany with checks like this a year? I'd bet on fifty thousand individuals. Some are simply carrying a 100k Euro check which they will quietly use to buy an ice cream shop somewhere in Germany....and the guy doesn't want the German tax guys to confiscate any of the start-up money. How they got the money to start with....isn't of any concern.
The sad part of this story is that this guy was merely a courier for the check, and his boss won't be happy about this whole mess. He'll have to disappear and just hope Germany extends refugee status to him, and offers him a new identity.
There's the Iranian guy....arriving at a German airport....and the customs guys ask if he has cash of 10k or more. The guy says no....at least in terms of cash....he was right.
But the customs guys go through his bags and eventually find this odd check. It's only a check. It's somewhere in the area of 54 million Euro. Course, there's some things. It's drawn on a Venezuelan bank, and it's in Venezuelan Bolivares.
The guy? Well...the cops say (mostly because the guy just won't talk much) that he came out of Iran, went through Turkey, and his final destination was Germany.
I'm guessing that the trick question of cash on hand was truthfully said by the guy....but the sad thing is that checks on you....even a cashiers check....counts as well. When the customs guys ask you....you just can't overlook that check you are carrying.
What was the guy up to? Well...I would make a guess that he was going to present the check to someone who was going to hold the check as a deposit for something. These days....depending on the bank you deal with....there might not be any limit to the period of validity for the check. You could give the check to some guy for five years....come back and reclaim the check for some reason, and the money would still be there.
How would you claim the actual physical cash? Well.....you'd have to walk into the Venezuelan bank where the money is held, present the check, and only then get the cash. An electronic transfer? My gut tells me that it'd be rare that someone would move all that cash electronically....to most western countries, because of tax issues.
Few people remember the Don Johnson story from around a dozen years ago. Don had flown into Germany on a private jet with a couple of guys....got into a limo, and was just about to cross the border into Switzerland when the German customs guys asked to check the car. Don was carrying over a billion dollars in bank checks. They didn't stop Don, but they photo-copied everything and sent the info onto the authorities. My humble guess is that once back into the states....Don met quietly with the IRS folks and identified each and every person that he was carrying checks for. You never heard a word about this.....ever again.
How many folks transit Germany with checks like this a year? I'd bet on fifty thousand individuals. Some are simply carrying a 100k Euro check which they will quietly use to buy an ice cream shop somewhere in Germany....and the guy doesn't want the German tax guys to confiscate any of the start-up money. How they got the money to start with....isn't of any concern.
The sad part of this story is that this guy was merely a courier for the check, and his boss won't be happy about this whole mess. He'll have to disappear and just hope Germany extends refugee status to him, and offers him a new identity.
Friday, February 1, 2013
A Tax Discussion
Normally, I wouldn't ever discuss or bring up the far-left party as a topic. This week? They came out and said a part of their platform for the upcoming election.....is a 100-percent taxation on folks who make more than half-a-million Euro (roughly $650k a year). Anything after that amount of money.....you'd just lose the whole amount. Got a bonus from the bank for good work of one million, on top of your $499k Euro Salary? Well....the one million would just be entirely taken away.
Gut feeling? It won't really attract much interest in the election, if you ask me. The French and their 75-percent taxation deal has been getting rough treatment in most German papers and the news.
If you sat and around and reviewed things if they got real votes....it's bound to draw attention because you'd have to spend the money as you get it, and lots of various groups would demand more money for their projects.
But then, you'd start to notice folks packing up and moving out of Germany. So in the long-run....you'd lose more folks than make any money.
Germans have a pretty negative view of any changes on taxes these days. Doesn't matter if it affects the rich or middle-class....it's always drawing negative talk.
Gut feeling? It won't really attract much interest in the election, if you ask me. The French and their 75-percent taxation deal has been getting rough treatment in most German papers and the news.
If you sat and around and reviewed things if they got real votes....it's bound to draw attention because you'd have to spend the money as you get it, and lots of various groups would demand more money for their projects.
But then, you'd start to notice folks packing up and moving out of Germany. So in the long-run....you'd lose more folks than make any money.
Germans have a pretty negative view of any changes on taxes these days. Doesn't matter if it affects the rich or middle-class....it's always drawing negative talk.
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