Business Chatter

Some business reporter brought up this topic this week....on VW and the impending cut of 100,000 potential employees.

Generally, the law says.....you need to compensate let-go folks....one month of pay....for each year you employed them.

Well...the journalists did a analysis....if you were a university engineer grad....cut....with 25 years of service (figure you are nearing 50 years old).  Ballpark pay-off?  Nearing 150,000 Euro in  pay.

Just a assembly-guy....nearing 12 years?  Around 54,000 in pay-out.

The thing you wonder about....this effort to downsize...if it increases the downward spiral of profitability.

Nord Stream II Update

 If you follow the Nord Stream II pipeline saga....this past week....another chapter was written of the German-Russian natural gas pipe.

If you didn't know....there was a insurance policy bought over it....via a London company.

Well...they started out....to decline the pay-out.

From a London court this week....it was decided....Nord Stream AG will not receive the approximately 580 million Euro it is claiming from its insurers. 

Judgement....the destruction of the pipelines was a consequence of the war . Such damages are excluded from insurance coverage.

Ending?  Well....the Gazprom-controlled company will be left to bear the repair costs.  

Next step?  If the war ends....within 6 months, I'd expect Gazprom to get a deal....where the German gov't pays something (certainly not 580 million Euro) to  restart the pipe.....and the unit to be turned on within 12 months.  My guess is that a invented 'tax' will occur, and German consumers end up paying the repair cost (entirely).

19 July 2026: Germany: 6 Things

1.  Temp's radically flipped....last night was at a low of 13 C (55 F).  Today a max of of 20 C (68 F).  Around four storm fronts in the past 48 hours....none dumping that much on rain....so the drought continues.  Forecast for next 10 days....mostly 30 C or less....with marginal rain.

2.  Lithuania German-brigade....Germans still have trouble finding volunteers willing to deploy and be stationed there.

3.  What is the ZDF-Danger Dan scandal about?

Danger Dan is a German rapper (real name Daniel Pongratz) from the band Antilopen Gang.   If you read over his rap text....it's about 95-percent political, left-leaning, and anti-fascist music.

So ZDF (Channel 2, public TV)...has a show, Die Anstalt.....and they were willing to give Danger Dan a chance to show his new song called "Keine Angst" ("No Fear").  If you were wondering....the show is a satire/comedy type show.

While the show management were open to this....the top level of ZDF started to discuss the matter.

I suspect....this management group got the text....read through it....and got worried.  The rap song is strongly against right-wing extremism (like the AfD) and fascism. Mixed in....it refers to resistance, mentions Antifa groups and real court cases involving violent fights with neo-Nazis, and oddly enough....encourages folks to take action without fear.  

So the bosses told show people....you have to cancel the invitation.

Danger Dan got pretty peeved.

If you were asking me....on the level of public notice....among the top ten rap-stars of Germany?  No....I might rank him in the top forty.  But to be honest....there's probably 3,000 rap-singers in Germany presently.

Questions at this point?   Well....were they correct in censoring Danger Dan, and exactly how many folks watch ZDF's Anstalt show?  

4.  General agreement now....stagflation in Russia....mostly due to fuel crisis.

5.  New FOCUS column written by Jan Fleischhauer....entitled: "Heat deaths, drowning deaths: Greens warn of a new “mass death”.

Odd piece.....while the Greens hype-up heat-deaths....talking about the numbers in early Covid (5,000 Germans dead each week)....it's not the same thing.

6.  New INSA national poll:

- AfD at 29-percent, with CDU dropping a point to 21-percent.

- SPD and Greens at 13-percent each.  Linke at 10-percent.  Everyone else....below 5-percent.

Spahn

 Jens Spahn has turned in his resignation as leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.  He's still in the CDU....just not holding a key position.

What Merz says?  He's going to do a shuffle of a couple of folks....probably to announce by Monday afternoon.

Spahn's troubles over?  Well....it would appear several factions of the conservatives CDU exist....with a fair number happy that Jens is out.

Gay conservatives seeing this in a negative way?    I'd say that 50-percent will have a negative stance about the way this was handled.

Added to this mess....the CDU has kinda stepped around into various potholes for the past year.....they need some change of leadership to occur.

Train Incident

 Somewhere....between Karlsruhe and Offenburg (SW Germany)...a Bahn train was progressing yesterday.  A conductor was conducting a ticket-audit, and a drunk 'German' (some folks don't believe this element of  the story)....had a discussion  (the drunk German lacked a ticket).

The conductor?  He alerts the two Bahn security guys onboard.

Bahn security? They are dressed in black....looking more like upscale 'bouncers' than anything else. They arrive, and then this turns into a curious fight.

Well...somehow...the door opened (moving train).  We are left to wonder how (it's supposed to be impossible with the modern trains for this to happen.  I can remember 1978....noting a door opening on a moving train.

Out goes the one security guy.  Drunk is arrested  at the stop-off point.

So they go and search for the security guy.....he's banged-up and in life-serious condition.   Based on the description....he'll be in a hospital unit for a month or two......probably getting some kind of early retirement.  Medal?  Yeah....there will be some type of medal deal.

The drunk?

Well...most Germans hearing the story....have doubts over this being a ethnic German.

Charges?  I can see two or three serious charges....he might be in prison for five to seven years.

This brings me to the obvious view....traveling via Bahn....is just not a 100-percent safe situation.  Doors opening while in motion....drunk passengers on a assault agenda....etc.

You have to be vigilant.     

The 8,000 German Bridges

 I sat through a N-TV piece...talking over the assessment....8,000 German bridges are in need of renovation/replacement.

The term 'dilapidated' gets used a good bit.

There was a color-code.....green means acceptable....orange/yellow mean action required....with red/black meaning in serious danger.  

Cost a factor?  Well....yeah.  The states simply don't have the cash flow.

A lot of this....from massive project in the 1960s/1970s?  You can make that case.

Jens Spahn Scandal (On My Scandal Index....1-to-10...Maybe A '3')

 To lay this out....Jens is a intellectual gay CDU conservative politician.  He's been around 20 years.....married (gay-wise)....probably one of the three best debate folks in Germany.

Jens and his spouse....wanted a kid.

In Germany....the law is blunt....you can't pay a woman to have a kid for your situation.  You can pay her as a prostitute.....but paying-to-have-a-kid....is illegal (German logic).

Jens and the spouse...figure this other angle....pay an American woman.

Jens and the spouse find this American gal (probably through a service), and nine months later....they (Jens and the spouse) have a kid.

Naturally....the CDU Party folks are pretty peeved (at least acting this way), and some want Jens to resign from the party.

Chancellor Merz?  He's in a fairly weak position and has to find some way to cease the hype on this mess.

On my scale of scandals (1-to-10)?  It marginally gets to a '3'.  

Top news for ARD/ZDF (public TV news)?  That is the odd thing.

My five questions?

1.  What exactly did Jens and the spouse  pay?  For the service, and ordeal....it has to be a minimum of 100,000 Euro, and I could easily see it going toward 150k Euro.

2.  How would you pay this?  In cash?

3.  Is it just odd that the Green Party and SPD Party say nothing much....just the CDU folks?

4.  The odds that 500 gay couples in Germany each year pay some American gal at least 50,000 Euro  for this 'service'?  They are smart....not saying much of anything.

5.  Could Jens have handled this better....by saying he paid some transwoman American for the kid?

It is a odd scandal, and it just seems like the news folks are desperate to find something to get folks 'focused'. 

If Jens resigns?  I suspect a number of gay CDU-voters....will just up-and-walk-away.  

Fire Story

 Friday AM (probably 3 AM to 3:30 AM)....I got woke up.  Funny noises....like your  roof ceramic tiles hitting the pavement.  One about every 30 seconds.  20 minutes pass....then fire truck siren.  Ten minutes pass....2nd  fire truck.   Ten minutes pass....3rd fire truck.

It's near the house but probably 2 blocks away. 

Yeah, being from Alabama....I was tempted to put on shorts and walk around to find the fire location....but it is 3:30 AM.

Around noon....the rest of the story.

Apartment building about 300 ft away....E-car (no brand given)....charging up....caught fire.

Electricity to the structure went out.....but E-car was blazing away at this point.

Firemen eventually put the fire out.....number of guys on-hand?  Well....journalists counted 35 of them.....Group of a dozen from our village (volunteer-unit), and another dozen from the next village (volunteer-unit), and the rest from Wiesbaden....who have the certification to handle E-car fires.

Assessment?  Car is totaled-out.  Building has some  moderate damage...paint-job required.

Odd thing....once the firemen were sure it was out.....they were done.  E-car?  It's a regulation of sorts....only a approved toxic-recovery service can remove the car.  No one says how much.....but I would be guessing for 2 guys and a pick-up service....probably in the 2,000 Euro range for them to say 'all-clear'.

All of this perked up my German wife....giving the 99th lecture of the evils of E-cars, and she won't allow a charger on our house-structure.