1. Timmy-the-whale-update: The tugboat with the whale-barge is nearing the North Sea now....with plans to exit Timmy within 24 hours. Curiously, with sound equipment....they've noted Timmy 'humming' whale-happiness tunes.
Added to the analysis....whale-experts (there appear to be hundreds if not thousands....suggest that Timmy will freak out if dumped into the North Sea.
2. Focus headline: Teacher shocked as she finds she has more money in retirement than she can spend.
Basic story.....she has a teacher pension (from the state) and a private pension that she put money into for twenty-plus years.
This hype has been building up for six months in Germany....as probably 30-to-40 percent of Germans have a crappy pension going on.
3. Ended up watching Maybritt Illner public forum show last night on ZDF (public TV, channel 2). Yeah, it was 10:15 PM....fairly late. Topic? Pension reform.
Five folks....hyping the pension chaos to the maximum. More taxes is the only outcome that the group pushes across.
I will make the observation....if the current tax agenda comes....it probably only gives the retirees and government leadership three years of 'rest'...before the next reform, and the next new tax agenda is on display. If you were a upcoming retiree...you'd best pack up and move to Thailand....to control your spending and enjoy your last twenty years without much tax chaos.
At the end of the show...I remarked to the German-wife....maybe the answer is to get kids (meaning age 11/12) out of school and working...paying into the pension-pot. That set the wife off big-time...citing some 1903-law which mandates you can't hire anyone under age 13. Then she hyped-up that you need to be educated until age 16.
4. Reviewing German news on Iran....it'd be correct to say a dozen different 'head-of-state' figures exist, and it's impossible to draft a peace-treaty with any of them.
5. German gov't says it will start a 'food-reserve' in case of war. Basically, they are going to have some warehouses....with canned-food....just sitting there.
6. Finally, an observation over Trump's talk of removing US troops from Germany. There really wasn't that much negativity last night via the German news. I expected more.
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