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Financial Crisis: Who is going to bail out the euro?

Earlier this year as the euro trounced the dollar on the exchange markets, it occurred to me that holding euros was much, much more tenuous than holding dollars as it was not the currency of a single sovereign nation. Clearly the Fed has every intention of propping up the dollar, but can the same be said of Germany, France, England or Italy when it comes to their common currency? Highly unlikely, as prescient Telegraph reporter Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes: "Who in the eurozone can do what Alistair Darling has just done in extremis to save Britain's banks, as this $10 trillion house of cards falls down? There is no EU treasury or debt union to back up the single currency. The ECB is not allowed to launch bail-outs by EU law. Each country must save its own skin, yet none has full control of the policy instruments. Germany has vetoed French and Italian ideas for an EU lifeboat fund. The former knows exactly where that leads. It is a Trojan horse that will be used one day to co-opt German taxpayers into rescues for less Teutonic EMU kin. One can sympathise with Berlin. But sharing debts with Italy and Spain was implicit when they agreed to launch the euro. A shared currency entails obligations. We have reached the watershed moment when Germany has to decide whether to put its full sovereign weight behind the EMU project or reveal that it is not prepared to do so in a crisis. This is a very dangerous set of circumstances for monetary union. Will we still have a 15-member euro by Christmas? Think that's scary? Try these tidbits, from Nouriel Roubini's weekly round-up newsletter of September 26th, 2008: ? Daniel Gros, Stefano Micossi: The 'overall leverage ratio' -- a measure of total assets to shareholder equity -- of the average European bank is 35 due to large in-house investment banking operations, compared with less than 20 for the largest U.S. banks. This means that relatively small writedowns on their assets could have a devastating impact on a their capital --> some EU banks have become too big for any one European country to save while an official cross-border crisis management mechanism with ex ante burden sharing is not in place ? The crucial problem on this side of the Atlantic is that the largest European banks have become not only too big to fail, but also too big to be saved. For example, the total liabilities of Deutsche Bank (leverage ratio over 50) amount to about ?2,000bn (more than Fannie Mae) or more than 80% of Germany's GDP. This is simply too much for the Bundesbank or even the German state Financial Crisis: Who is going to bail out the euro? (Richard Metzger is a guestblogger)...

Berlin / San Francisco (mission district)

Hi, We are looking for a Home- or Hospitality exchange for 4 or 2x2 People from February 22 to March 2ed. 2009. We would prefer a place in castro, upper market or mission district. We have 2 really nice apartments in the heart of Berlin Prenzlauer Berg witch is a very gay friendly district with lots of young familys. Both apartments are located very close to public transportation. For pictures go to : http://homearoundtheworld.com/viewListingPhotos.php?liid=1206 The swap don't has to be simultaneous. After the week in San Francisco we will be traveling to Hawaii. So in case of a housing swap you could stay in our apartment for more than just 1 week. We are excited to hear from you!

After railing against gay marriage, Savage said "the spiritual side of the downturn on Wall Street was directly related to the moral downturn"

During the October 1 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Michael Savage said: "[Y]ou may say, 'Why should we care about homosexuals trying to destroy families through the mock marriage that they perform in order to mock God, the church, the family, children, the fetus, the DNA of the human species? Why should we care about it while we have a financial meltdown?' Because the spiritual side of the downturn on Wall Street is directly related to the moral downturn in the United States of America." Savage also said: "[T]he government has no right to force people to accept homosexual marriage. It is why the West is dying. It is why we're melting down as a nation. It is why there is no -- why we have almost negative childbirth rate except amongst illegal aliens." Savage later said of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom: "Today it's the gays, tomorrow it'll be a man marrying a horse. If he could get elected saying that a man should be allowed to marry a mule -- a donkey or a mule, he would do that, too, saying it's a civil right to marry a mule -- that any man should have the right to have sex with an animal, because that's his right and the animal isn't complaining about it." Savage also said: "Take a look at the parade here in this city over the weekend -- they hid it from you. Why did they hide it from you? Why did they not show you men naked in the streets, beating each other up in cages with whips? If you saw the disgusting behavior that Nancy Pelosi permits, that 'Any-Twosome' Newsom permits, that no sane mayor in the world would permit. Dungeon behavior in the streets held up as a norm. Makes the Weimar Republic look like Alice in Wonderland." On the September 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing the Folsom Street Fair, a leather-themed adult-entertainment event in San Francisco, Savage stated: "This country today is far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic that led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened by the perverts, sickened by the artistes, they were sickened by the leather fetishists, they were sickened by the degeneracy, and they couldn't handle it." During the October 1 show, Savage also referred to the "gay mafia." As Media Matters for America has documented, Savage has repeatedly referred to "the homosexual mafia" in the past. As Media Matters has also documented, Savage formerly hosted a television program on MSNBC but was fired after he described a caller as a "sodomite" and told him to "get AIDS and die." Savage has also claimed that "the homosexual dance of death" is the "seminal issue of our time," compared gays to "drug addicts," and repeatedly called gay parenting "child abuse." Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation. From the October 1 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation: SAVAGE: Apparently, Gavin "Any-twosome" Newsom, the mayor of "San Fransifo," is in love again. He's in love again with the gay mafia. And he's trying to impose this attack upon families on the entire state. Can you raise the volume? I can't even hear it. All right, there it is. Now, you may say -- you may say, "Why should we care about homosexuals trying to destroy families through the mock marriage that they perform in order to mock God, the church, the family, children, the fetus, the DNA of the human species? Why should we care about it while we have a financial meltdown?" Because the spiritual side of the downturn on Wall Street is directly related to the moral downturn in the United States of America. That is why we have a corrupt Congress. That is why we have a corrupt Wall Street. Because they have been corrupted from top to bottom. [...] SAVAGE: African-Americans suffered because of their race, not because of their behavior. Do you understand what I just said to you? "Oooh! Are you implying that it's a bad behavior?" Yes, yes I am implying that it's a bad behavior, and the government has no right to force people to accept homosexual marriage. It is why the West is dying. It is why we're melting down as a nation. It is why there is no -- why we have almost negative childbirth rate except amongst illegal aliens. Because they have not yet been twisted to believe that this is a healthy lifestyle. Everything in you knows that I'm right. But you'll fight with me. You'll argue with me. You'll post it as bigotry, when, in fact, the opposite is true. I'm struggling every day to save this country from people like you, who have destroyed it already. America's balance hangs like a loose -- America's future hangs like a loose tooth. It hangs like a loose tooth right now. So, here in San Francisco, we got a wack-job as a mayor -- "Any-twosome" Newsom. Today it's the gays, tomorrow it'll be a man marrying a horse. If he could get elected saying that a man should be allowed to marry a mule -- a donkey or a mule, he would do that, too, saying it's a civil right to marry a mule -- that any man should have the right to have sex with an animal, because that's his right and the animal isn't complaining about it. Well, I would say that would be true in Enumclaw, Washington, where it's a national -- where it's a pastime in that city -- they have whole farms up there for that kind of stuff. But it doesn't mean that the government should honor that. I mean, you can puke and look at it and say, "OK -- that behavior -- but don't teach it to my children." Take a look at the parade here in this city over the weekend -- they hid it from you. Why did they hide it from you? Why did they not show you men naked in the streets, beating each other up in cages with whips? If you saw the disgusting behavior that Nancy Pelosi permits, that "Any-Twosome" Newsom permits, that no sane mayor in the world would permit. Dungeon behavior in the streets held up as a norm. Makes the Weimar Republic look like Alice in Wonderland. Makes ancient Rome's bacchanals look like a tea party, what goes on in this city. And if you let a society run this way, it eventually dies, and that's why we're dead.

VW Twin Drive Is German for Volt

Volkswagen is moving right along with its plan to put a plug-in hybridon the road by 2011, road-testing a "Twin Drive" Golf that goes 30 miles on lithium-ion battery power alone. The proof-of-concept test mule roaming Berlin uses a diesel-electric drivetrain, but VW says the production model will ditch the 1.4-liter turbodiesel in favor of a 1-liter turbocharged gasoline engine. Although the VW engineers discussing Twin Drive during the debut of the sixth-generation Golf called the engine a "range extender" -- the same term GM uses for the gasoline engine in the Chevrolet Volt-- it's not. The engine in VW's Twin Drive system actually drives the wheels, whereas the engine in the Volt only charges the battery as it approaches depletion. Be that as it may, the plug-in Golf runs on electricity alone to about 30 mph, at which point the engine takes over, according to the engineers who told Motor Trend about the system. Twin Drive ditches the transmission, a move that helps compensate for the weight of the electric motor and the 350-pound Sanyo battery pack mounted under the trunk. The electric motor provides sufficient torque to get the car moving up to 30 mph, at which point the engine takes over with a single gear ratio roughly equivalent to top gear in a conventional car. The electric motor also provides additional oomph for hard acceleration. Regenerative braking helps keep the 12 kWh battery charged, and there's an "e-mode" for tooling around town under battery power alone. With no transmission, reverse gear is handled by the electric motor, according to Motor Trend. Although VW is eager to put a demonstration fleet on the road, there's still no word on when, or if, the automaker will put the cars in showrooms. But as we noted when we first told you about Twin Drive, the German government is eager to see plug-in hybrids on the road ASAP and announced a $23.5 million dollar programto help automakers develop such vehicles within four years. Germany's environmental minister, Sigmar Gabriel, says there could be 1 million hybrids on the road in Germany by 2020 and 10 million a decade after that. With any luck, some of them will be VWs. Photos by Volkswagen.

Savage linked San Francisco event to the "artistes" and "leather fetishists" of Weimar-era Germany, whom he blamed for Hitler's rise

During the September 29 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, while discussing the Folsom Street Fair, a leather-themed adult-entertainment event in San Francisco, Michael Savage declared: "This country today is far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic that led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened by the perverts, sickened by the artistes, they were sickened by the leather fetishists, they were sickened by the degeneracy, and they couldn't handle it." Savage also said that the people who participated in the Folsom Street Fair are "doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion." Later in the program, Savage said of the San Francisco event: What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior. As Media Matters for America has documented, Savage formerly hosted a television program on MSNBC but was fired after he described a caller as a "sodomite" and told him to "get AIDS and die." Savage has also repeatedly referred to "the homosexual mafia," claimed that "the homosexual dance of death" is the "seminal issue of our time," compared gays to "drug addicts," and repeatedly called gay parenting "child abuse." Talk Radio Network, which syndicates Savage's show, claims that Savage is heard on more than 350 radio stations. The Savage Nation reaches at least 8.25 million listeners each week, according to Talkers Magazine, making it one of the most listened-to talk radio shows in the nation. From the September 29 broadcast of Talk Radio Network's The Savage Nation: REP. JOHN CULBERSON (R-TX) [audio clip]: We're not gonna load our kids up with an unaffordable debt burden that'll bankrupt this nation and turn us into the Weimar Republic. We've got to be careful and -- SAVAGE: Well, here in San Francisco, we're way past the Weimar Republic. They had in the midst of all of this a so-called Folsom Street Fair, where naked men cavorted with whips and chains and leather yesterday. I noticed that our Italian grandmother, Nancy Pelosi, had nothing to say about values. This went on in the sickest city in the world. We're way past the Weimar Republic. I only pray that there's no Hitler in the wings. [...] SAVAGE: Now, I want you to go to MichealSavage.com, go to the middle of the page on the right, and you'll see a man in a leather mask -- a man, a grown white man, standing at a leather parade yesterday. A leather festival, so to speak, in San Francisco, where people were walking around with their private parts exposed beating each other up with whips, while others stood around in a drunken stupor, or a drunken orgy, witnessing men being whipped in public. And my headline is, "The Devil Runs San Fransicko," and that's what I said to Representative Culberson. It's interesting to me that you mention the Weimar Republic, because this country today is far beyond -- has gone far beyond the excesses of the Weimar Republic, which led to Adolf Hitler. God forbid that should ever happen here. But the German people, who were not all Nazis prior to Hitler's arrival on the scene, were shocked by the degenerates of Berlin. They were sickened -- the average person in Germany was sickened by the perverts; they were sickened by the artistes; they were just sickened by the leather fetishists; they were sickened by the degeneracy; and they couldn't handle it. Now, you know, leather and this and that is, you say, someone's business. I may agree with you. If someone does so willingly, I could look the other way. But it shouldn't be permitted on a public street. When this occurred last September, I voiced opposition to it. Nancy Pelosi had the nerve to say that, as a Catholic grandmother, she's not offended by it. I said, "If she's not offended by this, what would offend her?" Well, apparently, nothing offends Nancy Pelosi except Republicans who don't go along with her iron gavel. No, this shouldn't be permitted in public. They should be arrested by the vice squad. But we have a sick mayor -- a useless, sick piece of spaghetti. He's not even al dente, you know, he's al softy. We have a mayor that's al softy in this city, not even al dente. The vice squad is now only looking for people who do not burn American flags rather than people who burn American flags. Everything's upside-down. It's "Alice in Wonderland." I guess what I'm getting at is this: At the same time we have the largest financial meltdown in our time, these sickos go to a leather parade and whip each other in the streets -- still doing what they do because they're sick, they're mentally ill. Every last person there is a mentally ill person, in my opinion. And what they were doing in the streets was an example not of wholesomeness but of sickness. [...] SAVAGE: What do you think God was saying through Isaiah: "What part shall they be stricken, as you stray away more and more?" Well, God was talking about the Folsom Street sadomasochistic fair in San Francisco. He's saying to those people, "What part will you be stricken of your body, seeing as you stray away more and more?" And they keep whipping each other, saying, "I condemn God. I don't believe in God. That's for the fools. That's for the right-wing Christians. We don't believe in that." And yet, they get sick and they die, and they don't even understand they're getting sick and die -- dying from their own behavior.

New world record for Gebrselassie

Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie breaks his own world record as he wins the Berlin Marathon for the third time in a row.

Sept. 23, 1846: Neptune Right Where They Said It Would Be

1846: German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle, knowing exactly where to look, confirms the existence of an eighth planet in the solar system, Neptune. Galle was not the first astronomer to see Neptune -- Galileo, puzzled by the changing position of what he thought was a fixed star, had sketched the movement in 1613 but never published his findings. Others had seen it, too, but Galle, working at the Berlin Observatory, was the first to observe Neptune while understanding exactly what he was looking at. By the time Galle fixed his gaze upon Neptune, the existence of a planet beyond Uranus was widely predicted and its position had been intensely calculated. In fact, other astronomers were quarreling over who owned the priority of discovery. A Frenchman, Urbain Le Verrier, had worked out a complicated set of mathematical predictions based on anomalies in Uranus' orbit, and those, in fact, were what Galle was using when he spotted Neptune. Le Verrier had also taken care to make his predictions public. Meanwhile, the young British mathematician John Couch Adams, working independently, had reached similar conclusions, but confined himself to sharing the data with colleagues at Cambridge University. The key to their calculations was Uranus. Irregularities had been observed in the planet's orbit, irregularities that suggested possible gravitational interference by another heavenly body. French astronomer Alexis Bouvard first noted this in 1821, when he published observations of Uranus' orbit. By 1846, Le Verrier had not only completed his calculations for an eighth planet, but had determined its mass and orbital path. When his work was met with indifference by the French astronomical fraternity, Verrier sent his data to Galle in Berlin, who -- assisted by his student Heinrich Louis d'Arrest -- discovered Neptune that same night. Galle found Neptune less than 1 degree from the position Le Verrier predicted it would be. Adams was a gracious loser, giving full credit to Le Verrier for the information leading to Galle's discovery. Others in England, however, were less diplomatic, and in addition to some cross-Channel rancor, there was also criticism of those who could have been expected to act as Adams' mentors. A proposal by the suddenly interested Paris Observatory to call the new planet Le Verrier went nowhere, and the name Neptune was eventually selected. Source: Various Wired.com

housing swap, my room in Berlin for your place in santa cruz (santa cruz)

I am coming to santa cruz for the winter, and am looking to swap rooms with someone here. I have a place in Berlin, and would like a single room here to stay in while I am doing my winter hibernation...haha.. If anybody interested, let me know. I will send you more details.

Germany lists Holocaust victims

Berlin's federal archive for the first time compiles a list of some 600,000 Jews who lived in Germany up to 1945 and were persecuted by the Nazis.

Adolph Hitler's Wax Statue Returns To Madame Toussaud's In Berlin After Beheading (AHN)

(AHN) - The wax likeness of Adolph Hitler is back on display in Berlin's new Madame Tussaud's wax museum after being beheaded by a German man only hours after its initial debut earlier this summer. - Mon, 15 Sep 2008 12:40:36 GMT