Was Merkel deceived by the US Administration?

by Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke | November 5, 2009 at 04:36 am

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On Monday Angela Merkel became the first Chancellor of Germany to address a joint session of the US Congress. Prior to her address she met briefly with President Obama.

Ford announced a $1 Billion Profit, based on plant closures and introducing some of their most popular European vehicles into the US Market. Yesterday GM announced that the deal with Magna was off and that they would retain Opel. This will probably result in some 10,000 jobs lost in Europe.

The German government has invested some 4 Billion Euro into GM and was caught totally by surprise. The GM Board of Directors consists of the U.S. Government, Canadian Government, Union representatives on both sides of the US/Canada border. One would think that the Administration would have been apprised of this development.

Merkel has demanded that GM return the bailout loans underwritten by the German gouvernment.

Frank Stronach and Magna have been quiet on this issue. Of course GM is one of the biggest customers of Magna automotive parts.

Since Merkel was in the US on Monday seeing both the President and addressing Congress, is it possible that Merkel was deceived by the Administration?

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Uwe Paschen

at 04:55 on November 5th, 2009

Hum, Well, she was warned by her former ally the SPD that the bail would not work and that helping the US rather then investing in a German firm like Porsche wish Merkel refused would be far better then throwing money at GM.

She should resign over this for being incompetent and for having coast Germany far to much money and jobs. SHe can not claim to have been had since she was warned about this possibility.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 05:05 on November 5th, 2009

Yes she was warned, but she also would have been damned if she would have supported a luxury vehicle like Porsche, Mercedes or BMW.

Opel and Volkswagon have a long tradition as vehicles that the Middle Class can afford. I think this is quite a reversal on part of GM. Why would anyone ever trust them on a deal again.

Uwe Paschen

at 05:20 on November 5th, 2009

Porsche is also VW and a main stream car maker aside their luxury cars, further it is the only car maker making profits and showing grows, they just got major investment from the Middle east now because the German government refused them a loan, wish is not so good in my opinion. VW asked the government for a loan as well, not a bail out wish was refused. Porsche did ask for a government loan for its part and not a bail out, both where rejected and then Merkel throws all that money to bail out a US owned car maker?

I hope that the people in Europe will not forgive her this one. The CDU may remain in power if they like but Merkel has to resign and had I my way, she would be in jail pending a trial. This is the peoples money and she is their elected administrator, not an Emperatrice, she has to held accountable.

QueensHart

at 05:22 on November 5th, 2009

Humph! Paschen "she should"?! If all the leaders from every country resigned these days because of bad economic calls who would we have!

Why not answer the question was she deceived first. Then you can vote to imprison her. Whewee .

Uwe Paschen

at 05:24 on November 5th, 2009

Well, QH, maybe people should start taking politics and elections serious and demand accountability. In France the former President and the former Prime Minister face now charges in court for corruption and mismanagement of public funds.

It is time that the people (electorate) get smart and become responsible them self.

QueensHart

at 05:37 on November 5th, 2009

Paschen when the majority of people stop believing the lies of politicians then we may have a world of peace. When and what in your opinion will make people recognize the seriousness of elections? The media is corrupt that passes info along. Where does one start ? It is the million dollar question. "Should" this and "should" that is magical thinking.

How does that help the people now in France? It was known when they were in office they were white collar criminals. The clintons are still helping to "run' the world and both were corrupt and never held accountable...the list for them is twice as long.

Uwe Paschen

at 05:42 on November 5th, 2009

France is helped in the sense that this serves as precedent and will be a fair warning to all Politicians to come.

It does also give the electorate some power back, they can now expect their leader to be triad and jailed for mismanagement.

It is a step in the right direction. Wish may educate and motivate the electorate to be more active and responsible them self.

QueensHart

at 06:36 on November 5th, 2009

Sooo! He was the first one in France to be corrupt? Ha...I doubt that. Yes , all things should be warning to politicians and individuals.! I think technology is making it harder for anyone to be corrupt fortunately.

Uwe Paschen

at 06:40 on November 5th, 2009

No QH, The two are the first once in the fifth Republic of France to be triad and striped of their immunity. Wish makes it a precedent and one to follow up on.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 06:46 on November 5th, 2009

Paschen I know how you feel about the CDU and Merkel. and I respect that opinion. When it comes to bailouts, there are a lot of governments or leaders that should go to jail. Look at the bailouts that went to the big banks in the US and UK. Should Obama and Brown be in jail too or resign?

The German Autoworkers Union and the Obama Administration pushed the German Government and by extension Merkel to provide those bailout funds.

The same was the case for Canada. How could Canada not provide bailout funding and retain plants in Canada. This was driven by U.S. bailouts.

Uwe Paschen

at 07:49 on November 5th, 2009

ACP, all Politician have or should be hold accountable and yes, if the courts find them guilty, then they should be jailed, no matter what party they belong to, and no politician should have immunity before the law, like it is in many democratic countries.

A politician is nothing more then a glorified elected administrator of public goods.

That, however most politician do not seem to realise and think of them self more like Emperors rather then administrators or Managers of public goods.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 07:09 on November 5th, 2009

While I agree that politicians should be held accountable, I wouldn't just single out Democracies Paschen. I think there is enough corruption to go around on the Globe, regardless of the form government takes.

This was to be addressed by democracies like Canada and the U.S by establishing ethics commissioners. Unfortunately these commissioners are also in the pockets of political parties and seldom prosecute.

Uwe Paschen

at 08:05 on November 5th, 2009

I am sorry ACP, I do disagree strongly in regards to excusing corruption. It is not because we have corruption and this on many levels that we should accept it and let it go or give up on it.

We have to better our self and our systems, may those be political, economical, judicial or other wise we need to pursuit the issues and problems or loop holes until we get it perfect or close to perfect.

Would we not then we would still be in feudal system or worth. Democracy has to evolve and so does justice and many other things. We still have a very long road ahead of us as humans and as humanity we better get back to reality, the struggle our for father went through to gain Democratic rights against the monarchies is still underway only now we have entered the next faze and we do have it much easier then our for fathers did and could keep on improving and progressing a lot faster would we put only half the energy and courage in to it then our ancestors did into their struggle for progress, justice and democracy.

We are the people and we do have the power. "Wir sind das Volk!" This was the main slogan in 1989 as the people of Berlin took down the Wall and the world could not believe there courage nor that Police and Army gave up to try to stop them. Change can be for the better if the people find the courage to change them self.

By the way, I am not supporting the SPD either, I did under Schmit, Brandt and Schroder, but last elections I voted Grun. Further the CDU did mess up Germany in a big way under Adenauer and Kohl and Merkel does lack vision and she is paranoiac in many ways. Would Von Weizeker be running for the CDU, heck even I would vote for them.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 08:22 on November 5th, 2009

Paschen I did not excuse corruption, I merely pointed out that it is not only attributable to democracies. My point was that the ethical committes or Ethics Commissioners are in the pockets of the political parties. That doesn't mean we shouldn't pursue it.

I don't share your opinion in regards to Adenauer and Merkel. Kohl got wrapped up with Karl Heinz Schreiber as did Brian Mulroney in Canada. They all governed pretty well from the centre including the SPD. All of them supported social programs, such as Health Care and Pensions and worked actively with the Unions, as they still do today.

We are all bound by our political belief system in how we see government operate. I happen to belief in a market economy and don't believe that government can solve our problems. That has been demonstrated over and over again with all types of governments. Government bureaucracy is a hindrance to real progress.

The recent boondogle in Canada and the U.S. with the H1N1 vaccination, the failure of Katrina in New Orleans and Trudeau's implementation of the War Measures Act during the October crisis are all examples of government inadequacy.

Uwe Paschen

at 08:32 on November 5th, 2009

Thank you for the clarification ACP, Well, the argument that Government led control have not worked can be used just as well to prove that the market economy does not work either, we had more then our fair chair of crisis caused by Capitalism it self.

As I said earlier, it is time to evolve to the next level, learn, and change and for most get better.

Personally I do not believe in government nor market economy or may it be Marxism or Capitalism. We need to work out a new system that is better then any thing we had so far and hopefully this time we can do so with out revolutions and blood shed.

After all we do believe to be intelligent creatures and capable of reason and logic. :)

Maybe it is time we try to be logical and use our intelligence for good rather then for improving our weapons of mass destruction.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 08:45 on November 5th, 2009

I would certainly second that comment. War to this point has done nothing but create upheaval in the world. The question is will human nature ever change. We seem to revert to our primal instincts when we don.t get our way.

We certainly don't need anymore lies from politicians or Wall Street executives.

Roy C

at 09:12 on November 5th, 2009

The Berlin Wall came down because NATO and the US had contained one of the world's worst evils long enough that it fell of its own weight.

There were a lot of corrupt politicians who helped that along, I have to say. Even the pope took money from dubious sources to fund Solidarity in Poland.

I give Reagan and the pope a lot of credit even while criticizing them. The fall of the Soviet Union was the equivalent of the defeat of German, Italian and Japanese fascism in WWII.

PIM of SPAIN

at 07:17 on November 6th, 2009

Reading above discussion I come to an entire different conclusion: From the beginning on it was clear that from GM's business point of view it would be stupid to sell Opel at all. GM needed competitive compact cars and those are made at Opel. German politicians have not thought about that, because employment was the key issue. However there is no employment possible when the business concept is wrong. It is incorrect from the part of GM that they left politicians struggeling with Opel for so long, while they may or should have known from the beginning that the sell-off of Opel was equal to cutting-off someone's own legs. From politicians it could not be expected to think along those lines. However good advisers should have warned Merkel c.s..

Porsche is a completely different case. Porsche came in trouble as result of their own greed. No one is obliged to help, apart from the bailouts of the banks which is a shame too.

Karl Gotthardt - albertacowpoke

at 07:28 on November 6th, 2009

Thank you for your comments PIM. You're quite right this was strictly a business decision by GM. It may have been fueled by the success of Ford with it's European cars.

Despite the loss of 10,000 jobs, I'm sure Germany will overcome this.