Light at the End of the Tunnel Provide Sustainability, Generate Profits
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2 September 2009 Germany needs to exhale: !"#"$% an industrial plant in Lower Saxony. A Monthly Newspaper From Germany !"#" Germany $% !" in !" #"$% Vol. 6, No. 9, September 2009 www.atlantic-times.com Section A One Dollar !"#$%& ! !""#$%& !""# " Printed in Springfield, VA. !"#$%& August !""#$%& !""# !"# " $% !"" &" !" #$%& ' # "$% !" Angela Merkel’s coalition cabinet has ad- "# opted plans for stricter tax guidelines, ! In this issue ! !" " " "#$% #$ & %& applying to both companies and individu- !" #" ! $ als conducting business in countries that do "" % !"#$%&'()*"+(,*(,-"(.*//+ # Politics not cooperate with German financial institu- ! ! ! "" " tions. Finance Minister Peer Steinbrück has #$% #$ & " %& 0122"#"&,()*%/+3(+%$"(4-%&4"//*#5(6-1+(,1$"(%#*7&83(,-"(.%#,1"+(( yet to announce which countries will fall un- '( New deal 4 !" ! # der the new rules which were adopted on Aug. "" " # Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is seek- %#"(.#*$1+1&)(,*(#"971/8(,-"("4*&*$'(*&(,-"(9%4:(*2()#""&(,"4-&*/*)1"+;(( $% 4. This steps up the pressure on countries ! ! " B ing a peaceful solution to the " #$% "8& <"%&=-1/"3(>&)"/%(<"#:"/(/**:+(/1:"/'(,*(#"$%1&(1&(4-%#)"((((?%)"+(@3A reluctant to work closely with German insti- * " " Kurdish question. Turkey’s +8 % tutions. ' ethnic policy is at a crossroads, DDP/LENNART PREISS PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/CARSTEN REHDER !" # ' ( ( " ! + $ says Jürgen Gottschlich. % ! " Germany’s Constitutional Court ruled on " #$% 6 * 7 " Aug. 6 that schoolchildren must attend +8 " % New goals 5 sex education classes even if their parents ' ' ER ( ( G ) The EU needs a common object on religious grounds. A Baptist father A had filed the lawsuit, claiming that sex education H security and foreign policy: TIAN Free trade alone is not a led to “free sexuality” and pedophilia. HRIS /C A P D guarantee of lasting peace, / The state of Bavaria has abandoned a case challenging the argues Walther Stützle. IANCE LL A right of homosexuals to adopt children. The proceed- - ings at the Constitutional Court were officially halted on Aug. ICTURE New arguments 6 P 9. The Bavarian state government had argued that adoption Many in the U.S. are suspi- by two women or two men was not natural. Bavaria’s attorney cious of universal health care. general Beate Merk (CSU) said she would continue to oppose But Americans in Germany say the law politically. the system here has much to Light at the end of the tunnel recommend it. Two of the four terrorism sus- Provide sustainability, pects on trial in Düsseldorf freely Old aid 7 admitted on the first day of pro- Prominent African economist ceedings, Aug. 10, that they had intended to commit terrorist acts. Dambisa Moyo recommends an generate profits end to development assistance. “We wanted to kill lots of U.S. sol- Johannes Dieterich disagrees. diers, not just two or three,” said GAMBARINI O Fritz Gelowicz (left), the group’s German politicians are promising to rebuild the economy suspected 29-year-old ringlead- EDERIC /F A based on green technologies | By Wolfgang Mulke Business P er. The men are charged with D / planning a series of bomb at- IANCE Green revolution, the downturn in relatively LL A tacks against U.S. targets and Radical step 9 - others in Germany. On Aug. 19, a green new deal or good shape. The old system Complex derivatives must be ICTURE P third man, Daniel Schneider, also just old-fashioned is alive and well. banned if we are to avoid the Increased public focus on next financial meltdown, says There are signs of hope confessed. Schneider said he was glad he has been arrested economic growth? before the planned attacks were carried out. the redistributive nature of Ulrike Herrmann. but the economic crisis Ahead of the elec- the welfare state is being A 90-year-old former German officer was sentenced in Munich tions, most of reflected in the parties’ is far from over Lukewarm applause 10 on Aug. 11 to life imprisonment for the murder of 10 Italian Germany’s parties campaign platforms. There A number of countries have civilians during World War II. Josef Scheungraber, then a agree: environmen- are huge differences in the By Uwe Jean Heuser amount they say the state copied Germany’s cash-for- 25-year-old lieutenant in a company of engineers, ordered the tally friendly is clunkers scheme. But in the long killings in June 1944 outside the Tuscan town of Arezzo in re- should spend on welfare term, the initiative doesn’t taliation for the deaths of two German soldiers. best. – but no party wants to benefit the economy or the envi- ransport Min- do away with minimum ronment, argues Ulrike Fokken. The captain of the Hansa Stavanger ship, held by Somali pi- ister Wolfgang income for all citizens. rates for four months, arrived back in Germany on Aug. 11. Tiefensee is Even the powerful Fed- Hungry activist 11 Captain Krzysztof Kotiuk landed in Munich where he was to be dreaming of pro- eration of German Indus- PICTURE-ALLIANCE/DPA/VOLKER HEICK Tfound changes. “This is a questioned by police. The ship was seized by pirates on April try, the BDI, has found Former Greenpeace head Thilo t was the summer bonanza soon,” Axel Weber said. “The last Export-dependent Germany is ately in the fall and winter as an inflation that would rapidly 4, roughly 400 nautical miles off the coast of Somalia. German revolution,” the SPD cabi- its social conscience. “The Bode has found a new cause RANDT of 2009. For a time, prices word has not been spoken yet.” benefiting as much from these companies begin slashing costs. bury the nascent recovery. police were looking for fingerprints and DNA traces on board net member gushed at the B goal of the economy lies – exposing the lies of the food on stock exchanges around Weber’s main concern was that markets as from its homegrown Also, at about the same time To correct this summer’s out- the container vessel, which is docked in the Kenyan port of unveiling of a program to not in the economy itself industry through Foodwatch. ARCUS the world rose by up to 25 banks could still face huge losses remedies. Its two stimulus pack- funding should run out for the sized optimism, some observers Mombasa. Its Hamburg-based owners paid a €2.1 million ($3 spur development of elec- P/M but in its human and social Ipercent as the big Western econo- if companies suffering from slow have been recalling the year 1931. tric cars. Its goal is to put DD ages are taking effect and, con- country’s cash-for-clunkers pro- million) ransom for its release. destiny,” BDI chief Hans- The challenger: Frank-Walter Steinmeier has long been promoting environmental Disputed pipelines 15 mies announced they had put the On June 9 of that year, the U.S. at least a million e-cars on business continue defaulting on trary to expectations, joblessness gram that turned many Germans awareness, for example at the 2nd German Climate Conference in Berlin. Peter Keitel said. Kempfert How will Russian gas get to recession behind them and were their loans. That would spark has not exploded because com- into new car owners when the Commerce Department declared Germany’s grand coalition parties reached a deal Aug. 18 to Germany’s roads by the says the new attitude sets a Europe in years to come? It again growing modestly. Some what is becoming known as the panies have been putting employ- slump was at its worst. The that “the depression is over.” ensure the EU’s Lisbon Treaty can be ratified before the year 2020. It’s a bold project, New Deal” in which industrial (FDP) are relying simply on market good example. “Other countries all depends on Turkey, says economists are already forecast- second wave of the crisis, emanat- ees on state-subsidized part-time effects of a one-time additional The New York Times put the upcoming election on Sep. 27. Parliamentary groups from the especially since all that is available companies, from carmakers and forces to shape the future. Since will also head in this direction,” Michael Martens. ing strong growth for the coming ing not from the financial sector work instead of laying them off. parenting subsidy will also have statement on its front page and coalition parties, the CDU/CSU and the SPD, as well as from now are a few prototypes with bat- chemicals producers to engineer- many technologies can hardly be she predicts. year. Analysts at Allianz Insur- but the real economy. And, lo All this has been the great suc- dissipated by then. economists found signs of an the opposition Free Democrats and the Greens, agreed on a teries weighing more than a ton. ing firms, would concentrate on brought to the market without sub- An eco-social market econ- ance think German GDP could and behold, that wave seems to cess of the big economies’ stimu- Not even China can keep its upturn. The Dow Jones Index ral- draft law that would protect national powers within the EU. Still, potential voters like hear- products and production that sidies and market regulation, the omy may still be a long time Life expand by 3 percent in 2010, be bearing down. When banks lus and rescue policies, devised in economy on artificial support for- lied strongly before losing nearly Observers expect the Bundestag will pass the law on Sep. 8, ing about efforts to bring ecol- conserve resources while expand- green revolution does not really fit in coming, as the example of thereby recouping much of the are under pressure, they award Washington, Berlin and Beijing. ever. But if U.S. demand for goods three quarters of its value. The with the Bundesrat scheduled to follow 10 days later. The Con- ogy and the economy under one ing social welfare.