German President: ‘Monstrous’ Financial Markets Need ‘Taming’
Horst Köhler blames bankers and traders for the economic crisis.
The customary “left/right” political divide in the American sense has little to do with contemporary Germany, where parties from all across the ostensible political spectrum excoriate free markets and chat up the supposedly “protective” powers of the state. In case any further evidence was needed for this proposition, consider the speech given by German President Horst Köhler on Monday to the German Trade Union Association (DGB). (For some earlier evidence, see here.)
The occasion was the 60th anniversary of the founding of the DGB. Dismissing the decisions taken at the recent G-20 meeting in Pittsburgh as inadequate, Köhler described financial markets as a “monster” that needs “taming” and he chastised bankers and traders for what he implied was their personal responsibility for the economic crisis:
In fact, in the financial markets we can observe yet again a déjà-vu [sic.] with shell-games in shadow-banking, with opaque derivative transactions and speculation in raw materials markets — and all of this on orders of magnitude that are completely unimaginable. Yes, what I see is that the monster is not yet on the way to being tamed. Above all, I do not yet notice any more profound self-reflection on the part of global financial actors: this is to say, a reflection on the crisis in their own houses, on the crisis of values in their own thought and action. It seems that the branch has left the public authorities in the cold.
In a May 2008 interview with the German weekly Stern, Köhler had already described international financial markets as a “monster” that had to be “shown its place.” The German president’s own website presently features his DGB speech under the title “The Untamed Monster” [Das ungezähmte Monster].
Köhler is a long-time member of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU). (In keeping with the “non-partisan” character of the German presidency, his party membership is suspended during his term as president.) His speech to the DGB was repeatedly interrupted by applause.
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John Rosenthal’s writings on European politics and transatlantic relations have appeared in English, French, and German in such leading publications as Policy Review, Les Temps Modernes, and Merkur. He holds a PhD in philosophy and he taught political philosophy and classical German philosophy before turning to journalism. More of his work can be found at Transatlantic Intelligencer.
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1 Comment
1. Michael:Yes, the markets need taming, as long as they still allow investors to make money in them. Otherwise, they’ll stop investing.
By the way, it looks like the Euro will be moving lower against the US dollar over the next months and that should help.
It all has to do with interest rate differentials and relative economic growth.
There is a way to profit through from the ups and downs of the stock markets: use timing signals to figure out when to get in and when to get out.
Consider http://invetrics.com
Its daily DJIA index trading signal is up a respectable 65% for the year (as of October 29, 2009) and it is free of charge for individual investors.
Oct 30, 2009 - 4:04 am