Cyprus banking crisis

It seems that the Cyprus banking crisis is amongst the more interesting things, well here we go. It seems that there is some agreement that the immediate reason for the banking crisis in Cyprus was the restructuring of Greek government debt in March 2012 (e.g., Washington Post, Wikipedia) which imposed a haircut of 53.5% on the approximate of €22bn held by Cyprian private investors. Of course, other factors contributed such as an increasing unemployment rate. But the actions to "rescue" Greece triggered writedowns and massive losses of Cyprian banks. Interestingly, the German Minister of Finance Wolfgang Schäuble was part of the body who decided on the restructuring of Greek government debt. But it is difficult to agree with Schäuble that high interest rates paid to depositors or a sound legal system initiated the current development. The same Wolfgang Schäuble said the Cypria banking sector was not viable. Though, assuming the losses with Greek bonds were the trigger, this measure agreed by the so-called Troika including Schäuble. So, is it Troika that is not viable? Also, the levy on bank deposits including small accounts was agreed by the Troika. Schäuble regretted that the measure was not accepted by the Cyprian parliament though rejected having been in favour of the levy on small deposits (but nevertheless must have agreed in the meeting).
The negotiations on the Cyprus rescue package must have caused some severe dissonance amongst European Finance Ministers. This became apparent in some remarks, e.g., in response to Schäuble's criticism that Cyprus had an disproportionate banking sector, Jean Asselborn of Luxemburg said "There is no one who says that the automobile industry or the weapons industry are over-proportional in Germany". It is also interesting to note that Germany has not only suffered but also benefited from the financial turmoil. First, investors regarded and still regard German bonds as a safe haven. As a result, the interest rate that Germany has to pay for borrowing has gone down to 0.03% for two year maturity (it was even negative at -0.5% for short periods). This reduced the cost of borrowing and contributed to the aim of producing a balanced government budget. Secondly, the Euro devalued over the financial crisis. Thus, German products became cheaper outside of the Euro zone. And indeed, Germany increased exports in the recent years. Thirdly, Germany has lent to Greece as part of the rescue packet. The interest rate was initially set to 5.5% but reduced in July 2011 to 3.5% and in February 2012 to 150 basis points above Euribor (currently about 0.5% for 12 months maturity, thus about 2.0%). No matter which of these interest rates is taken into account, there is a net profit for Germany if Greece does not default.

Birthday and Stimmung!

The faculty of Linguistics celebrated its 40th birthday. Interestingly, the Dean said a healthy minded individual would either become sarcastic and develop a grim sense of humour or turn mad. The food would have been sufficient if only one out of three would have been hungry. Sadly, the event started too early to go home and have food, and it took too long (2.5 hrs) for not becoming hungry. After about one hour all drinks were drunk as well. This was despite the fact that Germans don't drink as they have to drive a car ("Driving a car is not a privilege, it's a right"). I marked the celebrations with Nanaimo bars. The next sentences subtly provide some background information on Nanaimo. They were invented on Vancouver Island, more precisely in Nanaimo which is right opposite Vancouver across the Strait of Georgia. The British Columbia Metro ferry service connects Departure Bay (Nanaimo) and Horseshoe Bay (Vancouver) as well as Duke Point (Nanaimo) and Tsawwassen (Vancouver). Having used the word Metro, you should be aware that there is a German company which owns the rights of this word. Recently, they stopped Microsoft from using the term Metro design with regards to Win 8. Microsoft now calls it modern UI. I wonder how long it takes them to realise that parts of Paris' transport system and an administrative body of Vancouver might infringe their proprietary rights. And don't say they wouldn't, they are German.

Later that month, some people celebrated the day of reforming the church. Specifically making it the Lutheran church (remember that episode where Lisa Simpson jumps up happily as she realises the people living on her tooth are Lutherans?). Well, the whole thing is accompanied by a specific kind of bread roll. In theory, this bread roll is only available on the day and resembles the Luther seal. Though, there have been reports of the rolls being sold on other days of the year. As far as I am concerned the bread roll is the most important thing. Well, being here I am surrounded by people who enjoy their cars more than anything, i.e. carharrt, carholic and Catholic. One of them was passionately dubious about the baked thing. His argument started with pointing out that Luther was actually born in Koblenz (rather than in Eisleben as the many others might believe, nevermind) and from this he produced some argument I can't remember. The baseline was that it just can't be right to eat the thingy. Despite my plans to dance on the following day (All Saints accompanied by state ruled dancing prohibition), I just lied in bed trying to cure a pneumonia/cough/cold thing. As usually in this country, I was refused medical treatment. I was told to go and maybe see a chemist or whatever. If it wouldn't be manageable by them, they could make an appointment with the GP. In situations like this, you can shout: Stimmung! to express your serious fun and to engage others in the fun as well.
On a slightly different note, being from East Germany does not constitute a circumstance of birth, upbringing, religion, sex, ethnicity, race, caste, disability, age, dress, culture or sexual preference. Thus, laws of equal opportunities are not applicable and discriminating against these people is just fine (Hon. 17th Chamber of Stuttgart Magistrates Court: Aktenzeichen: 17 Ca 8907/09). Stimmung!

Air space and issue

Following verbal attacks, Ryanair's O'Leary now offered that Spanish officials may review data about the airline held by the Irish air safety body. Ryanair is Spain's largest carrier with 30m passengers last year and 17 destinations, but it can be assured of Spanish authorities' most vigilant attention. The move is said to reflect Ryanair's fears of being left with a damaged image.
A lot of water power station feature so-called fish ladders. The idea is that fish would climb using the stairs rather than being killed by the blades of the water turbines. The German secretary of infrastructure, Klaus-Dieter Scheurle joked about the amount of literally shredded fish in German water power stations. Most fish do not climb the stairs, but enter through the main water outlets of the turbines. Travelling downstream fish are sought through the grids protecting the inlets of the turbines and transformed into fish mousse. But no worries, Scheurle is changing position and will be head of the German flight safety body. Reminds me on the number of almost-accidents around Berlin-Tegel (TiXeL) airport in the times before it stepped in for the failed Berlin-Brandenburg airport (BER). Supposedly, the numbers just increased.
Some detail on wealth distribution: in 1998 the poorer half of the German population held 4% of the total assets, today it's 1%. On the other hand, the divergence of incomes reduced in the time span from 2006 until today.

Markets and airspace

Some media have recently claimed that the drought in the US reduced the available crop and, importantly, investors would not only benefit more than anybody else - it was them driving the prices. Nevertheless, it seems that this time a number of investors simply missed out. Actually, they held short positions or reduced their longs (e.g., Dow Jones UBS Commodity Index) on corn and wheat since the farmers were out on the fields early this year and a rather good turn-out was expected. Only recently, fonds invested in long positions to participate and for correcting their losses. Nevertheless, this suggests that at least the initial increase in prices in June was caused by food and fuel producers. Hopes are now focussing on harvests Brazil and other parts of South America. But if everybody is buying corn in Brazil, prices will rise - without the contribution of evil forces (investors) whatsoever.
On another note, the Financial Times Deutschland published a report saying that AESA was investigating three incidents on 26 July 2012. Following a thunderstorm at Bajaras airport (Madrid, Spain) all flights were redirected to the much smaller Manises airport (Valencia, Spain). This included all Ryanair services to Madrid. The small capacity of the airfield (compared to Bajaras) and the unusual large number of flights arriving resulted in a massive hold time, i.e. aircraft had to remain in flight and wait for a landing slot. Within a timespan of three minutes, three Ryanair flights issued a Mayday call to Air Traffic Control after their fuel was hitting the 30 mins in-air minimum requirement. Thus, these flights were given highest priority to perform emergency landings. According to the news, allegations include that Ryanair acted systematically in not refuelling their machines appropriately. This was backed by the German pilot union (Cockpit) alleging Ryanair of pressuring pilots into refuelling at the bare minimum. Furthermore, the Irish Independent published reports that pilots who would use too much fuel or refuel above limit would be bullied and had to report for failing to achieve target numbers, which was denied by O'Leary. The emergency landings caused potential dangers as other aircraft had to remain in flight for longer which in turn reduced their fuel. Thus, AESA investigates whether the safety of Spanish air space was put at a risk as a matter of misconduct. It should be noted that another three aircraft were calling Mayday over Valencia this day (two EasyJet and one LAN Chile). All three of them for the same reason - a lack of fuel. Though these cases appear to be independent from the Ryanair flights under investigation. A Spanish consumers association said Ryanair could be banned from Spanish airspace for up to three years which is one of their main destinations. O'Leary denied any misconduct and said aircraft were handled and refuelled as required by EU regulation. He argued the problem was not Ryanair's refuelling policy but an unusually long hold time in Valencia. Furthermore, O'Leary insisted Ryanair's licence was issued by the Irish regulatory body and Spain could not expire or amend their licence.

The market

Recently, a rather naughty person transformed the 3 ft tall letters forming the signage to the section L, U and T of the university. An additional three foot tall letter S was cut out from black card board and somehow attached to this wall location. The letter had been removed the other day - it could mislead visitors as section S is located further down. I should add a photo of this and put in here. See, this is the kind of exciting stuff that happens around here.
Well, I discovered a market in Bielefeld. They do sell like fresh veg there! So, find me there early Saturdays. Though, despite having stuff on offer they haven't lost their special personal warmth. I asked for floury potatoes and frisée. The response were rants on how I could possibly go about and ask for stuff like that on a warm and sunny day. Apparently, I had no clue what I did and hence, had to be told. This involved farmers, how and where they grow and after all, people don't buy frisée not to mention floury potatoes. From personal interest, what do people do with their waxy potatoes in this country? Chips are deemed to be the most unhealthy thing. And what else could there be?
My journey went on to the cheese stall. Actually, that is a normal place. They do cheeses of different countries, all sorts of makes from solid to creamy, old and young, with lots of stuff on them or just little. I know that because a group of three ladies was being served right in front of me. They tried almost everything but bought only little. More interestingly, there was a man with the second assistant buying large amounts of stuff. Like 60 oz of each sort. Also, he engaged the lady who owns the stall in a conversation about their goats. How much milk they produce, how many they had, how many nannies a buck could serve (40) and so on. During these conversations, the sunshine was taken over by clouds, a shower started and stopped again, and more sunshine returned. Finally, I got some cheddar (semi mature), some Le Jersy (no, this is not a typo) and some Italian stuff whose name I always forget.
Earlier that week, I handed my suit to the dry cleaners (actually a single little lady). On my collection, she tried wrapping it in some sort of plastic bag using sort of a primitive hanger with rolls of bags attached. Having failed her initial two attempts and completing the task with a long sigh, she looked at me (or shall I say scanned me top to bottom and up again) and looked at the suit. From her assessment, she concluded "You look different. Are you French?" My surprise made her explain, that it is alright to look different these days. There is a growing number of people looking different these days. My enquiry revealed the issue at hand were my proportions (or the size of my suit that gave her such a hard time). I'd look smaller (i.e. shorter, less wide, less long), but fiddling around with the thing she found, I was less smaller than her initial assessment. Just I appear to be more less than I am actually less. Nevertheless, less. I am not sure I am reproducing this properly.
Having been confronted with all these Olympic events, I have to spread some random fact, right? So, here we go. The winners of the 1896 Olympic games received a silver medal, an olive branch and a diploma. There was bronze for second place and nothing for thirds. Tug of war was recognised as an Olympic sport from 1900 to 1920. The highlight of the 1896 games was the marathon won by the local boy Spyridon Louis. According to myth, he figured that there was a competition and started spontaneously-ish. During the race, he stopped by the local in Pikermi and had a glass of wine (or an Orange and a Cognac). He quizzed the people on how much ahead his competitors were. Once being presented with the facts, he declared he would catch up and win the race, so he did.