The Germans found in his pocket the hand of Americans and I suspect now the senior partner in the conduct of economic warfare
Today, 06:00
On Tuesday, the Chairman of the Bundestag Committee for economy and energy Peter Ramsauer spoke to newspaper Die Welt, the tension in the relationship between the United States and Germany, said: “the United States has a long tradition of use any reason to attack when it is in the interests of their own economy. Currently we see the extortionate claims for compensation of damages in the case of Deutsche Bank”.
Ramsauer is an experienced politician. Earlier in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel, he served as Minister of transport, building and urban development Germany. More important is his assessment that the conflict is from the US “economic war” against Germany. Ramsauer seriously fears a further escalation of events.
Small place with big consequences
Worried not only Peter Ramsauer. In the same Die Welt member of the European Parliament from the CSU party, Markus Ferber, accused the U.S. Department of justice that his attacks on the largest German Bank is not a valid response to the European Commission’s decision in relation to the largest American Corporation Apple.
The Europeans caught the computer giant on tax evasion and in August Apple sued for ISK 14 billion. A month later, the American Ministry of Finance has filed claims against Deutsche Bank AG is also exactly 14 billion. The US government has long accused the German Bank in the manipulation of prices for securities on mortgages in the pre-crisis period (until 2008). Negotiating damages were long. Ultimately, the penalty proved higher than expected. This was the basis of Marcus Ferber to say: “the Amount of punishment against the German Bank looks like an eye for an eye from the authorities of the United States”.
German politicians remembered the case history with the automotive group Volkswagen. Last fall the United States government accused Volkswagen of violating us law for the protection of the environment, and in the beginning of the year brought the official claim for damages. Their claims to the United States was estimated at 18 billion U.S. dollars.
It was rumored that the amount of the claim could rise to tens of billions. After all, Volkswagen was caught in serious violation is the concealment of data on the actual emissions of its cars with diesel engines. The leaders of the automaker brought the Americans apologize and offered several options to resolve the conflict.
The United States government offers Volkswagen was not satisfied. However, to force things the Americans did not. The experts agreed that the scandal, which the press has named “deselect” the Americans will try to use to promote their project — the establishment of a zone of Transatlantic trade and investment partnership (TTIP) between the US and EU countries.
The American project has alerted European politicians. Under the terms of the TTIP, the EU had to open up the market for goods from the United States — even those that do not correspond to EU legislation. The consent of the Germans in these terms was, if not the key, but very significant. However, it did not happen.
August 28, Associated Press Agency released a statement by the Minister of economy and energy, Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel stating that “negotiations on TTIP, de facto, failed.” As noted by Gabriel, though the failure of the talks, no one admits, but “in 14 rounds of negotiations the parties were unable to agree on any of the 27 discuss chapters”.
As can be seen, the irritation of the Americans was caused not only a fine on Apple. The Obama administration has not been able to put a beautiful point in its history (in the form of the agreement on Transatlantic trade and investment partnership) and brought down wrath on the heads of the Europeans. The answer was “extortionate” claims to Deutsche Bank AG, which can lead to the bankruptcy of the German Bank, the largest financial conglomerate on the continent.
Cash instead of Bank deposits
The German Bank things really go badly. He never recovered from the 2008 crisis. At the end of June, the international monetary Fund (IMF) has named Deutsche Bank the “most serious source of risk for the global financial system among all global systemically-important banks”. The IMF explained his rating: “Deutsche Bank is closely linked with other publicly traded banks and insurance companies in Germany and thus could be a source of financial contagion.. and the aggravation of the situation in the banking system of Germany is likely to cause a chain reaction and the banking crisis in the world.”
The troubles in Deutsche Bank has long been known. In 2012 there were reports that the Bank hid losses of EUR 12 billion from transactions with derivatives (secondary securities on the already-functioning financial assets). Later, in 2013, Deutsche Bank admitted that for the normal financial stability in need of additional capital. Then for the first time began to talk about his bankruptcy, but the situation was saved by the issue of shares for 3 billion euros to shareholders.
In subsequent years, the Bank undertook large-scale restructuring, reduced staff, restructured financial operations. Large the good it has brought. The Bank’s profit fell by two-thirds. Capitalization still fell sharply.
Now equity is estimated at only 60 billion euros, with a nominal volume of derivatives in it — at 72.8 trillion. American dollars. This is 20 times Germany’s GDP in 2015. According to analysts of the Berenberg Bank James Chappell, debt burden, Deutsche Bank (the ratio of debt to equity) is now 40:1. It is clear that to pull the pot out of the goods in such problems one shareholders already can not afford. Need help from the government.
This is just the problem. German Chancellor Angela Merkel strongly against the involvement of budget money to replenish the capital of banks. This summer she did not support the request of the Prime Minister of Italy Matteo Renzi on the suspension of the EU regulation on saving banks to recapitalize Italian credit institutions.
The Board of the European Central Bank has agreed with Merkel. Now bundeskanzlerin has become a hostage to its previous position and has already forced equally hard to respond to the request of the largest German Bank, directly affecting the well-being of the economy.
Difficult position today, not only at Deutsche Bank. Many European banks faced difficulties in the placement of liquid funds. This forced lending institutions to impose negative interest rates on deposits. In essence, banks started charging customers money for the safety of their funds. As it does now, for example, Raiffeisenbank Gmund. From September he began to charge 0,4% on deposits over 100 thousand euros.
In the new conditions, the Germans switched to keeping the money at home. This is supported by the safe manufacturer. They recorded the growth in demand for their products. Said hard word and German statistics. Experts note that today about 80% of retail transactions in Germany is using cash.
Meanwhile, income is not all burghers are placed in safes. The most enterprising Germans have already found sources of increasing their money. They were foreign banks — primarily the us. And that’s one of the reasons for the attack the US government for the largest German Bank.
He tries to resist. In late September, Deutsche Bank agreed to sell its insurance business in the UK group Phoenix Group Holdings. This was reported by the newspaper of the American business circles of the Wall Street Journal . The transaction is valued at $ 1.2 billion. It is, of course, will not solve all the problems of the German Bank, but identifies possible out of acute crisis. Because the proceeds from the sale of the insurance business means the time will increase the adequacy ratio of tier I capital by 10 basis points.
A statement on the deal in Britain for some time supported the stock prices of Deutsche Bank. However, many financial experts believe that without the help of the authorities of the European Union and Germany the Bank is unlikely to get out of the pit into which he was pushed by the Americans — friends, partners and allies of Germany. And, maybe, already and opponents, since the actions of the United States of German policy have directly called “economic war”? The answer to this will show further developments. Peter Ramsauer, as we remember, the fear of their further escalation…
Author: Alexander Granovsky
