''Germany displaces China as US Treasury's currency villain''

From The Telegraph

''The US Treasury has issued a damning criticism of Germany’s chronic trade surplus in its annual report on worldwide exchange rate abuse, although it stopped short of labelling the country a currency manipulator.''

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''Putin and Merkel clash over 'anti-Semitic ' Pussy Riot''

From EU Observer

''German Chancellor Angela Merkel has confronted Russian leader Vladimir Putin on human rights while visiting Moscow.

Speaking at a business forum in the Russian capital on Friday (16 November), she said his recent jailing of two members of the Pussy Riot punk band, who staged an anti-government protest on the altar of a Russian church, was disproportionate.

She also said that a series of new Russian laws to curb foreign funding for NGOs and to impose harsher penalties for street protests is a step in the wrong direction.''

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GoldMoney: ''Jim Willie the rush for physical gold is on''

part 2 is out...............ENJOY..............From Gold Money..................''Subscribe to our newsletter at http://www.goldmoney.com/goldresearch. Episode 65: Statistical analyst and newsletter writer Jim Willie of GoldenJackass.com talks to GoldMoney's Alasdair Macleod about the increasing transfer of wealth from Western countries to their Eastern counterparts, and the hugely bullish picture for silver at the moment.

The huge flow of gold from West to East is evidence of this wealth transfer. Willie also talks about plans by Germany, China and Russia to create an alternative payment system to replace the US dollar in multilateral trade. According to Willie it is going to be gold-based and will be peer-to-peer -- eliminating many sources of profit that currently exist for banks. He also points to increasing talk from certain influential people about the possibility of a renewed gold standard.

Willie sees big outflows of gold from London to China, with 5,000 tonnes leaving London from March to mid-June according to his source. As banks are desperately looking for physical gold official reserves might be seen as a tempting source. He senses a scandal were such gold has been replaced with gold certificates to satisfy physical demand.* In his view, Fort Knox likely does not hold the gold that it is claimed exists there.''

James Turk - ''The Entire German Gold Hoard Is Gone''

long article but well worth the read........................From Kind World News

''Incredibly, 11 years ago James Turk had diagnosed the problems of the missing German gold hoard.  Here is the 2001 piece titled, “Behind Closed Doors” in which he exposed the German gold was in fact missing:

James Turk 2001 - This past December in "The Smoking Gun" I provided substantive proof that the Exchange Stabilization Fund was intervening in the gold market. From publicly available reports prepared by the Federal Reserve, I established that the weight of gold held as a component of the US Reserve Assets has been changing, and that these changes – some of which are of significant size – result from activity by the ESF. These Federal Reserve reports conclusively demonstrate that the ESF has been intervening in the gold market since at least 1996.''

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Keiser Report: ''Goodbye, German Gold?'' (E358)

From RT.com........................''In this episode, Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert discuss how it is that Gordon Brown's Bottom turned into an audit the gold movement in Germany. They also discuss the mother of all bond bubbles getting set to burst and all that will be left in the Bank of England 'gold' vaults are a big pile of gilts. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser talks to Dominic Frisby, author of Life After the State, about Germany's gold quest, the future of relations between the US and Germany if the gold is not there and about 'life after the state.''

''Germany's gold reserves''-On the Edge with Max Keiser-10-19-2012

From PressTV............''In this edition of the show, Max interviews Lars Schall from larsschall.com.

He talks about Germany's gold reserves, which are held in New York and not in Germany.''

''Germany's Pivot to China''

From WorldPolicy.org

''Six decades after post-Hitler Germany outsourced its foreign policy to its Western allies, Berlin is again a diplomatic powerhouse. This week Chinese leaders and Syrian rebels alike are attesting to Berlin's clout.

In Beijing, officials are once again treating Angela Merkel as the real head of Europe on the sixth gala visit—the second this year—by the German Chancellor. And disparate elements of the Syrian opposition have just chosen Berlin, in tandem with Washington D.C., as the key venues for presenting their belated first coherent program for "the day after" strongman Bashar al-Assad is toppled.''

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''Should Germany exit the euro?''

From Deutsche Welle

''The Germans don't understand what's happening. They're paying to bail out southern eurozone nations, they're getting little in return. So, what if Germany got rid of the euro and left all that trouble behind?

Manfred Neumann, former economics professor at the University of Bonn cautiously brings up a heretic thought.

"We must finally start thinking along the lines that we just don't fit in there," he says, referring to the 17-nation eurozone.''

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''The weakening of the petrodollar''

From Daily Caller

...........''few saw the end-around that Germany would pull off. Though a member of the E.U., Germany has developed means to continue trade with Iran without so much as a hiccup. Cash is being traded, directly, circumventing SWIFT. A system of barter that sidesteps conventional currency channels is being implemented.

Transfers are being made through neutral intermediaries such as Armenia, Belarus, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
As the largest European exporter to Iran, Germany stands to lose the most from the sanctions. The Islamic Republic relies heavily on quality industrial equipment, among other things. It’s to their mutual benefit to continue trading.''

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''A Tale of Two Currencies''

From European Magazine


"The German idea of an exit from the Euro is gaining popular support. According to an “Emnid-Institut” poll, 56% of Germans would favor a return to the “Deutsche Mark,” the country’s old currency. The poll was ordered by “Bild,” a populist newspaper that periodically chastens (with bold headlines) politicians for helping out other EU countries in dire straits – hence, some may suspect the poll to be biased. But other prominent voices have also started to come out of the closet and now speak against the Euro. Among them is Wolfgang Reitzle, head of the gas and engineering company Linde, who expressed his worries about staying within the monetary union and about attempts to fix it."

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''Germans warned of Toulouse-style terror''

From The Local

"As France takes stock after a shoot-out on Thursday which killed the man believed to have murdered seven, including three Jewish children and a rabbi, Germans were warned they could face the same horror on their streets.''

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''Germany Maneuvers To Claim Central Asia’s Problems As Europe’s Problems''

From 'There are no Sunglasses'

"Germany has offered to help Central Asian countries resolve their disputes over water supplies in the region and has offered assistance with investment in solar and wind energy in order to help conserve water.

“Regional cooperation and an understanding of the importance of natural resources are vitally important for the world and for the wellbeing of Europe,” Guido Westerwelle, Germany’s Foreign Minister, said on 7-8 March at the Berlin Conference Water Diplomacy for Central Asia. The conference ended with the signing of the Berlin Declaration."

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Germany: "High oil prices likely to remain a drag on the economy"

"Never before did German car owners have to pay more to fill up their cars with petrol than throughout February, North Americans are also complaining about soaring gas prices. Germany's flagship airline, Deutsche Lufthansa, was forced to increase its fuel surcharge."


from d welle...

Germany: ''Bankruptcy hitting the young and elderly''

"Bürgel CEO Norbert Sellin attributed the struggles of the elderly to decreasing pensions and state-provided benefits which are forcing many to take menial jobs.

Among young people, Sellin blamed poor financial management – such as young people needlessly investing in too many electronic gadgets – and inexperience dealing with money."


from the local...

''Anti-German sentiment rising in Greece''

"Greeks are stepping up their anti-German rhetoric, in part by increasingly comparing modern day Germans to Nazis, according to Germans who have lived many years in Greece and reports by Greek newspapers."


from the local....

''Germany's Power 'Is Causing Fear' in Europe''

"Greek newspaper Ta Nea published a cartoon of Merkel holding Greece like a marionette under the headline "Nein! Nein! Nein!" And Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti warned this month that Germany must do more to help its eurozone partners or risk a backlash from citizens frustrated with austerity measures."


from spiegel........

Economists: ''Germany in a recession now''

from the local....


"Of the economists surveyed at 14 major financial institutions including Deutsche Bank, Allianz and Citigroup, only four said Germany was definitely not in a recession – generally defined as having two consecutive quarters of decline in gross domestic output.

Although the experts said they expected the German economy to remain weak over the first few months of 2012, most believed things would pick up during the year. 

Three experts said they thought the economy would be stagnant in 2012, while one said it would contract and the others predicted slight growth of up to 1.4 percent."

''Despite crisis, Germany benefits from euro''

read more from germany's the local.........

"Chancellor Angela Merkel has made no bones about the advantages for Germany of the euro, which went into circulation as banknotes and coins on January 1, 2002, and whose future she has been grimly racing to shore up.

"As an exporting nation, Germany has particularly benefited from the euro," she told lawmakers in her most recent speech to the lower house of parliament, the Bundestag."

Germany: ''Bundesbank sees sharp economic slowdown''

from the local..........


"Following a 3.0-percent rise in economic output in the current year, the pace of expansion in Germany is likely to fall perceptibly to 0.6 percent in 2012," the German central bank wrote in its regular monthly report.

That represented a downgrade in the Bundesbank's growth forecast for next year after it had previously been pencilling in economic expansion of 0.75 percent.

The sovereign debt crisis harboured "considerable downside risks," the central bank warned, but added: "Even so, the domestic conditions for an extended, broadly based upswing are still intact."

Germany: "Fear of inflation grows as faith in euro falls"

from the local........

"The share of Germans scared of inflation has risen from 37 percent this spring to 46 percent in November, according to the survey conducted by the TNS research institute for Allianz Bank.

And 45 percent of the more than 2,000 people asked for the poll, said they were no longer sure what to do with their savings. 

While shares and funds continued to lose popularity, property and pensions were more favoured, while just over half those asked said they still had money in savings accounts. 

Around a third of respondents said they had no or little confidence in the stability of the euro, while a third said they still trusted it and another third had some faith left in the currency".........READ MORE