The Power and the Money

A real anti-imperial triumph

  It seems as though the Argentine ambassador in France will no longer need to pay embassy expenses out of his own pocket.  A French judge lifted the freeze imposed on April 3rd.  More importantly, a German judge released the funds that German companies owed Argentine tax authorities.  Interestingly, Judge Wölber did not base his decision on sovereign immunity.  Rather, he ruled that since the tax payments were owed by the companies’ Argentine operations, German courts had no authority.  It remains to be seen if this precedent will be followed by other European courts, but the Argentine government is optimistic.

Interestingly, U.S. courts have taken the same position.  In 1999, the New York-based Leucadia National Corporation sued Nicaragua over $26 million in defaulted debt that it had purchased for $1.14 million.  A New York court granted the company $87 million.  (No, I don’t know why.)  It tried to collect by attaching Nicaragua’s share of the ticket and landing fees paid by U.S.-based airlines that flew to that country.  U.S. courts, however, refused to uphold the judgment.  But don’t cry for Leucadia.  Eventually the World Bank paid off the debt at 4.5¢ on the dollar, including accrued interest.  By my calculations, Leucadia received about $7.8 million, for a nice return of 584%. 

I am increasingly unsympathetic to Argentina.  But I am also relatively unsympathetic to the vulture funds that try to use the judicial system to impose sanctions on defaulting governments.  I may change that position if we start seeing more ploys like President Correa’s brilliant gamble, but that’s still a hypothetical fear, not a real one. 

P.S.  It seems like I was wrong about Ecuador.  I’ll discuss why, but only if there’s interest.  No reason to admit error if nobody cares ...

WTF moment

Slate is running a travelog about an American's trip through Germany's “eco-empire.”  I have to say that TPTM got there first.

Anyway, as I was reading it, I came across two moments that startled me.  The first was when our protagonist's Dutch-Bolivian travelling companion praised Mein Kampf.  This doesn't surprise me at all from the Bolivian side.  Mexicans aren't Bolivians, but I've heard middle class Mexicans say “At least he organized the youth,” in praise of Hitler, and I've seen young female middle class Mexicans reading and speaking well of Mein Kampf in upscale bars.  But ... the woman in the Slate piece was half-Dutch, and the author gave the impression that she had been raised in the Netherlands.  So either I'm in denial about Dutch culture, or the author should have specified that his female friend was much more Bolivian than Dutch.

But that wasn't the WTF moment.  The WTF moment came here:

It was time to leave Bremen. Mymza had to get back to Amsterdam, and I was going to head deeper into Germany in a hybrid. We arrived at the Eurocar rental agency, and the attendant said, “Guten Morgen. Le puedo ayudar with something, s'il vous plaît?”

I knew this E.U. custom: Jam all your languages into a sentence and let the other person answer according to their preference.

I have never come across this.  Now, admittedly, most of my E.U. experience has been in the Romance zone, which may be different.  But is this really an E.U. custom?  Information wanted, please. 

Blowin' in the wind

Flying into Berlin, you can't help but notice the wind farms.

Germany has 22.2 gigawatts of installed windpower, just a percentage point shy of a quarter of the world total, and a third more than the United States.  It gets more than 6 percent of its electricity from windpower, a number matched only by Denmark and the great state of Texas.  Inside Germany, the mouthful provinces of Sachsen-Anhalt, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and Schleswig-Holstein get almost 30% of their electricity from wind. 

How did Germany do it?  How far can they go?  Will others follow?  Some analysis below the fold. 

Great game

No, not the sixth game of the NBA final.  That was awful.  (I wasn't rooting for the Lakers, but I'm not much of a Celtics fan either.  So something other than a blowout would have been nice.)  Rather, das wunder von Genf, the match between Turkey and the Czech Republic.  Down two-to-nothing, one goal with 25 minutes to go ... then two more in the last four minutes.  Dude.

I have to admit that we wouldn't have bothered to watch it at all if we hadn't been walking past a Turkish bakery-slash-café-slash-bar in Kreuzberg next to what certainly appeared to be a housing project.  I couldn't stop myself from looking in through the window at the giant flat screen.  Any kind of team sporting event involving a ball will do that do me. 

The people inside spotted us and vigorously motioned us in.  In fact, one of the owners came out and insisted (through sign language) that he could find us a seat and we were more than welcome.  How could we say no?  After all, the game had only just begun.  And so, we had the full build-up of frustration that only soccer can produce by the time Ay-Yıldızlılar first scored. 

Apparently shouts of gooooooooooooolllll, go-lo-lo-lo-looooooooooooooool!" aren't a common German or Turkish way of expressing appreciation.  I judge this from the fact that when Turkey scored its first goal, my reaction attracted looks from some of the women in the place that I can only describe as bemused. 

I'll add here that neither high-fives nor fist-bumps appear to be used much either.  But the little kids in the place, and there were a lot of them, certainly seemed to appreciate both gestures, especially after Turkey's second goal.

The woman in the above picture who isn't my wife asked me if I was Muslim right after the game.  Before I could answer, the fellow on the right barged up and shouted, "In football, there is no religion!" 

By the amount of beer-drinking going on, I'd have to say that he was right. 

The owners gave us free pastries.  (We paid for the beer.)  They were great pastries.  Very recommended, the next time you're in Berlin.

Anyone know a good place in Boston to watch the Turkey-Croatia match?  Y'all know who I'll be rooting for.  ¡Viva Turquía!