The
WIKILEAKS
Public Library of US Diplomacy (PlusD)
holds
the world's largest searchable collection of United States
confidential, or formerly confidential, diplomatic communications. As
of April 8, 2013 it holds 2 million records comprising approximately
1 billion words. The collection covers US involvements in, and
diplomatic or intelligence reporting on, every country on earth. It
is the single most significant body of geopolitical material ever
published. The PlusD collection, built and curated by WikiLeaks, is
updated from a variety of sources, including leaks, documents
released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) and documents
released by the US State Department systematic declassification
review.
A cable
from September 17, 2009 – ten days before the German federal
election and a few months before the eruption of the European debt
crisis - shows that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, had no real
plan to deal seriously with the bankers and their enormous
responsibilities for the financial chaos.
What's
even more interesting, is that the US officials were monitoring her
intentions and rhetoric. Although they were not very pleased with her
alleged willing to regulate the banks, they believed that much of her
rhetoric against the bankers was part of some "campaign
theatrics" prior to the German elections.
A
paragraph in the cable is quite characteristic:
Chancellor
Merkel apparently has it in for bankers: at a September 15, 2009
campaign rally in Koblenz, Merkel said, "We must make sure
that the bankers of this world can never again get up to such things
at our cost." Some of this is probably campaign
theatrics. Later the same day in the financial capital, Frankfurt,
Merkel conveniently left that line out of her speech.
Electioneering aside, Merkel seems genuinely to believe that risky
behavior by banks was at the root of the financial crisis. She wants
the G-20 to prevent banks from becoming so large and systemically
important that they can "blackmail" governments. Merkel
also wants to ensure that taxpayers do not have to pick up the tab
for banks' risky activities.
The next
paragraph reveals the 'seriousness' of Merkel's declarations about
her intentions against the greedy bankers. Her plan: just limit their
bonuses! It's almost hilarious:
Limiting
bankers bonuses is a political win-win for Merkel: it gives the
appearance of addressing some of the incentives that led to the
financial crisis, but it deflects blame for the crisis away from
politicians ) indeed, away from Germany, since the crisis was the
fault of Wall Street, so the thinking goes. Merkel's idea is for the
G-20 to establish binding principles that link financial sector
compensation, including variable pay or bonuses, to long-term
performance. Unlike media reports about other European countries'
priorities, however, Germany opposes a bonus specific cap, according
to Lucinda Trigo. In Pittsburgh, Merkel will point to steps Germany
has already taken: Germany's bank regulator Bafin unveiled new rules
in August that force bankers to repay bonuses if they take
unjustifiable risks. Bonuses are tied to the success of the
organization as a whole, and banks have until the end of 2009 to
comply.
And
right after that, we read that the lobbyists had already start to
fight back, even against the prospect of such ridiculous 'measures':
Outside
the government, however, there is skepticism. Holger Martin, an
advisor on economic affairs, EU policy and international relations at
the Association of German Banks told us his organization's
constituents were strongly opposed to further limits, fearing
difficulty in attracting talent. Economist Stormy-Annika Mildner of
the German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP)
told us European rhetoric over limiting bonuses should be taken with
a grain of salt, since there was no chance of getting a binding EU
agreement, much less an international one. Even among those European
countries favoring reform, there are different approaches.
Full
cable:
In the
end, Angela Merkel did absolutely nothing to prevent the banking
parasites contaminate eurozone. And not only that. As Yanis
Varoufakis revealed,
she actually sacrificed an entire nation in order to save the
FrancoGerman banks.
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