Says Der Spiegel about: Angela Merkel.
So, Ms. Merkel and the citizens of Cyprus do share something. It's a start.
We were out yesterday at a garden show because it is that time of the year. Our Useless Numbers Department tells us that the Germans spent more on gardening supplies last year than on baked goods.
What do these numbers mean?
Are the Germans eating less bread, fewer Danish pastries? Not if you believe the obesity statistics.
Are they spending more on plants, tools, landscaping?
While we compared roses, German politicians left, right, and center continued to bitch about the vastly out of proportion banking sector of Cyprus until a little voice from a few miles west chimed in: hey, Luxembourg speaking, you know, we are not happy to see you diss small countries that do lots of banking.
To which the Germans replied, well, if Cyprus had adopted the tag line "the Luxembourg of the East", we might have been more understanding.
The end of history has happened again, that collective amnesia which makes it so that not a single German news outfit even mentioned that the whole EU+IMF package for Cyprus is only a smidge bigger than the amount German taxpayers forked out for a single German bank during the pre-historic recession a few years ago.
German taxpayers/rail travelers will have to pay an extra 2 to 3 billion euros for the cost overrun of a single train station in the Southern city of Stuttgart. Which is about what the Germans could be paying if Cyprus defaults.
Out of sight, out of mind?
It is an underground train station.
We expect great landscaping once the giant hole in the ground gets filled in.
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