Greece debt continues to threaten the euro that provides the basis for EU economic exchange. In June 2011, a second European rescue fund of €109 billion was approved by the Eurozone Countries and the I.M.F. to rescue Greece. The I.M.F. share of this bailout was €3.3bn. The European rescue fund came from the €440bn European Financial Stability Facility that the European Union countries had approved as a general rescue fund May 2010. The IMF had provided an additional €250bn to the EFSF European rescue package. (more…)

Dominique Strauss-Kahn has made a considerable amount of news over the past few weeks. Strauss-Kahn was the director of the International Monetary Fund, a branch of the UN that differs from the World Bank and was a candidate for the presidency of France as a member of the socialist party. (more…)

Monday, German President Horst Köhler resigned from his position. With his wife at his side, an emotional Köhler announced, “”I declare my resignation from the office of president — with immediate effect.”

Köhler’s quit leaves a vacuum that will add even more to Angela Merkel’s growing political worries, in between of criticism over a lack of decisive leadership, and a four-year low rating for her government in opinion polls. (more…)

The current public debt in Germany is the reason for many controversial discussions in the German parliament during the last days. Moreover, some politicians show interests to raise taxes again, though the tax rates in the 16 German federal states are already very high. But a discussion about the unreasonable squanderings of billions of Euros earned through taxes every year does not really take place. (more…)

The European Court of Human Rights based in Strasbourg decided against the High Court of Germany, for it has committed unlawful retroactive implementation through an extension of preventive detention. A German 52-year-old prisoner complained about being castigated twice for the same criminal act; his complaint was followed by the ECHR – a compensation of 50.000 Euro was claimed for the plaintiff. (more…)