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Readers’ letter to the Süddeutsche Zeitung
The following letter has been sent to us by one of our readers. He did not unfortunately appear in the newspaper,
but instead here with the Alliance for Democracy. We are of the opinion that the tricks used by the Merkel
government in order to keep its
budgets in line with the Fiscal Pact,
even though the country is
bankrupt,
are gladly concealed by the press. Perhaps this must be so, and we suspect that this is how muzzling by the
government functions, in order to protect our allegedly safe investments, and make further claims on them, in order
to support the state in the event of the crash, as far as this is necessary.
Reaction to the article by Stefan Ulrich “The damn three percent” (15.2.13)
“In the article I miss the fact that the supporting countries have all been doctoring their budgets for years, in
order to comply with the conditions of the debt brake.
The debts of the countries (implicit and explicit) are never shown. New debts will only reveal themselves in the
coming years. The actual trickery works as follows: The observation of the Fiscal Pastes would be impossible for
Germany, just as it would be for other supporting countries, if the support of other countries, as would only be
right, were financed via the national budgets by means of borrowing, but not by a construction which circumvents
this by the commitment to liabilities, the initiative of citizens, instead of the state via its liabilities for
loans, which the insolvent, supported countries (have to) take out, and because of the liabilities of German
citizens with the banks also receive from them; instead of which the state takes out loans on behalf of the
citizens, burdening them further – a national budget should include all matters and affairs which concern the
citizens – and then passes these loans on direct to the supported countries (unofficial contravention of the debt
brake, even if only valid from 2016). For Germany the following now applies: In a realistic situation, which would
cost the citizens less in interest, the requirements demanded by the Fiscal Pact would remain partially unfulfilled.
The delaying of insolvency is the consequence; its costs become debts, which are borne by the people of the country
in the form of high interest rates. This is what France is experiencing at the moment, whose national deficit is
much more than that states in the press (including the Süddeutsche Zeitung); this also applies for Italy, Germany,
Finland and Spain.
Spain exceeded the Maastricht deficit mark in 2011, 2012 and 2013; France in 2012 and 2013. Both countries are
therefore following the trend, because the principles recently published in the report of the Independent Evaluation
Office (IEO) confirm why saving is completely senseless, and they now also confirm what consequences this permanent
saving frenzy has: There is no more money, there is nothing more to be saved – zero growth in all 27 EU countries
and a minus of 0.3% for the 17 Euro countries. The Spanish and the French are still exceeding the limits, despite
having tampered with their budgets. This confirms all the more how high the debt really is. France is operating
officially with a debt level of 91.4% of GDP, whereas it has in fact long since exceeded 100% (excluding other
liabilities). No wonder that the French want to increase the applicable limits, as Mr. Hollande announced. Germany
too is no longer at the official 83 to 85% level, but is far above it.
Particularly shabby is the fact that the supporting countries manipulate their national budgets by means of
liability structures, something which is quite impossible for the supported countries. If the new and overall debt
of the supporting countries is now compared to that of the supported countries, there is no longer any fundamental
difference. The only difference is that the incomparable now appears comparable in terms of the amount. This is the
same as comparing apples with pears.
If Germany wants and could reduce its new borrowing by 2014 to € 6 billion by savings in all ministries, then it
will only be by means of these manipulated budgets. Without the tricks, billions more Euros of savings would be
required in order to make Schäuble’s dreams come true.”
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