The German Presidency Part II

As I wrote the first post on the German Presidency last night before the second and the crucial third vote I did not know what the final result would be.

In the end Mr Wulff won which was a much needed result for Frau Merkel's government even if it highlighted tensions between the FDP and the CDU/CSU.

As mentioned earlier, true to their undemocratic values the Linken demonstrated their retroactive view of politics and history and did not switch their votes in the third and final round to Mr Gauck which would have secured his election. I am pleased they did not for the stability of the German government and still somewhat surprised at how they completely discredited themselves.

On a slightly different note I went to hear a lecture by Andrew Ross Sorkin at the LSE in the Sheikh Zamed Theatre on his book "Too Big to Fail".

Interesting, or should I say entertaining book- it is going to be a movie which trivialises the crisis in my opinion, but so it goes. The strange part is that it very obvious that Mr Sorkin is a journalist, and as such tells a great tale, but he is essentially a reporter of events. He did make a stand and defend the actions of the Fed in bailing out the banks and AIG after in his opininon failing to do the right thing with Lehman Brothers.

I found this strange as he didn't want to engage in the discussion of Moral Hazard and the risks associated with it in the Lehman case. It was also odd that despite his obivious access to the corridors of power he claimed to have been surprised that as early as April '08 the Fed and the treasury were making plans to salvage the financial system with actions like TARP which made me wonder what he was doing in August of '07 when the writing was clearly on the wall.

He did harp on on compensation and that the lack of personal liability on the part of (incompetent- my editorial comment) CEO's of major financial institutions has to change. Somehow I think the very clever Mr Sorkin doesn't understand the concept of Stock Companies and the sanctity of the role that limited if not outright freedom from liability plays in the development and execution of Capitalism.

On a personal note I found it galling that the lecture was named after one of the donors (10% of the total), the late Ruler of the UAE who was a committed anti-Semite and Holocaust denier. He tried the same trick at Harvard which after some investigation returned the donation.

Something to be said for political correctness after all I guess.