8 Jun 2010

Germany: Compliance Madness

It is well-known, that thanks to Karl Marx Germany 'gifted' Communism to the World. He may not have been the sole inventor of this creed but he certainly perfected a system that brought unhappiness to millions of people in its wake. Germany may not be considered to be at the cutting edge of the development of financial markets but the unreformed bureaucracy that holds the country in its grip certainly makes a meal of it when it comes to throw an -ever-tightening net of useless and costly controls over the activity of German citizens. Officialdom still lives in Kaiser's times when a citizen could truly be called an 'Untertan'. Little does it matter that the problems of German banks are mostly due to political interference in the Landesbank system that should have been abolished decades ago. Little does it matter that managements of certain private banks were making serious mistakes (and have in some cases been rewarded with princely retirement packages). But the bureaucrat's reaction is typical in as much as statism calls for ever-tighter prescriptive controls in order to 'improve' the system. Logic dictates that the end of this process is an ossified system that will at some stage resemble Cuba, North Korea or the former Soviet Union. Every step will be controlled, have to be submitted to approval by a 'commissar'. That the 'Elites' of Europe at this moment congratulate themselves (the utterly silly finance minister of France was seen to clap her hands at the signing ceremony) to have initiated another scheme to reward to undeserving (called EU 'Safety Net') is fitting testimony to the utter contempt they hold the subjects in their member states. It is offers little consolation that the situation is hardly any better in most other countries as governements seem to be in a concerted arms race to more control rather than proper reform of their economic and political systems. Unfortunately, the dominating system of 'pseudo-democracy' will allow the creation of more and more bad legislation. Only a system of direct democracy which we advocate will allow citizens to reign in unaccountable politicians and bureaucrats.

No comments: