FDIC Leases Office Space in Orange County
Submitted by
CalculatedRisk on Tue, 11/18/2008 - 9:09pm (124 comments)
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Mmmm, pizza
Hey, shouldn't this post have a "CRE" label?
I soooooooo called that!!!!!!
Sacramento Real Estate Statistics: FDIC West
So what are they paying, a buck a foot?
Go long tomatoes and mozzarella cheese
Heard from a commercial agent today that Irvine co. was going to mothball that site for upwards of 3 years, and focus on leasing 20 Pacifica, until FDIC came a-calling.
Recession spook of the evening: Just got back from safeway. After putting in my club card number for purchasing a simple half gallon of milk and half gallon of orange juice, the machine spat out 4 feet of tape granting me over 10 individual coupons. Checker said that over the last three days or so they've been going berserk with the coupons. Asked if this was a thanksgiving-related event, she said no, this was not done last year.
China auto industry now asking for bailout... HAH!
Two can play at that game!
This office should have been opened a year ago. They need to open one in Atlanta as well or expand an existing office where examiners work (to cover GA & FL).
Just for perspective 200K sqft in Irvine is nada.... I do love the irony tho. More importantly I'm a little annoyed they couldn't strong arm one of the deadbeats nursing off of the treasury's tits to cough up some space. I know there is Fed money that has made it to Irvine CRE after all we're all whores now...
FDIC: Press Releases - PR-119-2008 11/18/2008
FDIC Press Releases
FDIC Announces Location of Temporary West Coast Satellite Office
FT.com / Comment / Editorial - Superman wanted for US Treasury
FT Editorial
Superman wanted for US Treasury
(or Superwoman Bair...)
Arrggghhhhhhhhhh! Greasy for T-Man! (Takeoff on G-Men)
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has leased 200,000 square feet of space in Irvine for a temporary office
Our troops in Germany and Japan are temporary too.
http://www.steveandbarrys.com/
Steve and Barry's closing per teevee...(gotta get out more)
Go long California Pizza Kitchen and Upper Crust!
pizza loc: 40 Pacifica, Irvine, CA 92618 - Google Maps
Our troops in Germany and Japan are temporary too.
Rob Dawg | Homepage | 11.19.08 - 12:58 am | #
I give it 10 years minimum and 20 max
FFDIC,
Will you be coming out to Irvine for a little TDY?
is it just me or are the overnight markets finally settling down a little! The movements in EURUSD during Asia hours have finally calmed down a little and crude oil seems dead during that time too.
sportsfan,
I was in sunny Irvine when the FDIC consolidated the last Irvine office into the current Dallas office. Lots of gloomy faces with attitudes about to be unemployed. Forgot what year that was. Spent some time in Laguna Beach then with an old FDIC/RTC friend then working for L.A. Metro doing 70 mi train commute now back at FDIC...nice weather for sure and fish tacos..
200,000 SF is HUGE. 2 average Walmarts
I remember the RTC in the OC used some really swank SL properties for offices. Too bad the FDIC couldn't just seize some plush banker offices.
Chatted with one of the more knowledgeable upper management people today. He scared the shit out of me. Some clients want 15% reductions in contract amounts for ongoing business. Others taking advantage of opt-out clauses to avoid paying for implementation of signed and sealed deals even though they have to pay a penalty to walk away. Layoffs coming fast and hard. He is scared too.
Too bad the FDIC couldn't just seize some plush banker offices.
Beach Blvd | 11.19.08 - 1:10 am | #
Too many germs, porn and bad memories...
The Federal Deposit Corporation has a job to do and this job may be the biggest clean up effort by any government or non-government agency ever in the history of our country and quite possibly the world.
Owner Financing, owner will carry, Home Seller Assist, Home Owner Assist, sell note, Owner Carried Notes, Home Sales Expert, Temporary Seller Finance Program.
4 floors of a 250*200 ft bldg. Hahahaha. That'll soak up that empty Irvine space but quick!
housewives of the OCFDIC...coming soon to hd tv near u..
FFDIC,
I didn't notice an answer, but I gather you're not coming out to Irvine right away. But don't you and others have to come there to fill those 200ksf?
Please don't tell me that FDIC will be hiring all those financial whiz kids in "the OC" who caused about 150 company BKs and untold amounts of sorrow in the lives of ordinary folk?
No, seriously, how do they fill 200,000 square feet? It can't be with boxes. It's 2008.
appropriate, OC is where american culture goes to die. might as well serve as a financial undertaker too.
I'd just like to say thanks to whoever suggested doing a wire transfer from the "YLSP Grandfather Special Fund" to my bank account.
Checks and banks iron-fisted abuse of Regulation CC is for chumps! Wire transfers rule!
I'm now debt free! And now like the rest of you I can figure out how best to allocate what my grandfather passed down... instead of worrying about a crash coming soon. I suppose I could do a whole lot worse than cash right now.
Must sell SRS tomorrow
YLSP,
You're welcome. Did it cost more than $25?
sportsfa
Bank Lawyer's Blog: Go Sheila, Go Sheila! Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh!
Bank Lawyer's Blog
Go Sheila, Go Sheila! Uh-Huh, Uh-Huh!
(There are only 27 signatures on this petition and few if any from Dallas.)
FFDIC,
I didn't notice an answer, but I gather you're not coming out to Irvine right away. But don't you and others have to come there to fill those 200ksf?
I am NOT employed at FDIC due to a 2005 RIF under former chairman Donald "Devil" Powell. Irvine will probably have a very large legal dept and lawyers don't work out of cubes even govt lawyers. Some of the space will be for future growth as well and not used in 2008. The old Houston office grew over many years and we moved around from floor to floor constantly. Same in Dallas. I had a dozen Dallas moves in a decade.
FFDIC, I realize you're not employed there now; hence the first "F," but c'mon, they have to hire people who know what they're doing, don't they?
Lawyers?!? What's up with that? Lawyers can't sell all of Indymac's crap, much less the current crop of so-called assets and, even more importantly, the trainload of stuff coming down the tracks.
Bloomberg.com
Deadbeat Homeowners Tap Texas Bankruptcy Laws to Duck Creditors
Texas is an extremely friendly place to live if you owe money and do not want to pay,'' said Marjorie Britt, a bankruptcy attorney with Britt & Catrett PC in Houston.If you have a lot of money and even more debt and want to shelter your assets, you can live fairly normally.''
Wow...these pictures are telling. Wonder when I can get a fire sale on an M5.
- NY Times
P.S: As always check out my home page
sportsfan,
FDIC's own press release states it will hire temporary contract workers which cannot join NTEU the employee union. It's a union busting tactic and these employees are easier to fire once the crisis is over...
. . . once the crisis is over...
Ah, yes, which brings us back to that earlier comment about troops in Germany and Japan.
I take the FDIC leasing of office space in one's town as economically analogous to Weather Channel's Jim Cantore arriving to do stand-ups from your town boardwalk during a tropical storm watch.
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c310/discofab/jimcantore.jpg
Any guesses on which banks they are moving out there to watch? It seems like an office in Atlanta would be more useful.
problem list I know of
Whoops, looks like there already is an Atlanta branch. They must be racking up the overtime pay lately.
FFDIC, If you're still here, please answer this question.
I'm a lawyer considering applying to work for the FDIC. Is it a horrible, awful place to work?
You can sleep in the beer cooler. Bring a blanket, and don't tease the dog.
Wow. The irony is pretty thick.
Unsold Foreign Cars Hogging Space at a California Port
A Sea of Unwanted Imports - NY Times
Port of Long Beach storing hundreds of unwanted Foreign cars.
Wonder if some of those vacant office building parking lots could be used. It would at least give to look that the building was occupied ....
Calpers Confronts Huge Housing Losses - WSJ.com
"After starting as relatively modest investments in land in California in the wake of the real-estate collapse of the 1990s, Calpers's land investments ballooned across the nation and today total 288,000 house lots in 20 states."
That's gotta hurt...
Meltdown
CMBS pain increases...
From google maps, the current tenant at 40 Pacifica is....
an asphalt company
Notice the proximity to the Irvine Spectrum. At least the ferris wheel will have plenty of new riders.
Karl Denninger is not sanguine
:
Air America is pointed nose down at 60 degrees in a full-power dive and we're dangerously close to structural failure of the wings.
If our trajectory is not altered now our nation is going to play economic lawn dart at 600mph - possibly within weeks, likely within months.
We have squandered more than $2 trillion that has been blown via commitment or direct expense down the rathole of coverups, handouts and bailouts, and we will need that money in the next couple of years to feed, clothe and shelter our people.
and...
the President of the United States is subservient to the bond market - specifically, he is subservient to the willingness of foreigners to finance our deficit spending. Embroiled in their own mess this capacity is quickly eroding, and over the last ten years our Treasury has put itself in the unenviable position of shortening the maturity of its outstanding debt (to get lower interest rates) which raises the potential of a rollover funding "emergency".
I have said it before and I'll say it again - President Obama is going to find himself on the wrong end of reality...
Pizzaaa.
how best to allocate...
--YLSP
Bullion gold and silver, guns&ammo, food and water...
Consider them the cost of insurance.
.........Shanghai spiked .....but rest of Asian markets were slightly downward......stimulus package is so far so good......
how best to allocate...
Depends on your time horizon but I'd be tempted to buy oil, uranium and maybe palladium for the long-term.
Dollar should collapse but the timing is hard to tell. The Feds have already gone further in their emergency actions than I expected.
When the Japanese ask for yen-dominated bonds, they're telling you that they expect a dollar collapse, too.
Bears' Chat - Message Detail
Anyway, a dollar collapse should boost the nominal price of any imported, inelastic commodity like oil.
I'm sure there are a number of relatively rare metals that fit that description, perhaps titanium, molybdenum, etc. Do the research.
Titanium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Molybdenum - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
China PBOC Mulls Raising Gold Reserve By 4,000 Tons - Report
China PBOC Mulls Raising Gold Reserve By 4,000 Tons - Report
===============
They are getting smarter...darnit!
YLSP, cash is King. Take your time to figure out other investments. Congratulations.
8 visitors online.
T-Bills at 0.11%
Call/Put ratio at close to 1.
Everyone expecting a rally in options expiry week.
We're getting very complacent here.
Anon
Re Chinese and gold:
"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious." Sun Tzu
We're getting very complacent here
At first glance, complacent people, hamstrung people and dead people look somewhat similar.
I think the idea of yen-dominated bonds is the most ominous news since Paulson's face appeared in Congress back in Sept.
"He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious." Sun Tzu
----------------------------------+
"I always tell the truth. Even when I lie." Tony Montana
ownerfinancedloans | Homepage | 11.19.08 - 1:14 am
Hope you paid CR for this advertisement. Something tellsme, and maybe it's just me and not you, that this is something like farting loudly at the dinner table with no dog to blame it on.
ylsp: cash, heritage seeds, payoff debt, gardening horticulture classes, form a neighborhood watch, get to know your neighbors, gym membership/exercise program, canned goods, dried beans, rice, pasta, rain barrel
Not necessarily in that order. Just steer clear of the market.
CITI liquidating hedge funds, investors to get around 10cents on the dollar.
good morning all.
g'day gabyjan, and the two others present
volker the viking there is now 6 of us.
feeling crowded at eleven
I'm making coffee
yantsome?
Yes, please Volker. Gotta get out to work soon.
Frigid outside in the eastern half of the nation. Millions of furnaces burning natural gas on high. Heat pumps cranking out the KWHs.
Various acorns, caterpillars and other
flora and fauna suggest it will be a cold winter.
I bought some Conoco and Dominion yesterday. Got tired of staring at my cash balance at Ameritrade. Dividends
if nothing else.
30 degress here. chilly and 18 vistors to those going to work be careful and have a good day. to those going to sleep.have a good rest.
will it be an interesting day on the market?
the grind goes on again today
not sure, but then I never am, but we may see something exciting before it's over
and when it's over the grind will still be grinding dow
Since the beginning of solar cycle 24, solar activity is at its lows, solar wind slowing down, heliosphere shrinking. Global cooling is under way.
and down and down and so on and so forth.
volker the viking thank you for reminding me about dried beans forgot all about them.
gabyjan(Unrated) writes:
will it be an interesting day on the market?
We're coming due for another spasm. Ongoing lack of Christmas + regulatory capitulation = next bout of screaming and entirely justified credit panic.
I wonder - is this some sort of long delayed trick of FDR's to get the fine Republican residents of Orange County dependent on government money? Bank insurance is such a New Deal relic, after all.
Or has socialism finally arrived in a free market bastion?
What is America coming to when unnecessary government expenditures will just obscure the true problem.
Which is that basically all of the banking done in Orange County and its environs was morally bankrupt. Now when the bill comes due, the government shows up. After having been starved, almost successfully.
Strange how that works, even among the most upstanding institutions. No doc all the way - I bet the FDIC doesn't find anywhere near as much documentation as expected when they finally get around to looking at what has been going on.
Forensic accounting will be a growth market and 200,000 sq ft is probably just be the start.
i do believe gas prices and etc will be going up,because of this
U.S. Navy Captures 7 Suspected Pirates in Western Gulf of Aden - Bloomberg.com
gabyjan: I watched the price on lentils go from 50 cents to 92 cents for a pound bag over the last 3 or 4 months
similar for all across the board
buy a variety in one pound bags, they'll feed two, with rice mixed in for almost a week
don't forget spices, no sense in going without tasty
anyone who wants my dry rub recipe, I'll give it up on request, nine diff spices!
Okay, okay, here goes
Equal parts of:
black pepper
salt
cumin
coriander
sweet paprika
garlic powder
onion powder
cayenne
chile powder
Dump into a big assed bowl and mix well. MIX WELL! then put the mix back into the spice bottles you got them from. Adjust the cayenne, salt chile to taste. It'll have a little kick to it if you use about half the cayenne.
Six to eight months of savory stuff, good on anything: potatoes, eggs, chicken, fish, seafood, beef, pork, anything!
volker thank you so much. forgot about spices omg!
my daughter had a fit when rice went up 62 cents in one week. that was back when diesel prices were so high.
will try your dry rub. son in law hates cooking maybe the rub will help.
thanks
"Our troops in Germany and Japan are temporary too."
If only this 'informed' comment would be become temporary, we could all declare victory and go home.
The latest news from Mannheim is the mayor basically begging the American military to not go home, as planned.
Of course, considering some of the material 'rumored' to be stored around Kafertal, the American military has to leave very, very carefully - though if we want to follow the Soviet model, we'll just leave our mess behind for others to take care of. Actually, sounds like the favored boomer solution to just about any problem they deal with. Maybe the mayor of Mannheim is concerned about more than just the economy.
But anti-Americanism in Germany is increasing - the current narrative in Germany about Opel/GM is that the American management of Opel plundered a decent car company, interested only in short term profit (or blood sucking - Opel kept GM afloat at times) with a horrible feeling for the market, building cars that no one really wanted.
And Opel won't be handed any government money unless it can be assured that not a penny flows to the American corporate parent. Can you imagine? After many here have seen what was considered the plundering of a decent car company, no one in the German political spectrum wants to help GM out. How ungrateful - after all, GM helped make Germany what it is today, what will all the urban renewal opportunities that opened up after GM products were done rolling through.
the current narrative in Germany about Opel/GM is that the American management of Opel plundered a decent car company
That's pretty stupid since Opel has been owned by GM since 1929 and is theirs to do with as they see fit.
good news y'all.
the tea fire is contained.
there are no tropical cyclones today
toyota is planning on a two day work stopage next month.(reuters)
Markets win out over economy in England, too: Bank of England considered two-point interest rate cut |
Business |
guardian.co.uk
Bank of England policymakers considered an even bigger reduction in interest rates - of more than two percentage points - when they voted to lower them by 1.5 points earlier this month, but worried this could be too much of a shock for financial markets. The news raised expectations in the City of a further one-point move next month, which would take rates down to 2%.
we will need that money in the next couple of years to feed, clothe and shelter our people.
The Market Ticker - Entries from November 2008
toyota is planning on a two day work stopage next month.(reuters)
Makes sense given this: A Sea of Unwanted Imports - NY Times
Went to FDA website on what they were finding in our food supply that was refused at port inspection....Spices was one of the big things, so before stock piling Spice educate yourself on what you are actually buying and who is standing behind it.
Good Luck and try to store in glass instead of cans...
Oh, and to add to my Opel comment, the Germans should shut up given their screw up at Chrysler - which was a profitable company to the tune of ~$5B in 1998 when it was bought by Daimler-Benz.
Those cars parked in Long Beach are probably going to be excavated in 1,000 years by some archaeologists who will proclaim it a massive ritual funerary monument for some long-dead president.
In a troubling signal for the housing market, MBA's purchase application index dropped more than 12 percent in the Nov. 14 week to 248.5, a lurching move lower similar to yesterday's deep plunge in the housing market index. The drop came despite mostly lower loan rates in the week including a 6.16 percent average for 30-year loans. Refinancing applications did pick up in response to the lower rates, at an index level of 1,281.2 for a 2.6 gain in the week. But the drop in mortgage applications for purchases will definitely raise talk of new declines for home sales, data to be released next week.
You know, like the Terra Cotta Warriors.
"...the current narrative in Germany about Opel/GM is that the American management of Opel plundered a decent car company..."
Maybe not so much plundered as dragged down into the muck of mediocrity with it.
There's a pretty good "special" on CNBC right now covering the auto industry.
GM helped make Germany what it is today, what will all the urban renewal opportunities that opened up after GM products were done rolling through.
Now that's funny!
gabyjan writes:
i do believe gas prices and etc will be going up,because of this
Bloomberg.com refer=home
gabyjan | 11.19.08 - 7:18 am | #
Since the tanker carries 2 million barrels of oil, the crude oil's owner can pay a million dollar ransom and his cost only rises 50 cents per barrel. That's a 10 minute rally in the futures market. And this is only one cargo.
....the FedGov already has many of its workers based in their homes. No commuting. The entire LA/Org County Regional Area of the Consumer Product Safety Commission have Gov vans/cars and work from home. Many other Fed. branches have done the same. Many in Orange County.
Good Luck and try to store in glass instead of cans...
ALONGWAYTOGO | 11.19.08 - 8:00 am | #
Or plastic. Plastic sucks.
Since the tanker carries 2 million barrels of oil, the crude oil's owner can pay a million dollar ransom and his cost only rises 50 cents per barrel. That's a 10 minute rally in the futures market. And this is only one cargo
although I agree that this particular tanker is likely a nothingburger, it does set a dangerous precedent.
they'll ask for way more than $1M. the AVERAGE they ask for is for a million, but this is the largest thing by far they've hijacked.
the bigger problem is that they've now whet their appetite on oil tankers. so I'm guessing shipping routes will need to be recalculated. or perhaps all oil tankers will need an armed escort?
not sure how much cost that adds. I wouldn't think too much... but I have NO idea.
"I give it 10 years minimum and 20 max"
Part of the German based, still somewhat NATO oriented infrastructure, (Landstuhl and training facilities in sourthern Germany as concrete examples) may have a different time scale. And keep in mind that Germany pays for the upkeep of the bases, as technically, they are German property in most cases, and part of NATO.
"That's pretty stupid since Opel has been owned by GM since 1929 and is theirs to do with as they see fit."
Sorry - in Germany, that attitude is against the Grundgesetz, or German constitution (Article 14, section 2), in which the statement 'Eigentum verplichtet' ('property entails responsibility) means that a company owner does not have the right to destroy their workers' livelihood merely because they own that company. As that section continues - 'Sein Gebrauch soll zugleich dem Wohle der Allgemeinheit dienen.' ('Its use should also serve the common good at the same time.' is an adequate translation.)
Germans think plundering is barbaric - and having engaged in it in mass scale within living memory, it is not merely a theoretical point within a society that has consciously attempted to improve many of the flaws demonstrated so clearly between 1933-1945. People are certainly free to note how that attempt has fallen short - all works of man do, certainly, but the attempt was made and is on-going. (Like the fact that German government is forbidden from shooting down a hijacked plane with passengers - the prohibition of the German government killing people in the pursuit of any goal, under any reasoning, is basically unbreachable, apart from the pragmatic exception of the sort of decisions that a police officer faces in enforcing the law.)
One of the reasons Wal-mart left the Germn market is very likely due to a court decision forbidding Wal-mart from determining what its workers could do when not on the job - such as having a romantic relationship. The disgust and low opinion of Wal-mart having even attempted such a thing likely was the last nail in Wal-mart's German coffin.
After having had the experience of two basely amoral governments (yes, only Germany has managed to have both the Nazis and the Stalinists be in charge of government), moral issues are not considered in the same hazy theoretical light which seems apparent in other countries.
Sorry, in German terms, GM has no right to destroy Opel merely because it is the owner.
How un-American of the Germans, to be outraged that some incompetent managers managed to destroy the lives of thousands of workers. And to want to punish those same managers for their stupidity, instead of writing them another multi-billion dollar check.
As a final note - in Germany, destroying unions is not considered the noble goal that certain segments of the American political spectrum seem to feel it is. I guess this might having something to do with Germany being so backward as to still possess an industrial economy, one not utterly reliant on post-industrial financial engineering.
will they really pay up for something like that? where is the crew? i'd imagine if they are all safe that tanker will be floating for some time.
Not sure if this is a good indicator but there were more foreclosure notices in my paper this morning than help wanted ads...
Can you say dĭ-flā'shən
Expired
They managed to shoot the Israeli hostages in Munich, in a botched "rescue". Then they released the perpetrators after a staged hijacking. That was 1972.
in Germany, destroying unions is not considered the noble goal that certain segments of the American political spectrum seem to feel it is. -
rent_to_own
Possibly due to in Germany, unions destroying companies is not considered the noble goal that certain segments of the American political spectrum seem to feel it is.
Well, if all that German constitution stuff is true, there is only one thing left to say. That could be "you can take the Nazis out of Germany, but you can't take away socialistic tendencies that utilize social engineering to avoid inevitable Darwinian natural progression."
Or something like that.
last count 17 ships around 300 crew.
england,russia,india,south korea,us all have ships in area.
pirates are high tech.
They made a deal: no bombings in Germany, we'll release the murderers.
bottom dweller
i have all ready said deflation.at least for me and will act accordingly.
Sorry - in Germany, that attitude is against the Grundgesetz, or German constitution (Article 14, section 2)
Apparently this only applies to operations within Germany's borders.
U.S. Navy Captures 7 Suspected Pirates in Western Gulf of Aden - Bloomberg.com
pirates are causing havoc.meaning higher insurance rates,not to mention protection by navies someone is paying that. and we cant afford it but we have to.imo
Conjure Bag is gloating over this morning's CPI report.
Conjure says, "Have a nice day."
I can haz deflation nao?
rent-to-own, an uncle of mine (by marriage), God bless his soul, received monthly checks from the German government up until the day of his death because of incidents which occurred in the 30s. He left Germany in the 30s because his life was in danger, took up US citizenship, and did not go back to Germany for a visit until the 50s.
"Opel is a special case, but the first begging for money."
Opel's problem, apart of its association with GM is the brand's association with Manta--I still have horror visions of 1988 and THAT car...
when are we going to have enough houses? doesnt the suppy sort of exceed the demand? they keep building and building are they stuck because they dont know what else to do?
gaby-
In America, we practice a supply-push approach. We don't just wait for the market to ask for something, we produce it and THEN figure out how to
sell it.
While the math is exceedingly difficult, the concept is best illustrated by the episode on the Simpsons when Homer is sent to Hell and the Devil force-feeds donuts down Homer's throat in an attempt to torment him.
The Devil, however, is flummoxed when after every bite, Homer slobbers in a low voice..."more".
Conjure Bag wants to say something to all of the hedge fund managers out there who are playing the betas today.
"BWAHAHAHAHA!"
"Have a nice day."
I'm a lawyer considering applying to work for the FDIC. Is it a horrible, awful place to work?
Hoopajoops LTD | 11.19.08 - 2:01 am | #
Yes, for many but lawyers have it better than most unless you are blacklisted.
"Apparently this only applies to operations within Germany's borders."
Sure - the Germans got out of the business of deciding what is best for the rest of the world in 1945. I thought America would have taken that lesson to heart in somewhere around 1975, but I guess a couple of million dead just isn't enough to actually change American policy for more than a few years. Years that many remember as the nadir of America's power. Which in its way is bizarre - the emphasis on human rights and democracy led to the East Bloc, at least in places like Poland, crumbling. Seems like weapons aren't as necessary for overthrowing tyranny as the courage to overcome it.
And when in the U.S., German companies seem to act just like American companies - it seems like the capitalist class needs something to keep it in check. When BMW opened its first American plant, for example, workers in their first year got 5 days vacation - all legal, even as the Germans with contracts (basically all employment is by contract in Germany - hire and fire is also essentially unknown here in practice) working there got 6 weeks.
This is why the U.S. has such a superficial attraction to companies like Mercedes - the top executives can start paying themselves according to American standards, while also treating their workers by American standards. Of course, after losing tens of billions of dollars with Chrysler, Mercedes may have decided that American style business practices aren't worth following. We'll see when Mercedes comes begging for money. After all, the first 'German' car company to beg for money was an American one.
Other deals included Germany not really spending much effort on indicting and extraditing those Americans involved in kidnapping and torturing a German citizen.
Even better, that German citizen is forbidden from entering the U.S. to attempt to use the U.S. courts to get justice. Seems that being kidnapped and tortured through the actions of the U.S. government makes you a likely threat to America's safety - same problem happened to a transiting Canadian who also disappeared from the U.S., to end up being tortured in a Syrian jail. Canada apologized for the injustice - the U.S.? The general attitude, at least for the Bush administration, is 'see you in court - which you can't legally attend.
Dawg -
that is certainly true, as neither the unions nor the management see themselves as more than a part of the whole.
Actually, much of the American stupidity involving union rules (only electricians touch power cables, as an example - even if the cameraman does that every where else, it is not allowed in a union shop like the Kennedy Center) is also completely unfathomable here.
I am actually quite anti-union, while being very pro-collective bargaining. Shame that the U.S. seems incapable of understanding the distinction between worker rights and union privileges.
Sure - the Germans got out of the business of deciding what is best for the rest of the world in 1945.
You make it sound like they did it by choice. If not for the US perceiving a Soviet threat they may not have had a country after 1945.
Accidental killing happens in all wars. It's the deliberate killing of civilians that make German actions so disgusting.
1worldcurrencyyogi writes:
...It's the deliberate killing of civilians that make German actions so disgusting...
As a German (born after WWII), I agree with that.
But then, America allied itself with someone who killed more people than the Nazies did !
(can you say Stalin, Holodomor ?)
But since america allied itself with Stalin, he and the Holodomor is never mentioned, only the evils of the 2nd largest villain.
Realizing that Stalin killed more than Hitler, those pictures showing Stalin together with FDR (and Churchill) look kinda interesting.
forex making