Free Republic

A respected German economics institute has suggested that wealthy people be hit with a capital tax, some of which they could get back with interest. Such a move could raise around €230 billion, it said. The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) suggested that those with a substantial private fortune be forced to hand over 10 percent of what they have over €250,000. This would hit the richest eight percent of the population and would not lead to the feared reduction of consumer demand, it said. The tactic could be adopted to raise money in crisis-hit countries across Europe, the...

The number of babies born in Germany sank to a record low in 2011, official statistics showed Monday, but a surge in immigration to Europe's top economy led its population to grow. Last year around 663,000 children were born in Germany, down 2.2 percent from 2010, according to preliminary data released by the federal statistics office Destatis. It was the lowest number recorded in Germany since 1946 and half as many babies as were born in West and East Germany in 1964, at the height of the post-war baby boom. In 2011 852,000 people died in Germany, 0.7 percent fewer...

Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman promised Germany's Jewish and Muslim communities on Friday they would be free to carry out circumcision on young boys despite a court ban which has provoked concerns about religious freedom. In a country that is especially sensitive to allegations of intolerance because of the Nazis' slaughter of 6 million Jews in the Holocaust, the government said it would find a way around the Cologne court ban in June as a matter of urgency. "For everyone in the government it is absolutely clear that we want to have Jewish and Muslim religious life in Germany," said Merkel's...

Orthodox rabbis from across Europe urged Jews in Germany Thursday to continue circumcising baby boys, at an "emergency" meeting called over a court ruling branding the religious rite a criminal act. "We call on the Jewish community and on parents to continuing practising brit milah (the Jewish circumcision ritual) and not to wait for a change to the judicial ruling," Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis, told a meeting in Berlin of around 40 Orthodox Jewish clerics. Goldschmidt said circumcision of boys on the eighth day after birth was a crucial tenet of Jewish law and that...

New cars and vans in the European Union will produce one-third less carbon dioxide within eight years, under proposed new rules set out on Wednesday (11 July) in Brussels. By 2020, the average emissions from new cars will have to be no more than 95 grams of carbon dioxide per kilometer driven (5.4 oz/mile), a cut of more than 40 grams from today's levels and of 35 grams per kilometer compared with the 2015 target, if the proposed new regulations are accepted. Connie Hedegaard, climate chief of the European commission, said the goals were "ambitious but achievable" and would benefit...

The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW) suggested that those with a substantial private fortune be forced to hand over 10 percent of what they have over €250,000. This would hit the richest eight percent of the population and would not lead to the feared reduction of consumer demand, it said. The tactic could be adopted to raise money in crisis-hit countries across Europe, the DIW said in a statement.

U.K. boosts up-armed Typhoon for Mideast DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, July 9 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron has unveiled a major sales push for the Eurofighter Typhoon armed with new weapons systems, with the Persian Gulf states of the United Arab Emirates and Oman as key targets. The Typhoon is built by the German and Spanish arms of European aerospace giant EADS, BAE Systems, Britain's leading defense contractor, and Italy's Finmeccanica. Cameron's decision to throw London's weight behind the Typhoon underlines the growing importance of export sales for major defense companies amid severe cutbacks in military spending by...

<p>Germany's Constitutional Court was set up after the war as part of an elaborate system of checks and balances.</p>

German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle held out the prospect of fresh investment and trade Monday if Egypt continues on the road of democratic progress, ahead of talks with new President Mohamed Morsi. Westerwelle's two-day visit, billed as the first by a Western foreign minister since last month's watershed presidential election, is a "signal" of commitment by Europe's top economy to Egypt's political "transformation". "We want to support Egypt and we all know that there are very many companies in Germany who are very much interested in investments in Egypt and they need sustainable development, a stable democracy, and this is...

The Independent reports Finland warns of euro exit rather than pay debts of others FINLAND would consider leaving the eurozone rather than paying the debts of other countries in the currency bloc, Finnish Finance Minister Jutta Urpilainen has said. In a newspaper interview today she said she'd consider crashing her AAA-rated country out of the eurozone. “Finland is committed to being a member of the eurozone, and we think that the euro is useful for Finland. Finland will not hang itself to the euro at any cost and we are prepared for all scenarios. “Collective responsibility for other countries' debt,...

(CBS News) EDGEWATER, N.J. - An auto repair shop owner was shocked to find out that a Mercedez-Benz he purchased for a customer used to belong to Adolf Hitler. "He was surprised," Zenop Tuncer, owner of Euro Tech Motors, told CBS News. "We were all surprised!" Tuncer, whose shop specializes in classic cars, got a request from real estate developer Fred Daibes that he wanted a Mercedes-Benz 540K. However Tuncer could only procure a 1942 Mercedes 320 Cabriolet D convertible, which Daibes agreed to buy. Tuncer said he should have been tipped off because the car looked like a military...

THE unfolding story of how Barclays — and, in all likelihood, other big banks — rigged interest rates is full of telling tidbits about the way Wall Street works. It also represents yet another teachable moment. By now the world knows that Barclays manipulated the most widely used benchmark rate, the London interbank offered rate. But Barclays is just one member of the cozy club that sets the Libor, which is supposed to be based on the average rate at which large banks can borrow money overnight. It’s not based on actual transactions, however — and that leaves room for...

Germany has drawn up secret plans to prevent a British referendum on the overhaul of the European Union amid concerns it could derail the eurozone rescue package. German chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to tell David Cameron that Britain does not need a referendum on EU treaty changes, despite demands from senior Conservatives for more powers to be repatriated to Britain. The leaked memo, written by the German foreign office, discloses radical plans for an intrusive new European body that can take over the economies of beleaguered eurozone countries. Germany is also preparing for other European countries, which are too...

A pair of articles translated from German and Spanish further highlights the pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to not give into to further demands by Spain, Italy, and France. 160 German Economists Denounce Summit Results The San Francisco Gate reports German Economists Denounce Summit Decisions A group of German economists has denounced decisions made during last week's European Union summit, arguing Thursday that they risk increasing the exposure of taxpayers, retirees and savers to the debts of struggling banks. In an open letter published by the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a group of 160 economists wrote that German Chancellor...

As austerity bites into European living standards, sparking revolt at the polls, "growth" has become the politician's mantra. But to be competitive, European countries require a secure, plentiful and competitively priced energy supply. Unless Europe radically rethinks its obsession with carbon dioxide emissions and the anti-fossil fuel energy policies that flow from it, growth is likely to remain elusive, says author Rael Jean Isaac in the Wall Street Journal. Lawmakers across the continent would do well to take to heart the conclusion of the European Commission Energy Department's Energy Roadmap for 2050, which stated frankly that "there is a trade-off...

"British suspected Islamic terrorist arrested in Germany A major German security operation targeted "dangerous" Islamist extremists in dawn raids by 850 police officers on 70 mosques, schools and homes across Germany." SNIPPET: "Hans-Peter Friedrich, Germany's interior minister, banned one Salafist network, Millatu Ibrahim, for "working against our constitutional order and against understanding between peoples". He also announced an investigation into two other networks, Dawa FFM and "The True Religion", with a view to a seeking additional bans."" SNIPPET: "Secret intelligence gathered by police and anti-terrorism officers across Europe gave "cause for concern" in Germany, Britain, France, the Netherlands and Austria,...

Greece conceded on Thursday it had slipped "in some respects" in implementing the cuts and reforms demanded by lenders in exchange for saving Athens from bankruptcy, and tried to persuade them to cut the country some slack. Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras made the admission after meeting senior officials from Greece's "troika" of lenders from the EU, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund, whose inspectors have begun picking through the country's books after weeks of political paralysis.

Islam, rather than a religion, is predominantly a totalitarian ideology striving for world dominance. I believe that Islam and freedom are incompatible. Some people do not want to hear this message. That is why they threaten to murder everyone who states this truth. I am not the only one who has been marked for death. The British author Salman Rushdie, the Scandinavian cartoonists Kurt Westergaard and Lars Vilks have all been victims of assassination attempts. However, if you really love freedom, you have to speak the truth. If not, we will fall victim to Islam, like earlier the people in...

IN FOCUS: German Eurofighters impress during Red Flag debut  Print By: Dave Majumdar Washington DC 16 hours ago Source: The German air force's Fighter Wing 74 (JG74) brought eight of its ­Eurofighter combat aircraft to a Red Flag-Alaska exercise at Eielson AFB in Alaska ­during June, representing its first ever such deployment. For the Luftwaffe, participation in the war games was needed to certify its Eurofighters for their NATO reaction force participation this November, says Col Andreas Pfeiffer, commander of JG74. The exercise was also aimed at helping to prepare the unit for a NATO force evaluation in March...

Call it damning with pink praise . . . On today's Morning Joe, BBC's Katty Kay, anchor of the network's American edition, said that Europeans favor the re-election of President Obama because he is more supportive of "European social-democratic values." You know, those wonderful welfare-state policies that have worked their magic so well that Europe now enjoys . . . an 11.1% unemployment rate. View the video here.