Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 20

The Presidential Elections in the USA touches not only Germany and the German media.Many countries in Europe bother about who will be the next American President. McCain or Obama?

A poll showed that the Netherlands and Germany support Barack Obama to a huge degree. 92 percent would vote for Obama in the Netherlands and 85 percent in Germany. Countries like France, Spain and Australia would support the Senator from Illinois with around 75 percent.

John McCain has the "strongest" support in India and South Africa - but even there he would achieve only 26 percent of the votes.

Interesting to see, is the difference between the priorities the states in Europe have.While in Germany the people worry about environment protection, human rights and poverty most, the French and Spanish people want to see work on the social justice in the USA. Russia's first priority is the war against terrorism.
In America, the people want to see their new President dealing with topics like the economic crisis, the war in Iraq and on terrorism - protection of the environment and the use of alternate resources is no issue for a huge number of voters. After eight years of a Republican president, who leaves now with more damage than achievements, the Europeans hope for a change. The foreign politics of the United States need to become less offensive. The European states feel endangered when the President of the most powerful nation in the world practices such an aggressive politic in foreign countries, like Iran and Iraq and Afghanistan.

What the politicians now want is a quick change in the war-shaken parts of the world. The USA has the (military) power and the resources to solve problems in countries like Georgia or Afghanistan - but in the last years there was a lack of understanding. The new President will have to face big problems in the country, but he can use his knowledge and the strength of the nation to help foreign countries, too. That is the hope of the states overseas.

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 19

We are still in Las Vegas. We enjoy being in the city very much. But the financial crisis is feelable even here - where you feel so far away from the real world.
Some hard times will come to the world capital of abundance. Las Vegas: rediculous hotel buildings, mega-casinos and the twinkling lights at the poshy Las Vegas Boulevard, the "strip"... The U.S. gambling capital, Las Vegas, a symbol of the wasteful prosperity - now an economic downturn and recession fears have made the money flows dry up.

Tourists stay out, hotels laid off employees, construction projects will be stopped, the Casino's stock values decrease. The famous ‘Tropicana’ struggles to survive - until 2010 - the hotel was planned to be the biggest casino in the world. These plans are now stopped. The company isn't able to borrow more credits any longer.
The worth of the real estate in Vegas has decreased about 26 percent in the first three month of 2008.

The economic shock had taken the glittering city unprepared. The old rule, that the gambling industry is immune against recession - just a lie. The endless spoiling of money had stopped. The earning from gambling decreased about 5 percent. The revenue in Las Vegas has grown every year since 1970, not even the terroristic attack in 2001 could not harm Las Vegas' economy to that degree!

The dazzling, gigantic investor Donald Trump has stopped the construction of his second hotel tower at the "strip". Las Vegas' first "Trump Tower" now stands alone on a plain field - waiting for better times to come. And the giant hotel "Mirage" - famous for its incredible volcano eruption show, has just fired 440 staff members of the middle manager level in order to save money.

"The financial crisis is different to the former ones", says an analyst of the "Deutsche Bank" about the situation in Las Vegas. "The financial sector is only 40 percent of the Las Vegas economy. Many visitors are not players. They are in Las Vegas to use the many entertainment offers of the restaurants, spas, shows and ightclubs. And the crisis touches this industry, too."

The stock shares of the big hotels like Mirage, Sands and Bellagio decreased about 40 percent since the beginning of 2008.

Stag parties for future husbands and wives from Australia and Great Britain are very popular, today. Just proving that help for the city's economy can be found in the weak dollar exchange rate - Las Vegas as a cheap holiday destination for foreign citizens – even if not for its own citizens.

Marketing experts work hard to find new sources, where the money can come from.

The strategy of the businessmen and businesswomen stays the same, even in the worst crisis - If a financial sector gets to weak, a new one must be found.

Hopefully the bright shining city of lights will not be a victim of the financial crisis.

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 18

One thing I really have to mention here is the difference between the American election campaigns and the German election campaigns.
The American campaigns of the parties took place on the internet - in an over-whelming mass. Especially the Democratic Party uses the internet to connect to the "normal" people like you and me. First thing I did, when the name Barack Obama came up in the media: I looked for his website with "Google". His presence in the internet is impressive.
Social Networking is important to win the voters, to give them the chance to find our more about the candidate's programs and profile.
The clicks on the internet are obviously: 3 of 4 clicks, made during a search for information on election campaigns, are for Obama (source: Hitwise).

Flickr, Twitter and YouTube are the important social networks during this election campaign. And again, Obama leads the click race. 1.3 Million Obama-supporter on Facebook, in comparison to McCain, who has got 200000 "friends" on that network, a huge number.
Another important thing for this internet campaign is Twitter. The user writes in 120 charts, were he is and what he does at the moment. With Twitter you subscribe at a profile, for example at Obama's profile, and "follow" him to wherever he goes. A fine thing to stay in touch and to underline the close connection to the voters and supporter.
At YouTube the candidates can load up their videos. McCain's account got 20 Million clicks - but that is nothing against Barack Obama's channel: 52 Million views on his videos! Single videos has got millions of clicks. The speech about racial problems was watched almost five million times.

You have to consider, that Obama's target group are the young people, who are between 20 and 30 years old. A group of voters which are 50 Million people. 90 percent of this people are online and 70 percent have profiles on Facebook,, MySpace or Twitter. And another fact, which shows the importance of the internet for the candidates: 40 percent of the voters get their election information from the internet.
The actual campaign reacted and the candidates use the mass media internet to a huge degree.

The German election campaigns did not use the internet that much. Every party has got it's website, our chancellor Angela Merkel has a videocast every week, where she delivers a short speech about the happenings of the last week. Of course, this creates a modern image, but the resources, which are definitly there, are not perfectly used, yet. Maybe for the election campaign, the big parties will discover the media internet, which if such an important factor for today's politics.

If you want to see, how the candidates try to win the voters then visit their interesting websites:

www.youtube.com/user/BarackObamadotcom
www.twitter.com/BarackObama

www.youtube.com/user/JohnMcCaindotcom

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 17

The Debate of Sarah Palin and Joe Biden is a topic in the German media, too.
During the last week, Sarah Palin had been described as a insecure and a shilly-shally person, who has hardly any experiences in politics. The parodies of her person in the late-night-shows had been the content of many German comments on to the presidential elections in the USA.
But now, after the dabate, all this changed. Sarah Palin isn't anylonger the "underdog" the "no-name politician from Alaska".
Joe Biden was expected to be competent and self-secure during the debate. No surprises. With his long years of experience in politics he succeeded, of course.
But the German media waited to see the downfall of Sarah Palin during the debate. But Sarah Palin does not act according to the expectations.
Palin showed her abandon ans self-confidence, which had made her become popular in the first days of her candidature. The charming "Hockey Mom" was relaxed, her voice sounded confirmed - the complete opposite to her interviews of the last days. She stand in for her and McCain's positions and the viewer could see and hear her confidence, while she was speaking to the American nation.
The German media demonstrates respect to the vice-presidential candidate Palin. "Palin conquers America, again" and other positively sounding headlines, could be read in the newspapers and online editions.
The debate was shown in TV - the viewer levels were higher than they had been during the Presidential debate with Obama and McCain.
The coverage gets more and more intense. That shows, that Germany is curious about who will be the next President of the USA and who will be in the leading and responsible position to solve the financial problems.

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 16

We arrived in Las Vegas - our camping trip to the Yosemite Nationalpark was cancelled, because one night of endless rain destroyed our dreams of having a dry and comfortable tent.
With wet hair and socks, a little drousy, because we left our tent at 3 am to sleep in the car, we hit the road to go to Las Vegas. Through the endless wilderness of Yosemite, Sierra Nevada and the deserts, we drove 9 hours until we saw the first lights of Las Vegas.

We checked in a cheap motel, the "El Mirador", and went to a bar at the 5th avenue, near the Las Vegas Boulevard. The bar is called "5th Avenue" - what a clue. It remembered us on our favorite bar in our hometown in Germany. A pool table, darts and many slot machines were in the little room.

The bar man had to open the door for us: "Just for security", he told us.
Only four people were in the bar, sitting at the bar - each with a glass of beer in their hands. The bar man gave us our drinks and smiled a teethless smile. "Where are you from?", he asked. Our accent, again... "From Germany? Nice country, hm?" He took a seat next to us. "Hope you do not have the problems we have in America." He must have seen our surprised view around, noticing the few people.
The bar man Nick started to tell us his story:
"Two years ago, everything was great in here. I had a nice year in 2006. Look over there, I bought the flat screen TV to watch the Super Bowl. Man, we had a great summer. But then my wife got the diagnose, that she had cancer. Well to cut a long story short. Her treatments costs us our complete savings. When she died in August of 2007, I had nothing, but the pub and a lot of unpaid bills. No chance to pay another month the runnings debts. Fortunately, I bought the building here many years ago, so I do not have to pay the rent for the pub." Bill took a break and fetched another Bud for us. One of the guests left. "Bye Nick, see you tomorrow", the grey-haired man with with the cowboy hat, stepped out of the door.
"You see, I have my guests who come in here every day after work. But I barely see any other people coming in this year." Nick sat down. "In the end of 2007 I noticed, that not only I have got financial problems. Many of my friends could not pay their bills, many of my every-day-guests, did not come anymore. To me the start of the financial crisis is in 2007. But after my wife's death I had much more problems, that unpaid bills and creditcard debts. Now, after a year, I see it clear. If there's no change in our economy, I will lose my pub. I was always my own boss. I had a good running business in Las Vegas - my whole life a was a barman and I had a great income. I never felt this frightened of what happens next that this days. You know, I never trusted in politics. I was never interested in what happens in Washington. But now I am affected by their doing. My business runs, I can survive, but what if, my last guests won't come anymore? In this bad times, who can afford to spend maybe 20 Dollars a day for just being in my pub?"
I asked him, what he thinks about the upcoming elections. He laughted. "Well, to me the question 'Obama or McCain' does not matter much. I will go and vote. I am a Republican and I will vote for McCain - I will take advantage of my right to vote. But I think, it is a long way to go until our economy is fixed again. You can destroy it very fast - but to rebuild it it will take a long time."

We left the pub and the conversation left a bad taste in our mouths. Now we'd seen how much the financial situation of the economy can affect the average people in America.
Hopefully, there will be a good plan made by the new president, which will help to get America's economy back on it's feet.

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 15

Another German view on to the financial crisis in America

After talking to a friend of mine yesterday, who is really in to finances and the world politics, I had a conversation with another good German friend of mine as the financial matter is still so much of the news here in America, who is spending the next months in Peru, participating at social projects.
She has a less "analyzing" and "professional" point of view on to the things that happen here.

This is what Sophia said (again, my translation into English):

"I just wondered if there is any sense to "rescue" a financial system that is obviously ailing. The systems in the USA are created to show huge earnings to satisfy the shareholders. Everyone must see that this "winnings bubble" will burst someday - and now it happened. The USA does not have any money to invest in social projects, welfare, health care or education - but suddenly there are 700 Billion Dollars. The USA will "burn" 700 Billion Dollar, just to feed the glutton, the giants, which are obviously dying. 700 Billion US-Dollar - that's $3,000 Dollars for each American citizen. Where are the earnings from the last good years?

When I think about this situation, I see a drunk gambler in Las Vegas, who lost all his money and tries to find someone to give him more money, that he can gamble again. "Next time I'll win! I am sure!"
I am glad to see that the wrong turn of the Republican government is discovered before the elections. But I feel sorry for the Democrats and Mr. Obama. Even if they win the elections, there won't be any time to celebrate - the new president must clean up the mess the last government leaves behind.
I think not a single cent should be invested in the financial system of the USA - it is ailing and cannot be rescued by putting more and more money into it. It would be a hard time for the American economy to manage this crisis without having billions to revert on - every country will go through crisis - but it would be much more long-lasting to "rescue" a system with prospective programs, than with hundrets of billions of dollars that will be blown in the wind of the dying financial system.

I do not know enough about the American society - but I read an article some weeks ago which says how the different nations handle their money. Germans like to save their money. They want to have security, they want to have some money for bad times. Germans do not like buying on credit - even this mentality will change in a few years, I think.In comparison to this mentality, the article said, the average American has got 5 credit cards or mortgages. Many credit cards must be paid with the earned money - if there is a shortage, there is no chance to pay their debts, for example, the mortgage for the house.
It is not surprising then, that the real estate crisis came up some months ago!
I really hope, and especially for the people, that this crisis will be solved on one way or the other. But making more debts to pay the other's debts - this is a fishy system, which will not work in the long run."

Travellers’ Blog Entry No. 14

The German view on to the financial crisis in America I

The Financial Crisis in the USA shakes the world’s financial market.

I spoke with a good friend of mine, Stefan, who I know from school and he gave me a nice statement, what he – as a professed socialist and sociology and politics student – thinks about the situation.

I spoke with him in German. Here is what he said – I translated it into English:

“Now raging a worldwide financial crisis, the assets in billions of dollars destroyed. Is this the end of capitalism? I would say, there is a crisis, but not a collapse. Cynics might say: Some lose money, others win it.
Nevertheless, this crisis is obviously seriously – it shows where the development of capitalism had lead. Both of us, Americans and Germans, are living in a society that is dominated by shareholders.
Even if the US-government starts to nationalize the banks, they still act accordingly to the money and to those who own it. You can see it: every time when a rescue packages is decided, the stock-market prices rise. What about the “Deficit Spending”? First there was the systematical destroying of the classic welfare state and then the government tried to ‘calm’ the poor people with cheap mortgages. Who profits? The banks. They will be rescued during the next crisis, when the people cannot pay their credit card debts.

You can see, that in times of globalization, the financial market cannot be controlled by one nation only. The situation touches everyone, every nation.
I, as a poltical active student from Germany, would say, the financial crisis is the last coffin nail for the great power fantasies of the United States.
Of course the presidential candidate McCain had another view on it. Barack Obama is my wish candidate for the White House – but, in fact, it doesn’t matter now. What ever their plans are – now they have to keep in mind, that there is a rescue packages coming up, which will be worth 700 billion dollars.
Neither plans like invading Iran, nor plans of creating a new welfare system, can be realized, because there is simply a lack of money.
Now, there are limits for the US-politics: The war in Iraq and the financial crisis are some heavy weights to lift. The belief that the USA might be the world leader gets more and more absurd.

This crisis let me think much further – I am thinking about a revolution: Climate change, food shortage and the financial crisis. Where are the revolutionaries? The anti-globalization activists came together in Malmö this week. They are not more than 8,000 people there. I really hope, that this movement will become bigger – the people must show, that they keep their eyes open, that they watch the governments.

But coming back to the impact of the “American” financial crisis on to the world. Yes, I think, that this is a bad crisis. Our Chcancellor, Angela Merkel said, that the break-down of the financial market would have a terrible impact on to the general public in Germany. If the circuits of the money comes to a sudden stop, it directly threatens the real economy, not only in America, but in Europe, too - and hence jobs and tax revenues.

What are the plans of the German government? The rescue of “Hypo Real Estate Bank” with public funds. Now you are asking why should an American financial crisis have impact on to German banks? You, the reader, have to know, that the “Hypo Real Estate Group” in an investor, who invests money in real estates in over-seas. So they did in America. During the financial crisis in the USA, they lost money and are not able to pay their debts. To save the group and it’s bank the German government and the CEOs of the biggest banks in Germany decided at 9/28/08 to put a guarantee for the HREB, which will balance the failures. Let’s see if this is the right way.
The German Minister of Finance, Peer Steinbrück, apparently wants for the given state aid significantly, less return service, as the United States do. But new laws for banks? Not yet.

The people in Germany are very angry about that State subsidies. But this does not have an direct impact on the next elections in Germany, because they will be in 2009 – the crisis will be out of the voters’ minds. But look at America: the influence of the voter’s anger on to the American elections will be obvious in less than 35 days.”