German politicians, media warn about the next global financial crisis

Within Germany’s top political circles fear is growing of a second international financial crash exceeding in intensity and impact that of autumn 2008.

At the weekend, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (both Christian Democratic Union—CDU) warned that the economic crisis was far from over. “We have initially succeeded in limiting the effects of the crisis on people, but difficulties remain in front of us,” Merkel told a CDU meeting.

Schäuble compared the present financial crisis with the fall of the Berlin Wall twenty years earlier. “The financial crisis will change the world as powerfully as did the fall of the [Berlin] Wall. The balance between America, Asia and Europe is shifting dramatically,” he told Bild am Sonntag. He also appealed to bankers to exercise restraint when it came to their bonus payments.

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, expressed fears about a social collapse if there is a new round of bank failures. “It is surely too early to say the crisis is over,” he told a European congress of bankers in Frankfurt, adding the warning: “Our democracies will not accept twice giving such extensive support to the financial sector with taxpayers’ money.”

Full Story German politicians, media warn about the next global financial crisis.

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