German Union Talks

I know a few weeks ago I wrote about the South African Union talks with miners not going well.  In another part of the world unions are having problems.  

The Verdi, the union for public workers in Germany, wants an 8% raise for two million government employees.  The union has made noises of a possible strike. The European Central Bank is warning governments about paying these inflation causing pay raises.  

What the heck?  Pay raises cause the rise of inflation, that is a new one for me.  

From my understanding, inflation has several factors, and the rise in wages is not one of those factors.  The highest cause of inflation is the cost of raw materials, manufacturing of those materials, plus shipping those materials .  If a worker can not consume those goods, quite frankly, then the worker needs a raise.  

But I am only a blogger.  What do I know of business? 

Side note- The train operators got an 11% raise in Germany this past January.

British School Problems

I just read another appalling article about children not being able to attend school.  The article was that British schools, after expelling children for bad behavior, want those children to not attend school.  These children need "mental" health screening.  This is to protect other students.

I know my opinion is of little importance... but I think all children deserve an education.  If the child is having problem and is threatening other children, then the school has to provide an alternative, so the child does not loose his/her education.  

I am considering home school for my teen son.  I live in the US, so this is an option.  I want him to have a consistent education during his teen years, and he attends public school, but I am moving his freshman year.  My boy is really bright, but I have had to fight with the teachers to get him motivated.  He is bored because he knows what they are teaching and he wants to spring ahead while other students need the extra attention.  He has not made the grades to get ahead because he is bored.  

I think this is an education problem.  The people of Great Britain need to educate their children, as we do in the US.

Gary Gygax, World Largest Book, And a personal note

Since the creator of D&D died, I want to say to the family you are in my prayers.  Gary Gygax was a great man for creating a game that exercised the imagination.  His game, that has been worked over again coming out in May for the 4th edition, has been translated in many languages and sold millions of books.  

Now for lighter news, the World's Largest book is on tour in Scotland.  The book measures 5 feet 7 inches tall.  This is a photographic record of the Himalayas. The book will be at the National Library of Scotland.  

Wow!  I would love to be there on World Book Day to see the book.

Oh and lastly, on a personal note, my mother died in 1999 and I wanted to write here Happy Birthday!  She would be 54 years old today.  Mom, I hope you get an Angel Food Cake with Strawberries in heaven.  I will light a candle for you today!

The world has past me by today

I paid attention to the primaries instead of looking for international news.  Hillary won three states.  It is getting more interesting here in the US.  But I need to focus on international headlines due to the fact that the news here in the US is focused on domestic issues.

No More Oil Pumping

At a meeting yesterday,OPEC has decided to not pump more oil.  With a low supply and high demand, why would they decide other wise? These oil barons are making a huge profit.  If they pumped more oil they would make less money.  That makes a huge amount of sense to me.

Making money on the backs of hard working people is what these people do.  OPEC has the world's balls in their hands and I don't think any plans of letting go will happen.

This is greed.  But the rich stay rich by doing stuff like this.  There are other organizations that help fuel this like the refineries. It trickles down to the pump price.  And then to top it off you pay a tax on how much gas you consume, so the government is cutting into the profits too.

This does not look good.  But it happens what choice does the poor have against organizations like OPEC.

Tax haven for Rich German's

EU has had some problems with some rich Germans using the Liechtenstein Bank to avoid taxes. A spokes woman denied any involvement that Berlin had or wanted talks on Tuesday.

I thought tax havens were a good thing for the wealthy?

If you have money you don't want that money filtered down to the people without money right?  So, the bank was doing the rich Germans a favor.

This is not a good thing to read about first thing in the morning.  The US deficit is huge and our tax burden is low, but what does that have to do with Europe?  It has this to do with it, if the wealthy are refusing to pay high taxes in Europe, they might find their way to the US.

That won't happen.  But the wealthy are tired of paying the poor from what I read today, especially if they are wiling to use Tax havens.