This is the loudest "fuck you" Germany has given the US in half a century.
I doubt it. Surely, the refusal to go along with the phony reasoning to invade the Iraq[0] was more significant? That one resulted in that hilarious old/new Europe thing and Freedom Fries. As was the recent abstention regarding bombing Libya. I'm sure there are many economic conflicts that have been more serious as well.
And I suppose someone with some diplomatic background knowledge may be laughing at all of this because the real divisive issues are not discussed as publicly.
>This is the loudest "fuck you" Germany has given the US in half a century.
From the article:
>and would have no impact on current intelligence cooperation between Germany and its NATO allies.
No offense, but that's one pathetic "fuck you". "We're going to cancel an unsused cold war administrative policy while maintaining the current status quo on intelligence cooperation with our deep alliance".
"Bundesbank to Repatriate 674 Tons of Gold to Germany by 2020"
374 tons from France, and 300 from New York by 2020 apparently.
The Bundesbank is negotiating auditing rights with its partner central banks. Thiele said he visited all storage locations last year and the returning gold will be examined.
IIRC, A German court issued an order to the Bundesbank that Germany's gold bullion (including those held in foreign vaults) be audited. The access granted to the German auditors by they FRBNY wasn't satisfactory to the German authorities, and as a result the Germans decided to begin repatriation of a large portion of their gold (~300 tonnes, I think). A deal was struck to return the gold in batches over the next 7 years. I don't think there has been any conclusive proof of shady things, but of course there is a lot of speculation regarding the motives and facts surrounding the issue.
For anybody reading this, research gold leasing by bullion banks. In essence it's fractional reserve banking... and the issue is if nations demand their gold back, what if it's not there?
> This is the loudest "fuck you" Germany has given the US in half a century.
Yea, and im pretty sure that in this very moment, the German administration is using each and every trusted channel to apologise for that symbolic act. And hope that they still get their share of sweet, sweet unconstitutional intel.
Symbolic does not equate meaningless.
This is the loudest "fuck you" Germany has given the US in half a century.
In 20 years time, we may look back at this symbolic gesture as being the first act in Germany finally ridding itself of the remains of US occupation.