euro|topics - Gerald Braunberger

22/11/2008

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Braunberger, Gerald

2 articles of this author have been cited in the European Press Review so far.

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 06/08/2008

Sinking oil prices

Within a few weeks the price of oil has sunk around 20 percent from its all-time high. "This is good news for investors in stock markets and the sorely tried car drivers at petrol stations," comments the daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. However it adds that the times of cheap raw materials have nonetheless come to an end: "The prices are going down because demand for raw materials is likely to grow slower than expected following forecasts for a marked slowdown in global economic growth. Should the economic forecast worsen, a further decline in raw material prices cannot be ruled out. Yet people would be ill-advised to start hoping that the times of cheap raw materials will return. The entry of densely populated newly industrialised countries like China, India, Brazil and Russia into the global economic division of labour is irreversible. They will join the ranks of the world's greatest consumers of raw materials ... in the foreseeable future. The decline in oil prices over the past few weeks does nothing to change the fact that people must learn to produce and live in ways that are more energy efficient."

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung - Germany | 19/03/2008

The financial market's crisis of confidence

Gerald Braunberger has little sympathy with the calls for central banks and governments to come to the aid of banks. Josef Ackermann, CEO of Deutsche Bank, had previously explained that the market's self-help mechanisms no longer function in a crisis of this nature: "It has nothing to do with social envy to point out that successful bank managers earn tens of millions a year, and the successful managers of hedge funds and private equity companies even more. At such times bank managers cast themselves as advocates of the free market. But as soon as the house of cards of speculation threatens to collapse, they expect the central banks and taxpayers to help them out. For the sake of the common good, the state has no alternative but to do this. But such rescue operations severely damage the reputation of the financial sector. It has only itself to blame for the fact that people are now calling for tighter controls."

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