Category Archives: Germany

Bayer Bidding For Monsanto

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With Monsanto's long term prospects as an independent concern looking bleak, far better diversified German chemical giant Bayer made an unsolicited 46 Billion United States dollar bid to acquire Monsanto in an effort to diversify further. With Monsanto's value dropping as its enforceable patent portfolio shrinks Bayer would be acquiring a steady revenue stream and the means by which to continue Monsanto's business, but in a way that might leverage Bayer's own sizeable patent portfolio for synergy in those backwater markets that still recognize the fiat patent system. As Bayer already pirated the genes from a bacteria that breaks down its new herbicide "Liberty"1 that would present a far more marketable continuation of Monsanto's "Roundup Ready"(TM)(R) brand than the present, momentarily independent Monsanto's move to add Dicamba resistance.

Glufosinate has no pre-emergent action. Unlike Dicamba it is purely a post-emergent herbicide which creates the interesting question of just how many herbicide resistant traits is Bayer willing to throw into a single crop at a time, and how will they pace the market releases to keep their patent extortion funds rolling in? Sorry for your loss.

  1. Less ambiguously known as Glufosinate  ↩

Mercedes Joins German Carmaker Emissions Train

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Never content to allow trends to pass it by without a full-throttle attempt at keeping up – be it luxury SUVs, hybrid cars, or überfragmentation of market niches – German firm Daimler AG, which oversees automaker Mercedes-Benz, has just been implicated in its own nitrous oxide (NOx) emissions scandal, following the lead of compatriot Volkswagen and overseas upstart Tesla Motors. Continue reading →

Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis Resigns in Failure

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Greek banks continue to struggle beneath the onerous burden of financial debt imposed by their left-leaning welfarist government and as such are teetering on the brink of insolvency.1 Despite a slew of highly restrictive capital controls and out-of-the-blue "bank holidays" designed to maintain some modest levels of liquidity in the face of branch and ATM queues across the country, the condition of Greece's banks is less than ideal and quite possibly insufficient for long-term survival. Continue reading →

  1. The prospect of Greek debt default isn't just weighing down the local economy either. Inextricably intertwined as the global fiat economy is, the Euro has taken some damage, as have a number of stock markets around the world, as many are wondering aloud whether Greece is the canary in the coalmine of paper promises. ↩

Basketball Team Relegated to Lower Division by MS Windows Misbehavior

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The Paderhorn Baskets of the German Basketball Budesliga face potential relegation to the lower ProB division after Windows Update forced a delay of game so severe the league had to penalize Paderhorn by reducing their points in the league's standings. While the disastrous security consequences of Microsoft Windows are often the focus of criticism, in this case the disaster was triggered by Window's automatic update functionality which is generally regarded as annoying though somewhat beneficial. In this case however, the rogue behavior of the Windows Updater went from merely annoying to economically and professionally damaging.

Germany & Austria's Project BITCRIME

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A joint study between Austria and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research will look at the use of virtual currencies and how supposed illicit transactions and alleged criminals can be prevented, detected, tracked and prosecuted. The program, which has funding totalling €1.5m and will run through to the end of 2016, will also look at the need for supervision and regulation in the cryptocurrency space. Continue reading →