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German Protestant Bishop accuses Deutsche Bank of idoltry

Fri, 12/26/2008 - 7:40pm — DCblogger

Deutsche Bank rejects church charge

In a rare and testy public exchange between a prominent German financial institution and a religious leader, Deutsche Bank dismissed as “inappropriate” the remarks by Bishop Wolfgang Huber, chairman of Germany’s evangelical church council. ...

... Speaking to the Berliner Zeitung newspaper, Bishop Huber argued that bankers had a duty to look beyond the short term and to ensure stability: “Never again should a Deutsche Bank chief executive set a profit goal of 25 per cent.” Such goals drove up profit expectations to unsustainable levels and amounted to “a form of idolatry”, he said. “In the current circumstances, money has become a god.”

Wow, when was the last time you heard a Bishop talk like that? When was the last time an American editor was willing to quote Bishops who talk like that?

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Second Question

By Damon on Sat, 12/27/2008 - 1:03am

Yeah, the second question is spot on. The first question, well, I could go into any inner-city neighborhood, right now, and hear religious leaders preaching against Wall Street greed. Reverend Wright, anyone?

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But, we've always been at war with Eastasia...

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That's not all Deutsche Bank appears to be guilty of

By whaleshaman on Sat, 12/27/2008 - 7:56am

Accounting Standards Wilt Under Pressure

In October, largely hidden from public view, the International Accounting Standards Board changed the rules so European banks could make their balance sheets look better. The action let the banks rewrite history, picking and choosing among their problem investments to essentially claim that some had been on a different set of books before the financial crisis started.

The results were dramatic. Deutsche Bank shifted $32 billion of troubled assets, turning a $970 million quarterly pretax loss into $120 million profit. And the securities markets were fooled, bidding Deutsche Bank's shares up nearly 19 percent on Oct. 30, the day it made the startling announcement that it had turned an unexpected profit.

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