German International Business

Trump Ambassador In Germany Causes Diplomatic Scandal  A representative of President Trump visited Germany and met with other foreign ambassadors from around the world in Germany on May 10th 2018. This "diplomatic scandal" came just days after President Trump pulled out of the Iran deal that will drastically change the future of America and the future for the rest of the NATO nations. The German ambassador said that President Trump's sanctions will target crucial sectors of Iran's economy. I believe that this is to potentially "choke" Iran to rethink the Iran Deal and President Trump is putting the choke on Iran's economy to make them rethink the terms of the deal. Doing this will obviously impact not just Iran but other companies operating overseas in Iran. 

Kollegah and Farid Bang's are notorious rappers in Germany who have been using some less than acceptable language in their songs. "Commit another Holocaust" is one line from their lyrics, and it is really unacceptable. They are being charged with hate speech because of the offensive language in their songs. This is bad for international business because when people read a story like this they will be less inclined to buy their music. The duo won the Echo awards for music, and it was scrapped after the German media associated their lyrics with holocaust survivors. website: http://www.dw.com/en/german-rappers-kollegah-farid-bang-charged-with-hate-speech/a-43629558

International and domestic business confidence in the German economy has plummeted over past week due to new projections predicting a steep recession in Germany's near future. In March, Germany's recession probability was at just 6.9%, but it is now projected to be 32.4% between April and June 2018. The momentum of business growth in Germany has slowed significantly for the past five months, signaling the fact that Germany's economy is slowing, and has been greatly affected by nationalist and protectionist policies in Europe and the US. As Europe's top economic power, a recession in Germany would cause a significant ripple effect throughout the continent and around the globe, especially considering how active they are in international business practices. Some blame Trump's new implementation of import duties for steel and aluminum as a contributor to the economic downturn. Overall, a recession for Germany would have negative implications for Europe, the US, and

Police Storm German Porsche Manufacturer              Stuttgart Germany police raid the offices of the Porsche manufacturer based on widening inquiry into diesel emissions cheating centered on the parent company, Volkswagen. The article that I found states that police have started investigating whether the newly appointed chief executive of the company is going to be cleaning out the employees who have been hiding the facts that they have been overloading the diesel emissions into the environment. This is not a new thing, I can think of quite a few companies who have been in this same dilemma, and it is mainly tied to the profits of the company. It is sad to me that people would be willingly killing the environment just to make the company more money. However, it is good to see that the police are cracking down on enforcing the rules against these crimes.

As a country determined to avoid repeating past mistakes, the German government has taken a strong stance against hate speech of any kind. This initiative toward a more tolerant society extends to social media. Beginning January 1st, 2018, Germany imposed a law requiring social media companies to remove content containing "hate speech" within 24 hrs or face significant fines, up to 50 million euros ($62 million). Media companies like Twitter and Facebook have employed thousands of people to screen, moderate, and remove content that falls under the law's parameters of hateful speech.  The goals of this law has been to prevent the spread of pro-Nazi ideology and other discriminatory hate schemes. Critics of the law, however, argue that media companies are being urged to remove more content than necessary, in fear of incurring massive fines. Government officials have made amendments to the law to allowing incorrectly deleted posts to be restored, but many are still conc

Both the German and French governments said that it was good news to hear that Donald Trump has changed his mind about imposing new metal tariffs in Europe. The article I found says "We don't want further unilateral measures; rather, we want sensible agreements. Our goal is that at the end of these talks, the international trade architecture must be more stable- there must be more co-operation, not less." I thought this article ties in great with what we were learning in class about international trade tariffs, and whether or not they are good for everyone involved. Clearly to Germany, and France, the trade tariffs are a bad thing, and would hinder the business of the steel industry. It is cool to see that what we are learning in class is directly related to what is happening in international news.  Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/topics/c77jz3md4rdt/germany