Source: https://udovonmassenbach.wordpress.com/2016/04/20/massenbach-letter-news-22-04-16/
Timestamp: 2018-11-16 15:47:59
Document Index: 382945901

Matched Legal Cases: ['Art. 20', 'Art. 92', 'Art. 97', 'Art. 97', '§ 147', 'art 1', 'art 2', 'art 3', 'art 4', 'art 5', 'art 6']

Massenbach-Letter: NEWS 22.04.16 | Massenbach-Letter
Massenbach-Letter: NEWS 22.04.16
Veröffentlicht am 20/04/2016 von udovonmassenbach
· Causa Böhmermann -New York Times. Sending the Wrong Signal to Turkey * Reporter ohne Grenzen: Europas Pressefreiheit erodiert
· WP: Hillary Clinton won New York, but her image is underwater * NYT – THE EDITORIAL BOARD:Sanders and Kasich Should Ignore Any Pressure to Quit
· Germany and the European Central Bank Face Off
· TTIP: Frankreich droht mit Blockade von Handelsgesprächen
· U.S. natural gas production reaches record high in 2015
· COLUMN John Kemp – Reuters: Saudi Arabia turns oil weapon on Iran * Global refining margins help lift crude oil prices
· Egypt – Syria – Golan
· German-Serbian Chamber of Commerce launched.
Massenbach*So hebelt Merkel den Rechtsstaat aus.
Im Fall Böhmermann gelingt Merkel das Kunststück, einen Bruch des Rechtsstaatsprinzips mit eben diesem Prinzip zu rechtfertigen. Das entlarvt die politische Abhängigkeit, in die sich die Kanzlerin durch den Flüchtlingsdeal mit der Türkei begeben hat. Ein Gastbeitrag des Ex-Bundesrichters Wolfgang Nešković.
Bestimmte Prinzipien sind jedoch eindeutig und unumstritten. Hierzu gehört der Grundsatz der Gesetzesbindung. Er ist ein Kernprinzip des Rechtsstaats. Hierzu heißt es schlicht und eindeutig in Art. 20 Abs. 3 Grundgesetz: „…, die vollziehende Gewalt und die Rechtsprechung sind an Gesetz und Recht gebunden“. Die Kanzlerin ist demnach als Teil der vollziehenden Gewalt an das Gesetz gebunden.
Im Verhältnis von Exekutive und Judikative bedeutet dies: „Die rechtsprechende Gewalt ist den Richtern anvertraut: …“ (Art. 92 Grundgesetz). Weiter: „Die Richter sind unabhängig und nur dem Gesetz unterworfen.“ ( Art. 97 Grundgesetz).
Das mag zwar überraschen, lässt sich aber schnell und zuverlässig verifizieren. Hierzu reicht ein schlichter Blick in das Grundgesetz und die einschlägigen Vorschriften des Gerichtsverfassungsgesetzes. Auch bei intensiver Suche im Grundgesetz wird man für die Staatsanwaltschaft oder auch für den Begriff der Justiz keine dem Art. 97 Grundgesetz vergleichbare Vorschrift finden – weil sie nicht existiert.
2. der Landesjustizverwaltung hinsichtlich aller staatsanwaltschaftlichen Beamten des betreffenden Landes;…“ (§ 147).
Reporter ohne Grenzen: Europas Pressefreiheit erodiert.
Übergriffe, Konflikte und Sicherheitsgesetze setzen Journalisten auch in Europa zunehmend unter Druck, zeigen Reporter ohne Grenzen. Auch Deutschland rutscht in der „Weltrangliste der Pressefreiheit“ ab.
Auch der Rest von Europa droht dem Ranking zufolge seine Vorreiterrolle bei der Medienfreiheit einzubüßen. Gesetze gegen Terrorismus und Spionage sowie zur massenhaften digitalen Überwachung würden zunehmend Freiheitsrechte einschränken. Öffentliche sowie teils auch private Medien gerieten zunehmend unter Druck.
Eine zunehmende Gefahr für die journalistische Unabhängigkeit gehe in einigen europäischen Ländern von Großkonzernen aus, warnen ROG. Diese würden nicht nur immer mehr Medien kontrollieren, sondern auch anderweitige Geschäftsinteressen verfolgen. In Frankreich etwa ist ein Großteil der national relevanten privaten Medien inzwischen im Besitz von wenigen Unternehmern, deren wirtschaftliche Interessen vor allem in anderen Branchen liegen. Auch in Bulgarien kontrollieren Politiker und Oligarchen den Großteil der Medien. Auch dort nimmt Gewalt gegen Journalisten zu.
Das ist auch in Kroatien (Rang 63) und Serbien (Platz 59) Gewalt gegen Journalisten ist auch weiterhin problematisch. In Ungarn (Rang 67) wird der „öffentliche Anstands“ inzwischen überwacht – durch einen von der Regierung kontrollierten Medienrat.
http://www.euractiv.de/section/eu-aussenpolitik/news/reporter-ohne-grenzen-europas-pressefreiheit-erodiert/
Freudenberg-Pilster* Germany and the European Central Bank Face Off.
The continuing lack of inflation motivated Draghi’s loose monetary policies. The official ECB target for inflation is 2 percent, and Draghi has repeatedly called meeting this target his primary concern. When eurozone inflation dropped from 1.5 percent to 0.5 percent in the first half of 2014, Draghi felt compelled to act. The dramatic drops in the price of oil increased his sense of urgency, especially by January 2015, when inflation hit minus 0.5 percent — at which point he pulled the trigger on quantitative easing.
These developments have been mostly positive for Southern Europe. The ECB’s easy-money policies have driven down the interest rates that governments must pay on debt, providing increased budgetary flexibility in countries such as Italy, Spain and Portugal that are weighed down by high debt loads. Meanwhile, low oil prices have stimulated consumption, which helped each to post improved growth figures. (From 2014 to 2015, Italian growth grew from minus 0.4 percent to 0.8 percent, Spanish from 1.4 percent to 3.2 percent and Portuguese from 0.9 percent to 1.5 percent.) But so far, this consumption-led growth has had only a minimal effect on these countries‘ debt, which continued to grow as a percentage of gross domestic product in Italy and Spain and was only slightly reduced in Portugal. (From 2014 to 2015, debt as a percentage of GDP grew from 132.3 percent to 132.8 percent in Italy and from 99.3 percent to 100.7 percent in Spain, and it dropped from 130.2 percent to 129.1 percent in Portugal.)
Southern spending is not the only consequence of ECB policy that worries Germany: The bank’s policies also directly harm Germany, especially its financial sector. One major loser is the German life insurance sector. Given that the proportion of Germany’s population moving toward old age is among the largest in Europe, life insurance is big business in Germany, and insurers have extended generous offers to policyholders. To ensure they can pay out their customers‘ life insurance policies, the insurers must earn a minimum 5 percent return on their investments. But in the present low-yield environment, quantitative easing has helped drive the yields on "risk-free" assets such as German 10-year government bonds down to 0.1 percent. This means that German life insurance companies would have to make risky investments to achieve a 5 percent return, something they most likely will not do. Instead, German insurers‘ investments will become less profitable over time as higher-yielding assets bought before the beginning of the current low-yield environment mature and are replaced with assets purchased in today’s low-yield environment. The head of insurance supervision at BaFin, the German supervisory authority, has said that, as things stand, he can be certain of the sector’s safety only until 2018. Smaller German insurers will bear the brunt of the problem, since larger international players have the option of turning abroad for more profitable investments.
The German banking sector will also feel the impact of ECB policy. Though economists are still studying the relatively new phenomenon of negative interest rates, the rates will certainly affect the banking sector. Most traditional bank profits come from the difference between the interest rate that banks charge their customers and the rate the central bank offers the banks to hold money overnight. (Investments offer other avenues for profits, but here the banks run up against the same lower-yield problems that the insurance companies face.) But when the central bank’s rates enter negative territory and it charges banks to hold money, the banks have proved unwilling to pass that cost on to customers. The banks fear that depositors will withdraw their money in favor of the proverbial mattress, cutting even further into bank profits. This is obviously a problem for all European banks, but German financial institutions are particularly vulnerable because their market is so competitive. Competition has already driven bank margins lower than in other countries. Therefore, the profitability of German banks is particularly hurt whenever the ECB drops its rates.
Insurance and banking profits aside, there are profound cultural reasons that Germans have objected to ECB policy. Germany famously suffered a scarring experience with hyperinflation in the 1920s that is often linked to the rise of the Nazis. Academic and media circles have said the next step will be the ECB’s use of what is called "helicopter money," money printed by the central bank and then distributed directly to the European public. This would be distinct from quantitative easing, when the central bank predominantly buys government bonds. Buying bonds gives the policy a built-in expiration date: When the bonds reach maturity, they disappear. Helicopter money, by contrast, creates funds that do not automatically vanish. Though such a plan is a long way from realization, increased discussion of helicopter money alone has increased anti-ECB sentiment in Germany.
The party will face competition from the center-left Social Democratic Party, which, despite its ideology, has sought to tap into anger at the ECB. The Social Democrats have experienced an identity crisis after years of participating in a government coalition with the conservatives; criticism of the ECB may strike party leaders as a plausible way to appeal to discontented voters. Either way, the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union — the senior coalition partners — will have to adjust to the political winds. With 2017 general elections coming up, both parties are acutely aware of the threat the AfD poses and will strive to defuse it while siphoning off the maximum number of voters focused on those issues. However Draghi chooses to address Germany’s politicians at the ECB meeting, the next year will likely see growing tension between the ECB and the European Union’s largest member state.
https://www.stratfor.com/analysis/germany-and-european-central-bank-face?id=be1ddd5371&uuid=2680ae4c-e1e3-4989-9efa-1012cf66857e
TTIP: Frankreich droht mit Blockade von Handelsgesprächen.
Der französische Handelsminister Matthias Fekl sagte am Dienstag am Rande einer TTIP-Konferenz, er habe bereits im September angedeutet, dass ohne ein Vorankommen die Beratungen beendet werden sollten. „Diese Option liegt noch immer auf dem Tisch“, sagte Fekl. „Frankreich wird kein verwässertes Abkommen akzeptieren.“
http://www.euractiv.de/section/eu-aussenpolitik/news/ttip-frankreich-droht-mit-blockade-von-handelsgespraechen/
Barandat* Hillary Clinton won New York, but her image is underwater.
By the end of next week’s contests in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware, her lead in pledged delegates in all likelihood will be insurmountable. For Sanders, there seemingly will be no path to the nomination other than the unlikely strategy of trying to persuade super delegates to go against the will of Democratic voters.
Sanders and Kasich Should Ignore Any Pressure to Quit.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/20/opinion/sanders-and-kasich-should-ignore-any-pressure-to-quit.html?emc=edit_ty_20160420&nl=opinion&nlid=42724716&_r=0
Hollande visits Egypt on Sunday to boost economic ties.
Ahram Online, , Friday 15 Apr 2016
This is the Francois Hollande’s second visit to Egypt in less than a year.
President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi and Hollande are expected to sign memorandums of agreement in a number of fields and projects, including training, electricity, generating renewable energy, the Cairo metro, and sewage system projects. The delegation accompanying Hollande will include over 60 French businessmen.
http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/199621.aspx
Two Mistral-class helicopter carriers Sevastopol (R) and Vladivostok are seen in this picture taken May 21, 2015 at the STX Les Chantiers de l’Atlantique shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France.
DEBKAfile April 18, 2016, 11:04 AM (IDT)
http://www.debka.com/newsupdate/15943/France-to-supply-warplanes-ships-to-Egypt-under-1-billion-arms-deal
DEBKAfile April 18, 2016, 8:29 AM (IDT)
In an interview with a Lebanese newspaper, Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said "All options, including military ones, are on the table in order to make Israel withdraw from the Golan." He also told al-Mayadeen that "We are preparing to do everything in order to return the Golan to Syrian hands, including the use of military force."
http://www.debka.com/newsupdate/15938/Syria-All-options-are-on-the-table-regarding-the-Golan
COLUMN-Saudi Arabia turns oil weapon on Iran: Kemp – Reuters News
18-Apr-2016 14:21:25
LONDON, April 18 (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s decision to scupper negotiations on a coordinated oil output freeze in Doha on Sunday seems to confirm a significant shift in the kingdom’s oil policy.
For decades, the kingdom has insisted it does not wield oil as a diplomatic weapon, but at the weekend it did just that as part of an intensifying conflict with Iran ("Saudi-Iran
tensions scupper deal to freeze oil output", Reuters, April 17).
Saudi Arabia will not accept any constraints on its output, even freezing at record levels, unless Iran agrees to similar controls, which it has rejected until production has reached
pre-sanctions levels.
Iran has reiterated for more than a year that it intends to increase production to pre-sanctions levels before it will consider any restraint to help stabilise prices, a position that
most other oil producers have quietly accepted.
Saudi Arabia has consistently opposed the nuclear deal fearing that it will strengthen Iran economically and allow it to increase funding for proxy conflicts in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq
By the end of 2015, it was clear the Saudi strategy of maintaining production and allowing low prices to drive high-cost producers out of business was working more slowly than
Amid pressure from some of the weaker members of OPEC in Latin America and Africa, as well as Russia, the Saudis reluctantly and provisionally agreed to an output freeze in
Saudi delegates arrived in Doha still apparently committed to reaching a deal but at the last minute insisted on substantial changes to the draft ("No agreement on oil freeze at
Doha meeting", Wall Street Journal, April 17).
"In the very early hours of Sunday morning, veteran Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi received a call from Riyadh, and then informed his delegates that they would need to scrap the draft agreement for a freeze that didn’t include Iran, according to a person familiar with events," the Wall Street Journal reported.
The same story emerges from other sources. Russia’s energy minister blamed "some OPEC countries" for trying to change the terms of the agreement at the last minute "trying to get concessions from countries that are not here" ("Russia‚disappointed‘ by Qatar oil talks," Russia Today, April 17).
Saudi Arabia has never been enthusiastic about coordinated production restraint, endorsing the principle while stating tough conditions that would make it all but impossible in
The kingdom is likely to pay a diplomatic price for derailing the negotiations at such a late stage, embarrassing everyone else, but senior policymakers evidently decided no deal
was better than even a weak one.
Some analysts see a more straightforward motive for Saudi Arabia’s refusal to sign up: the kingdom is worried oil prices are rising too soon and too far, throwing a potential lifeline
to U.S. shale drillers and other higher-cost producers.
Rising prices put at risk the market rebalancing Saudi Arabia and its allies have painfully pursued over the last 18 months ("Saudis won’t shed any tears over Doha", Bloomberg,
"Saudi Arabia’s increasingly bitter dispute with Iran is now being played out in the oil market", according to my colleague Andy Critchlow ("Proxy war", Reuters, April 18).
Saudi Arabia has tried to restrict the resumption of Iran’s exports by warning tanker companies that they will be blacklisted if they carry Iranian oil ("Saudi Arabia acts to
slow Iran’s oil exports", Financial Times, April 4).
COLUMN-Global refining margins help lift crude oil prices: Kemp – Reuters News
20-Apr-2016 14:02:15
* Chart 1: http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdLqSU
* Chart 2: http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdLYbu
* Chart 3: http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdNbPS
* Chart 4: http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdOBtV
* Chart 5: http://tmsnrt.rs/1Sij19m
* Chart 6: http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdP27i
LONDON, April 20 (Reuters) – Global refining margins have improved significantly in recent weeks which should support
strong demand for crude and lend some strength to both spot prices and spreads in the short term.
While diesel markets remain oversupplied and margins poor, gasoline consumption is booming and margins have improved
sharply, improving economics for many refineries.
There is no straightforward way to estimate the profitability of turning crude into products in real time since
every refinery processes a different slate of crudes and produces a different slate of products.
Even for the same refinery, crude and product slates can vary significantly over short periods as the refinery’s planning
department takes advantage of short-term opportunities in the market place.
But the multitude of indicators on refinery margins all point to an improvement in the United States and globally since
the lows hit in February, which is helping support crude oil prices.
The most generic refining indicators compare the cost of acquiring a benchmark crude and processing it into major
products such as gasoline and diesel.
The 3-2-1 crack spread compares the acquisition cost of three barrels of crude with the selling price of two barrels of
Other popular indicators are the 5-3-2 crack (five barrels of crude, three barrels of gasoline and two barrels of diesel)
and the 2-1-1 crack (two crude, one gasoline and one diesel).
The 3-2-1 crack has improved from a low of around $12 per barrel in early February to around $18 so far in April, based on
futures prices for U.S. light sweet crude, gasoline and diesel.
There have been broadly comparable improvements in the 5-3-2 and 2-1-1 crack spreads over the same period (http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdLqSU).
While refining margins for making diesel and other distillates have continued to deteriorate this has been more than offset by a sharp improvement
in gasoline prices and margins (http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdLYbu).
Generic crack spreads do not capture all the complexity of turning crude into fuels, lubricants, asphalt and petrochemical
But many refining companies publish their own indicators for refineries in their portfolio and they all show margins
improving significantly from the lows in February.
Valero, the largest independent refiner in the United States, reports indicative margins for its refineries across
North America, which is a good proxy for the health of the U.S. and Canadian refining sector.
Valero’s indicator for refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast has improved from just $11.50 in February to over $17 so far in
Valero’s Midcontinent indicator is up from less than $8 in February to more than $11 in March and April (“Key Market
Prices”, Valero Corp, weekly update).
The indicator for Atlantic Coast refineries is up from $9 to $14 while the indicator for the West Coast has risen from $11 to
While Valero’s indicators are restricted to North America, BP publishes an aggregate indicator for the refineries in its
global portfolio across North America, Europe and Asia.
BP’s Global Refining Marker Margin has improved from a recent low of $10.50 in the first quarter to $12.80 so far in
the second quarter (“Trading conditions update”, BP, April 13).
BP’s global marker has almost doubled from a low of less than $7 per barrel in early February to more than $13 in the
second week of April (http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdNbPS).
Refining markers published by BP and Valero as well as the generic crack spreads calculated from futures prices are all for
the gross margin obtained from turning crude into products.
They do not take into account refineries’ operating costs (for gas, power, water, hydrogen and catalysts) or capital costs
But they are meant to provide a signal about the “directional impact” of changes in the trading environment on
refiners’ profitability, according to BP.
Current refining margins are not high but have moved off their recent lows and look reasonably healthy from a longer term
perspective (http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdOBtV).
Refiners’ input costs are also moderate at the moment (and substantially lower than a few years ago owing to reductions in
the cost of utilities and platinum catalysts).
Refiners are currently making enough money from producing gasoline to cover the costs incurred in producing not-very
profitable distillate.
he strengthening of cracking margins since February has coincided with rising spot crude prices as well as tightening
time spreads (http://tmsnrt.rs/1Sij19m) especially for Brent (http://tmsnrt.rs/1WdP27i).
A consistent picture emerges in which oil prices have been lifted since February by strong demand for gasoline as well as
declining non-OPEC crude production and an influx of speculative interest from hedge funds.
Some commentators have suggested the rally in oil prices since early February is entirely due to the activity of hedge funds,
but the simultaneous rise in global refining margins suggests it has a fundamental component too.