PRESS RELEASE
Return Deutsche Bank to Its Patriotic Roots in Rhineland Capitalism, Exhorts Focus Editor
WIESBADEN, Oct. 16, 2016 (EIRNS)—German Focus weekly magazine editor Wolfgang Reuter has come out today with proposals mirroring Lyndon and Helga Zepp-LaRouche’s July call for returning Deutsche Bank to the legacy that ended with the Nov. 30, 1989 assassination of Deutsche Bank chairman Alfred Herrhausen. Reuter, one of Germany’s senior economic journalists, writes under the headline "Take Responsibility for Deutsche Bank," which could also be interpreted as "take back" the bank; he describes with simple precision how London’s Morgan Grenfell and Wall Street’s Bankers Trust "investment bankers," acquired by the bank and became the cancer that ruined the bank’s tradition of German "economic patriotism" which had served Germany’s industrial development since the bank’s founding in 1870:
"Basically, this never-corrected aberration was a ‘reverse takeover,’ a takeover by those who were purchased, in consequence of which Deutsche Bank lost its roots."
They plundered the bank, as the €50 billion in bonuses paid out since 1999 to its investment traders was more than that division ever brought in.
"Thus, Deutsche Bank doesn’t need support for the state, but the help of the state. For example, implementing an industrial policy solution,"
which editor Reuter proceeds to outline, harking on Germany’s 19th century evolution of a socially conscious "Rhineland capitalism" against the free trade doctrines of Manchester capitalism.
Reuter supports German industry taking on a 30% ownership share of Deutsche Bank, but simultaneously junking its trading in securities and derivatives, even if maintaining some universal bank activities. Such measures would not only be "a patriotic act" as with the founding of the bank, but
"Furthermore it would be a new beginning, a ’reverse reverse-takeover,’ a credible return to the roots of this once noble banking house."
In a paragraph under the subhead "Rhineland Capitalism as Rescue," he points to the reciprocity of government and industry working together, as with the European aerospace consortium for Airbus. Germany has always benefitted from this method, "so why not today?"
And if it is not done, then the bank risks being taken over by BNP Paribas of France or Santander of Spain. "Should the nation passively watch this happen? A little bit more self-respect and will to survive hopefully remains in Germany and its industry."
Reuter came to Focus from business daily Handelsblatt in 2014, and is an expert on the intrigues that have played out around Deutsche Bank.
