Cash-strapped Berlin stalked by 450-year-old Trillion dollar debt

[Valmy]

The road that runs in front of the Brandenburg Gate is named for him.

No kidding?  Good on Berlin then.  He deserves something for his efforts poor bastard.

[derspiess]

The road that runs in front of the Brandenburg Gate is named for him.

No kidding?  Good on Berlin then.  He deserves something for his efforts poor bastard.

Yeah, he was a pretty decent guy as far as SPD types go.  His son seems to have been a DDR douchebag, but Friedrich, Sr. did about as good a job as anyone could do in his position.

[Zanza]

The road that runs in front of the Brandenburg Gate is named for him.

No kidding?  Good on Berlin then.  He deserves something for his efforts poor bastard.

Every bigger German city will have a square or street named for Friedrich Ebert, although not as prominent as the street in Berlin (runs from Reichstag along Brandenburg Gate, American Embassy, Holocaust Memorial to Potsdamer Platz). Adenauer and Brandt and Bismarck usually have more prominent streets and squares named after them in most cities though - not in Berlin however.

[Valmy]

Is he like the Marshall Foch of Germany?  It seemed like the main street of every French town was 'Rue du Marechal Foch'

[Zanza]

As I said, the late chancellors Adenauer, Brandt and Bismarck usually have more prominent places named for them in German cities. Ebert is more of a second rank politician as far as place names go and is comparable to Hindenburg and Kaiser Wilhelm I, but more prominent than say Scheidemann, Schumacher or Erhardt.

Will be interesting to see what they'll name for Helmut Kohl and Helmut Schmidt after they die.

[Razgovory]

Any streets named after Roger Ebert?

[The Minsky Moment]

From a visitor's guide to Augsburg:
(http://www.augsburg.de/index.php?id=12416)

The Fuggerei is known as a "city within a city" and is still managed by the Fugger family foundation as it was at the time of its beginning.
In 1521, Jakob Fugger the Rich and his brothers founded what is now the oldest social settlement in the world for Augsburgers who had fallen into hardship (and who practiced the Catholic faith). The settlement is comprised of 67 houses with 140 apartments, a church and a fountain.
Even today, annual rent is the equivalent of one Rhinish Gulden, about 0,88€ 

The Fuggerai has been is continuous operation and charging rent at a fixed amount in guilder; so that conversion ratio presumably represents the fair present day value of a 16th century guilder.

[Syt]

The tenants are also required to pray for the souls of the Fugger family.

[alfred russel]

From a visitor's guide to Augsburg:
(http://www.augsburg.de/index.php?id=12416)

The Fuggerei is known as a "city within a city" and is still managed by the Fugger family foundation as it was at the time of its beginning.
In 1521, Jakob Fugger the Rich and his brothers founded what is now the oldest social settlement in the world for Augsburgers who had fallen into hardship (and who practiced the Catholic faith). The settlement is comprised of 67 houses with 140 apartments, a church and a fountain.
Even today, annual rent is the equivalent of one Rhinish Gulden, about 0,88€ 

The Fuggerai has been is continuous operation and charging rent at a fixed amount in guilder; so that conversion ratio presumably represents the fair present day value of a 16th century guilder.

Assuming that is right, I figure Berlin "owes" them about 9,856 euro.

[Zanza]

 

400 guilders * 0.88 = 352€

But compound interest means you have to multiply that by 1.06^448, no? Berlin would still owe them more than 76 trillion Euro. Which is more than the annual GDP of the world.

The mayor of the small town now regrets that he even publicized that story as he was badgered by journalists from all over the world for the last two days.

[Viking]

400 guilders * 0.88 = 352€

But compound interest means you have to multiply that by 1.06^448, no? Berlin would still owe them more than 76 trillion Euro. Which is more than the annual GDP of the world.

The mayor of the small town now regrets that he even publicized that story as he was badgered by journalists from all over the world for the last two days.

This makes you the third person on this thread to point out that the person who wrote the article can't do math.

[Zanza]

I wanted to point out that Alfred can't do math.

[alfred russel]

400 guilders * 0.88 = 352€

But compound interest means you have to multiply that by 1.06^448, no? Berlin would still owe them more than 76 trillion Euro. Which is more than the annual GDP of the world.

The mayor of the small town now regrets that he even publicized that story as he was badgered by journalists from all over the world for the last two days.

That is what I thought at first, but if you go back to the article it seems the interest isn't compound--just simple.

[alfred russel]

I wanted to point out that Alfred can't do math.

Wait a second...if you calculate by simple interest 400 +(400 * 450 * 0.06 ) you get 11,200, which is a number actually quoted in the article. Plus, simple interest makes sense in light of the time period the theoretical contract was written.

[Viking]

I wanted to point out that Alfred can't do math.

Wait a second...if you calculate by simple interest 400 +(400 * 450 * 0.06 ) you get 11,200, which is a number actually quoted in the article. Plus, simple interest makes sense in light of the time period the theoretical contract was written.

The problem is that compound interest is the only way to get to trillions and the article mentions compound interest. This story is only interesting because of compound interest. Berlin welching on a minor debt is not interesting, berlin owing some shit hole sub-urb 1000 times the world's total gold supply in gold coins is fascinating.