What is it with my home town Göttingen? The little picturesque student city in the middle of Germany produced two strange news in the last week.

First, I stumbled upon this video by Kathleen Leinemann which is supposed to become the “city’s hymn”. It’s a very, very, very simple song with a country appeal and the video is of the kind where your parents clap your shoulder and say “at least your not in prison”. The video went a little viral on Facebook, since these kind of embarrassing oddities do get their share. But well, maybe my home town deserves it, I know why I had to leave when I was 19.

The second story is about students, football and sexism. Apparently Göttingen’s students teams have a tendency to chose sexist names. One team is called “FC Siewillja” (“FC she wants it”) and one of the many word games people play when choosing a hobby team’s name. Other teams are called “FC Nuttich” (“FC Slutty”), or “Borussia Bunga Bunga”. This team had to face a shitstorm after giving a sarcastic answer to a concerned female student on their Facebook page.

The story unfolded and was discussed on many blogs and pages. Like always, there is no real consensus to be found. One part claims that language is power and by using words to degrade women sexual harassment is manifested. While others can’t understand the uproar and just laugh about a wordplay. The FC Siewillja team at least felt sorry for being sarcastic and not answering appropriately to the first comment, they changed their logo from a naked women to a full beer glass. To be fair, most teams use metaphors from alcohol for their names like “Wacker Durchsaufen” (“Bravely Binging”, referring to the second league club “Wacker Burghausen”). Or AS Rum.

What does this tell us about Göttingen? Göttingen has always been a very political city. With a strong leftist alternative scene in the 80ies and 90ies it saw many demonstrations and had one tragic incident where a member of the local antifascist group was killed in a police car incident which hardened the situation and produced many violent anti-police demonstrations in the beginning of the 90ies. Then, during the last years, Göttingen’s university received elite status and thus many conservative and success focused students moved there, clashing with the former leftist political milieu at the university.

I assume that while student football teams have all sorts of pseudo-funny and sexist names all over the country, the shitstorm had to happen in Göttingen. Because of this clash and the political heritage. Or I am going too far here. And Göttingen in the end is the simple minded place that the video in the beginning likes us to believe.

‎”I am a trader. We traders don’t care how you’re going to fix the economy. I dream about recession every night because you can make money in a recession.” This interview at BBC shocked viewers worldwide by its blatant openness and brutal honesty. It shows the total ignorance of financial market professionals towards the well being of the economy and its effect on the people. Alessio Rastani, a trader from London speaks about how they profit from worldwide recession and debt crisis of countries and what techniques can be used to strengthen the effect of a declining market allowing hedge funds to make money by placing bets on countries going bankrupt or crashing stock values.

It’s ironic that BBC reporter Robert Peston shortly believed that they were set up by satirical cultural jamming group Yes Men because nobody would believe a trader would be so open about his views of the world. Shortly later, he confirmed that this interview was actually legit and Forbes just published an interview with Rastani, stating him “I trade the momentum”. Right now his Facebook wall is full of hate, as you can see below but to be honest: Rastani does not really say something new. Everybody knows that there is a lot of money to make if you push the right buttons in a crisis. Rastani is a freelance trader, he works from home and actually he is only one in thousands of people who move money in the market. But he gives the anonymous and abstract thing “financial markets” a face.

People cannot understand what these markets are and why they have such a great influence on their jobs, their pensions, the news and politicians everyday. It’s a conglomerate of people, institutions, robots who all act according to different rules and nobody understands the motivations or mechanisms fully. Whenever a person pops up, the boss of a bank, a hedge fund manager or a freelancer trader who speaks his mind people get furious. But Rastani is only a small piece a big system, so don’t shoot the messenger. On the contrary, you actually have to pay the guy some respect for his honesty and transparency. In the Forbes interview is surprised by the attention he gets and says: “I think it’s overblown. I have no idea why I’m getting this attention. I don’t think it was news. For someone to say what I said, I thought everybody already knew this kind of stuff. The big players of funds rule the world, I don’t think that was news.” And sad but true, he is probably right.

Was einst als Absicherung für Produzenten und Verarbeiter begann, ist inzwischen zu einem großen Spekulationsgeschäft geworden: Termingeschäfte (Futures und Forwards) auf Nahrungsmittel wie Weizen, Reis oder Soja. Das Volumen dieser Termingeschäfte ist in den letzten Jahren massiv gestiegen und inzwischen ein attraktiver Markt für reine Finanzgeschäfte. Der Wert der gehandelten Futures, Forwards und ihrer Derivate überstieg schon 2007 den Wert der real existierenden Nahrungsmittel um mehr als das 30fache. Bei den Geschäften geht es den Akteuren nicht mehr um die Absprache über einen zukünftigen Preis (z.B. für die Ernte im nächsten Jahr, was beiden Seiten Planungssicherheit gibt) sondern um Renditen aus Preisschwankungen der gehandelten Papiere.

Der “Nebeneffekt” dieses Handels: steigende Preise für Weizen, Reis und andere Grundnahrungsmittel. Während wir in westlichen Ländern ca. 10% unseres Einkommens für essen ausgeben, sind es in Entwicklungsländern im Durchschnitt mehr als 60%. Steigende Preise für Lebensmittel sind also sofort und direkt existenzbedrohend. Der Film der NGO Weed (World Economy, Ecology and Development) erklärt diesen Zusammenhang sehr nüchtern und anschaulich.