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Looking for news from Luxembourg? I'm terribly sorry, but I'm no longer there. Yes, that's right, after an emotional goodbye (neighbors and I exchanged post-it notes) I took one last look at the empty suburban street in front of my place, jumped in my car and headed for Frankfurt airport.

About 20 hours later, I had almost made it to my destination on a wonderful island in the pacific. Here's a picture of the sunrise over a toll station:

I realize you might have a few questions, like "how" and "why" and "didn't you have another look at the street while you were driving". It was actually quite simple: I uploaded my profile to adoptacaucasian.com and found a host family within minutes. It may have helped that I used the picture of a movie star, but hey, to them Asians we all look alike, right?

Anyhow, it seems to have worked out fine so far. After stepping from the bus and making a few frantic phone calls, I was picked up and taken to my new home in the sunny subtropical resort area of DaKen:

You've probably never heard about it, but - and I'm quoting an official website - "beyond a doubt, DaKen is one of the most important recreational and tourist areas in" the world.

I'll continue blogging about my exciting new life in Taiwan whenever I have nothing better to do. See you soon! Zàijiàn!

According to wort.lu, $5-7 billion have been funneled into Madoff's Ponzi scheme through Luxembourgish banks and fonds. The article is scarce on details, but mentions Luxembourg's Spuerkeess (BCEE) as being affected, albeit to a much smaller extent than the usual suspects UBS and HSBC.

Update: Let's do some math using figures from Bloomberg:

LuxAlpha American Selection: $1.4 billion (UBS/Access International Advisors)
Lux Invest US Equity Plus: $419 million (UBS)
Herald (Lux) US Absolute Return Fund: $226 million (HSBC/Bank Medici AG)

That's close enough to the $1.9 billion which had been previously reported. I'm curious how the parlamentary commission ("Spezialkommissioun Wirtschafts- a Finanzkris") arrived at $5-7 billion. Shouldn't this be getting a bit more media coverage?

Update 2: This article on RTL.lu has a reaction from the Spuerkess (BCEE) on the "speculation" that it may be involved in the Madoff scandal: The Spuerkess called this information "erroneous" and pointed out it was only providing "administrative functions" for a fund which made some investments in other funds which had made investments in some products offered by Madoff. I'm not sure if I understood this correctly because my Lëtzebuergesch totally sucks, but this would place several layers between Madoff and the BCEE.

In other news, an "expert in business ethics [!]" who goes by the name of "jturquey" seems to have copied parts of my post 1:1 without attribution (see comment) while making the rest sound more dramatic:

Finally, the Wirtschaftswoche has a lengthy article on Madoff, lax regulations in the fund industry in Luxembourg and Ireland and the damage this has caused to unsuspecting German investors. The article's in German, but this impressive "epic fail diagram" transcends all language barriers.

Update 3 (Jan 23): The CSSF has issued a press release with a list of affected funds. Total exposure of these funds is said to be "up to EUR 1.7 billion".

Entropa, a new art installation on display at the European Council building in Brussels, was meant to be one of those euro-politically correct collaborative efforts by artists from all 27 member states. Instead, Czech artist David Černý made it all by himself with his friends. I can only imagine that they had a lot of fun.

Read more about on the controversial hoax/artwork here (BBC, with pictures) and here (Bruno Waterfield's Telegraph Blog).

So what about Luxembourg? It's depicted as a small lump of gold for sale. Hoping to make a bargain, I tried calling the phone no. on the "for sale" sign, but it's apparently not valid.

From the "brochure" (PDF):

Yet who will notice that it is not precious metal, but just the work of artists and their special effects? We readily place our faith in the stock exchange and banks, but often harbour suspicions about art. We remain suspicious right up to the moment that art is transformed into financial worth. And if anyone chooses to view the whole thing as a comment on Luxembourg’s status within Europe, they may well be right.

Oh well, I thought it was supposed to tell us something about Luxembourg's real estate prices.

Does looking at this make you want to eat less seafood?

No, PETA, I don't think this is going to work. Nemo was cute, these things are weird. Kids would enjoy whacking them just like adults enjoy the most sadistic dishes. Furthermore, people might get wrong ideas about cats and water.

BTW, I'll post some of my favorite veggie place in Luxembourg next month. Just in case.

Liefert Russland kein Gas, weil es schlichtweg keines mehr hat? Einen "bizarren Vorwurf" nannte der Spiegel dies gestern. Sind die Verträge mit Gazprom am Ende kaum mehr wert als mit AAA bewertete amerikanische Subprimes, die Politiker nicht weniger inkompetent und kurzsichtig als die Banker?

Wenn das denn so wäre, warum hat es niemand kommen sehen? Wo waren die Kassandras? Nun, es gab sie durchaus:

So schrieb Professor Alan Riley am 18.01.2008 in der SZ:

Felder mit abnehmender Kapazität und fehlende Investitionen in neue Vorkommen führen dazu, dass Gazprom auf eine Lücke im Angebot zusteuert.

Schon 2006 sah Nadejda M. Victor in dem Gasstreit keinen politischen Konflikt, sondern schlichtweg ein Lieferproblem:

The truth is that these price increases are not political. Rather, they reflect worrisome economic and geological facts about Russian gas fields. The Kremlin is not simply trying to use Gazprom to reassert authority in Belarus, Ukraine or anywhere else. There are in fact deep problems with Gazprom -- problems created by its inefficient management and a looming decline in gas production.

Er warnte damals, in einem strengen Winter würde sich Russland entscheiden müssen, wem man den Gashahn zudreht: den eigenen Bürgern oder den Kunden im Ausland. Dieser Winter ist nun deutlich kälter als in den Jahren davor und prompt streiten sich Russland und die Ukraine wieder...

So weit so schlimm, nur warum soll das jetzt gut sein (siehe Überschrift)? Weil es ein Warnschuss sein könnte, eine Warnung davor, das Geld zukünftiger Generationen Zombiebanken und am Markt vorbeiproduzierenden Unternehmen hinterherzuwerfen. Eine Warnung davor, alles so wie es ist um jeden Preis erhalten zu wollen. Eine Energiekrise würde uns ganz deutlich und unmittelbar zeigen, dass alles gar nicht so toll und erhaltenswert ist, dass es genug zu tun gibt um Europa vorzubereiten auf die Herausforderungen der Zukunft und dass uns die Arbeit nicht ausgehen wird. Geld, so scheint es, ist ja vorhanden.

Edit: Mit der neuen Prämie für A++ Kühlgeräte ("prime cool"), staatlichen Beihilfen beim Bau von Niedrigenergie- und Passivhäusern (oder entsprechenden Sanierungen, "prime house") und der Ausweitung der Prämie für Autos mit einem CO2-Ausstoß von unter 120g/km auf Firmen- und Leasingwaagen gehen die Maßnahmen in Luxemburg in die richtige Richtung. Weitere Informationen hierzu (mit nützlichen Links) gibt es auf wort.lu.

Edit 2: Eilmeldung: Gasprom stoppt Gaslieferungen erneut!