German Finance Minister found dead (suicide)

[Pauls' Revere]

https://www.barchart.com/story/news/...o-virus-crisis

BERLIN (AP) — The state finance minister of Germany’s Hesse region, which includes Frankfurt, has been found dead. Authorities said he appears to have killed himself and the state's governor suggested Sunday that he was in despair over the fallout from the coronavirus crisis.

The body of Thomas Schaefer, a 54-year-old member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, was found Saturday on railway tracks at Hochheim, near Frankfurt.

Police and prosecutors said that factors including questioning of witnesses and their own observations at the scene led them to conclude that Schaefer killed himself.

State governor Volker Bouffier linked Schaefer’s death to the virus crisis on Sunday.

Bouffier said Schaefer was worried about “whether it would be possible to succeed in fulfilling the population’s huge expectations, particularly of financial help.”

“I have to assume that these worries overwhelmed him,” Bouffier said. “He apparently couldn’t find a way out. He was in despair and left us.”

Germany's federal and state governments have drawn up huge aid packages to cushion the blow of largely shutting down public life to slow the spread of COVID-19.

Schaefer had been Hesse’s state finance minister for a decade.

[Brian4Liberty]

Two possibilities. Either he was predisposed to such action, or he was under enormous pressure, more than just being the Finance Minster.

[Pauls' Revere]

Two possibilities. Either he was predisposed to such action, or he was under enormous pressure, more than just being the Finance Minster.

Sounds like he needed to lower his expectations a bit.

[69360]

Maybe those reasons are legitimate. But you can't discount the possibility he was suicided for knowing to much about why governments are creating mass panic over a virus that isn't that bad. None of what is going on in the world feels right anymore.

[swissaustrian]

The state of Hesse is where Frankfurt (am Main) is located. It is the financial hub of Germany with the headquarters of the European central bank (ECB) and Deutsche Bank which has been in massive trouble for a long time.

A former governor of Hesse said in a video interview today that he would never have expected this guy to commit suicide under any circumstances

[Okie RP fan]

Yes, we'll start seeing legitimate suicides rise in western nations and also cases of being suicided rise as well.
Always happens in times like these.

[Bern]

The Fed got the message apparently...

The Federal Reserve on Tuesday announced the establishment of a temporary repurchase agreement facility for foreign and international monetary authorities (FIMA Repo Facility) to help support the smooth functioning of financial markets, including the U.S. Treasury market, and thus maintain the supply of credit to U.S. households and businesses. The FIMA Repo Facility will allow FIMA account holders, which consist of central banks and other international monetary authorities with accounts at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to enter into repurchase agreements with the Federal Reserve. In these transactions, FIMA account holders temporarily exchange their U.S. Treasury securities held with the Federal Reserve for U.S. dollars, which can then be made available to institutions in their jurisdictions. This facility should help support the smooth functioning of the U.S. Treasury market by providing an alternative temporary source of U.S. dollars other than sales of securities in the open market. It should also serve, along with the U.S. dollar liquidity swap lines the Federal Reserve has established with other central banks, to help ease strains in global U.S. dollar funding markets.

The Federal Reserve provides U.S. dollar-denominated banking services to FIMA account holders in support of Federal Reserve objectives and in recognition of the U.S. dollar's predominant role as an international currency. The FIMA Repo Facility, which adds to the range of services the Federal Reserve provides, will be available beginning April 6 and will continue for at least 6 months.

https://www.federalreserve.gov/newse...y20200331a.htm

[Pauls' Revere]

The Fed got the message apparently...



https://www.federalreserve.gov/newse...y20200331a.htm

+ Rep