Under Our Thumb

Around Sept 14th,2015....''Germany surprisingly left the alliance formed together with the United States which intended to block Russia’s entry into the Syrian conflict.

Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen told Der Spiegel that she welcomed president Putin’s intentions of joining the fight against the extremist organization “Islamic State”. It would be a matter of mutual interests, she said.''

Around Sept. 18th,2015...''Volkswagen's emissions scandal could be far more painful for investors than BP's disastrous 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Credit Suisse (CS) estimates that the total cost to the company could hit 78 billion euros ($87 billion) in a worst case scenario. That's about 60% more than the cost of the Deepwater Horizon spill to BP (BP). ''

Oct. 2,2015....''We express our deep concern with regard to the Russian military build-up in Syria and especially the attacks by the Russian Air Force on Hama, Homs and Idlib since yesterday which led to civilian casualties and did not target [ISIS],” read a statement from the governments of the U.S., United Kingdom, France, Germany, Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. “These military actions constitute a further escalation and will only fuel more extremism and radicalization.”