Billionaire Merckle Killed by Train, Die Welt Reports (possible suicide)

[Newsjock]

Source: Bloomberg

German billionaire Adolf Merckle, whose investment company was renegotiating its bank debt, died after he was hit by a train and may have committed suicide, Die Welt reported.

Merckle was struck near his hometown of Blaubeuren, southeast of Stuttgart, yesterday evening, the German newspaper said on its Web site today. Police said he may have killed himself, the newspaper said.

Merckle had lost money from a series of wrong-way bets on Volkswagen AG, a drop in the value of his HeidelbergCement AG stake and increasing debt. The 74-year-old, whose estimated $9.2 billion fortune put him 94th on Forbes’s list of the world’s richest people, was negotiating with banks on a bridge loan to rescue his investment company VEM Vermoegensverwaltung GmbH.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=ao_E2.GY3YLE&refer=home

[Dennis Donovan]

1. Remember the old days when they just jumped out of windows?

:evilfrown:

[ogneopasno]

2. If you're going to commit suicide, keep the train workers out of it. OT, I know, but geez.

[MADem]

4. I agree with you, and it's certainly tangential to the topic.

Nothing like laying guilt and trauma (to say nothing of possible permanent PTSD) on some poor bastard just trying to do his job.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

40. I know. Someone in my family is a train driver and this is one of his pet peeves

He's heard about and seen the impact that suicides have on those driving and working on the trains (he hasn't been involved in anything like that yet thankfully touch wood) but he gets very angry when talking about it

[MADem]

3. Good grief. There's something to be said for being able to adjust to poverty.

No one WANTS to be poor, but damn...to kill yourself? That's a bit...final.

The balance of his mind was very possibly disordered.

[WriteDown]

7. He was never going to be poor....

Makes one wonder why he did this.

[GodlessBiker]

12. They become accustomed to a certain lifestyle. Anything less is intolerable.

[Dorian Gray]

37. Seriously

I don't get it. It sucks to lose everything, but is it so awful that you need to die?

[soleft]

5. 2nd billionaire in two weeks to kill himself

[Frustratedlady]

6. Are these people only wealthy on paper?

Do they build their empire with the knowledge it could crumble, or do they think they are safe from harm?

I guess "the bigger they are, the harder they fall" (or harder they're hit) is going to be the story of the day in 2009.

Well, we tried to tell ya...

[WriteDown]

8. No....

A person like this has plenty of liquid assets. I do wonder if there was something else going on in his life. Some genius' are manic-depressives so that is a possibility.

[gratuitous]

9. Didn't Porsche just bid on Volkswagen?

There's another story here in LBN about Porsche acquiring majority ownership of Volkswagen stock. I wonder if the two events are related? Or, assuming that Merckle killed himself, did he know about the Porsche acquisition, which caused VW's stock to increase quite a bit in value?

Many questions, darned few answers.

[AndyTiedye]

10. Maybe He Picked the Wrong time to Go Short on VW

[Robbien]

15. Porsche secretly built a 75pc stake in VW

VW's stock was extremely high and hedge funds were shorting it. When Porsche announced its secretive ownership stake, VW stock went up and not down. Shorting hedges starting scrambling for their lives to get out of the biggest short-squeeze ever and Merckle was a big player in the shorting game.

[gratuitous]

17. Ouch

Well, when you're buying and selling, you can only lose the amount of the money you invest. When you're shorting stock, there's no limit to the amount you can be on the hook for. As robber baron Jay Gould famously remarked, "He who sells what isn't his'n, buys it back or goes to prison."

[JackRiddler]

11. $9.2 billion personal wealth only makes 94th on the rich fucks list?

Wow, we are in one fucked up capitalist universe.

The billionaire's list is a bit of a fraud, of course, since it doesn't (or cannot) measure the fortunes of the big old-money families who hide their stuff offshore through complex holding company structures, or in foundations and "charities." It also probably leaves out the hidden fortunes of drug lords, popes and televangelists and mullahs, old royalty, etc.

[hvn_nbr_2]

27. That was my thought too.

Well, that and "Oh, fuck, with all these losses, I only have $9 billion left. Things are so bad I guess I'll kill myself."

[notadmblnd]

13. if he had waited another day, he would have seen his Volkswagon shares skyrocket

Porsche just took control of the company. It's a shame that the formerly affluent prefer to die than to live their lives with less money.

[Tesla]

14. Billionaires ride trains?

Was he pushed?

[Robbien]

16. VW share price going up was the problem. Merkle had a huge short position

He bet wrong.

[BelgianMadCow]

18. Confirmed as suicide by the family meanwhile

money can't buy you happiness..

RIP

[Career Prole]

21. Left the family a note

according to this account.

Psychologists and other mental health experts have said suicide rates could creep up as a result of the financial crisis.

At the risk of sounding hard-hearted...tough shit.
The press downplayed at every opportunity the increase in military suicides after bush's war despite the evidence, so screw 'em.

Hey billionaires! Can I hook you up with a train schedule or something?

[WriteDown]

22. Nice that you

are so concerned with all of his employees that will no undoubtedly soon be out of work.

[Career Prole]

24. If they lose their jobs

it will be because of a combination of his poor decisions and a nose-diving economy, not because he jumped in front of a train.

Workers are getting shafted all over the world every day for the same reasons. Only some of the decision-makers do the honorable thing.

Here in America for instance the decision-makers accept huge bonuses and buy palaces in the Manhattan sky for their mistakes which put thousands out of work.

Nothing honorable in that.

Don't even try to say I'm not on the side of workers...that's my side.

[WriteDown]

25. Didn't they get jobs because of his good decisions?

Some people view their companies like their families. I suppose if Steve Jobs jumped in front of a train, we'd all be laughing about it. In fact, maybe we should take some glee in the fact that he may have pancreatic cancer, afterall, he is rich. Whoopee!!! :sarcasm:

[Career Prole]

26. Companies might consider returning the devotion...

...or at least the loyalty.

As for Steve Jobs...I don't know how he even entered the conversation. Well, yeah I do. You put him there. As to why, that's anyone's guess...sarcasm notwithstanding.

[WriteDown]

33. I am just following the rich=evil

meme that some use. I always feel bad when anyone commits suicide. Just leaves all his friends and family behind to suffer.

[Career Prole]

36. Please try and understand why I get a little angry.

And I suppose why many of us get angry.

A person dies by suicide about every 16 minutes in the United States. An attempt is estimated to be made once every minute.

Ninety percent of all people who die by suicide have a diagnosable psychiatric disorder at the time of their death.

American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Facts and Figures

The rich mans' president's response? Cut mental health funding.

Now that's newsworthy. Not some billionaire jumping in front of a train because his portfolio took a beating.

Then there's this, of course...

Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans

<snip>

Beyond the individual loss, it turns out little information exists about how widespread suicides are among these who have served in the military. There have been some studies, but no one has ever counted the numbers nationwide.

"Nobody wants to tally it up in the form of a government total," Bowman said.

Why do the families think that is?

"Because they don't want the true numbers of casualties to really be known," Lucey said.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee.

"If you're just looking at the overall number of veterans themselves who've committed suicide, we have not been able to get the numbers,” Murray said.

<snip>

That's also newsworthy. The chief culprit in the real news about suicide?

George W. Bush...friend to the super-wealthy.

As I've illustrated above, his policies resulted in many regular folks' suicide deaths.

Now near the end of his rule his policies have caused the suicides of a couple of billionaires and suddenly suicide matters.

When the twin tragedies of veterans' suicide and the suicide of the mentally ill are addressed properly I'll start worrying about the billionaires.

[BelgianMadCow]

34. I concur, and what's even more

the suicide rate and depression statistics have shown for years and years that the western consumerist society is VERY ILL.

I see no reason why billionairs would be an exception. I have no idea of the reason for this particular suicide though - doubt it has to do with the crisis.

I love your prole posts :-)
:hi:

[Career Prole]

39. Why, thank you!

That's very kind of you to say!
:hi:

[jzodda]

19. amazing people kill themselves over money

Like money is the only thing that defines their existence. I know people like that, some in my own extended family. Money defines their very existence. Its sad and pathetic.

[WriteDown]

23. Why do you say it was HIS money....

He would have more than enough for 10 lifetimes even after the loss. It could have been that he was ashamed of letting people in his companies down. Who knows? We'll need a copy of the note.

[sarcasmo]

30. Exactly, it's the Greed they needed to live.

[Vinca]

20. This is so hard to comprehend. If it's all going to hell, just cash out

and retire on the remaining millions. It's not worth being run over by a train. Maybe I'm better off being poor.

[nc4bo]

28. !!! DU, isn't it time to have list of casualities? Sorta like the Palin wolf kill counts

Like 4 lines and a slash?

[sarcasmo]

29. Isn't this the fourth or fifth Suicide instead of being poor?

[Doctor Cynic]

31. You know another Adolf who killed himself when the end was near?

[Endangered Specie]

32. Must have not been many tall buildinds near by

[goforit]

35. Any connection to Poppy bush?

[OldEurope]

38. Nobody

Nobody will loose their job because of Merckles decisions.
He managed to get everything fixed with the banks and investors before he decided to commit suicide. His companies are wealthy and their values went straight up today at the DAX.
He just could not accept that nowadays his decisions as an entrepeneur and the work of a whole live (he was in his seventies) are just pointless because of a pack of global rats.

He even managed to make his suicide as harmless as possible: the engine driver did not even notice. The police found his body after the family informed them about his intention.

I did not know him personally but I hope he rests in peace.
And that his family can find some peace, too.