No More Brothels for You

Broadsheet, Salon.com

How's your office bracing for the recession? Switching to generic creamer? Scaling back on those swanky holiday parties? In Germany, one bank is taking drastic measures. According to a recent article in the Independent:

"Deutsche Bank, Germany's largest, has been hit by the global credit crunch so badly that it has issued a memorandum to senior executives telling them that brothel visits and adult channels in hotel rooms cannot be claimed on expenses."

What? You expect these poor executives to pay for their own hookers and porn? Next you're gonna tell them that Anal Intruder isn't tax deductible! Wow, I guess some companies are tightening the belt literally. It's bad enough that people were rioting in Haiti. But having to shell out for your own happy-ending massage? Now that's a global crisis. As one employee groused:

"In the good old days, you could pass off a trip to a knocking-shop as a restaurant if the name wasn't too obvious. But we're in an uptight, locked-down new Puritanism now."

Oh, the injustice.