Duty calls

Berlin has leant on Germany’s banks to buy a key holding in Eads. Or that is how it looks. There is no other reason why the banks would want to buy part of DaimlerChrysler’s unwanted 7.5% stake in the troubled aerospace company. The likes of Deutsche and Commerzbank have spent the best part of the last decade doing the opposite: dismantling the cross-holdings that characterised the old Deutschland AG. The plan, if finalised, means that there will still be a big «German bloc» in Eads to counterb...