His real specialty is mergers and acquisitions, and he's one of the best in the field.

But the financial crisis has catapulted him into the role of expert for everything -- and media star. Report by Bettina Thoma

Solon and Sulfurcell, two manufacturers of photovoltaic cells, are looking for ways to secure their future. Report by Kerstin Schweizer

Today the single mother works for a discount grocery for 325 euros a month. She needs the job and is afraid of angering her employer; that's why she wanted to remain anonymous. Since she is always on call, she can't take a second job. And so she has to rely on welfare assistance. The number of people in marginal employment has risen disproportionately in the last ten years: by about 70 percent.

DW-TV: Mister Schäfer, working hard with minimal payz would you say that this is an exception, or is this everyday reality for many job workers here in Germany?

Holger Schäfer: Well I don't know, but I think there are measures of the law to combat these forms of conditions in the workplace, so I think there's something we can do about this with our current framework of law.

DW-TV: But many people doesn't seem to know about these measures of law. Do you think that counselling, or that there's just not enough advice given to people in that position?

Holger Schäfer: Well of course you can seek advice from lawyers, or from unions or other institutions.

DW-TV: I should think a worker in that position would not take a lawyer. It's probably highly unlikely that you yourself would ever get into such a situation. But let's just say you lost your job. Eventually you would have to face the Hartz IV perspective, that scheme. Is that something that would worry you?

Holger Schäfer: Well, I certainly wouldn't work without pay. And so if the consequence of this behavior is that I would get fired, then OK, I have to live from transfers.

DW-TV: Is this something that what the legislators had in mind when they introduced Hartz IV?"

Holger Schäfer: Well we have to differentiate between Hartz IV -- which is a new form of social security -- and the lower sector of the labor market and the mini-jobs. Mini-jobs are a special form of part-time employment, while Hartz IV is a form of social security for people with no income.

DW-TV: But mini-jobs are part of it, and they were also introduced in order to give people a chance to get back into full-time labor, to get a proper job. But right now it looks as if Hartz 4 was introduced to deliver cheap labour to employers, rather than helping the unemployed to get back into a regular job! And then: Is it legal that an employer can stop his staff from taking on more than one mini job?

Holger Schäfer: Well I'm not a lawyer, but in my opinion, it is not legal to forbid somebody to take another job.

DW-TV: There's another thing that bothers me, it's that a mini-job worker is not allowed to quit a mini-job. Whatever the circumstances. That gives the employer a lot of power which obviously will lead to abuse. How can that be stopped?

Holger Schäfer: It's not quite true, because you can of course be sloppy at your workplace or something and get fired. In this case, you are entitled to unemployment compensation or transfer payments. So you always have the possibility not to quit your job but get yourself fired and then you have entitlements.

DW-TV: OK, that's an interesting take on that situation. But basically the mini-job is something that should help unemployed to get back into a regular job. And we also heard that that somehow doesn't work out. Do you think that the mi-job scheme has failed?

Holger Schäfer: Well, no -- it provides many jobs for those who hadn't a job before the mini-job reform. So I think it was successful. But there are too many incentives from both sides -- for employees and for employers -- to remain in this mini-job scheme, and not to progress towards forms of employment with higher amount of working hours."

Interview: Monika Jones

But many local authorities are happy to install speed-trap cameras. They slow traffic down - and sweep money into public coffers. A camera on the Autobahn near Bielefeld takes the cake. In 2009, it brought 10 million euros in revenue from fines to the city.