German Fcukwits win again: Don't mention the War!

Citizen_Cutback

I was discussing the IMF/EFSF bailout with a Polish guy working in a supermarket checkout last night having just heard a German Green MEP say on RTE more or less say that we had been given a free bailout.

The Polish guy said that the Germans always have to win and in spite of having lost two World Wars they seem to think that they actually won.

They now seem to think that they have had a victory over the Irish.

Well, lets see.

Here is a link to an article by Barry Eichengreen about the Irish rescue package on the Irish Economy website:
http://www.irisheconomy.ie/index.php/2010/12/01/barry-eichengreen-on-the-irish-bailout/#more-8831

The Germans might be just about to lose another war, on all fronts!

maxwell smart

Interesting article from Barry. Was the IMF our White knight trying to get us to burn the bondholders?
This country is really screwed. And look who is going to be in Government when the whole thing blows up.

Enda and Eamon, are they the men to save us? I don't think so!!

Monty Burnz

Polish people don't like German people in the way Irish people don't like English people - i.e. there is a minority of folks in both cases who have historical chips on thier shoulders. So if you happen to meet one of these folks, take what they say about 'the Germans' with a pinch of salt.

For the record, I've met a good few Germans, nearly as many Polish people, and a couple of English people and they were all pretty decent folks. I guess I was lucky. These generalisations about a whole people are quite annoying - same as when I meet some American or French person and they assume I'm a borderline alcoholic because of where I happened to be born.

topper75

Well worth a read.

The IMF do not have a political agenda. Our EU friends on the other hand have a foggy view of economics due their obsession with the political agenda. Different beasts. The Brussels sabre rattling on corpo tax is not helpful.

swampgas

Citizen_Cutback wrote: »

I was discussing the IMF/EFSF bailout with a Polish guy working in a supermarket checkout last night having just heard a German Green MEP say on RTE more or less say that we had been given a free bailout.

The Polish guy said that the Germans always have to win and in spite of having lost two World Wars they seem to think that they actually won.

They now seem to think that they have had a victory over the Irish.

As predicted, we see the emergence of gross national stereo-typing.

Whether the bailout was "free" or not is something that can be discussed, but repeating generalizations about "the Germans always having to win" is about as useful as assertions that "the Irish are feckless idiots who shouldn't be allowed run their own economy". Neither gets us anywhere.

So - why do YOU think we got a raw deal? I'm genuinely interested.

sceptre

"German Fcukwits" and an OP based on the opinion of a guy you met in a supermarket?

No, seriously, not today. There's nothing wrong with anyone you meet in a supermarket anywhere having their own opinion but let's not pretend that the opinion of "guy X from country Y about people of country Z" is in any way scientific or useful.

You had a link in the middle of that post - if it's relevant to a discussion that might actually be worthwhile, please try discussing the content of that link in a new and better thread.

/mod