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What is in the interest of the German economy seems to be what determines EU and ECB actions, whether it's setting interest rates, applying rules or deciding wh

by barking 10y ago

What is in the interest of the German economy seems to be what determines EU and ECB actions, whether it's setting interest rates, applying rules or deciding what 'deals' to investigate. The EU, did it go hard after VW? But when it comes to the small fry, rules is rules.

allendoerfer 10y ago
The US, which went hard after VW, is not particularly known for going hard after the environmental footprint of it's domestic brands. Yes, VW cheated, but exposing VW as the sole bad guy considering US gas prices and mileages is quite an impressive trick to pull off.
- barking 10y ago
  I don't understand the moral equivalency that you are implying there exists between US gas prices etc and VW providing fabricated statistics. My point is that the EU and Germany failed to uncover this. Also Germany and France have both in the past chosen to ignore the rules of the EU/Euro club without sanction. That it is far easier for the EU regulators to pick on one of the small fry countries and make negative findings is my argument.
  - allendoerfer 10y ago
    VW cheated, but the bigger moral problem and the underlying topic is not the cheating but the pollution that was hidden by it. And suggesting that VW is polluting more than US brands is just nuts. Edit: Just wanted to make clear, that of course the cheating should have totally been caught in Europe earlier. The thought that the US is not biased with its domestic brands just made me chuckle.
    - barking 10y ago
      >The thought that the US is not biased with its domestic brands just made me chuckle. Who suggested that, or for that matter who suggested that "VW is polluting more than US brands"? I know I didn't.
      - allendoerfer 10y ago
        > Who suggested that, or for that matter who suggested that "VW is polluting more than US brands"? So we can all agree, that governments favouring their big domestic companies is not just an EU thing. You criticized the EU for going after Apple and not VW, I made clear that the US is going after VW and not GM.

by barking 10y ago

allendoerfer 10y ago

The US, which went hard after VW, is not particularly known for going hard after the environmental footprint of it's domestic brands. Yes, VW cheated, but exposing VW as the sole bad guy considering US gas prices and mileages is quite an impressive trick to pull off.

barking 10y ago
I don't understand the moral equivalency that you are implying there exists between US gas prices etc and VW providing fabricated statistics. My point is that the EU and Germany failed to uncover this. Also Germany and France have both in the past chosen to ignore the rules of the EU/Euro club without sanction. That it is far easier for the EU regulators to pick on one of the small fry countries and make negative findings is my argument.
- allendoerfer 10y ago
  VW cheated, but the bigger moral problem and the underlying topic is not the cheating but the pollution that was hidden by it. And suggesting that VW is polluting more than US brands is just nuts. Edit: Just wanted to make clear, that of course the cheating should have totally been caught in Europe earlier. The thought that the US is not biased with its domestic brands just made me chuckle.
  - barking 10y ago
    >The thought that the US is not biased with its domestic brands just made me chuckle. Who suggested that, or for that matter who suggested that "VW is polluting more than US brands"? I know I didn't.
    - allendoerfer 10y ago
      > Who suggested that, or for that matter who suggested that "VW is polluting more than US brands"? So we can all agree, that governments favouring their big domestic companies is not just an EU thing. You criticized the EU for going after Apple and not VW, I made clear that the US is going after VW and not GM.