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North Korea Owes Sweden €300m for 1000 Volvos It Stole 40 Years Ago
- pscsbs 10y agoAh, the power of compounding.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- jwatte 10y ago"Then the Swedes nuked everybody." -- Now we know how it comes about!
- mrweasel 10y agoInteresting, and a little scary: Sweden did actually have a nuclear weapons program during 50s and 60s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_nuclear_weapons_program https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedish_nuclear_weapons_progra...
- caf 10y ago(2014) It's probably more now!
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- misja111 10y ago1000 Volvo's for 300 million, that's 300,000 euro per Volvo. Granted, the article says 'adjusted for interest and inflation'. But that seems wrong, if you had the choice in the 70's to buy a Volvo but instead you put the money on the bank, you would have only the accumulated interest by now, not anything else to offset the inflation. Calculating backwards with an average 4% interest rate for 45 years gives an original price of about 55,000 euro in 1971. For that money you could buy a villa in Sweden around then.
- varjag 10y agoYou know what's truly wrong? Stealing. One doesn't get to complain for the interest on penalty they deserved half a century ago; most assuredly you don't get to keep it at national bank refinancing rate. Remember it's a penalty, not a bailout. Some commercial insurer had to absorb the cost. I'm sure if they were bought properly in the first place, the figure would be a lot less.
- michaelmrose 10y agoStealing is of course wrong but if a commercial insurer paid them for the loss why would they be due perpetual interest on the insured loss?
- varjag 10y agoBecause the insurer wants their money back..? I'm not even entirely sure if there was an insurer involved or was it Volvo itself who had to hold the bill.
- berntb 10y agoThe Swedish state demands the money back, because they were the insurer and this is part of that process. (Are state insurance policies for export sales fair competition? I really don't know.)
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- hjnilsson 10y agoThey didn't not only purchase the volvos. They deal also involved mining & shipping equipment.
- paganel 10y agoThe Swedish Government are as good as professional loan-sharks at getting back what they are due, and sometime using similar tactics. Case in point, my country was paid $28 million in 1929 by the Swedish Government (or a specific Swedish company, not sure) so that the Swedes would take over control over the entire matches market in Romania, becoming a monopolist, in fact. This by itself is no thing to brag home about, but that's how capitalism works. 20 years later a new regime is installed, the communists, who don't have a pretty view on capitalism much less so on monopolistic practices in which they are not the main actors, so they decide to nationalize the Romanian matches industry from under the Swedes' control. Come 1989 and the fall of Communism the Swedes become active again and now ask us for $800 million as compensation, never mind that most probably the initial investment had most certainly paid by itself in those 20 years in which it had monopolistic control over a quite big market. To make sure that they get their money back a Swedish official even bribes one of our economy ministers with around $600,000 (for which said Swedish official had some issues at home, probably nothing came out of it), and it all got settled down for "only" $120 million in 2003. This only happens because countries like Sweden have a disproportionate influence on the world stage. We (Romania) also got swindled out of $1 billion by Saddam's Iraq, the cost of us selling things and services to them in the 1980s. After Saddam fell the Iraqi Government and its babysitters (the US) never felt the urgency of paying us back, our Government also closed their eyes because the US is "actively protecting us against the bad Russian Bear from the East", plus, if a country like Romania would ask for such a big sum of money back you can be pretty sure that no-one in the Western media would pick the story up like it happened in Sweden's case.
- mixermf 10y agoWhat about statute of limitations?
- roel_v 10y agoWhat statute of limitations?
- peteretep 10y agoUnacknowledged debts expire in most jurisdictions
- roel_v 10y agoHuh? No they don't, that'd be an easy way to get rid of debt - just ignore it!
- dagw 10y agoDetails vary for jursdiction to jursidiction and between different types of loans; http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/1389/what-statute-limitations-on-debt.html http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/1389/what-statute-lim...
- philjohn 10y agoThey do in the UK. If you don't acknowledge a debt for 6 years, and during that 6 years the creditor doesn't take legal action against you, the debt becomes unenforceable - statute barred debt is the technical term. The debt still exists, they can still harass you about it, but you cannot be taken to court and made to pay. Now, in most cases, that doesn't happen that frequently, as most creditors would take you to court well before the 6 years are up.
- roel_v 10y agoSure if the creditor doesn't take action. The Swedes have been taking action for decades.
- mzs 10y agoNK seems to have a thing for MB, exhibit A - Kaengsaeng 88: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/cars-from-north-korea-features http://www.caranddriver.com/features/cars-from-north-korea-f...
- clarry 10y agoI have a 20-year-old swedish car that I wouldn't mind keeping in mint condition for another twenty years. But how do I do that (while still keeping it in service)? Rust in particular seems to be a big killer. It doesn't help that the manufacturer is no longer around and spares are likely to become hard to obtain. Did the North Koreans buy spares for their Volvos?
- jbmorgado 10y agoThey have total access to a lot of industrial equipment to create proper parts replacements in case they need it.
- cagataygurturk 10y agoCommunism always liked volvo. East german officials also had volvo's while their people was waiting 10 years for a Trabant.