Comments on: Please to call it “baksheesh”

By: Gannymede

Gannymede — Sun, 30 Oct 2005 13:38:18 +0000

This childishly reinforces my hatred for Volvos and the incomprehensible Volvo Fetish in my part of the country. I even had one myself, a 240D, and it was the worst car I ever owned. It was a dressed-up 1953 Dodge, but not nearly as good.

Seriously, the car itself was an built around an illusion, made to appear to be something it wasn’t (like GM products), and now the corporation that produced it is revealed in the same way.

By: richard mcenroe

richard mcenroe — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 21:05:47 +0000

Always right …. aw heck, son, remember: this is the Sweden who had a very profitable “neutrality” during WWII selling iron ore to Britain and ball bearings to Germany… at the same time a thousand American airmen were dying trying to knock out Germany’s ball-bearing industry… nothing changes.

By: photoncourier.blogspot.com

photoncourier.blogspot.com — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:23:05 +0000

Ann..good point. Somebody at Ford probably needs to emphasize that point right about now.

Or not..maybe given their targeted market, it would actually hurt their sales if it were well-understood that they are actually part of an American company.

By: Charlie (Colorado)

Charlie (Colorado) — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:12:24 +0000

Nice Lobaschevky reference, by the way.

By: Ann

Ann — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 16:00:13 +0000

I doubt this has much to do with Volvo’s car division, which was sold to Ford in 1999. The Swedish company makes trucks and aerospace products.

By: photoncourier.blogspot.com

photoncourier.blogspot.com — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:26:41 +0000

I don’t think today’s typical Volvo owner would be bothered by this at all.

By: Silicon valley Jim

Silicon valley Jim — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 15:17:35 +0000

Did you buy any of your Volvos with the “No Nukes” or “Save the Whales” accessory packages?

By: Always right

Always right — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:25:03 +0000

re: my comment above

Always right at October 29, 2005

absovlved, not “resolved”.

my bad.

By: Always right

Always right — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 13:19:02 +0000

But in a rare partial admission, Sweden’s Volvo AB acknowledged making payments through an agent to Iraqi authorities but said it did not consider that bribery.

By not calling it a “bribery”, it resolved the Swedish’s conscience to do business with a mass muderer’s regime? Are they that !!@@#$$#! (naive would be too generous, IMO)? Is that the same old same old Euro mentra? By not recognizing a spade as a spade?

By: thibaud

thibaud — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 05:29:12 +0000

Russian officials angrily alleged that documents accusing companies and officials in that country were fake, and the head of the nation’s electricity monopoly called for the report’s writers to be punished.

As with most “transitional” economies, Russia would grind to a halt if bribery were eliminated. OFF kickbacks probably aren’t even illegal under Russian law. In any case, using offshore accounts to mask profits, recycling cash flows through all manner of opaque intermediaries, and of course washing much of the oil money through willing laundromats like Dubai are all standard operating procedure for most Russian companies. Including the government-controlled ones like Gazprom.

Speaking of Gazprom, interesting that Schroeder’s determined to ensure Putin has a completely free hand as the quid pro quo for Russia’s supplying Germany with nearly all its gas supplies, which is to say (given that nukes are outlawed and coal’s conribution is minor) the lion’s share of Germany’s energy needs. To hell with the Baltic states’ and Poland’s concerns over Russian blackmail http://www.expatica.com/source/site_article.asp?subchannel_id=26&story_id=24848&name=Baltic+states+oppose+Russian%2DGerman+pipeline