Friday, May 22, 2009

Volvo

Ford Motor Company is trying to sell Volvo for about $2 billion. This is less than a third of what it paid for the Swedish maker of station wagons a decade ago. I have been to Sweden several times, I have known a great many people from Sweden, and I have also had the genuine misfortune to have done business with some dishonest and unethical Swedish sharks.

There are some really fine countries and cultures up in Scandinavia. Denmark and Finland are both truly delightful places. But the basic arrogance and dishonesty of the Swedes that I have known has turned me off to their whole country.

In 2009 the well educated, young Swedish elite is actually still proud that they did not oppose Hitler during WWII. Really. The youth in Germany has fully admitted what terrible things their ancestors did, and they have moved on. But not the Swedes. They still brag about their country’s refusal to join in with the Allies in opposing the Nazis. It is truly shocking to an outsider, and it all seems a bit unreal.
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