Ou est la monnaie?

[BBKing]

Bloody French - we invent the train, they make it go at 186mph, we build the Queen Mary, they build the Queen Mary 2, we have Nick Leeson losing £800m, they just have to top it with a guy losing the staggering amount of £3bn.

Will they never get over the Hundred Years War?

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Bloody French - we invent the train, they make it go at 186mph, we build the Queen Mary, they build the Queen Mary 2, we have Nick Leeson losing £800m, they just have to top it with a guy losing the staggering amount of £3bn.

Will they never get over the Hundred Years War?

Let's hope the lost £3 billion pounds is French money. Our economy is bad enough without a loss like that.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by ntluser

Let's hope the lost £3 billion pounds is French money. Our economy is bad enough without a loss like that.

Who's to say whose money it really is and what the ramifications will be in these days of global finance. Yes UK PLC isn't exactly in the best of health but the French economy has been in the doldrums for years.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/7206270.stm

[BBKing]

Let's hope the lost £3 billion pounds is French money

Well, the Euro is soaring at the moment, so it's a lot more pounds than it was a few weeks ago. Anyone going skiing soon (like me) is going to get a nasty shock.

the French economy has been in the doldrums for years

Wasn't too healthy in 2003, but remember they're a lot better insulated against banking crises (because they still have a decent manufacturing industry, not having bet the farm on a finance and housing boom like us) and oil and gas prices (because of les nukes and les TGVs). With the Euro going up their stuff will be more expensive to dollar countries (and us) but within the eurozone it makes no difference.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by BBKing

Well, the Euro is soaring at the moment, so it's a lot more pounds than it was a few weeks ago. Anyone going skiing soon (like me) is going to get a nasty shock.



Wasn't too healthy in 2003, but remember they're a lot better insulated against banking crises (because they still have a decent manufacturing industry, not having bet the farm on a finance and housing boom like us) and oil and gas prices (because of les nukes and les TGVs). With the Euro going up their stuff will be more expensive to dollar countries (and us) but within the eurozone it makes no difference.

I wonder how long their decent manufacturing industry will survive.

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Originally Posted by Osem

I wonder how long their decent manufacturing industry will survive.

Peugeot DECENT

[Lew]

Shouldn't the thread title be "Ou est l'argent?"? "Ou est la monnaie?" is "Where is the change?".

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by Wicked_and_Crazy

Peugeot DECENT

I thought he was refering to their white flag manufacturing industry...

[BBKing]

I wonder how long their decent manufacturing industry will survive.

Well, they've managed to flog TGVs (complete with track) to the Argentinians* and nuclear reactors to a whole host of people in the last week, so they're not doing too badly, plus Airbus' A380 problems don't look so bad compared with Boeing's 787 ones.

* And before that to the Moroccans. Both Morocco and Argentina will have more high-speed tracks than us soon.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by BBKing

plus Airbus' A380 problems don't look so bad compared with Boeing's 787 ones.

Oh come now, passengers being able to hack into the control network of the 787 and fly the plane is a feature, not a problem

[foreverwar]

Look on the bright side.

Some one (or some group of some ones) is £3 billion better off.

[BBKing]

Oh come now, passengers being able to hack into the control network of the 787 and fly the plane is a feature, not a problem

True, I meant the Boeing crowing (hey, a rhyme) about the A380 delivery delays, only to have the same thing happen to the 787. In other words, developing a new airliner is risky and expensive no matter who you are, so a delay to the programme isn't going to mean the End of Everything, since anyone else trying the same thing is likely to have the same problem.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by BBKing

True, I meant the Boeing crowing (hey, a rhyme) about the A380 delivery delays, only to have the same thing happen to the 787. In other words, developing a new airliner is risky and expensive no matter who you are, so a delay to the programme isn't going to mean the End of Everything, since anyone else trying the same thing is likely to have the same problem.

Except Boeing get government subsidies, oh no, hang on, they don't call it that over there do they? They use the term "military contract"

[BBKing]

I think we can sum it up:

"They're as bad as each other"

Mind you, that's not particularly bad, since they produce excellent aircraft, just look at the fatality rate in civil aviation.

Look on the bright side.

On the less bright side, they probably don't pay enough tax on it...