Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Then and Now...

Very short post today.

Who was the motoring enthusiast who proclaimed...?

"If one formerly attempted to measure the standard of living of a population by the number of kilometres of railway line, in future one will apply the kilometres of roads suitable for motor traffic".

For a clue, he was the boss of the man who demanded....

"I want to hear nothing, I want to see nothing, I want to know nothing...I know what is going on, but you don't need to tell me about it. Don't ruin my nerves. I need my confidence to be able to work."

The car fanatic was Adolf Hitler and the see no evil, hear no evil advocate was Joseph Goebbels. As soon as they got into power in 1932 they pushed hard for the Volkswagen (the people's car) and the Volksempfaenger (the people's radio set), respectively. The Nazis actually instituted a whole program of cheap Volksprodukte, from sewing machines and refrigerators, to gramophones, bikes and even tractors and apartments.

The idea was to provide an artificial boost to the living standards of the vast majority of Germans who had to accept low wages in order for the German economy to be able to service WW I reparations debt. With the exception of the huge success of the "people's radio" necessary for propaganda, the rest of the Volksprodukte were ultimately failures because the Nazis were busy investing in a more direct instrument for raising living standards: the Wehrmacht.

Any similarity with current events and conditions is purely coincidental.

17 comments:

  1. thank you. a lot said with so few words.

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  2. Love these little history lesson reminders.... quite useful to think about when there are so many contemporary distractions.

    Everybody take a deep breath, we've been here before.

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  3. all i can say is thank heavens for wikipedia
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wermacht

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  4. Hey! Hellasious the Volkswagen Beetle was also a superb product. Excellent analogy in your post still.

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  5. Not a single VW was delivered to retail buyers until after the war. In addition, all the hundreds of thousands of Germans who partly paid for a future delivery on the instalment plan before the war, lost all of their money... the car design was great (Ferdinand Porsche did it) but Hitler's plan was a massive failure nevertheless.

    Regards

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  6. should be "wehrmacht"

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  7. I can go along with the idea if you mean the problem of cheap consumables being the equivalent of "bread and circuses", but I cant exactly tell if there is also in here one of those modern screeds against any use of cars (as if we can change the fundamental basis of all modern life overnight)?

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  8. The Nazis took over in early 1933, not 1932. Paul Hindenburg was succeeded by Hitler at that time as Hitler became chancellor.

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  9. Actually, it's Wehrmacht (with a capital 'W')

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  10. 14:01 CNBC commentator reports FASB has delayed implementation of "Rule 157" for one year
    This is the rule that would impact financial cos... Specifically, FASB 157 establishes disclosure requirements that reveal to financial statement users how the fair value estimates were produced.

    - Any thoughts on this?

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  11. The Volkswagen factory produced a lot of vehiles for the Wehrmacht. All paid for by people who bought into the promise of getting a Kaefer after donating 999.- Reichsmark for building the factory.
    Some actually got to drive one...the Wehrmacht issue of the Kaefer.

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  12. re:FASB 157

    As I understand it, FASB provided a 1-year deferral for NON-financial assets and rejected deferrals for financial assets.

    I expect implementation to go ahead as scheduled for the vast majority of banks' and investment banks' portfolio assets/liabilities.

    Regards

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  13. ...but Hitler's plan was a massive failure nevertheless.

    In more ways than one...

    eh

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  14. Just wondering are you still going to continue with the CDS Factors In Equity Valuation series.

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  15. re: cds series...

    Yes, thank u for reminding me.

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