« Arnold who? | Main | Mineta leaves office in 2005, But only noticed missing today. »

The start of the European Trade War

Airbus suffered another setback today when the Congressional Committee on aviation blocked any attempt to use federal funds to upgrade airports to support the Airbus A380.

From MSNBC.com

"The troubled Airbus A380 programme was dealt a potential blow on Friday when an influential US congressmen said federal funds should not be used to upgrade US airports to accommodate the world's largest passenger aircraft.

John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, claimed it could cost as much as much as $1bn to refit up to 18 airports to handle the 550-seat A380, which is due to enter service next year despite ongoing production delays."

(As if we would spend our tax money to help Airbus destroy our airline industry. Yeah, like that was going to happen...)

Well, This isnt going to sit well within the smoky backrooms of the Capitals of Europe. In retaliation for this issue, we now can expect a full out aviation trade war which will likely smack Boeing pretty hard, but for an already strapped and wobbling Airbus, it just might prove deadly and mortifying to the EU itself. We can now expect to see retaliation like "Boeing Aircraft pulled for safety concerns from European skies" or " Pollution and safety concerns cause European governments to hold certification of Boeings latest Jet - The 787 Dreamliner".

Oh yeah, this will just get uglier and uglier until both sides manage to find a couple of adults to sit down and make some sort of working agreement between the two parties. Don't expect to see that anytime soon though because its like an alcoholic or a drug addict, they need to go all the way down before they can agree that they need to seek help. Right now, its payday and both parties have managed to get thrown out of the first pub of the evening and the night still is young. We have a long way to go until one of us wakes up and tries to wipe something off our cheek, only to find that its the curb.

The Euros dont need a trade war, they need to get on President Bushs' good side and thats not going to happen because their own people wont stand for it. The result of all that pandering to the emotions that come from European public dislike of President Bush, American and Americans is going to be even more unemployed people in Europe, leading to more layoffs and overturned governments, which naturally Europeans will look at as being all our fault in the first place, which is pretty funny if you think about it.

The European Trade War is now underway and if you think they hate us now, just wait a couple of years. Rampant unemployment tends to make you very,very cranky.

Posted @ June 23, 2006 07:54 PM | Current Affairs

Comments

Hi -

It's not merely the unemployment that makes European governments cranky, it's having to explain to an overtaxed and overregulated population that all the money that they've been collecting over the last several decades was mislaid somewhere.

Look at the current French political shenanigans, and you realize the panic that these people are facing: their entire lives and entire world picture is dependent upon having their system of government work effectively (ie to their advantage) and corruption and incompetence is, instead, tearing things apart, much like an unbalanced engine.

John

Posted by: John F. Opie at June 25, 2006 02:44 AM

So long as they give us their nukes, they can get as cranky as all out.

Posted by: Ymarsakar at June 27, 2006 08:32 PM