French have attitude problem says New Yorker

Financial Times ^ | February 14 2007 | Joe Perella

[george76]

Paris is less attractive for international financial companies than London partly because of French attitudes to business, according to a leading US investment banker.

“London made it very attractive for people to come there and work there, and I think in France, quite frankly, attitudes exist that cause people to shy away from that part of the world in terms of being a financial centre,” ...

Mr Perella pointed to concerns about “raids” on international companies by the French tax authorities.

“There have been a lot of stories ...of raids into people’s homes and offices to seize their computers to investigate what is going on because these people are making a lot of money.”

“We have a lot of people that are French who don’t want to live there because the taxes are so high.”

Asked about capitalism in France, Mr Perella said: “There is hostility to capitalism all over the world and it seems to be stronger in some places than others.”

He said there was a misunderstanding about wealth that stemmed from when it was “defined by cows and land” and “the only way my wealth could increase is if I took yours away”. But in the modern world “it is possible to create wealth where everyone’s land grows”.

[Bogtrotter52]

3 nights ago while on a trip from Prescott to Kingman AZ I picked up a French Surgeon who had a HUGE elk with his rental car in the middle of nowhere. With limited cross language skills we did have a conversation. First he thought there should be a emergancy phone every mile, like they have in France. Then he mentioned how we are not doing very well in Iraq. I told him "Better than you guys did in 'Nam, and WW-1 & 2." ........ frogs!

[Bogtrotter52]

Sorry, left out the word "HIT" the elk. Kinda looked like he had paited the car and artfully stuck hair and hide bits on it.

[angcat]

Back in the 1930's my Grandfather had a name for the French. He and my Grandmother lived in NYC and were looking to rent an apartment they would not rent to "Italians" the owners of the building were French. Needless to say my Grandfather always referred to the French with a not so nice name but he would say it in his beautiful Italian accent!

[george76]

The frog !

plus you were doing better than him .

[potlatch]

Eiffel Tower, yes a very pretty photo!

[stainlessbanner]

LOL - I like it.

[devolve]

Bumperoo!

[Constitution Day]

No doubt!

But of course, the Frogs are MANY Pantone shades blacker.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Is it for real? It was a recent best-seller. (The title is a take off of a sentimental 1950's French best seller, "Hello Loneliness")

Check it out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonjour_paresse

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

Joe LeFrak was very selective about his tenants.

[vimto]

Thanks for the ping, must say I am not surprised. - Have you seen that Rwanda intend to join the Commonwealth and cut all relations with France.


France has played some bad cards over the years and is now beginning to pay the price in prestige and soon in economics. Only a matter of time...

[angcat]

Hey you New Yorker!

I hope you are not a Redsox fan?

[lentulusgracchus]

France has played some bad cards over the years

Yeah, like taking Saddam's money under the table. And you know, they're still trying to screw us over that deal?