The Off Topic Topic

[derspiess]

Can be both, I suppose.

[Syt]

This is either a big car or a small guy. Either way, he's trying to compensate.

[Zanza]

Areas of similar nominal GDP in Europe.

[Sheilbh]

I love that, from what I can see, they've excluded the Vatican from light blue

[Tonitrus]

I love that, from what I can see, they've excluded the Vatican from light blue

How many GDPs does the Pope have?

[Oexmelin]

All of that feels like things could escalate quickly. No idea if there are many (any?) Western journalists in Belarus to report though.

Not many. I have asked my colleague who works on Belarus to indicate if good English-language reporting emerges.

[Josquius]

The surprise for me is quite how much of a difference Switzerland makes considering France and UK at parity but Netherlands being richer than Belgium.
Though I note Luxembourg in yellow too. Maybe it boosts the numbers a fair bit there.

[Iormlund]

Areas of similar nominal GDP in Europe.

I'm always curious as to why Germany is so different. Regional GDP and GDP-growth maps of Europe reveal how unique Germany is regarding geographical distribution of wealth and how despite the narrative, the crisis not only affected Club Med, but pretty much everyone "rich" but Germany (and Austria).

[Syt]

I'm always curious as to why Germany is so different. Regional GDP and GDP-growth maps of Europe reveal how unique Germany is regarding geographical distribution of wealth and how despite the narrative, the crisis not only affected Club Med, but pretty much everyone "rich" but Germany (and Austria).

Austria looks good at a glance, but Vienna, where 25+% of the Austrian GDP lives, is in negative.

[Sheilbh]

Ireland should look a lot worse. GDP includes lots of foreign owned companies for tax reasons, GNP is more useful.

[Valmy]

Did you know that Amazon only makes profit of any sort in Ireland? They must do lots of online shopping there.

[The Larch]

Did you know that Amazon only makes profit of any sort in Ireland? They must do lots of online shopping there.

Are you being serious or ironic? I can't really tell and I'd hate to lash out at you unnecessarily. 

[Valmy]

Did you know that Amazon only makes profit of any sort in Ireland? They must do lots of online shopping there.

Are you being serious or ironic? I can't really tell and I'd hate to lash out at you unnecessarily. 

Of course I am being ironic. Shit pisses me off. I think we need to just dump corporate taxes and find another way to get them to chip in for the public services they take advantage of to do their business.

I mean I don't think Ireland alone buys enough stuff to put Bezos on the way to being the world's first trillionaire. But maybe this is just a deal where eventually he will be so rich he will just pay off the US national debt out of his own pocket in exchange for Amazon not paying corporate tax all this time.

[Josquius]

Doesn't the statement actually hold up factually?
Only "they" are amazon rather than the Irish. It all works through sub companies and fake services and such right?

[Sheilbh]

And the Netherlands - one of the biggest enablers of tax avoidance in Europe.

There are lots of ways to get them to pay their taxes. I'm not sure just dropping it is the best idea. But there's lots of parts to it, some of it is tax laws, some of it is actual enforcement, some of it is levels of transparency.