New math as applied to VW buying Rolls Royce

[Mike Arman <armanmik@n-jcenter.com>]

In a long post, Paul Royal tells us about 


>EU clears aid to Volkswagen , ends row

>BRUSSELS, Nov 18 (Reuters) - The European Commission on Tuesday cleared 98
>million marks ($57 million) in
>German subsidies <snip>

>The Commission's green light came only after the German government ensured
>the repayment of some 90 million
>marks in excess subsidies paid to VW by the state of Saxony in 1996.

(98 million plus 90 million is 188 million, we proceed . . .)

Less some amount or other paid illegaly and later repaid maybe  . . .


>The Commission authorised Saxony in June 1996 to grant 540 million marks to
>the car maker for investing at its plants
>in Chemnitz and Mosel, but disallowed another 240.7 million marks.

>In an unprecedented challenge to the Commission's authority, Saxony gave VW
>a total of about 631 million marks.


Heck, no wonder VW is planning to buy Rolls Royce! The math escapes me, but
it looks like they've been GIVEN about a billion DM, and are looking for
somewhere to put it. Nice gravy train. How do they reconcile needing/asking
for/getting these "subsidys" because they need them to stay
competitive/provide jobs/stay in business with going out and buying other
car companies? If they "needed" the money, I'd think they would spend it at
home improving efficiency, developing new products, etc., not going out and
buying more of (essentially) what they have now.

Confused,

Mike Arman