During the past 30 years, European governments have provided more than $15 billion in the form of low- and no-cost loans to Airbus for the specific purpose of developing new aircraft lines.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
These subsidies from four European governments, which include aircraft launch assistance, capital injections, debt forgiveness, have enabled Airbus to develop and range market airliners well below cost.
Over 30 years ago, Airbus was founded by a European consortium of French, German, and later Spanish and British companies to compete in the large commercial aircraft industry with U.S. companies.
In 2003, the value of Airbus's orders was more than twice as much as Boeing's.
Of course we are coming to invest in Germany - that is certain. Most airplanes in the fleet of Qatar Airways are from Airbus.
To win elections, politicians have promised practically endless government spending and covered up the cost, leaving generations of taxpayers obligated to pay off the debt. That's wrong, but neither the U.S. nor Europe has a plan to stop it.
International lending banks need to focus on areas where private investment doesn't go, such as infrastructure projects, education and poverty relief.
In a global race, can we really justify the huge number of expensive peripheral European institutions? Can we justify a commission that gets ever larger? Can we carry on with an organisation that has a multibillion pound budget but not enough focus on controlling spending and shutting down programmes that haven't worked?
European museums are all dependent on government financing. The moment European governments are under financial pressure, their budgets are cut.
We now fly with an airbus, which has 210 seats, six times the week to Palma to the spider of the air Berlin.
Every time the U.S. government makes a low-cost loan to someone, it's investing in them.