Economist Sorry for Comparing Bankers to Persecuted Jews: One of Germany's leading economists, Ifo research institute president Hans-Werner Sinn, has apologized for comparing the current criticism of banking managers in the financial crisis to the persecution of Jews in 1930s Germany. His comments had provoked a barrage of criticism. [...]
Ifo President Hans-Werner Sinn had told Berlin daily Tagesspiegel in an interview published on Monday: "In every crisis, people look for someone to blame, for scapegoats. During the global economic crisis of 1929 as well, no one wanted to believe in an anonymous systemic failure. Then it hit Jews in Germany, today it is managers." [...]
On Monday Sinn responded to the criticism by writing an open letter to the president of the Central Council of Jews, Charlotte Knobloch, apologizing for his remark.
"I in no way intended to compare the fate of the Jews after 1933 with the current situation of managers. Such a comparison would be absurd," Sinn wrote.
