TV interviewer doesn't seem to realize that Ireland's an independent country
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Pretty outrageous - the interviewer actually digs himself in deeper, by responding with disbelief. Considering, the Irish guy handles the situation with grace.
Did you read the article and note the mistakes? This makes it even more amusing as the writer mocking this idiot has a sentence in his piece that does not make sense.
"Instead, Martin Shanahan found himself part of a bemusing exchange with a co-anchor would really could not get his round the fact that Ireland uses the euro when Scotland, which he recently visited, uses the pound".
"would really could not get his round the fact"?? No proofreading anymore I guess.
I can sympathize with the interviewer. Sounds like he doesn't realize that Northern Ireland is not the northern part of Ireland -- it's a separate country!
It wasn't until recently I understood the difference between Great Britain and the United Kingdom.
"Defending Our Kids from the Liberal Assault on Capitalism", indeed. And, apparently, from basic geography as well.
The transcript:
Quote:
CNBC's Kernen: You have pounds anyway don’t you still?
Shanahan: We have euros.
CNBC's Kernen: You have euros in Ireland?
Shanahan: Yes. We have euros, which is eh...
CNBC's Kernen: Why do you have euros in Ireland?
Shanahan: A strong recovery....
CNBC's Kernen: Why do use euros in Ireland?
CNBC's Kernen: Why wouldn’t we have euros in Ireland?
CNBC: I’d use the pound.
CNBC's Kernen: We use euro.
CNBC: What about Scotland? I was using Scottish eh...
CNBC's Kernen: Scottish pounds.
CNBC: Scottish pounds.
CNBC's Kernen: They use Sterling.
CNBC: They use sterling?
Shanahan: They use sterling. But we use euro.
CNBC's Kernen: WHAT? Why would you do that?
Shanahan: Why wouldn’t we do that.
CNBC's Kernen: Why didn’t Scotland? No wander they wanted to break away.
Shanahan: They are part of the UK we are not.
CNBC's Kernen: Aren’t you right next to er?
Shanahan: We are very close but entirely separate.
CNBC's Kernen: It is sort of the same, same island isn’t it?
Shanhan: And in the North of Ireland they have sterling.
CNBC's Kernen: They do?
Shanhan: And in the North of Ireland they use sterling.
CNBC's Kernen: It is just too confusing...
Yes, Joe. It is utterly baffling that different countries often use different systems of money. The facts that Canada doesn't use the U.S. dollar (to paraphrase you: "But... aren't they right next to us?") and China doesn't use the Japanese yen probably mystify you to no end.
But then, who would expect a stockbroker who has worked for the past 23 years for television channels specializing in finance to understand the monetary system of the country of the person he is interviewing specifically about matters of international finance as it relates to that country? Just everyone with half a clue.
Apparently, he was too busy schooling liberals on issues economic...
A side note of hilarity, from the Amazon.com blurb of his book: Every morning on CNBC's top-rated show Squawk Box, Joe Kernen asks tough questions.
Yeah, such tough questions as: "Huh? You mean Ireland's not part of the UK?"
I can sympathize with the interviewer. Sounds like he doesn't realize that Northern Ireland is not the northern part of Ireland -- it's a separate country!
For a casual conversation, that's perhaps to be expected. But this guy is supposedly knowledgeable in matters of international economy, not some befuddled tourist. How can he even discuss Irish economy if he doesn't know they're part of the Euro? It couldn't be more basic.
I used to watch a lot of CNBC in the morning, and Joe Kernen is kind of the like the class clown.
Its possible that he may not have known that Ireland switched from the Irish Pound a few years back. Or, he could have been making a joke with an anti-EU undertones. Given other things he's said, my guess is the latter.
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