Selling Off Europe's Prime Assets

400 + Billion for the Eiffel tower??

Don't they realise it is in France?

What am I bid for the Sistine Chapel? Buyer must arrange for own shipping.

Maybe I'll put an offer in on the Tower of London. I'm going to need a place to hole up in when things really hit the fan!

Stonehenge: Buy whole or will part out. No reasonable offer refused. VAT extra.

don't the fools know interested buyers will wait for the bankruptcy sale?

Come to Europe and see the newly renamed Daihatsu Stonehenge, WalMart Tower in Paris, Chinese Shipyard #3 Colosseum, and McDonald's Tower of London.

Must be an ironic posting. Those values are driven by the same kind of analysis that led to the crisis.

How will you pay for them? They don't generate any revenue.

In 2008 people asked, how will you pay for your house? It doesn't generate revenue.

I think that putting minarets on the Duomo will spoil the lines.

What are they "worth"?

"The value of a thing is what that thing will bring."

I seriously doubt that anybody is stupid/crazy enough to pay $13 billion for a broken-down old ring of stones.

The Tower, maybe, but not at that inflated price. And only if I get to hold beheadings in the courtyard. And Lionsgate films has to pay me royalties for the use of the name...

What are they "worth"?

"The value of a thing is what that thing will bring."

I seriously doubt that anybody is stupid/crazy enough to pay $13 billion for a broken-down old ring of stones.

The Tower, maybe, but not at that inflated price. And only if I get to hold beheadings in the courtyard. And Lionsgate films has to pay me royalties for the use of the name...

Last time I checked, the Tower of London was the property of HM Queen Elisabeth, but managed by a government tourism agency. Unless she has invested poorly, I don't think it's for sale at any price. Also there is the little matter of the prophecy that if the ravens ever leave the Tower it will herald the fall of the Crown and Britain.

Likewise the Sistine Chapel is owned by the Catholic Church. Until I see the Pope working a bake sale, I'll assume the church is solvent.

Why stop at man-built monuments? Why not sell naming rights to the great rivers and mountains? Mont Blanc Pens would have to pay to keep the name of course, but Paris could end up on la riviere Sony, etc.

Given who has all the money, don't be surprised if everything becomes "the ________ of Allah."

You see, Stavros? You see why you couldn't be trusted with the Elgin marbles?

Black Mamba, Elgin marbles...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAA!!!!!

Maybe they can start with the artworks they stole from the Getty. Jackwagons all.

These valuations are wildly in excess of likely sale prices, and are more than 100 times net income generated by these monuments.

On the other hand, if the US Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank keep printing money as fast as some politicians want, it might cost a trillion dollars or euros to buy a loaf of bread.

Some of those do generate income from admissions. Probably the admission fees don't cover all of the maintenance or other costs,
but one might be able to turn a profit with La Scala. Not enough to recover the purchase price, though.

Please sell them to us, least your Mu slims destroy them as well. I look at this as a positive thing.

Someone recently calculated and apparently is right, that Italy may be the richest country in Europe.

It's people own more gold that other europeans, it has ultimately priceless treasury of art and other such esoteric stuff.

Al in the nation's capital and the Reverend are right. Europe might as well sell these monuments of western civilization before you know who smashes and blows them all up to be replaced by minarets.

What I'd be more interested in seeing is what it would take to duplicate these monuments. I'm sure with the current drop in the price of steel that a copy of the Eiffel tower could be constructed far far more cheaply than the inflated price given. The coloseum needs quite a bit of work and I remember being underwhelmed when I saw it in person. Seems to be a lot of rubble piles in Europe that people get ecstatic over.

I'm curious how things which actually are making a difference would be priced - like CERN?

In the wreckage of a collapsed Europe, who would buy them? And if they're really worth that much, why aren't the current owners (not including Her Majesty, of course)rolling in cash?