Dunce of the day: Wolfgang Schäuble

Germany's Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble:

"I find it completely unacceptable for the Bundesrat to reject the tax deal with Switzerland," Schaeuble said on Tuesday in a speech to the Bundestag lower house. "There is no rational, comprehensible argument" against the deal.

Is that so, Mr. Schäuble? If you were to replace the word 'against' with 'for,' then we would be with you on this one.

Has Mr. Schäuble consulted any of the devastating arguments put forwards against the deal when this was being debated in the Bundestag? Particularly this one, this one and this one? Has he consulted the list of killer loopholes in the deal? Has he seen the testimony of other top tax experts on the deal? Has he seen the explicit confession by the Swiss Bankers' Association that the whole purpose of the deal is to kill the best transparency initiative in Europe? Has he seen this?

We think Mr. Schäuble has his own mysterious reasons for backing this corrupt deal with Switzerland. We cannot think of any other explanation, other than that he is briefed by people who have their own mysterious agenda for keeping information from him. All the evidence is there before them.

Fortunately, he is almost certainly (fingers crossed) not going to get his wish.