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Weichspülerei

English translation: sob story, tales of woe

09:34 Jul 4, 2007
German to English translations [PRO]
Bus/Financial - Economics
German term or phrase: Weichspülerei
It is taken from a report on the East German economy. The exact phrase is: "Der vom Thüringer Finanzministerium aufgezeigte Weg ist aus vielerlei Gründen nicht begehbar, da man sich im Prinzip der gesetzlich geforderten Nachweispflicht durch Weichspülerei mit Hilfe der Einbeziehung laufender Ausgaben entziehen will"

I was thinking something along the lines of "window dressing" (as in to disguise financial accounts to show something other than the true financial situation).
MarkP
English translation:sob story, tales of woe
Explanation:
is how I interpret it.
What a sentence. My advice would be to unravel the meaning and compose an idiomatically correct English sentence, rather than just translate the term.

Here’s my take on it:

There are many reasons why the path shown/recommended by the Thuringian finance authorities is considered unsuitable but, fundamentally, it all comes down to an attempt to wriggle out of/circumvent the legal requirement to be held to account by way of some sob story about current expenditure.

And with a bit more artistic licence:

…but the real reason must be their intention to eschew accountability as required by law, and tales of woe about the levels of current expenditure may just do the trick.

Sure you can play around with it some more. Hope it helps ;-)

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Note added at 4 hrs (2007-07-04 14:23:29 GMT)
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... but essentially, this is a case of smokescreen tactics to use levels of current expenditure as an excuse to get around public accountability laws.

Any better?
Selected response from:

Nicole Tata
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:25
Grading comment
smokescreen seems to fit, thanks.
3 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4sob story, tales of woe
Nicole Tata


  

Answers


3 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
sob story, tales of woe


Explanation:
is how I interpret it.
What a sentence. My advice would be to unravel the meaning and compose an idiomatically correct English sentence, rather than just translate the term.

Here’s my take on it:

There are many reasons why the path shown/recommended by the Thuringian finance authorities is considered unsuitable but, fundamentally, it all comes down to an attempt to wriggle out of/circumvent the legal requirement to be held to account by way of some sob story about current expenditure.

And with a bit more artistic licence:

…but the real reason must be their intention to eschew accountability as required by law, and tales of woe about the levels of current expenditure may just do the trick.

Sure you can play around with it some more. Hope it helps ;-)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 4 hrs (2007-07-04 14:23:29 GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

... but essentially, this is a case of smokescreen tactics to use levels of current expenditure as an excuse to get around public accountability laws.

Any better?

Nicole Tata
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:25
Works in field
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish, Native in GermanGerman
PRO pts in category: 6
Grading comment
smokescreen seems to fit, thanks.
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