The eurozone could lose 4.5 million more jobs in the next four years unless the region shifts away from austerity, the International Labour Organization (ILO) has warned.
getting really tired of this nonsense left-wing media agenda against "austerity".
for a start it's not austere - countries are still spending far more than they are earning - and there is never a mention of the problems with the alternative strategy (plan B as the UK media call it).
sooner or later it will have to be explained frankly to the masses (clueless sheep on the whole) that there is no long-term alternative but for a country to live within its means.
spending even more money on half-baked socialist schemes to boost employment/growth has never worked in the long-term, and never will.
I think you will find it works pretty well in the scandinavian countries, and lets not forget Germany is basically a socialist capitalist model so its a bit of a sweeping statement to blame socialisim for the euro crisis frank.
fair point. i was thinking more of Britain's "socialists". the Scandinavian's spending is at least generally funded (by high taxation).
i'm not blaming socialism for the Eurozone crisis, although it's wishful socialist thinking behind the whole EU project, i.e. the Euro will work because we want it to.
Here in Portugal the problem was more of an unbalanced relatioship between public and private affairs and Spain is a similar case.
If you look to the 'Cajas' banking problem, or the banking problems in Ireland that drained a huge amount of money out of the economy, it has nothing to do with social politics.
Imho, the government's role has to be properly (re)defined. You find that in many situations it has an intrusive role, by giving to some companies unfair advantages (public contracts that are biased for instance), whyle on other situations it doesn't regulate properly and in time.
Imho, all government's most important goal should be to deliver a level playing field to all social and economic entities, so that freedom (in general) is maximized.
Just Few hours before Moody's announcement, the Attorney Trani has closed its investigation of Moody's and prepare for the case in court. "The rating agency accused by the State Prosecutor Michele Ruggiero, complaints of Adusbef and Federconsumatori, of spreading false judgments, unfounded or otherwise imprudent on economic and financial system, and configuring the Italian banking market manipulation»
It must be a coincidence..After the Attorney official statement on the next proceedings against moodys for past issues, moodys announced few hours later the downgrading.
from the telegraph....
The European Commission criticised the timing of the move by credit rating agency Moody’s, underscoring tensions between Brussels and the rating agencies.
Moody’s cut the rating of Italy, the eurozone’s third-largest economy, by two notches to “Baa2”.
Rome nonetheless managed a relatively successful auction of its government bonds hours later. The Treasury sold €6.4bn (£5bn) of the debt at reduced yields, or interest rates, compared to a month earlier. Its three-year bonds had a rate of 4.65 pc, against 5.3pc previously.
It's quite laughable how a nation of 15 trillion dollars debt and a kingdom of almost 6 trillion pounds debt are manipulating real facts about EU..There are of course problems but people in most EU countrys with the exception of Greece won't just survive this but will take this false in the most comfortable possible way. It's also strange that in all the capitalist nations, so called western world, I have been visiting the most poor areas I had the misfortune to cross my path has been in the U.S. and England but in total fairness that could have been just a coincidence.
The agencies are just making those announcements deliberatly to speculate on the EU economy.....You're probably right but I am sure that nothing happens by chance... Surely if you think of the timing of certain statements, it seems that there was a defined plan of making those announcements...I may have just made fool of my self in front of some people eyes but looking from my prospective I really believe in some great conspiracys against EU..
superfrank wrote:the ratings agencies are belatedly trying to do their job properly (assess risk). quite laughable how the EU try to blame the agencies for their woes.
so many countries are flat broke with poor prospects of recovery (in the Euro) - the agencies are right to highlight this.
Despite the Spanish bank bailouts and Spain's breathtaking austerity measures, Spain is still having to pay an unsustainable rate of interest to borrow. I can't help wondering if things are going to come to a head sooner rather than later...
I really share this guy thoughts. here what he wrote..
pumpernickel
Today 06:34 AM
Germany's contribution to Europe has been to let its DM mutate into the Euro giving all users of the Euro the benefit of a strong and solid currency, trusted by the markets.
A currency none of its present users in the countries in trouble wants to exchange for their own old currency, even though this would allow them the easy option of devaluing whenever they lose competitiveness, which is the cornerstone of British economics philosophy, their mantra, but does it really work for them, devaluation and creation of money from thin air?
"The markets" seem to believe that and let them borrow at very favourable rates, or do they? Who actually is buying British bonds at such favourable rates? The BoE, yes, with money created from thin air. Would Italy get away with such a policy or even France? Of course not. "The markets", we must know, are located in London and they do not trust anybody south of Calais. Never did. This is the problem.
So even if Spain went back to the Peseta, what would they gain? Temporary relief due to a devalued currency but dependent on imports and not just exports as they are like the rest of us, they would be worse off, wouldn't you agree?
So we better make the Euro work. Muddle through in tiny little steps as Frau Merkel is trying to do. Stick to her "sink or swim" philosophy, which also worked for Germany. Help those countries to find their character.
There is no option for, contrary to what some nutcases believe, Germany cannot bail out Spain or Italy and has made this abundantly clear. Not from lack of goodwill. From lack of money. Rajoy got the message and so has Monti.
Hating the Germans for something they are unable to do is dumb but .... if it helps you ... let us be your scapegoat. Somebody has to be.
So why not just print it, like the IMF, USA and allegedly the BRICS are demanding. Do as the US and UK do, why not? Because then the Euro would lose its hard currency status and become toilet paper like the other two and we would be worse off competing with them for lower currency rates. Remember the 1920/1930s?
IMHO, unless there is swift and decisive intervention, things could escalate severely. I can't see the interest rate Spain pays dropping without some form of action, and if Spain needs a 400 billion euro bailout then what happens next to the global economy is anyone's guess...
Ferru123 wrote:IMHO, unless there is swift and decisive intervention, things could escalate severely.
what is required is nothing. let the market sort things out.
we've had invention, intervention, intervention and it only postpones the day of reckoning. it's time to face the music (but obviously they won't... because they believe they can buck the market).
This is a bit like the Lehmann Bros dillemma of 2008.
Intervention on the size required to save Spain will be extremely costly, and our grandchildren's children will probably still be paying for it. But as with Lehmann, the alternative - a global financial meltdown of unprecedented proportions, with the possibility of complete social breakdown - doesn't bear thinking about.
There's a lot to be said for keeping the patient on life support in the hope he'll eventually recover, rather than just pulling the plug...
Jeff
superfrank wrote:
what is required is nothing. let the market sort things out.
