Europe is collapsing people. Down goes portugal.

Discussion in 'Economics' started by peilthetraveler, Apr 27, 2010.

  1. ''Plan A entails a brutal fiscal retrenchment to restore debt sustainability. It will lead to higher unemployment and social unrest now, but only restore competitiveness in the distant future. It will intensify deflationary and political pressures in Europe’s south and so raise real interest rates over time. If it is not seen to be working right away, real interest rates will continue to rise sharply and quickly as they have this week. It will also exacerbate market fears of subordination: the more IMF support is needed, the larger the haircut meted out to private sector creditors if restructuring is eventually required.

    Far better to move to Plan B. This would involve a pre-emptive debt restructuring for Greece; a strengthened fiscal adjustment plan in the eurozone periphery; far-reaching structural reforms; a larger IMF/European Union programme to help Greece and prevent contagion to others; further monetary easing by the European Central Bank; fiscal and domestic demand stimulus in Germany; and a co-ordinated effort to address the institutional weaknesses of Europe’s economic and monetary union.''

    -Nouriel Roubini is chairman and Arnab Das head of market research at Roubini Global Economics in a Financial Times comments at April 29 2010-
     
    #21     Apr 29, 2010
  2. Yes I am.

    And yes I am worried for my country.

    The fact is, the people leading this country still don't understand that they need to cut on the public sector.

    It's inconceiveable for the size of Portugal, to have around 30% of the public force in the government.

    It's inadmissable that those workers are one of the best paid.

    Wages in the public sector are just a matter of time in the job. So the more you've been working for the state the more you get, INDEPENDENT of your performance. It's outrageous that a kindergarten teacher gets a salary of 3800 Euros with 14 months a year (Christmas subsidy and Vacation subsidy).

    It's inadmissable that public entities work on a basis of those institution director "helping" their friends, outsourcing work for their friends for high fees.

    For example, my mother works at legal department of the BAR OF ENGINEERS in Portugal. She gets paid X amount, and the bar most times for legal advice goes outside the department and pays fees of 100k € at a time for that advice, when most times the advice they got from outsourcing just put them into trouble, instead of using their own resources, they know more about the legal stuff since my mother was the own that created the statutes and the law making on the arbitrary courts, etc.

    Yet, this corruption of benefiting friends, using public money to fund enormous and useless projects, advice, etc has no solution.

    this is not a liquidty crisis, it's a structural one. The austerity plan is a joke. Their plan to reduce the deficit, instead of lowering the expenses, they have, no... they're just going to sell state assets and that's it pretty much.

    So it will be a non recurrent revenue... assuming they get to lower the deficit then what? the cycle will start all over again, but the next time there are no assets to sell...

    this country really has no solution, the political scum is always the same...

    Just as Julius Cesar once said during the roman empire Era:

    "There is a nation at the edge of Iberia that doesn't govern nor let themselves be governed..."

    That's us...:D
     
    #22     Apr 29, 2010
  3. Not only do we in the US not govern ourselves, we let ourselves be governed by the corrupt. We also let ourselves be fooled, and lied to.
    Most Americans would rather hang onto a lie than deal with truth.
    Lies, like opiates, feel good.
     
    #23     Apr 29, 2010
  4. Pretty much the same in here... the corruption is so high, our Prime minister has been indicted in court in UK due to some dark businesses he did with some real estate... yet no one really cares.

    They rather as you say live in a lie than face the truth...

    Right now the hot topics are, Benfica playing against Porto next weekend and becoming champions... what the Pope is eating, or what will he do etc... and then the world cup... that's all they care...
     
    #24     Apr 29, 2010
  5. ashatet

    ashatet

    That is hilarious. Most affluent people in US buy lots of German goods, appliances that cost 1000s of dollars, expensive cars, heavy machinery, precision equipment, medical equipment, the list goes on.


     
    #25     Apr 29, 2010
  6. http://import-export.suite101.com/article.cfm/top_german_exports_imports

    Also known as Deutschland, Germany is the world’s number one exporter.

    Germany is also the world leader in mechanical engineering.

    Much of Germany’s exporting success comes from well-engineered luxury car exports. German automotive manufacturers include five of BusinessWeek’s top 100 global brands, namely: Mercedez-Benz, BMW, Volkswagen, Audi and Porsche.

    In 2007, Germany exported an estimated US$1.361 trillion worth of goods led by vehicles, machinery and chemicals. Topping the list of customers for German exports were France (9.7% of total exports), the United States (8.6%), the United Kingdom (7.3%), Italy (6.7%), Netherlands (6.2%), Belgium (5.5%), Austria (5.5%) and Spain (4.7%).

    Germany imported about $1.121 trillion in commodities during 2006. Leading suppliers of German imports included the Netherlands (11.7% of total imports), France (8.7%), Belgium (7.6%), the U.K. (5.9%), China (5.9%), Italy (5.5%), the U.S. (5.1%), Austria (4.3%) and Russia (4%).

    Read more at Suite101: Top German Exports & Imports: Engineering Excellence Drives Germany’s International Trade Success http://import-export.suite101.com/article.cfm/top_german_exports_imports#ixzz0mYLfTBOT
     
    #26     Apr 30, 2010
  7. People don't care until the political system becomes ruled by hardcore leftist-rightist, who will impose purges after purges to clean the system of its complacency.

    In the end, only the hard-right and hard-left shape the debate..because they're the only ones who care enough to participate.
     
    #27     May 3, 2010