When I was much younger I used to go to Greece on holiday with my parents...it was a good value low cost holiday destination. Great weather, greasy but 'different' food, lots of culture, and fun for all... Then they joined the Euro and a few years later I went back to Greece for a holiday...it cost a fortune!! I remember getting this rip off taxi fare to the airport, arguing with the taxi driver, thinking to myself, "you lazy bastard, I'm not visiting Greece again, it's a rip off... I'll go to South Africa or Thailand next time." I did not know that their economy would be on the verge of collapsing within ten years but it makes sense when I recall how it had changed so much within the space of twenty years. The Euro went to their heads with all the free money they received from the rich nations. What Greece was good at was low cost holidays - as soon as it becomes a low cost destination again we'll be all be flocking back for the sun and trips to the archeological ruins, hopefully with a better service from the taxi drivers.
italy has the largest number of art in the world. the largest amount of wealthy tourists. //not the type of tourists who visit egypt or spain. they produce cars. clothes. many small , but profitable family businesses. spain, portugal, greece - people there do very little real value. so they will suffer.
as more and more population is getting more dumb. as there is less and less work for human workers and more job is done by robots and computers... people will not have enough money to buy or rent real estate. my prediction is that housing prices in spain, portugal and greece will fall below 800 eur per sq. meter. 10 years from now it may reach the level of detroit. at the same time monaco and singapore prices will shoot trough the roof, 2x higher than currently.
I like your outlier prediction. how do we make money off your downside prediction (not off the upside part of your post.) ps jim rogers got it right again by moving to Singapore.
how to make money from the downside? employ a variety of trading systems which profit from volatility. add the power of compounding- increase your trading size at least 6 times in a year. most trading systems will SUFFER in volatile markets. most developers and funds LOVE to hold losing trades as long as investors are getting mad and out. Jim Rogers is using just plain common sense - the most scarce thing on Earth.
It is not totally about what a country does for living. More important is to spend within the means. Wonder why do most college students drive used clunker type cars. There is a reason behind that.