Cookie Policy: This web site uses cookies. By using this site you agree to our cookie policy.
Disclaimer: By posting on this web site it is accepted that you have agreed to the T&C. This is an information forum, and it is just that information, all views are of the individual poster and not that of the site owner. Please DO NOT publish copyrighted material without the owners permission. If you copy news or articles include a link back to the original site. Threads/Posts may be deleted on request. No other links without permission.
BEFORE POSTING A QUESTION: Your question has probably been asked before, so please use the
SEARCH FUNCTION, as we grow tired of answering the same question again and again.
Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: The Economy of Europe

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    781
    Rep Power
    35

    The Economy of Europe

    I have been worried for a while about the state of the Economy in the EU, and unfortunately it looks like through years of complete incompetence our leaders in Brussels with the help of Governments and the Banks the whole financial system could really go belly up and fairly soon. Personally I thought that this would happen in the winter of 2011/2012 but things seem to be moving along rather rapidly lately. It is something that we should all be very concerened about if this meltdown does happen its going to affect all of us, I couldnt care a less if the banks lose money and go bust or if some billionaire investors lose a few hundred million Euros each but when it filters down to normal people that find it difficult to enough to get by already it really could hurt. I can't see any way that there isn't going to be a follow up to the Lehman brothers crisis, but to me it looks like that will be made to look like a strom in a tea cup compared to what might be coming.

    I know its a bit of a gloomy post but its seriously worrying not just the big bankers but also the man on the street.



  2. #2

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    You're right BM, I can barely afford to exist at present but I was having a similar conversation in a queue yesterday & an American debt default was at the top of our thoughts & if that happens ? ?

    I could go on & on & provide more links but this came through today - sure I've mentioned this women & her book (Web Of Debt) before:

    Why Banks Aren’t Lending: The Silent Liquidity Squeeze

    By Ellen Brown

    URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...t=va&aid=25650

    Global Research, July 15, 2011
    Web of Debt

    Why aren’t banks lending to local businesses? The Fed’s decision to pay interest on $1.6 trillion in “excess” reserves is a chief suspect.

    Where did all the jobs go? Small and medium-sized businesses are the major source of new job creation, and they are not hiring. Startup businesses, which contribute a fifth of the nation’s new jobs, often can’t even get off the ground. Why?

    In a June 30 article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Smaller Businesses Seeking Loans Still Come Up Empty,” Emily Maltby reported that business owners rank access to capital as the most important issue facing them today; and only 17% of smaller businesses said they were able to land needed bank financing. Businesses have to pay for workers and materials before they can get paid for the products they produce, and for that they need bank credit; but they are reporting that their credit lines are being cut. They are being pushed instead into credit card accounts that average 16 percent interest, more than double the rate of the average business loan. It is one of many changes in banking trends that have been very lucrative for Wall Street banks but are killing local businesses.

    Why banks aren’t lending is a matter of debate, but the Fed’s decision to pay interest on bank reserves is high on the list of suspects. Bruce Bartlett, writing in the Fiscal Times in July 2010, observed:

    Economists are divided on why banks are not lending, but increasingly are focusing on a Fed policy of paying interest on reserves — a policy that began, interestingly enough, on October 9, 2008, at almost exactly the moment when the financial crisis became acute. . .

    Historically, the Fed paid banks nothing on required reserves. This was like a tax equivalent to the interest rate banks could have earned if they had been allowed to lend such funds. But in 2006, the Fed requested permission to pay interest on reserves because it believes that it would help control the money supply should inflation reappear.

    . . . [M]any economists believe that the Fed has unwittingly encouraged banks to sit on their cash and not lend it by paying interest on reserves.

    At one time, banks collected deposits from their own customers and stored them for their own liquidity needs, using them to back loans and clear outgoing checks. But today banks typically borrow (or “buy”) liquidity, either from other banks, from the money market, or from the commercial paper market. The Fed’s payment of interest on reserves competes with all of these markets for ready-access short-term funds, creating a shortage of the liquidity that banks need to make loans.

    By inhibiting interbank lending, the Fed appears to be creating a silent “liquidity squeeze” -- the same sort of thing that brought on the banking crisis of September 2008. According to Jeff Hummel, associate professor of economics at San Jose State University, it could happen again. He warns that paying interest on reserves “may eventually rank with the Fed's doubling of reserve requirements in the 1930s and bringing on the recession of 1937 within the midst of the Great Depression.”

    The Travesty of the $1.6 Trillion in “Excess Reserves”

    see above link for rest - she does have solutions but nobody's listening....

    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


  3. #3

    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    314
    Rep Power
    26
    As a mere layman, I'd say the economic problems which have befallen Europe and America in recent years have 3 simple sources. The first is credit (and particularly in the USA, mortgages) being thrown at people who had little or no chance of paying the money back. Grossly irresponsible lending you could call it.

    Secondly, there were the insane risks taken by banking high-flyers, whose behaviour - given what was at stake - was little short of criminal. By high-flyers I mean the men at the top, as although the 'quants' - traders who use highly complicated maths in their work - were also blamed, their bosses didn't understand the theory behind the models the banks used, however the latter had the final say and were blinded by greed.

    Thirdly, some countries in Europe whose economies are not as developed as, say, the UK or Germany, have been living way beyond their means. Although a fair proportion of the money countries such as Greece have spent has been used on social programmes and is therefore all very laudable, this actually has to be paid for with hard cash. Some European nations have looked at the (cliched term alert) infrastructure which their neighbours have and thought they'll have the same and double-quick, rather than implementing these policies at a more measured pace.

    On an individual and a national level, it's been a case of 'I want it and I want it now'. The traditional philosophy of not spending money you don't have, or at least borrowing responsibly if you do need credit, has been cast aside. The wreckage which has resulted shows the wisdom of taking a head in the sand approach to managing finances, whether you're Joe Soap maxing out the credit cards or a government minister embarking on a wild spending spree.

    Another important point is mentioned in the Global Research article above - banks not lending money to businesses and directing their funds elsewhere. If anything will pull economies out of recession and give them a decent chance of staying there, it's the nurturing and expansion of businesses, large and small.

    No government will generate wealth and real, sustainable employment by doing what Gordon Brown did and creating huge numbers of meaningless public sector jobs at gargantuan cost. Nurses, police officers and teachers, fine; armies of town hall co-ordinators and the like, you're having a laugh.



  4. #4

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    Thomas Jefferson:

    “THE DEMOCRACY WILL CEASE TO EXIST WHEN YOU TAKE AWAY FROM THOSE WHO ARE WILLING TO WORK AND GIVE TO THOSE WHO WOULD NOT.”

    This is a bit long-winded but explains a bit about Greece & more:


    Greece and the Euro: Towards Financial Implosion

    By Prof. Rodrigue Tremblay

    URL of this article: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...t=va&aid=25632

    Global Research, July 14, 2011

    “If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough.”

    Albert Einstein (1879-1955), German-born theoretical physicist and professor, Nobel Prize 1921

    “It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”

    Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd President of the United States (1801-09)
    "Having seen the people of all other nations bowed down to the earth under the wars and prodigalities of their rulers, I have cherished their opposites, peace, economy, and riddance of public debt, believing that these were the high road to public as well as private prosperity and happiness."

    Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), 3rd President of the United States (1801-09)

    On the 4th of July, the credit agency Standard & Poor called Greece what it is, i.e. a country in de facto financial bankruptcy. No slight of hand, no obfuscation, no debt reorganization and no “innovative” bailouts can hide the fact that the defective rules of the 17-member Eurozone have allowed some of its members to succumb to the siren calls of excessive and unproductive indebtedness, to be followed by a default on debt payments accompanied by crushingly higher borrowing costs.

    Greece (11 million inhabitants), in fact, has abused the credibility that came with its membership in the Eurozone. In 2004, for instance, the Greek Government embarked upon a massive spending spree to host the 2004 Summer Olympic Games, which cost 7 billion euros ($12.08 billion). Then, from 2005 to 2008, the same government decided to go on a spending spree, this time purchasing all types of armaments that it hardly needed from foreign suppliers. —Piling up a gross foreign debt to the tune of $533 billion (2010) seemed the easy way out. But sooner or later, the piper has to be paid and the debt burden cannot be hidden anymore.

    Greece's current financial predicaments (and those of other European countries such as Spain, Portugal, Ireland and even Italy) are not dissimilar to the ones Argentina had to go through some ten years ago. In each case, an unhealthy membership in a monetary union of some sort led to excessive foreign indebtedness, followed by a capital flight and a crushing and ruinous debt deflation.
    In the case of Argentina, the country had decided to adopt the U.S. dollar as its currency, even though productivity levels in Argentina were one third those in the United States. An artificially pegged exchange rate of one peso=one U.S. dollar held for close to ten years, before the inevitable collapse.
    Indeed, membership in a monetary union and the adoption of a common currency for a group of countries can be a powerful instrument to stimulate economic and productivity growth, with low inflation, when such monetary unions are well designed structurally, but they

    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


  5. #5

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    Be interesting if this comes to fruition - I never seen this site before?

    End of the Euro and a Return to National Currencies Imminent?
    Watch This Space!

    By Neil Foster – The Sovereign Independent –
    On July 1st The Sovereign Independent reported that the Irish Punt was being printed and that there was a distinct possibility that it would be reintroduced as Ireland’s national currency within 3 weeks.
    http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=22618
    Calls to the Central Bank at the time resulted in the usual ‘No Comment’ response
    Information has now come our way that the Punt has been printed and that a political announcement is imminent within the next few days. This may perhaps take the form of a surprise Bank Holiday with banks closing for an extended period to facilitate such a move. If you need cash it might be a good idea to get a hold of it before this happens.
    This ties in with further information we have from a Central Bank insider who has told us that the Euro will finally collapse within a few days; this weekend?
    Again, we have phoned the Central Bank and been given the ‘No Comment’ brush off. If this was not happening it would be denied easily.
    What this will mean for the members states of the deeply flawed and illegitimate European Union one can only surmise but it appears that we are in for a rollercoaster ride and further turmoil.
    Perhaps this will work in our favour or perhaps there is another motive by the power elite? [slightly more http://www.sovereignindependent.com/?p=23516 -

    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


  6. #6

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    My guess is that Obama will somehow raise the debt ceiling & prolong the agony as Ron Paul says here - it's better to default & deal with it rather than expand the problem:

    Ron Paul on the House Floor: "We Will Default Because The Debt Is Unsustainable"


    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


  7. #7

    Join Date
    Apr 2011
    Posts
    314
    Rep Power
    26
    My gut instinct was to resist the Euro, although admittedly this was as much as a wish for the UK to retain its own currency purely for the sake of it as much as it was thinking that the ERM debacle was a warning to British ministers to stay out of a single currency.

    Taking a one-size-fits-all approach to an entire continent in economic (or legal) terms is anti-democratic whatever your political stance - there are many on the left who object to the creep of the European superstate - and, as we're now seeing with the collapse of the economies of Greece and other nations, it was an idea which should never have left the drawing board.

    Once again, years down the line, the people are proven to be correct and the arrogant politicians foolish. Guess who pays for the hubris of the latter though.



  8. #8

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    Germany Says Italy’s $2.5 Trillion Debt Is Too Big To Bailout
    blog.alexanderhiggins.com
    In The Latest Firestorm Of Bad News That Will Hit Wall Street Monday, Germany says Italy's $2.5 Trillion Debt Is Too High To Be Saved By A Bailout. - -

    [Interesting blog for financials:-

    http://blog.alexanderhiggins.com/201...bailout-50791/

    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


  9. #9

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    from C4

    FINANCIAL TURMOIL
    The world's financial markets have been in turmoil throughout the day, with billions more wiped off share values. The Footsie 100 index achieved an unwanted new record - falling by more than 100 points for the fourth day running, as fears of a double-dip recession took hold. The Footsie closed 178 points down - a fall of 3.4 per cent. In Paris, the CAC 40 index fell by 4.7 per cent, while Germany's Dax lost five per cent of its value in a single day. There were more falls too, across the Atlantic, as investors came to terms with the lowering of America's credit rating. Our Economics Editor, Faisal Islam, is in New York, our business Correspondent, Siobhan Kennedy, is in London and our Asia Correspondent John Sparks will have the lessons from Japan.

    Markets still falling over US and euro fears
    http://www.channel4.com/news/markets...-economy-fears

    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


  10. #10

    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Posts
    781
    Rep Power
    35
    Yes, a bit more of trying to kick the can down the road, they are making it worse and worse in the long run, and if the economy really goes pop which is looking highly likely these riots will be made to look like a storm in a tea cup, can you imagine a million people on the streets protesting about unemployment?



  11. #11

    Join Date
    Nov 2006
    Location
    Somersetshire
    Posts
    4,275
    Rep Power
    51
    Quote Originally Posted by barrelmaniac View Post
    Yes, a bit more of trying to kick the can down the road, they are making it worse and worse in the long run, and if the economy really goes pop which is looking highly likely these riots will be made to look like a storm in a tea cup, can you imagine a million people on the streets protesting about unemployment?
    That's something I been pondering over for some time - I was in Trafalgar Square when the Poll Tax Riots (250k ppl) kicked off & amongst the 2.1m ppl against Iraq war. I often question what would have happened if the latter groups 'lily-livered liberals' had had the same attitude as the angry mob of the former but spent most of that day hoping nobody panicked as it would have set off a stampede where people would have been trampled (think also it a shame Tony Blair didn't listen as I think a lot of people lost faith in organised/conventional demonstration) but

    there's a couple of good articles here, the Don't Panic: Get Informed one & Ellen Brown's as usual at least: all at the one link:

    Global Economic Chaos
    Selected Articles

    URL of this article:
    http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.p...t=va&aid=25940

    Global Research, August 8, 2011

    Europe is on the verge of collapsing and the world is again in the quagmire, the reason being Europe, rather than just Greece, is the planet's soft belly, and the impact of Europe's eventual downfall would make itself felt throughout the world, even if Germany, or France, could somehow be spared.
    The scale of impact is unpredictable, but potentially worse than that of the recent toxic assets crisis. The European bloc is the second largest economy, the first trade partner of China, the largest importer of Russian energy and the first buyer of high quality raw materials (it still holds the Hilton quota, the world's most expensive meat quota). - Raul de Sagastizabal, "Europe Is On The Verge Of Collapsing"
    When the big banks screamed "crisis," they were instantly rewarded with trillions of taxpayer money. Likewise, when rich bondholders — some of them bailout beneficiaries — yelled "crisis" at the U.S. debt, they were immediately rewarded with trillions of dollars taken from social programs for the poor. The jobs crisis, however, staggers on with no relief in sight. The recent troubles in the U.S. economy are forcing working people to reexamine their hopes for a recovery, as has been promised to them for years. They will not wait much longer. Shamus Cooke, "Mass Unemployment in America: The Jobs Crisis Demands Attention"
    Global Research presents to our readers the latest news on economic issues in Europe and America:
    DOW FALLS 635 POINTS: Worst Plunge Since 2008, Sixth Biggest Stock Market Crash Ever
    - by Washington's Blog - 2011-08-08

    America's Economic Chaos: Don't Panic, Get Informed!
    Know where to turn for the truth
    - by Global Research - 2011-08-08


    BREAKING NEWS: Fannie and Freddie Downgraded, France Will Be Downgraded, Munis Getting Hammered ... States Will Be Next
    - by Washington's Blog - 2011-08-08


    Rich get more in Tax Breaks than the Poor get from Welfare
    - by Sherwood Ross - 2011-08-08


    "Europe Is On The Verge Of Collapsing"
    - by Raul de Sagastizabal - 2011-08-08
    Credit Downgrade May Hammer Munis and Stocks Instead of Treasuries
    - by Washington's Blog - 2011-08-08


    Mass Unemployment in America: The Jobs Crisis Demands Attention
    - by Shamus Cooke - 2011-08-07


    The Credit Crisis Rages On; What caused Stock Markets to Plunge?
    - by Mike Whitney - 2011-08-07
    The Market Has Spoken: Austerity Is Bad for Business
    - by Ellen Brown - 2011-08-06

    Military Superpower and "Money Printer In Chief ": America Loses AAA Credit Rating....
    - by Washington's Blog - 2011-08-06






    Quantitative Easing (QE) and the Debasement of the US Dollar
    - by Bob Chapman - 2011-08-06


    Spain’s ‘Indignados’: Vanguard of a Global Nonviolent Revolt against Neoliberalism
    - by Pablo Ouziel - 2011-08-06


    Barack Obama: The Bizarro FDR
    - by David Sirota - 2011-08-05
    The "Afghanistan Factor" and The Debt Ceiling Crisis
    - by Prof. Alexei Pilko - 2011-08-04


    The Debt Crisis and the War Economy: Pentagon Purchases $23 Billion Worth Of Global Hawk Drones
    - 2011-08-04


    Public Sector Austerity and the Economic Recession in Canada
    - by Andrew Jackson - 2011-08-04


    The Debt Ceiling Debate that Didn’t Happen
    - by Prof. Michael Hudson - 2011-08-04
    Neoliberalism's Newest Product: The Modern Slave Trade
    - by Ignacio Ramonet - 2011-08-03
    Barack Obama: The Change that Did Not Happen.... The Plight of Neoliberal Economic Policy
    - by Eric Toussaint, Daniel Munevar - 2011-08-03



    Trillion-dollar- business: US war spending spirals out of control
    - by Spencer Kimball - 2011-08-03


    Poverty and Income inequality: The Devastating Social Conditions of American Children
    - by Nikolai Barrickman, Kate Randall - 2011-08-03
    America's Fiscal Collapse.
    The Pre-conditions for the Debt Crisis....
    - by Michel Chossudovsky - 2011-08-03
    Global Economic Depression. The "Solution" to The Debt Crisis: More Debt
    - by Bob Chapman - 2011-08-03

    PS: GS can now be followed on Twitter as @themastarata


Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Smooth win for Sizing Europe
    By Win2Win Racing in forum Sport
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 15th November 2012, 19:59
  2. only one team in europe
    By piggy in forum Sports Forum Chat
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 15th March 2012, 23:24
  3. Shrinking economy to affect the gambling economy?
    By barrelmaniac in forum Horse Racing Discussion, Daily Waffle, Q&A
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 10th March 2009, 14:11
  4. burnout: europe v iraq
    By piggy in forum Humour Room
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 20th August 2007, 20:30
  5. Difference between Europe and USA
    By John in forum Humour Room
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: 3rd May 2007, 21:51

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
Free Tips | Betting Advice | UK Horse Racing Tips | Free Bets | Staking Advice | Horse Racing Systems | Horse Racing Lays | Laying System | UK Horse Racing Tips | lay betting