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Topic: What's Going on in Europe (Read 254416 times)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #250 –
I've been to the European home town (it was higher up on my shopping list than Södertälje, alas, nothing for sale).

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #251 –
This song will represent Estonia in the upcoming Eurovision.
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xz0PTmUDQMc[/video]

What's the Australian one like?

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #252 –
It’s Time to Kick Germany Out of the Eurozone

Quote from: Foreign Policy
Why the anchor dragging down the European economy isn’t Athens -- it’s Berlin.



Since 2012, virtually all of the eurozone’s net GDP growth, on an annual basis, has come from net exports — further testament to the weakness of domestic European demand as a driver of growth. It’s doubtful, however, whether relying on Americans to pile on more debt — and risk going the way of Greece — is really a reliable strategy. In principle, narrowing Europe’s trade deficit with China makes more sense. But in practice, this has consisted less in tapping China’s mass consumer market than in selling machinery and luxury goods into China’s credit-fueled investment boom, which itself is predicated on maintaining an outsized trade surplus with the United States. The issue isn’t — as it’s so often framed — what’s fair, but what’s sustainable. And Americans playing the world’s consumer of last resort, by borrowing to live beyond their means, isn’t sustainable.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #253 –
Quote from: jax on
And Americans playing the world’s consumer of last resort, by borrowing to live beyond their means, isn’t sustainable.

Funny, I thought that it were the Portuguese that lived beyond their means... And the Greeks... And the Spanish... And the Italians...
A matter of attitude.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #254 –
It is unfortunate for many Greeks but the place is a bit of a basket place with a long history of political negative matters.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #255 –
Quote from: Belfrager on

Quote from: jax on
And Americans playing the world’s consumer of last resort, by borrowing to live beyond their means, isn’t sustainable.

Funny, I thought that it were the Portuguese that lived beyond their means... And the Greeks... And the Spanish... And the Italians...


American magazine primarily for an American audience. Yes, you [Americans] should learn from the Greeks and try a little austerity. It will be good for you.

(Actually American household debt has gone down a bit, to a little more than a year's work for each household; public/government debts are similar and growing, but it is more a question of political will than actual capability. US public debts are not that frightfully high, more scary is it that this "household" is headed by a married couple that can't agree on anything, how to spend, how to earn, how to save, how to manage their payment plan.)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #258 –
What about the 40 million poor though jimbro??

Jax does have a point and how long can a country keep adding trillions to it's debt before it collapses? The same place better thank their new Commie pals for not calling in their debt!
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #259 –
Quote from: rjhowie on
What about the 40 million poor though jimbro??

Provide me with a definition of poor.

According to a piece in The Guardian, 13 million of the 64 million UK citizens are poor. The US has a population of 319 million, so if 40 million are poor we're doing better than the UK is.
"The official threshold for poverty in the UK is £13,920."

Your dislike of the US leads you to make silly claims because you don't do your homework.

However, neither of us have reason to brag.
http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/sep/05/poverty-uk-better-calling-it-inequality

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #260 –
How much of humanity aspires, enviously and hopelessly, to what the U.S. or the U.K. describes as poverty.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #262 –
The US economy is far from collapsing. The only worry is the political will to handle the public/government debt, the capability is clearly there. Much of the time managing it requires both Democrats and Republicans to agree, and creditors got worried when debt too became just another  plate for the couple to throw at each other.

Household debt is going down in the US.

We have numbers on what it takes to be globally rich. To be in the Global 1% by income, you need to make $35,000 (US) yearly. To be in the Global 1% jetset by wealth, you need a net wealth of $800,000. That basically means owning a house or nice apartment in an attractive neighbourhood, and having the mortgage paid off.

For different city centres flats to reach that 1% club membership would mean approximately
16 m2 (170 sq.ft) in Monaco
24 m2 (260 sq.ft) in London
39 m2 (420 sq.ft) in Hong Kong
48 m2 (520 sq.ft) in Moscow
52 m2 (560 sq.ft) in New York

(Since smaller flats are more expensive than bigger per square meter, you would probably have to pay more.)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #263 –
Yike! I could live in an Igloo… (If it was heated!)

When the world population hits 10 billion, it will taper off… But there are other considerations. It is not -yet, nor will it ever likely be- a One World.

The only thing that holds promise for the "third world" is cheap energy: Which is to say, hydrocarbons…

They will learn and prosper and mitigate — much as we have.
Let them.
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #265 –
A map over what was going on in Europe between the years 2000 and 2013.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #266 –
Quote from: jax on
To be in the Global 1% jetset by wealth, you need a net wealth of $800,000

Don't make me laugh. There's so many people with one million that you need to have a thousand millions to be someone.
Millionaires are not what they used to be, it's a much more restrict club, never so much was in the hands of so few.
A matter of attitude.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #267 –
Never?
Did your history lessons begin in 1700 A.D.? :)
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #268 –
Don't know why you are hotting at Belfrager. In fact you should look at your own internal history and it is a disgraceful one for a place that claims all sorts of high principles. Considering your record you have no basis for digging at Portugal. Typical ex-colonist arrogance.
"Quit you like men:be strong"

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #269 –
The global 1% is a select club of 70 million. The US 1% richest comprise 3.2 millon, the Swedish 1% would be 10,000 and could be squeezed into a room.

Like OakdaleFTL said wealth is more democratically divided now than previous in history, but there are plenty details to that story. In most of the 20th century wealth disparity was diminishing locally, inside a country, but greatly increasing globally, the rich countries were getting richer, the poor countries often poorer. This trend has largely turned now, rich countries are on the whole getting richer, but slowly, while many but not all poor countries are getting richer faster.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #270 –
Quote from: jax on

A map over what was going on in Europe between the years 2000 and 2013.

The map seems to be saying that everybody in the East has been busy moving to the West and South, particularly to Spanish Riviera and the coast of Asia Minor :left:

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #271 –
Yes, and the inland that isn't already emptied (much of it in Belfrager's nemesis country Germany, and most of the former Soviet Union) is quickly emptying. The exception being the inland capitals, Madrid, Moscow, Kiev...

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #272 –
Quote from: OakdaleFTL on

Never?
Did your history lessons begin in 1700 A.D.? :)

Nope, I just shortened it so you can follow the reasoning. :)
Quote from: jax on
This trend has largely turned now, rich countries are on the whole getting richer, but slowly, while many but not all poor countries are getting richer faster.

Yes... they passed from one dollar to two dollars a year. An hundred percent growth according to your statistic's pretty maps jax. :)

Wealth is nothing without Power. Before 1750 European populations had power, the number of powerful leaders that finished hanged from a tree demonstrates it well enough. How many powerful man do you see today hanged around?
Don't let fake money to fool you, wake up.
A matter of attitude.

Re: What's Going on in Europe

Reply #273 –
Quote from: Belfrager on
Wealth is nothing without Power.
I suspect -on the basis of this quip- that yours is one of those cultures predicated upon graft…
进行 ...
"Humor is emotional chaos remembered in tranquility." - James Thurber
"Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts!" - Richard Feynman
 (iBook G4 - Panther | Mac mini i5 - El Capitan)