Comments on: Europe on the brink? (And Russia close behind?)

By: deguello

deguello — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 14:53:34 +0000

We are seeing another “ism” (globalism) collapse.Fecklessness ,greed,and speculation, have destroyed the international economy. A depression is nigh.Nothing except a huge social upheaval will change this. The solutions are not economic but political;the whole economic order of racket capitalism and globalization,needs to be destroyed.

By: Jonesy55

Jonesy55 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:17:55 +0000

@39 I wouldn’t be too sure of that, we have seen in this crisis what has happened to several countries in Europe that didn’t have the Euro, Iceland, Hungary etc who have had runs on their currencies and have needed help to service external debt. If Ireland hadn’t had the Euro they could probably have been added to that list.

Of course the UK is a much bigger economy with more resources than any of these countries but we have been running a dangerously high trade deficit for a long time and a lack of confidence in our economy has caused a run on sterling already against Euro, Dollar and Yen. A long period of sterling weakness will probably reignite debate on the merits and demerits of joining the Euro.

Under normal circumstances, many would point to a lower pound as being beneficial to exports which would help redress economic imbalances but with demand tanking in all our major export markets this is a non-starter in the short term.

Eurozone countries that found themselves with too much boom and too much debt such as Ireland, Spain, Greece will need to learn in future that if EZ interest rates are too low for their needs, they should use fiscal measures to stop the boom getting out of control and turning into a bust rather than just riding the wave and enjoying short term inflationary growth.

Of course if the UK joined the Euro, it would make the eurozone economy bigger than the US economy which would probably hasten the USD’s demise as dominant reserve currency which would have significant impact on the global economic picture. USD wouldn’t go away as a reserve currency but it would find itself joined by the Euro to a greater extent than currently and maybe eventually the Yuan after China introduces full convertibility.

By: Marc Malone

Marc Malone — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:19:39 +0000

Whitehall @#31 – They were investing heavily in third-world countries, whose economies are also collapsing. They can’t pay. U.S. bad debt was primarily in our own mortgage industry, so we suffer less, and can fix our own problems.

Furthermore, the world’s economy was premised on American consumerism. When gas prices spiked, people began cutting back. China’s now massively overstocked on manufactured goods, for example. Everyone criticizes our using so much of the world’s resources, but suffer when we don’t.

By: So Cal Jim

So Cal Jim — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 06:15:42 +0000

30 years ago, when I was in college, socialist economic theory was all the rage. I was fed a healthy dose of socialist dogma by most of my professors (i.e. “benevolent” government control= good; personal freedom and responsibility = bad). Of course there were a few who bucked the trend but, unfortunately, there were only a few. In the years since I graduated, the situation in all of our education institutions has deteriorated to the point where, relatively speaking, conservative teachers and professors are an endangered species. There are perhaps even fewer conservative administrators. What is my point? Simply this; we are about to have a Marxist elected president of the United States of America because we’ve allowed three or four generations of our children to be steeped in socialism from the time they enter kindergarten to the time they leave school – whether it be after 12th grade or after graduate school. I know first hand from my own experiences and those of my children (thankfully, all out of school now) that conservative thought is discouraged, ridiculed and, whenever necessary, brutishly suppressed. Because of this we have tens of millions of voters who are simply incapable of rational thought. They operate in a world ruled by their emotions rather than by their mind. They fixate upon the notion that It’s not “fair” that some people are poor while others are rich without ever considering why that must be so in a free society. They are incapable of understanding that government enforced “equality” always and necessarily results in tyranny where “the masses” will be worse off than the poor in free societies. This is why so many simply ignore the historical record of socialism. The horrors brought by socialism just don’t appear on their radar screens. Socialism’s glaring failures, when acknowledged at all, are always blamed on “reactionary elements” or some similar bogey man.

With a Marxist president appointing hard left judges and a congress dominated by the socialist Democrat Party (John Kennedy himself could not rise in this Democrat Part), we are all facing very dark days ahead.

By: Marc Malone

Marc Malone — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 20:20:53 +0000

Brian Richard Allen – Thank you.

By: Europe & Russia on the brink (economy) - The WebZappr

Europe & Russia on the brink (economy) - The WebZappr — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:25:07 +0000

[...] the dollar to rocket. Nowhere has this been more extreme than in the ex-Soviet bloc. Clip Source: pajamasmedia.com Europe on the brink? (And Russia close behind?) For the last few decades, the West has been [...]

By: Andrew Ian Dodge

Andrew Ian Dodge — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:21:39 +0000

Well there is good news out of all of this. It has killed the possibility of the UK joining the Euro stone dead. No one in their right mind would advocate joining it now.

By: pashley

pashley — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:49:34 +0000

Time to dig out the history books. Try Ferdinand Braudel. Capitalism and crisis goes hand-in-hand. During times of crisis, even decline, the center has the resources (skill, connections, heft, deep pockets) to retain its prosperity. The periphery gets hosed.

The center is still New York. The New York will still suffer disruption, losses, recover in some restructed form, and march on. Everywhere else will be gasping for breath.

By: The Ratnest » Blog Archive » Now I’m Spooked

The Ratnest » Blog Archive » Now I’m Spooked — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:47:32 +0000

[...] economies are, and that maybe American markets aren’t quite as foolish as we’re led to believe: “Europe,” Evans-Pritchard observes, has already had its first foretaste of what this [...]

By: Brian Richard Allen

Brian Richard Allen — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:14:21 +0000

35. Marc Malone:

Hear! Hear! Well said. – B A