Europe Going Broke

[KanadaHye]

Re: Europe Going Broke

Spanish Economic Crisis Threatens to Sink Euro Currency

Spain is among the latest European countries to introduce tough austerity measures that may not be popular at home, but are deemed necessary to keep the country afloat. Spain, alongside Greece, is among those European countries with massive public debts and economies widely deemed vulnerable to a crash that could drag the euro with it.

It is 7:30 in the morning in the north of Madrid, and the queue for the job center is already stretching around the block.
Among those in line is Patricia Martinez. She used to be a nurse, but seven months ago she was laid off. Now each morning she arrives here to try to find new work. She is not having much luck.

"The reality is that economically it is fatal, but emotionally for people too it can also be terrible. I do not know what is happening, not just in Spain, but in Europe and the world," she said.

Patricia's story is all too familiar. Spain has the highest unemployment rate in Europe at 20 percent, and it is likely to get worse.

Europe is haunted by the fear of huge public debt. Spain's debt totals more than 11 percent of its GDP. Although its economy is far larger, investors fear that Spain, like Greece, might soon be unable to pay its creditors. So the government is slashing public spending by $18 billion over two years.

Economist Javier Ortega at London's City University says Spain's debt has been rising sharply in recent years. "The reason is essentially this increase in unemployment, because there are more unemployment benefits to be paid. So now there is a problem of credibility of what the government is going to do, and of course the situation is different to situations in other periods because now there is a common currency," he said.

Debt collection is now big business in Spain and it has got a highly visible face. One company called 'El Cobrador del Frac' specializes in shaming their targets into paying up, by dispatching debt collectors dressed in top hats and tuxedos to shadow their targets. he company's commercial director Juan Carlos Rodriguez says business is booming.

"The construction industry is among the worst hit. It all began three or four years ago when there was construction boom. Then with the crash, nobody would finish the work. Nobody got paid. In Andalusia in the south of Spain especially you can see the results of this," he said,

On the southern coast - known as the Costa del Sol - block after block of apartments lie empty or half finished, many of them designed for foreign buyers who have long since abandoned the idea of investing in Spain.

Inez Rix of Direct Property Auctions specializes in helping owners who are now struggling to sell their place in the sun. "It was absolutely crazy here in the boom times. It was really in the late 1990s or 2000s. Prices were just going up and up, people were asking for anything they could get away with. Now there are hundreds of places like this across the Costa Del Sol because developers have run out of money, and of course the banks have pulled out," he said.

The debt crisis is threatening to sink the euro currency, so the European Union has pledged to guarantee loans totaling around a trillion dollars. But in return, governments must slash public spending.

The prospect of wage cuts and pension freezes has prompted street demonstrations. Unions have called for a nationwide strike in September, against plans to make it easier for companies to hire and fire workers.

Economist Javier Ortega says Europe must become more competitive."For our European welfare state to be maintained there have to be changes. Essentially we have to adapt more quickly to competition from other countries. It is not like in the past," he said.

Europe may have emerged from recession, but its effects are only now becoming clear. With the euro currency under threat, the pain of government cuts will be felt for many years to come.

For job-hunter Patricia Martinez, this day brought no change of luck. And like millions of people across Spain, she will be back again in the morning looking for a new job and wondering how the situation can improve.

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news...-97100634.html

[KanadaHye]

Re: Europe Going Broke

As bad as it looks it is a case of which region is in a bigger mess Europe or the Americas.

I see the Pentagon in that picture but where is the star of David?

[londontsi]

Re: Europe Going Broke

As bad as it looks it is a case of which region is in a bigger mess Europe or the Americas.

[hipeter924]

Re: Europe Going Broke

Actions speak louder than words!

Turkey should scale back the size of it's Army. As they don't need anyhing like 500,000 troops and shift part of the Turkish Army into the police.

Greece is not on a par with Turkey either in military or economic terms and they idea that they are a threat to Turkey is all rather fanciful.

If you ask me it's China that Turkey is worried about. China now reportedly has 2,000 fighter jets and is rapidly amassing all sorts of platforms, with a view of expanding into Turkic Central Asia.

Turkey wont reduce its army size, it needs it to put down Kurdish rebellions and repress dissent. Turkey never changed its tactics from the Ottoman Empire, purge, purge and purge just like Stalin.

[retro]

Re: Europe Going Broke

Actions speak louder than words!

Turkey should scale back the size of it's Army. As they don't need anyhing like 500,000 troops and shift part of the Turkish Army into the police.

Greece is not on a par with Turkey either in military or economic terms and they idea that they are a threat to Turkey is all rather fanciful.

If you ask me it's China that Turkey is worried about. China now reportedly has 2,000 fighter jets and is rapidly amassing all sorts of platforms, with a view of expanding into Turkic Central Asia.

[garod]

Re: Europe Going Broke

Hope it works..

Can Turkey freeze or cut defense procurement?

“To help Greece escape its ‘economic disaster’ and reduce regional tensions, Ankara would reciprocate if the Greeks froze or cut defense procurement,” chief EU negotiator Egemen Bağış told the International Herald Tribune

Greece, a member of the EU, is in deep economic crisis, and at one point it pointed to its extensive arms purchases as one of the reasons for its current downfall.

According to Turkey’s controversial National Security Policy Paper, Greece is perceived as the country’s number one external threat although it is a fellow NATO member. But the problem with the Turkish policy paper is that it is designed by the military, with little influence at all from the elected civilian authorities. As declared by the government, Turkey intends to rewrite the National Security Policy Paper this year to exclude the concept of an internal threat while reconsidering external threat perceptions.

This unnecessary arms race with Greece is distracting the country’s attention from, among other things, developing its own defense industry base, thus inflicting serious damage on the already fragile economy.

Bağış made strong remarks in the same interview against Germany and France, criticizing them for seeking to sell military equipment to Greece while pressing the government in Athens to make drastic public spending cuts as a result of its dire financial crisis. Bağış argued, “One of the reasons for the economic crisis in Greece is because of their attempt to compete with Turkey in terms of defense expenditures.”

“Even those countries that are trying to help Greece during this time of difficulty are offering to sell them new military equipment,” he said, referring to a recent French offer to sell frigates to Athens.

Bagis said: “Greece doesn’t need new tanks or missiles or submarines or fighter planes, and neither does Turkey. It’s time to cut military expenditure throughout the world, but especially between Turkey and Greece. Neither Greece nor Turkey needs German or French submarines.”

A Greek official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said, “It is good to have positive rhetoric, but it needs to be followed up by positive action.” This is exactly true. It is now time for Turkey to take the first step and declare cuts in defense procurement.

But I have serious doubts about the existence of such a will on the part of the Turkish civilian authorities while being unable to even pass a draft law that stipulates the auditing of military expenditures and state-owned property. A draft law that would have the Court of Auditors audit military expenditures has only recently been debated, after stagnating for almost four years in Parliament. The military again resisted being audited by hiding behind the shield of secrecy.

It is tragicomic but true that Turkey, perceiving Greece as its number one external threat under the current controversial policy paper, has been spending quite a large portion of its defense expenditures on arming itself against Greece, while Greece has been reciprocating in the same way. Despite improved economic and political ties between the two NATO allies, there exists deep-rooted sovereignty claims in the Aegean Sea as well as on the divided island of Cyprus, pending resolution.

However, I still see Bağış’s proposal to Greece that Ankara will reciprocate if Greece either freezes or cuts defense procurement as a very positive step in reducing decades-old regional tension. But I am also of the opinion that the first step to cut defense procurement should come from Turkey, as a good will gesture to this neighbor engulfed in a serious economic crisis.

http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/co...ocurement.html

[Haykakan]

Re: Europe Going Broke

What is happening in Europe is just the prove that the system we've maintained for the last century is finally starting to break, if it's not falling apart right now. Those countries which maintained social, economic and political stability and even received privileges and were considered first world countries, now it is their turn to tight their belts and pay for those privileges they enjoyed in the past. Those who were up yesterday, will be down tomorrow. It has happened over and over through history...it seems Europe's got their time.

It is really amazing to see what is going on in Greece, and to think that not even five years ago they were one of the most developed and rich countries in Europe.

As for Spain, I don't care. Spain got their wealth from everything they stole from the colonies in South America, they sucked every little bit of what South America had and used it to improve their lives and worse those who were the owners of it. It was high time for them to suffer what the people they exploded have suffered for the last two centuries...

Things are changing people, we are in the presence of history

No need to single out the spanish, might as well mention the english, portugesee, dutch, french and more recently the usa. This event is not part of a natural progression cycle. It is a artificially induced event.

[ashot24]

Re: Europe Going Broke

What is happening in Europe is just the prove that the system we've maintained for the last century is finally starting to break, if it's not falling apart right now. Those countries which maintained social, economic and political stability and even received privileges and were considered first world countries, now it is their turn to tight their belts and pay for those privileges they enjoyed in the past. Those who were up yesterday, will be down tomorrow. It has happened over and over through history...it seems Europe's got their time.

It is really amazing to see what is going on in Greece, and to think that not even five years ago they were one of the most developed and rich countries in Europe.

As for Spain, I don't care. Spain got their wealth from everything they stole from the colonies in South America, they sucked every little bit of what South America had and used it to improve their lives and worse those who were the owners of it. It was high time for them to suffer what the people they exploded have suffered for the last two centuries...

Things are changing people, we are in the presence of history

[Haykakan]

Re: Europe Going Broke

Dow dived over 900 points today-the biggest drop ever before recovering somewhat. A unexplained glich is being blamed but i suspect thats just a bs excuse to cover up the billions a few select investors made today at our expence. Those who claim that this is just another conspiracy theory need to get their heads out of their butts. Imagine shorting this market this morning while investing billions which is exactly what happened and someone made a ungodly sum. Soros would not surprise me because he is one of the few people with the contacts who could possibly pull this off. Those who will be feeding you the official line (it was a glitch) are either naive or misleading you.

[Haykakan]

Re: Europe Going Broke

Looks like its spreading. The markets got hammered today.