Well that is the suggestion raised by
this article in the National Post in Canada.
The euro has become another "subprime" currency, afflicted by debts, funny bookkeeping, regulatory failure and widespread street protests in Greece and Spain.
It maybe true, but the fundamental dishonesty of the creators of the Euro, that it was a sound economic project, rather than a hopeful political one has huge repercussions across theworld. As the article goes on,
There's likely too much hysteria over Greece, but not enough concerning Spain and Italy, which are also badly managed and collectively larger than Germany.
Spain's GDP -- about the size of Canada's -- shrank by 3% because it is the "Florida" of the EU. Its housing and banking sectors reel from a building binge to serve up condos, stores and infrastructure for the continent's Baby Boomer demographic. Others point to its unemployment rate of nearly 20% and its budgetary deficit of 11.4% of GDP, which prevents tax cuts or stimulus to kick start activity.
It all makes Canada and Australia, and our currencies, look pretty sound by comparison, but that's small comfort if the Americans and Europeans don't recover.
1 comment:
I do not know about Spain (or Greece) but Italy has a substantial 'black' economy. One man I knew had three jobs, only one of which was in the 'official' economy. Hence the official figures for the official economy will undervalue the real wealth of the country. My guess is that Italy could have as much as an additional 25% of GDP.
Post a Comment