[np] Peripheral euro zone household wealth trumps core - ECB study

[alice wellintown]

Not a surprise at all. In fact, one of the major causes of the crises in
the nations that are said to be in need of support from Germany & Co.  is
homeownership and the leverage it afforded. While we often read about the
stark differences in culture in the old Catholic nations, where Club Med is
ridiculed as a hedonistic profilage in need of German frugality and
discipline, Greeks, Italians, Irish, and this is true of their American
relatives in the USA, own and keep their homes, forever, if possible. There
is no disgrace in living with a Greek Mother and Dad, Brother, Grandmother.
And, it makes sense that the Unified Germany that once had a Communist
Economy would not have the same level of homeownership.

 When we take a closer look at these measures of welath we find that homes
are not assets, are not investments, that can or should be valued on
individual balance sheets with other more liquid assets. So, the obvious is
true, that is, the Germnas are richer and need to bail out the others. The
others may need to pay for it with some cuts in spending and the like, but
the numbers on welath don't tell us that much about this very bad marriage.



On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 5:36 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <
lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

>
>
> http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/04/09/uk-ecb-wealth-eurozone-idUKBRE9380KX20130409
>
> "Average net wealth in Spain was 291,400 euros (247,910 pounds) and in
> Italy 275,200 euros, significantly higher than in triple-A rated Germany
> (195,200 euros), the Netherlands (170,200 euros) and Finland (161,500
> euros).
>
> The data, which was mainly collected in 2010, showed that the perception
> of rich northern European countries helping their poor southern cousins was
> not accurate, and that solid public finances are no indication of high
> personal wealth."
>
>  Surprised?
>
>
>
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