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

[alice wellintown]

Well, how we measure wealth is complex and we should not discount the
psychological wealth or wealth effect and how policy makers have put
emphasis on measures that make Germans feel they are the wealthy Dutch
Uncles, the Greeks and the others feel like irresponsible nephews and
neices living at the beach.

Housing is not an investment. So, whle we may count its equity in a net
worth, it should not be equated with bonds.



On Wednesday, April 10, 2013, David Morris wrote:

> Interesting. I suspected that wealth statistic was skewed.
>
> On Wednesday, April 10, 2013, alice wellintown wrote:
>
>> 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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