NP - Germany Won't Budge on Austerity: Economic Suicide is Character Building

[David Morris]

Except there are vast numbers of others, long-term unemployed, not included
in that count. And the jobs being added are mostly low-paying jobs.

On Thursday, October 16, 2014, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:

> The percentage of the total labor force that is unemployed but
> actively seeking employment and willing to work.
>
> 5.9%
>
> Not bad. And, getting better all the time.
>
> On Thu, Oct 16, 2014 at 5:22 PM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
> > Joe, you should take a basic course in economics. The unemployment
> > rate number is what it says it is. Problem with you ignorant headline
> > types is that you don't know what it says. Look it up Joe.
> >
> > On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 11:20 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >> • BIS Warns On ‘Violent’ Reversal Of Global Markets (AEP)
> >>
> >> The global financial markets are dangerously stretched and may unwind
> with shock force as liquidity dries up, the Bank of International
> Settlements has warned. Guy Debelle, head of the BIS’s market committee,
> said investors have become far too complacent, wrongly believing that
> central banks can protect them, many staking bets that are bound to “blow
> up” as the first sign of stress. In a speech in Sydney, Mr Debelle said:
> “The sell-off, particularly in fixed income, could be relatively violent
> when it comes. There are a number of investors buying assets on the
> presumption of a level of liquidity which is not there. This is not evident
> when positions are being put on, but will become readily apparent when
> investors attempt to exit their positions. “The exits tend to get jammed
> unexpectedly and rapidly.” Mr Debelle, who is also chief of financial
> markets at Australia’s Reserve Bank, said any sell-off could be amplified
> because nominal interest rates are already zero across most of the
> industrial world.
> >>
> >> “That is a point we haven’t started from before. There are undoubtedly
> positions out there which are dependent on (close to) zero funding costs.
> When funding costs are no longer close to zero, these positions will blow
> up,” he said. The BIS warned earlier this summer that the world economy is
> in many respects more vulnerable to a financial crisis than it was in 2007.
> Debt ratios are now far higher, and emerging markets have also been drawn
> into the fire over the last five years. The world as whole has never been
> more leveraged. Debt ratios in the developed economies have risen by 20
> percentage points to 275pc of GDP since the Lehman Brothers crash. The new
> twist is that emerging markets have also been on a debt spree, partly as a
> spill-over from quantitative easing in the West. This has caused a flood of
> dollar liquidity into these countries that they have struggled to control.
> It has pushed up their debt ratios by 20 percentage points to 175pc, and
> much of the borrowing has been at an average real rate of 1pc that is
> unlikely to last.
> >> ........
> >> 5.9% is not the real unemployment rate in the US. That is just a lie.
> Also pakistanis making socks for rich US companies who have not been payed
> for 2 months and whose boss just disappeared because he can't keep up his
> payments have also been 100 % employed.   This is story I know first hand.
> >> On Oct 15, 2014, at 9:29 AM, alice malice wrote:
> >>
> >>> Not a big fan of the domino or contagion theory because the US economy
> >>> is not that global, not that connected to Europe,  and its major
> >>> trading partners here, Mexico and Canada, are in good shape and will
> >>> not be knocked off the track by Europe or Japan or Russia or China.
> >>> Moreover, the oil market, a global market that can send the US economy
> >>> into a tailspin in a hurry has been tamed by the glut of oil and
> >>> energy produced in America. Again, while the Big Capitalized
> >>> International Co. in the US will suffer a bit from a strong dollar and
> >>> a weaker Europe, a weaker, though still growing China, as exports are
> >>> important to the earning and growth of these huge companies, most of
> >>> the US economy is driven by small companies and the consumer, and
> >>> these are in very good position, as rates are quite low and inflation
> >>> and gas prices are low, so I expect the US will continue to grow at a
> >>> 2-3% rate over the next few years. Not great but not recession. It's
> >>> not only the housing market that is shored up but the consumer, the
> >>> banks, the workforce, the revenues at the state and local levels. So,
> >>> while the US faces many headwinds, some from Europe and Japan, these
> >>> will not derail the recovery. Again, it's great to be a United States
> >>> with a Central Bank and a reserve currency, now a glut of oil. The US
> >>> is fundamentally different from Europe. It has, to give but one
> >>> example, a 5.9% unemployment rate.
> >>>
> >>> On Wed, Oct 15, 2014 at 6:20 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
> >>> <lorentzen at hotmail.de <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>>> Is France, Italy, Spain ...doing enough?
> >>>>
> >>>> Spain? Yes. Same for Portugal and Ireland.
> >>>>
> >>>> But Italy and France? Definitely not!
> >>>>
> >>>> When the ship goes down it will take place there and then spread
> first to
> >>>> the rest of EU-Europe and then to other regions of the global
> economy. The
> >>>> large home market of the US would probably work as a buffer here to
> avoid
> >>>> the worst consequences for at least some time.
> >>>>
> >>>> To keep this balanced: The new German federal government, a coalition
> of CDU
> >>>> and SPD, is damaging the reform measures the Schröder administration
> put
> >>>> through by enabling easier ways to go into early retirement plus
> pensions
> >>>> for mothers, which both are counterproductive presents to the aging
> voters.
> >>>>
> >>>> At this point a personal statement seems adequate: I do not
> sympathize with
> >>>> banks. The role of the big banks in the Euro crisis - Goldman Sachs
> helped
> >>>> Greece faking its statistics to get into the Euro zone, and the
> current
> >>>> president of the ECB is a former employee of this beautiful bank
> house - is
> >>>> highly ambivalent. And this is not the only problematic thing about
> banks in
> >>>> the world history of the last 200 years. Perhaps - just yesterday I
> read an
> >>>> article saying that economists and even some bankers themselves
> started to
> >>>> think about this seriously again since 2008 - the basically simple
> idea of
> >>>> Freigeld would be a better way to handle the question of money:
> >>>>
> >>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freigeld
> >>>>
> >>>>> Freigeld has several special properties:
> >>>>
> >>>> It is maintained by a monetary authority to be spending power stable
> (no
> >>>> inflation or deflation) by means of printing more money or
> withdrawing money
> >>>> from circulation
> >>>> It is cash-flow safe (a scheme is put in place to ensure that the
> money is
> >>>> returned into the cash flow - for example, by demurrage - requiring
> stamps
> >>>> to be purchased and periodically attached to the money to keep it
> valid)
> >>>> It is convertible into other currencies
> >>>> It is localized to a certain area (it is a local currency)
> >>>>
> >>>> The name results from the idea that there is no incentive to store or
> hoard
> >>>> Freigeld as it will automatically lose its value after some time. It
> is
> >>>> claimed that as a result, interest rates would drop to almost zero. <
> >>>>
> >>>> It is, however, highly improbable that the Powers That Be will ever
> allow
> >>>> such a life affirming reform. So, for the time being we have to live
> under
> >>>> the dictatorship of banks, and individuals as well as states have to
> deal
> >>>> with it. And here the question of fairness arises. That the German
> people -
> >>>> who were, like most other people from the EU-countries, never asked
> whether
> >>>> they wanna be members of the EU, let alone whether they wanna have
> the Euro!
> >>>> - have, as taxpayers, to give guarantees for other countries that not
> only
> >>>> don't do serious reform yet also insult the contemporary Germany as a
> >>>> reincarnation of Nazi-Deutschland, is not fair. And the ECB's nano
> interest
> >>>> rates, here Germany (which has, just like the other countries, only
> one
> >>>> vote) is always overruled by the mediterranean economies, do
> constantly move
> >>>> money from Germany to the south of Europe. Germans have significantly
> lesser
> >>>> real estate than other people in the EU. They also tend to shy away
> from
> >>>> stocks (- and when I look at the development of my shares of Adidas
> and SAP,
> >>>> they are probably not as irrational as the newspapers say). And so
> Germans
> >>>> have their money mostly on the bank. Where it loses and loses value.
> As such
> >>>> this might go on without accident for quite some time. But when the
> going
> >>>> gets tough? Greece or Cyprus were certainly no real problem for the
> >>>> stability of the EU because they're simply too small to be of systemic
> >>>> relevance. With Italy and France the situation is completely
> different. When
> >>>> one of these countries crashes, the shock waves will be felt
> worldwide --
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On 14.10.2014 23:19, alice malice wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> How does one define austerity? The word is tossed about by all sides,
> >>>> but at cross purposes and no serious definition is agreed upon. Is
> >>>> Germany doing enough? Is France, Italy, Spain ...doing enough? Is a
> >>>> political and fiscal solution feasible? What of the Bank? The Germans
> >>>> are paying a dear price for the political failures of other nations
> >>>> and for the geopolitical conflicts, the sanctions and so on. Now, it
> >>>> is close to a tipping point.All of this is good for the US, as the US
> >>>> is unwinding its massive QE, and US rates are being driven lower, the
> >>>> dollar higher. Well, that's the weight of an Empire. Germany must see
> >>>> this and it must make them angry, but pawns and knights are not
> >>>> queens. That's the game, Germany is responsible, with the Russians,
> >>>> for the chess board, so it goes.
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 9:07 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com
> <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Clearly this response shows the weakness of the Euro: the "Union" is a
> >>>> farce.
> >>>>
> >>>> But Germany won't be able to stand alone for long.  If Europe is
> screwed, so
> >>>> is Germany.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Mon, Oct 13, 2014 at 3:53 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
> >>>> <lorentzen at hotmail.de <javascript:;>> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> On 12.10.2014 12:09, alice malice wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> Europe is screwed. And Germany is only doing what it needs to do to
> >>>> get in a better position to recover over the longer term.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> Amen!
> >>>>
> >>>> -
> >>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>> -
> >>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list
> >>
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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