The Governments prevented a crash by Q.E. and bail outs. Government action has saved the day. Left to the "free market", would have resulted in catastrophe. The USA is still pumping Billions every month into the system to prevent a crash....to keep the system going. There is no alternative other than let the free market loose and wait for the consequences. Obviously this cannot be allowed to happen, so we are living through a era o protectionism....the phrase "kicking the can", just means keeping the system going....stock markets and house prices are maintained because the alternative is too frightening. What is the alternative, to maintaining the "free market" and low wages in the face of global competiveness...
Answer... a global depression with mass unemployment.
Why is the free market having to be supported and "too big to fail" having to be bailed out.?...This is the new phenomenon...a game changer...Governments propping up a market that cannot be allowed to fail...How long can this be maintained or is the patient cured,?
I would hazard a guess and say that the real cause of all this is due to....
- 1) DEBT of unimaginable proportions...AND GROWING.
- 2) Unsustainable growth...we are at a tipping point in human history...where resources are unable to meet demand...Peak oil, peak food production etc.....the importance of the exponential, when there is a limit....The limit has been reached.
- 3) We now live in an overpopulated World.
- 4) The lack of productive jobs...With the advent of the computer and the internet (another game changer), millions of "workers", for want of a better word, are now sitting in front of a computer screen...the operative word here is "sitting".
- 5) The consumer society cannot continue consuming and growing with limited resources.
- 6) The rise of the city...Now nearly half the world's population are concentrated in cities...These cities are pure consumers../they don't produce anything and are not self sustaining. As these growing cities compete for resources, there could be trouble.
- 7) The rise of China...the tiger awakes...So what is the answer.?....Austerity...we must learn to live within our means....painful but necessary....otherwise it is keep printing the money and propping up dinosaurs...as we are seeing today.
The Bank of International Settlements did nothing to prevent this crisis, which it failed to foresee. On the contrary, it and its members in the 'central bankers' club' supported and promoted the economic dogmas, such as the 'efficient market', that led to the crisis. Why should anyone have faith in what in now says about how to get out of a mess it helped to create? We must learn to live within our means...but we won't.
Trouble ahead.
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The euro area1 (EA17) seasonally-adjusted2 unemployment rate3 was 12.2% in May 2013, up from 12.1% in April4. The EU271 unemployment rate was 11.0%, stable compared with the previous month4. In both zones, rates have risen markedly compared with May 2012, when they were 11.3% and 10.4% respectively. These figures are published by Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
Eurostat estimates that 26.522 million men and women in the EU27, of whom 19.340 million were in the euro area, were unemployed in May 2013. Compared with April 2013, the number of persons unemployed increased by 15 000 in the EU27 and by 67 000 in the euro area. Compared with May 2012, unemployment rose by 1.438 million in the EU27 and by 1.459 million in the euro area.
Member States
Among the Member States, the lowest unemployment rates were recorded in Austria (4.7%), Germany (5.3%) and Luxembourg (5.7%), and the highest in Spain (26.9%) and Greece (26.8% in March 2013).
Compared with a year ago, the unemployment rate increased in seventeen Member States and fell in ten. The highest increases were registered in Cyprus (11.4% to 16.3%), Greece (22.2% to 26.8% between March 2012 and March 2013) and Slovenia (8.6% to 11.2%). The largest decreases were observed in Latvia (15.5% to 12.4% between the first quarters of 2012 and 2013), Estonia (10.0% to 8.3% between April 2012 and April 2013) and Lithuania (13.3% to 11.7%).
In May 2013, the unemployment rate in the United States was 7.6%, up from 7.5% in the previous month and down from 8.2% in May 2012.
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