Spain in state of total emergency

[doomage]

What's the emergency - earthquake, plague, mass riots or something equally serious?

Houses might go down in price a little bit.

[sasguru]

Just to get this straight:

As a result of the 2008 crisis the US, the UK and a number of other countries (outside the Eurozone) have now huge debts worth more than 80% of their GDP.?

Unsurprisingly you seem confused.
Germany's debt/GDP ratio is pretty poor too, and comparable to the UKs.
The UK's ratio is bad a result of the 2008 crisis when the govt. had to bail out the banks, the German one is bad because the govt. paid excessive benefits for years (until the Harrtz reforms).

[AtW]

Houses might go down in price a little bit.

They were already cheap in Spain.

Pity about those stories how some of them got demolished because of some paperwork problems - totally put me off from considering getting place there.

France on the other hand ...

[AtW]

Germany's debt/GDP ratio is pretty poor too, and comparable to the UKs.

The difference is, cretin, that Germany export more than they import where as UK imports more than it exports.

Germany:
Exports: $1.408 trillion (2011 est.)
Imports: $1.198 trillion (2011 est.)

UK:
Exports: $495.4 billion (2011 est.)
Imports: $654.9 billion (2011 est.)

Source: CIA Factbook for both countries.

I hope you do know the difference between losing money and earning it?

[BlasterBates]

Unsurprisingly you seem confused.
Germany's debt/GDP ratio is pretty poor too, and comparable to the UKs.
The UK's ratio is bad a result of the 2008 crisis when the govt. had to bail out the banks, the German one is bad because the govt. paid excessive benefits for years (until the Harrtz reforms).

no.....it's bad because the UK has a current account deficit of 10%, where as Germany has a balanced budget, it doesn't spend more than it takes in.

If the UK doesn't get it's current deficit down, debt grows by a huge amount each year. Think Greece, because the UK's deficit is the second worse in Europe, topped only be Greece. Of course it has some leeway it can potentially hemorrage for about 3 years before the global capital markets turn off the taps.

[Mich the Tester]

If the UK doesn't get it's current deficit down, debt grows by a huge amount each year. Think Greece, because the UK's deficit is the second worse in Europe, topped only be Greece. Of course it has some leeway it can potentially hemorrage for about 3 years before the global capital markets turn off the taps.

Yep, but you have to consider the political situation too; Britain's government seems pretty stable and has policies in place to reduce the deficit. Greece (and the Netherlands which is mysteriously still seen as a safe bet) doesn't even have a functioning government that can rely on a parliamentary majority to actually get things done.

[petergriffin]

It goes completely against common sense to agree with Sas

In fact it was Goldman Sucks' and JcraPMorgans' Credit Default Swaps that sent Greece belly up, not excessive government spending. When you repackage junk debt into no risk electronic money you can't blame either the Greeks or the Euro or the Eu but the American lawmaker (actually Bill Clinton, George Dumb Bush and 'Easy' Alan Greenspan) for allowing and fostering these absurd weapons of financial destruction.

[DodgyAgent]

It goes completely against the grain to agree with Sas, But I agree with Sas

So do I

[eek]

These countries could leave the Euro tomorrow if they wanted.

There is no exit mechanism from the Euro because the great and the good of the time did not think such a mechanism would ever be required.

So countries can't easily just up sticks and leave the Euro because there is no way to leave the Euro. And that is why the greek mess is such a mess (that and the fact Germany has grown rich on the purchases made by Greeks, irish and italians borrowing money).

[eek]

In fact it was Goldman Sucks' and JcraPMorgans' Credit Default Swaps that sent Greece belly up, not excessive government spending. When you repackage junk debt into no risk electronic money you can't blame either the Greeks or the Euro or the Eu but the American lawmaker (actually Bill Clinton, George Dumb Bush and 'Easy' Alan Greenspan) for allowing and fostering these absurd weapons of financial destruction.

You can blame the people who asked Goldman Sucks to create the electronic money that allowed greece to join.

That is the Greek Government of 2000 who paid them a pretty penny to make them (artificially) solvent.