MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Economic crisis still has six years before returning to decent shape”, says IMF
It will take at least ten years for the world economy to recover from the economic crisis that started in 2007 and to get back to the normal shape, International Monetary Fund Chief Economist Olivier Blanchard said in an interview published on Wednesday. Read full article
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Disclaimer & comment rulesWhose fault is it that the world economy is in such a mess, the little man or woman? I am not an economist but common sense will tell a person that far too many countries and people were and still are lving way beyond their means.
Oct 04th, 2012 - 10:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0Regarding the Euro zone I was given this analogy: There are 17 friends continually going out for meals. One person always foots the bill (Dr Angela Merkel) She is becoming tired of this and will eventually refuse to pay the bill. Her family (Germany) is revolting against this extravagance. This is when the Euro zone will break up
The first to leave will be Greece followed by Spain and Italy. I may well be wrong.
The other cause of our woes originated in the derivatives market was the unfettered use of arcane mathematical models to bet on the direction of markets. The notional value of these instruments of mass destruction (as Warren Buffet calls these) must surely run into hundreds of trillions of dollars.
A wise old professor once told me that one should always engage common sense before applying mathematics (blindly).
Of course the yuppy rocket scientists who worked for the banks were instructed by their masters, the banksters, and thought that the good time would never end.
Perhaps they should have realised that there are 7 fat years and 7 lean years or probably 17 lean years now!
So we, the li
Comment removed by the editor.
Oct 04th, 2012 - 10:44 am - Link - Report abuse 01 Ozgood - that's not a very good analogy as part of the problem is that the Germans have refused to pay the bill from the start (which is the only real solution)
Oct 04th, 2012 - 11:23 am - Link - Report abuse 0A better analogy is that Mum (Merkel) has given her children (PIGS) a mobile phone each and they've exceded their fair use contract and all run up bills of thousands of pounds. Currently mum is insisting they settle the bill out of their pocket money for the next 100 years. The mobile company is less keen on this solution.
@3 I would add to that . Mum (Merkel) is a major shareholder in the mobile phone company and has made a fortune in profits by selling her kids the mobile phones in the first place.
Oct 04th, 2012 - 11:29 am - Link - Report abuse 0(It doesn't quite work but Germany made a fortune out of the Eurozone).
It's true that Germany has lived high on the hog. They are the ones that have leant billions to the PIGS so that the PIGS can buy German products with the cash. The cycle continues as the Germans become richer creditors and the PIGS become poorer debtors - BUT - being a creditor is worthless if you never get paid.
Oct 04th, 2012 - 11:40 am - Link - Report abuse 0About 15 years ago I used to have debates with a friend of mine about whether we should join the Euro. I was vehemently against and he was equally in favour. I brought this up about six months ago and asked if he'd changed his mind - assuming he had. He hadn't changed his mind at all. Instead he claimed he'd never supported Euro entry in the first place!!!!!! I'm now researching whether he is from Argentine stock. I thought he was Polish from his daft surname.
@5 LOL. Yeah, I know people like that.
Oct 04th, 2012 - 12:01 pm - Link - Report abuse 0The truth is we were never going to join the Euro. The British are notoriously resistant to major change. It is the Island mentality and it has served us well in this case.
Don't worry mates in 20 years I guess would be some sort of recovery...
Oct 05th, 2012 - 12:56 pm - Link - Report abuse 0Commenting for this story is now closed.
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