CIA predicts collapse of EU

[Whoha]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
The conservative cry: throw the elderly to the wolves!

This is BS.

No, repeat after me:Helicopters.

[el freako]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
The bubble burst 15 years ago. Do you really think that's what's holding Japan back now?

err, let me think.

YES!

the bubble cause the bad debts at the banks - the bad debts at the banks cause the 'zombie' corporations.


It is very easy to show that the bubble caused more damage than Japan's aging population - just compare GDP growth per person of working age in the 1970's, 1980's and 1990's:

1970s: 3.6%
1980s: 3.2%
1990s: 1.3%

Working age population in Japan grew 0.7% a year slower during the 1990's than in the 1970s' and 1980's - but GDP grew 2.8% slower.
So demographics accounted for around a quarter of Japan's slowdown - hardly a ringing endorsement of your views eh?

[BeBMan]

Why would you throw helis to the wolves?

[Drake Tungsten]

Japan's problems are due to entrenched structural problems with the economy that have not and probably never will be dealt with because the price of reform is deemed to be too high. Compare that to Germany and see if you find any similarities...

So demographics accounted for around a quarter of Japan's slowdown - hardly a ringing endorsement of your views eh?

I don't believe I ever said demographics were the main cause of Japan's economic woes. Might be good to actually know what a person's views are before we attack them, eh?

[el freako]

Now that is more like it.

Yes Germany has similar problems (but not on quite the scale, and Germany's productivity growth hasn't collapsed like Japan's)

But you are deluding yourself if you think that Germany=EU, Germany accounts for only a fifth of the EU's GDP and population.

And even with that Germany's GDP per head has still grown faster than the US's over the last decade or so - GDP per head at PPPs in 1990 was 70% of the US level, by 2002 it was 73% not bad for one of the worst-performing members of the EU during that period (which went from 69% to 74%)

[Drake Tungsten]

Now that is more like it.

I didn't really say anything different...

But you are deluding yourself if you think that Germany=EU, Germany accounts for only a fifth of the EU's GDP and population.

Again, I never said Germany=EU. It's just a convenient example of Japanese-style economic problems at work in a European country.

[Imran Siddiqui]

The CIA is such a joke. Since they predicted the collapse of the EU, it'll likely deepen and actually become a state. What, do they actually forsee a perpetual recession? Please.

[Admiral]

Maybe it will just be the chinese embassies that will collapse...

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Whoha


No, repeat after me:Helicopters.

helicopters

[notyoueither]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Meh. India and China will PWN us both in a century.

Not really. NAFTA incorporates half a billion people. Half a billion people who are nice and safe and snug in isolation from nearby dangers. Half a billion people who enjoy massive mineral and biological wealth. We'll do fine, thanks very much for your concern though.

That isn't counting the expansion that could be made by extending trade bloc relationships further South.

Really, you Yanks should start to pay more attention to the world your media doesn't lead you by the nose to.

[chequita guevara]

Latin America isn't "nice and safe and snug in isolation from nearby dangers." It's unstable. Suffers from coups and revolutions and the like.

[notyoueither]

Not Mexico.

[notyoueither]

Recently.

[chequita guevara]

There are two armed guerilla movements in Mexico, and ten years ago this month, their currency collapsed.

[notyoueither]

I had heard of one in the far south. I also seem to recall a crisis in Sweden sometime around ten years ago. Seems it was like a flu was going around at the time. Even the yen was affected.

Aside from Mexico's internal problems, which I have never heard anything to suggest were significant, just who is going to **** with this continent while the Pax America holds?

Like I said, nice and safe and snug and able to grow.