Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi is fighting for the life of his government over the European Union’s demands for stronger economic reform measures in time for Wednesday’s eurozone summit.
Even as Berlusconi struggles to find solutions for Italy’s economic crisis, European officials are trying to reach an agreement on what will find solutions to the spreading crisis, and strengthen the eurozone’s €440bn rescue fund. Such a move will enable the eurozone to purchase Italian bonds and lower Italy’s 6% borrowing rates.
Such an effort would fall far short of a real Italian bail-out, according to senior European officials, who said, however, that such a move would be combined with tough new conditions. This move may signal a stronger effort by Italy’s eurozone partners to ensure that Italy is able to prove to the financial markets that its fiscal reforms are likely to be effective.
Italy joins Greece as a country with a huge economy that cannot sustain itself. Burdened with enormous debt, both countries face economic calamity. Greece has already received two bailouts to cover their debts that now amount to $485 billion, and risks defaulting on its newest commitments.
The crisis has spread from Greece to the Irish Republic and Portugal, to Spain, and to Italy. France and Germany are also facing economic crises of their own: France owns nearly $57 billion of Greece’s debt and Germany almost $34 billion.
There has been widespread criticism about Europe’s governments, who are seen as having been far too slow to understand the gravity of the situation and to act appropriately to stem the rising tide of economic disaster. As the US economy continues to falter, the European crisis is reaching a critical point. If decisive action is taken this week that can restore confidence in the financial system, then the possibility of a major meltdown can be avoided, at least for the time being.
Europe, however, is still deeply mired in the socialist solutions that have resulted in massive debt, due in no small part to the enormous cost of social programs. As long as the underlying issues are not suitably addressed, the downhill spiral of Europe’s economy is likely to continue and economic disaster will not be far behind. After that, the short hop across the Atlantic will be just a matter of time.
http://link.ft.com/r/G8OTZZ/TU8XOU/C5YMQG/PFFSS6/7AWP62/JY/h?a1=2011&a2=10&a3=25
Unemployment should be tackled from the bottom up. Although much unemployment arises from changes in the global economy, a creative approach at a local level can often mitigate such losses, and National policies can’t be relied upon to deal with local issues. However, it is essential that politicians and administrators seek advice from specialists in the economic crisis, as some counties have already done with positive results. For example, the Orlando Bisegna Index, apart from measuring the intensity of the econonomic crisis in many countries, have developed a program which has helped various counties with debt problems, business failures and unemployment, thus improving the economic condition of many families. You wouldn’t call a doctor to fix your leaking roof. But every day we allow non-specialist politicians take decisions for us which determine whether or not we’ll have bread on the table next month!
It makes no difference how much the government invests, prints, or spends, that’s the end result of the liquidity trap. Our government can implement cost cutting, and tax increases to make this the last country standing in the currency wars. There is really nothing to it, and the middle class would hardly feel a thing.
People have allowed me to throw around the word wealth, and single out the wealthy. No one challenges me. Why? What is it about that 2% of the global population that we all allow them to run things? There are more of us than there are of them. There was a long discussion on the radio about redistribution of wealth. Everybody is against that because there is no accomplishment to getting a hand out. Over centuries it’s been proved that the 2% have that feeling of power, because they built wealth, or maintained it. They are the accomplished ones, that we all admire.OK? Are you with me so far? That 2% has nothing to do with the governments. That 2% doesn’t need any thing. The government is there to keep the rioting to a minimum.
That’s where all of your theories go sideways. We have never had so much wealth. There is more than enough money to do everything, we just don’t have a plan. I pick on Bill, and Melinda Gates, because they are a perfect example of misdirected wealth. Warren Buffet is another buffoon. The wealthy of the world are ridiculous. There is no leadership where it could do some good. There is no military might, so government is a useless set of sabre rattlers. So you should come up with some other idea about where the money is coming from to fix the damage that has been done by the politicians.