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“In case anyone felt their nose insufficiently rubbed in German success” All good things come to an end. Also it feels like if the weather will suck tomorrow
by yrgulation 4y ago
“In case anyone felt their nose insufficiently rubbed in German success”
All good things come to an end.
Also it feels like if the weather will suck tomorrow it will be blamed on germany. Where are the other countries in all this? Taking a nap?
- inglor_cz 4y agoGermany was a huge winner from introduction of the Euro. Some other countries, especially the Latin bloc, cannot cope with the common currency. (Ironically, it was the German economists who used to be very skeptical against the common currency and were loud about it.) At the end of the day, the single market will only be popular if growth and prosperity are shared across the continent. If the economic periphery plagued by anemic growth and high debt burden expands, so will populist sentiments. And the economic periphery of the EU is already rather sizeable - even the former GDR could be counted in it, at least when looking at the structural unemployment and migration patterns of young qualified people. In the US, Trump won his mandate riding on a wave of such populist sentiments from the Rust Belt. In Europe, ethno-national differences run much deeper than interstate differences in America, so the end result may be a fatal split in the Union.
- mmarq 4y agoThe Latin block (Southern Europe??) countries joined the euro to cut their interest rates, and that happened. The periphery is poor because it has been ruled by embarrassing governments for decades.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- harperlee 4y agoAnd in turn saw their industry unable to compete with the German one as deutsche marks stopped relatively appreciating with every german export. By the way they didn’t just join for that, so obviously saying “don’t complain! You got what you asked for” doesn’t really make sense as an argument.
- mmarq 4y agoAfter 20 years, everybody should really stop believing the conspiracy theory of the Germans that invent the Euro to rule them all, à la Sauron.
- harperlee 4y agoPerhaps read a comment twice before publicly dismissing it as childish, in case you were not able to fully grasp what you read. The only thing I said regarding intentions is that the “Latin block” intentions portrayed above were overly simplistic. The mechanism by which german exports sharing a currency with weaker economies makes german currency appreciate less than otherwise is not a conspiracy theory but simple, generally accepted and well understood economics.
- nalaz 4y agoThe periphery is and will always be poor because of cultural problems. People make the politicians, not the other way around.
- yrgulation 4y agoIs porn banned in germany or why do people enjoy poverty porn so much? The periphery is anything but poor. There are gaps between eu countries but east south and west are consistently ranking high in term of economic development. Anaemic growth doesnt equal poverty.
- inglor_cz 4y agoMy wife speaks Spanish fluently and we often travel to Spain. Spain as such may not be exactly poor, but quite a lot of people are living in very subpar conditions. Andalusia in particular has a lot of visibly poor natives. Even African migrants do not want to stay there and if they manage to cross the Strait of Gibraltar, they immediately travel north to France/Britain/Germany.
- yrgulation 4y agoOh please. Thats like saying california is poor because san francisco has homeless people. Just because people dont drive fancy cars or homes arent refurbished in a region where it rarely rains it doesnt mean they are poor. Even east eu is rich compared to most of the world. I agree with you on slow growth but eu countries are anything but poor. Mismanaged yes. Poor not so much.
- inglor_cz 4y agoI am not sure if it has anything to do with rain. Israel does not have much rain either and homes look much better there. And when we speak to the locals in Spain, their typical complaint is that they struggle to make the ends meet. "I wasn't on a vacation for seven years." - "I think twice before taking a RENFE train even though it is twice as fast as a bus." - "Kids won't probably be getting new laptops ever." etc. Comparisons to the rest of the world are misleading. Being better off than Algeria or Brazil isn't that much of a result. Spanish people naturally compare themselves to other Europeans and the gap between the relative riches of Spain and, say, (West) Germany or Switzerland, is pretty visible. So is the fact that the gap does not seem to be closing, rather the other way round. I agree that mismanagement is a huge part of the problem, and that it is mostly domestic. For one, the political parties seem to be enormously corrupt, on par with the Balkans.
- inglor_cz 4y agoItaly used to be quite an industrial powerhouse when I was young. I still remember visiting the country in 2000, and even though the lira was weak, the overall atmosphere was much more lively, optimistic and vibrant. Contemporary Italy feels worn down and without hope. Too many young people with diplomas have simply fled. I get the same vibe in Spain, by the way, and in many cities of the former GDR, which is actually part of Germany. Dresden is fine, but Hoyerswerda, Chemnitz or Zittau are semi-deserted and feel distinctly "over": no future for them, only slow decay. The local political scene reflects that: the anti-system AfD gets plurality of votes, just to stick it to the "elites".
- mmarq 4y agoItaly was already significantly behind Germany and far from the technological frontier in the 1980s, it wasn’t the euro that slowed its growth. Then it took 40 years of obscene governments to bring it where it is now.
- yrgulation 4y agoAgreed. If change doesnt happen in everyone’s interest it will result in a fatal split. The biggest loser will be germany tho. Without access to the markets that prop up its economy it will suffer an economic contraction it’s never seen in modern times.
- ricardobayes 4y agoThat's an outdated view, Spain is the fourth biggest economy in Europe, and are net contributors into the EU budget.
- yrgulation 4y agoThere was a DW article that presented spain as one of europe’s poor countries. Cant find the link unfortunately. I swear these people get a boner when throwing around the word poor.
- inglor_cz 4y agoGo to Sevilla or Malaga and look around. Houses have old facades, people drive old cars, pavements have been last repaved 20 years ago and meeting a highly educated beggar is a common occurrence. That is not how a wealthy community looks like. Spanish economy may be nominally big, but random folk in the streets do not seem well off. The contrast to, say, Austria or Denmark, where most of the population seems to live just fine, is big. My friend, a nurse in Madrid, makes less than 1000 euro net. She and her son live in a small Franco era apartment where one of the tiny rooms does not even have a window.
- yrgulation 4y agoNurses are underpaid everywhere in europe. Its a common issue with public healthcare systems.
- inglor_cz 4y agoTrue, but at this point the only thing that prevents her from moving to Czechia to make better money is the fact that her son likes Madrid and she does not want to uproot him. That would be unthinkable some 20-25 years ago. Spain back then was, relatively taken, much richer than any post-Communist country and your living standard would have gone measurably down if you moved from Spain to Czechia.
- yrgulation 4y ago
- lazyeye 4y agoGermany loves the common market due to the way their economy is structured. Normally what happens for a major exporting country is that their currency (Deutschmark) would go up in value because of high demand to pay for German goods. This drives up the cost of their goods making them less attractive. But in the common market with a shared currency they are able to keep the cost of their goods artificially low due to other countries absorbing the demand for the currency. So where Germany wins, you can guess that other countries lose.