4 ms·

Finland is the poster child for why the euro doesn’t work

6 points by doppp 11y ago

tosseraccount 11y ago
Finland's government went on a recent spending "spree": http://www.tradingeconomics.com/finland/government-spending http://www.tradingeconomics.com/finland/government-spending
Oletros 11y ago
More Washington Post anti euro propaganda? Shocking
- louhike 11y ago
  It seems to be pretty common. Does anybody know why so?
thrill 11y ago
Ah yes, bad luck. One of those things Heinlein was a master at dissecting. Choices were made, and pipers will be paid. Signing on to a currency that a historically frugal nation can't individually control is perhaps not a wise choice when the others who influence the value of that currency have been historically, let's say, less frugal; spending on things that do not increase productivity but pushes the problem to the next generation; creating a bureaucratic structure that dissuades innovation because stability is considered more important, and so on. Yet the "answers" from Krugman and his acolytes such as the author is to spend future influence (what does the author think devaluation is?) to make things look better in the shower, and poohpoohing those who recognize that devaluation is short term theater. When these decisions don't work - we will call it bad luck.
- jandrese 11y ago
  The article calls Finland's recessions basically the Nokia recession. Nokia suffered the fate of many large companies with established products, their existing business was too good to threaten with radical new products. Then a fresh faced competitor appears with the disruptive technology you had been putting off and cuts your legs off. While this is clearly partially due to a lack of vision at Nokia, to the Finnish government it is just pure bad luck. They don't control what companies do, they just collect taxes and provide services.
EmanueleAina 11y ago
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/upshot/finland-shows-why-many-europeans-think-americans-are-wrong-about-the-euro.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/upshot/finland-shows-why-m...
payne92 11y ago
I think a better title is: "Finland is a poster child for Apple decimating 4% of your economy" (Nokia)

6 points by doppp 11y ago

Finland's government went on a recent spending "spree": http://www.tradingeconomics.com/finland/government-spending http://www.tradingeconomics.com/finland/government-spending

Oletros 11y ago

More Washington Post anti euro propaganda? Shocking

louhike 11y ago
It seems to be pretty common. Does anybody know why so?

thrill 11y ago

Ah yes, bad luck. One of those things Heinlein was a master at dissecting. Choices were made, and pipers will be paid. Signing on to a currency that a historically frugal nation can't individually control is perhaps not a wise choice when the others who influence the value of that currency have been historically, let's say, less frugal; spending on things that do not increase productivity but pushes the problem to the next generation; creating a bureaucratic structure that dissuades innovation because stability is considered more important, and so on. Yet the "answers" from Krugman and his acolytes such as the author is to spend future influence (what does the author think devaluation is?) to make things look better in the shower, and poohpoohing those who recognize that devaluation is short term theater. When these decisions don't work - we will call it bad luck.

jandrese 11y ago
The article calls Finland's recessions basically the Nokia recession. Nokia suffered the fate of many large companies with established products, their existing business was too good to threaten with radical new products. Then a fresh faced competitor appears with the disruptive technology you had been putting off and cuts your legs off. While this is clearly partially due to a lack of vision at Nokia, to the Finnish government it is just pure bad luck. They don't control what companies do, they just collect taxes and provide services.

EmanueleAina 11y ago

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/upshot/finland-shows-why-many-europeans-think-americans-are-wrong-about-the-euro.html http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/21/upshot/finland-shows-why-m...

payne92 11y ago

I think a better title is: "Finland is a poster child for Apple decimating 4% of your economy" (Nokia)