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Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

economist.com

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Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#151

Post by ZenoArrow »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #141
ZenoArrow wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the time of those videos, the Labour leadership coup wasn't in full effect, the questions instead were focused on hammering on the 'unelectable' narrative the BBC and other mainstream media outlets have been aiming at Corbyn since he got in the leadership race. Contrast this with the softball questions that Cameron was getting. Worth remembering there's plenty of controversial decisions that the Conservatives made…

Or perhaps Corbyn genuinely is unelectable.

Based on what? The fact he won the Labour leadership election by a landslide? The fact that the Labour party membership has nearly doubled compared to last year? The fact that Labour have held all 4 seats contested in by elections since he was elected leader ( http://www.parliament.uk/about/how/elections-and-voting/by-e... )? The fact that Labour largely maintained their lead in local government representatives during the last local elections?

You could probably point to some poll or other that claimed he was unelectable, but as I said before, the media has been attacking him from day one, and many people are swayed by what they read in the media. There's also the issue of the rise of the SNP in Scotland, but that's got very little to do with Corbyn.

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#153

Post by blablablame »

pjmlp wrote: post #131
mtanski wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> As a foreign living in Germany I do appreciate the mentality that things "should be done the correct way", but many here don't understand you cannot just change a country's culture by forcing them to strictly follow EU rules. You mean like Germany's biggest car maker solved the disel exhaust correctly? I don't your generalization stands up. What I can agree with is that the Germans are sticklers for sticklers sense…

> Germany's instance to be a stickler for sticklers sake is not helping anybody Which is why I mentioned "but many here don't understand you cannot just change a country's culture by forcing them to strictly follow EU rules.". The VW case is seen by many as an exception and usually every corruption case tends to be dealt exemplary, whereas in my home country (PT) corruption, specially the small one (owning favors) is…

Think you are painting a starker picture than it really is. I never paid a 'bribe' or a lunch to anyone in 33 years living here (Porto and Algarve). My parents have said to me the same. There was one occasion where a gov. official asked for one from my father for a license for either a building permit or some construction permit (not sure) and as soon as my father heard that, called his lawyer in front of him and told her what happened. Later in the day he got the license (lawyer contacted his superior the same day).

And for Germany and corruption, while there may not be as much corruption inside Germany, German companies are in the top when it involves other countries (Submarines in PT, don't remember what in Greece, etc). Heck, they were even tax deductible until recently: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/1995-08-06/germany-wh...

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#154

Post by xorcist »

Hermel wrote: post #104
vidarh wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The larger difference is that the member state is free refuse to implement the law and choose to leave - the directive can not be imposed. You may consider that just playing with words, but it makes the difference between being legal, and being a violation of constitutional law of a large number of member states, and as a result it makes a substantial difference in how the EU can be legally structured.

Are you saying the EU is basically a clever hack to get around constitutional restrictions?

Not really. Countries have different juridical systems, with governing bodies based on completely different principles. UK law text would be gibberish in a German context, for example. (Or Chinese, or Brazilian.) So international law is made by treaties to be implemented nationally. An EU directive specifies certain limits but the corresponding law differ from country to country.

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#155

Post by speeder »

Fenntrek wrote: post #140
madshiva wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is totally wrong. The current unemployment of EU is at 9%. That's the same unemployment rate of 2002-2004 before the "Great Recession" of 2007-2008. Then YES, the EU is recovering, but slowly and not all the country recover well. We all suffered from the recession, even in Switzerland where we have the less unemployment rate. This was not because of the EU, but because all bank was infected with subprime then th…

I think you misunderstand. Yes, the EU as a whole looks good... It's when you peel away the EU flag and look at individual countries you see that some economies are in the gutter pretty much due to countries having vastly different needs. Whats in say Germany's interests isn't in Italy/Greece's interest economically, economies are having crisis points constantly and continuous band aids instead of enacting policy tha…

This is not just a EU problem.

I personally think the social changes, coupled with gold standard being dropped are good part of the culprit.

For example I am in Brazil, that have "nothing to do" with EU and US.

Yet I have a mountain of debts, negative net worth, finished university in 2009, and I am yet to get a legal job.

Brazil, even at its "height", when people were praising Lula because it reached 7% of GDP growth and "Full Employment", if you looked into other numbers closely, would find out that most of the money went to the wealthiest, and that underemployment, illegal employment, self-employment, etc... that were on the rise, out of desperation of the people. Or you think I went since 2009 without eating? Of course if people offer me shady deal I accept it! Otherwise I can't even buy potatoes!

Similarly, every single friend I have, except 1, are still single, of all friends I have, only 2 have kids, noone owns his own house and car, most of my friends never got legal full-time jobs either...

This situation in turn removed lots of rights to me.

For example, election rules say you can only use money you declared in your tax returns, and that donors can only use up to 10% of their tax return, since I, and my friends never did tax returns (because our income is not exactly legal), we can't join politics in any way.

Similarly, since we never had a legal job, we can't claim unemployment benefits.

Since we have no tax return, neither legal job history, we can't apply for more loans.

And the list goes on...

And this is not just in Brazil, people of my age I know in other western countries, are mostly in the same situation.

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#156

Post by blablablame »

cpr wrote: post #124
guelo wrote: post #24

It’s easy for Merkel to insist that Italy has to strictly follow EU rules since she doesn’t have to win an Italian election. The Euro just seems like a complete failure. Giant economies are limping along with 20% unemployment, unable to recover 8 years after the recession. In contrast the US has managed an OK recovery, now closing in on full employment. The problem is that each EU national leader is accountable only…

If you think the US has managed a recovery, I'm afraid you're in denial. The US unemployment picture is horrible, but being masked by official government figures that ignore the people who've given up looking for work, and including people working less than full time at marginal jobs.

Yes, but the EU numbers use similar data as the US, and while average is 9% unemployment, some countries are in the 20% range. And this is with a lot of 0-hour contracts or in 'courses' (doesn't count as unemployed).

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#157

Post by sonnhy »

bonzini wrote: post #96
mseebach wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That limit either was, or was very close to being, ignored in Cyprus. You'd be foolish to bet €100k on that limit being hard if the shit hits the fan in Italy (which is a lot bigger than Cyprus and doesn't have anywhere near as much dirty Russian money they can grab instead). Also, the limit is for nought if Italy leaves the Eurozone and your savings are forcefully converted to "New Lira" (which are then "protected",…

> If you have cash in Italian banks, GTFOASAP That makes no sense at all. Just don't keep cash and invest everything except for a small contingency fund.

Excuse my really basic understanding of Economics, but how "investing everything" does keep you away from losing money to the bank in which your funds are? Aren't, the money you invest, already in a bank, and associated to your fund? If the bank fails how can you manage your investments (as I suppose you will lose your bank account if the bank fails)

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#158

Post by tremon »

jomamaxx wrote: post #8
Red_Tarsius wrote: post #2

The Economist has often badmouthed Italy. The title is way too sensationalist. The comment section also highlights this ethnic bias. I will never forget their insulting cover from years ago: http://static.fanpage.it/socialmediafanpage/wp-content/uploa... . Just clickbaits and provocations.

It doesn't matter. The facts are the facts and the Italian banking system is in big trouble.

Facts are never facts when the topic is economic forecasts.

Re: Italy’s teetering banks will be Europe’s next crisis

#160

Post by pjmlp »

blablablame wrote: post #153
pjmlp wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Germany's instance to be a stickler for sticklers sake is not helping anybody Which is why I mentioned "but many here don't understand you cannot just change a country's culture by forcing them to strictly follow EU rules.". The VW case is seen by many as an exception and usually every corruption case tends to be dealt exemplary, whereas in my home country (PT) corruption, specially the small one (owning favors) is…

Think you are painting a starker picture than it really is. I never paid a 'bribe' or a lunch to anyone in 33 years living here (Porto and Algarve). My parents have said to me the same. There was one occasion where a gov. official asked for one from my father for a license for either a building permit or some construction permit (not sure) and as soon as my father heard that, called his lawyer in front of him and tol…

Some examples that I am familiar with, by no means an exhaustive list.

- Not asking for a receipt when going to a private doctor to save on VAT

- Going to an unofficial dealer instead of getting the car serviced on the official brand stores

- Getting an hospital appointment to a know doctor via networking instead of waiting months for a random doctor at the district hospital

- Not declaring 100% of the income to IRS

- Renting rooms to university students without contracts

- Double accounting on restaurants

- Spending up construction license approvals on the countryside

- Black job market for farm and construction workers

- Work positions that are already given, when displayed on the Government newspaper

- Jobs by being the "sun/daughter/cousin of" instead of proper hiring process

Yes, not everyone makes use of those tricks.

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