If I had one euro for every time The Economist has said that the Euro/EU were wobbly/breaking/etc I could balance Liz Truss'es budget and have money left for some fish'n'chips.
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The single market is looking wobbly
31–40 of 97 posts
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany 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 plagu…
The 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.
And 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.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#33Another round of blaming Germany! I guess after the Nord Stream sabotage they need another issue. The whole of Europe took gas from Russia, but Nord Stream was the incarnation of evil. The press was full of Nord Stream articles and never mentioned the other pipelines. Poland took gas well into May 2022, and only stopped after Russia demanded payment in rubles. The Yamal pipeline is still standing. Europe still gets R…
> Poland took gas well into May 2022, and only stopped after Russia demanded payment in rubles.
True, but Germany did the opposite and started buying the gas with rubles. It's no surprise that this caused some animosity.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany 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 plagu…
The 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.
The periphery is and will always be poor because of cultural problems. People make the politicians, not the other way around.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#35Even with the rest of the comments here, the single market has issues, especially in the energy sector.
I live in slovenia, and with some minor modifications we have enough electricity for our country (two factories shift to half-production, and we're there). We also don't use a lot of russian gas, but mostly rely on hydro, some coal (we even have a coal mine) and nuclear... so, no problem for us, we're safe for the winter.
But, we've joined a single market for electricity, and (to very very simplify it), all the power goes into a single "pool", and countries buy it "at an auction"). ... this means, that we will produce enough power for us, but that power will be on the market for foreign buyers, especially the ones who earn 2-3x as much as we do (monthly wages) and whose governments will add aditional taxpayer money to offset individuals prices... one of those countries is germany.
So the result will be, that instead of keeping our own, and let 'the big ones play politics, they're the ones who started this whole mess', we'll be fucked with reductions in power too.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#36> The single market is looking wobbly Note that the Economist is British.
But also note that the Economist is reliable factually, relatively unbiased, and is in general respected in the UK and further afield for both of those things. Its coverage of Brexit and EU matters more generally is usually balanced, and probably leans towards remain/EU if anything.
> the Economist is reliable factually, relatively unbiased, and is in general respected in the UK and further afield ... coverage of Brexit and EU matters more generally is usually balanced, and probably leans towards remain/EU if anything
Hmmm....
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
This kind of ad-hominem happens on every Economist thread here. First order of business is to take a jab at the Economist. That just means factual things are being reported and people don't want to confront reality.
The Economist lost a lot of credibility with some of us around the turn of the century, when it fatally misunderstood US politics and wrote columns addressing people like Karl Rove and asking them to follow their better nature. (Karl Rove does not have a better nature.)
I've been reading Economist since a teenager it is by far the best source of general global news in bite sized format. Excellent in every way from writing to admitting to mistakes.
It is actually amazing that it is still relatively in the same shape despite of all the polarization in the world.
HN has a strict bias for attacking Economist because they tend to take positions on things HN doesn't want to confront (anti-EU in this article). My honest view of this place. So you see attacking Economist rather than actually debating the talking points, quite a pattern.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#38“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?
Germany 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 plagu…
That's an outdated view, Spain is the fourth biggest economy in Europe, and are net contributors into the EU budget.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
The 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.
The periphery is and will always be poor because of cultural problems. People make the politicians, not the other way around.
Is 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.
Re: The single market is looking wobbly
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
Germany 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 plagu…
The 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.
Italy 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".