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France enters recession as Germany splutters along
Comments
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So, did France "fudge" their finances in order to meet the conversion criteria needed for entry into the euro ? Has it come back to bite them on le derriere ?
Did any eurozone country NOT fudge their finances apart from Germany, and did Germany know but went with it anyway in their burning and ruthless ambition to overtake London as a world financial centre ?0 -
ruggedtoast wrote: »
He replied that Germany had to go through a painful restructure in the 90s after reunification and now these other EU countries have to do the same.
Yes I've heard Germans repeatedly asserting this. It also came out in one of those documentaries on the credit crunch, I think by Evan Davies.
An important part of the debate missed by a great many.0 -
MacMickster wrote: »Bangladesh does have a minimum wage - roughly £25 per month. You could probably get the very best workers that the country has to offer for 10 times that. Bangladesh also doesn't have all of this EU employment legislation to drive up costs.
If the major markets for these companies going forward are likely to be Russia, India and China, then I can't see the downside to setting up in Bangladesh. True there are likely to be tariffs on imports to the EU, but that is a shrinking market anyway.
There's a real tension between bargain seeking consumers on the one hand and workers wages on the other. Time and again we see posters with platitudes such as 'all workers deserve a living wage' and then in another thread in the grab-it board 'I've found cheap as chips football boots online' (made in Bangladesh, is the missing part).0 -
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So, did France "fudge" their finances in order to meet the conversion criteria needed for entry into the euro ? Has it come back to bite them on le derriere ?
Yes.... Did any eurozone country NOT fudge their finances apart from Germany, and did Germany know but went with it anyway in their burning and ruthless ambition to overtake London as a world financial centre ?
Well, according to the BBC, the answer is - Spain. And contrary to popular belief, the Germans fudged their numbers as well.
Eurozone crisis explained
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-162905980 -
Exactly, they have benefitted enormously from the Euro being held down by weaker econonomies so their exports cost less.I wonder how many they would be selling if the were priced in Deutschmarks
It well past time that individual EU members currencies reflected their economies 
They have and will do everything possible to keep Greece, Cyprus etc in the Euro because it's in their interest,0 -
So, did France "fudge" their finances in order to meet the conversion criteria needed for entry into the euro ? Has it come back to bite them on le derriere ?
Did any eurozone country NOT fudge their finances apart from Germany, and did Germany know but went with it anyway in their burning and ruthless ambition to overtake London as a world financial centre ?
Germany was the first country to break the rules on having budget deficits < 3% IIRC. France was, I believe the second.
They had the rules about imposing fines waived.0 -
Yes I've heard Germans repeatedly asserting this. It also came out in one of those documentaries on the credit crunch, I think by Evan Davies.
An important part of the debate missed by a great many.
Yes, Germans like to point to this but they always forget to mention why.
It was a purely political decision by the West German chancellor Herr Cabbage to convert the Ost-Mark to the Deutsche Mark at par. It was done against the advice of the Bundesbank, many other German politicians and most of all their fellow EU and ERM members and went directly against the requests of the US and Japan not to follow this path.
It amounted to a huge monetary subsidy to East Germany from West Germany, and a huge fiscal stimulus.
The fallout from this ludicrous decision caused ramifications felt throughout the World, especially felt by other ERM members.
It also made Industry in the former East hugely uncompetitive, which again required further subsidy.
It wasn't just Germany that paid the huge price of reunification.
An important part of the debate missed by a great many'In nature, there are neither rewards nor punishments - there are Consequences.'0 -
Yes, Germans like to point to this but they always forget to mention why.
It was a purely political decision by the West German chancellor Herr Cabbage to convert the Ost-Mark to the Deutsche Mark at par. It was done against the advice of the Bundesbank, many other German politicians and most of all their fellow EU and ERM members and went directly against the requests of the US and Japan not to follow this path.
It amounted to a huge monetary subsidy to East Germany from West Germany, and a huge fiscal stimulus.
The fallout from this ludicrous decision caused ramifications felt throughout the World, especially felt by other ERM members.
It also made Industry in the former East hugely uncompetitive, which again required further subsidy.
It wasn't just Germany that paid the huge price of reunification.
An important part of the debate missed by a great many
To stir the pot a little, perhaps there is no good reason for the Germans to give a flying fox what the economic impact of reunification is or was.
It's not like 1980s German people asked to be partly a satellite state of the USSR and partly the playground of NATO's squadies.
Was it Mr Volker who said, "It may be out currency but it's your problem"? The Germans didn't force Mr Lawson to hitch the quid to the DEM after all.0 -
Yes, Germans like to point to this but they always forget to mention why.
It was a purely political decision by the West German chancellor Herr Cabbage to convert the Ost-Mark to the Deutsche Mark at par. It was done against the advice of the Bundesbank, many other German politicians and most of all their fellow EU and ERM members and went directly against the requests of the US and Japan not to follow this path.
It amounted to a huge monetary subsidy to East Germany from West Germany, and a huge fiscal stimulus.
The fallout from this ludicrous decision caused ramifications felt throughout the World, especially felt by other ERM members.
It also made Industry in the former East hugely uncompetitive, which again required further subsidy.
It wasn't just Germany that paid the huge price of reunification.
An important part of the debate missed by a great many
Sounds like the Euro project 'Just think for a moment what a prospect that is. A single market without barriers visible or invisible giving you direct and unhindered access to the purchasing power of over 300 million of the worlds wealthiest and most prosperous people' Margaret Thatcher0
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