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Eurozone Inflation

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Comments

  • Generali
    Generali Posts: 36,411 Forumite
    10,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    chucky wrote: »
    Exactly.

    Judging or comparing an economy on the inflation rate is pointless. Looking at unemployment as well as the other indicators gives you a better idea to the state of an economy.

    Not sure what's going on with the quoting thing here.

    Inflation is A Bad Thing. It slows growth and creates unemployment.

    Unemployment is a Very Bad Thing. It destroys lives and families. Policies that make life 'fairer' but create unemployment disgust me.
  • grizzly1911
    grizzly1911 Posts: 9,965 Forumite
    Generali wrote: »
    . Policies that make life 'fairer' but create unemployment disgust me.


    What sort of things have you got in mind Gen?
    "If you act like an illiterate man, your learning will never stop... Being uneducated, you have no fear of the future.".....

    "big business is parasitic, like a mosquito, whereas I prefer the lighter touch, like that of a butterfly. "A butterfly can suck honey from the flower without damaging it," "Arunachalam Muruganantham
  • michaels
    michaels Posts: 29,238 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Generali wrote: »
    ILW wrote: »

    There is no link between inflation and unemployment.

    Inflation is in all places and at all times a monetary phenomenon.

    See Phillips curve and rational expectations. However see also behavioural economics.

    Would tighter fiscal and monetary policy in the UK definitely not see lower inflation and higher unemployment?
    I think....
  • ILW
    ILW Posts: 18,333 Forumite
    michaels wrote: »
    Generali wrote: »

    See Phillips curve and rational expectations. However see also behavioural economics.

    Would tighter fiscal and monetary policy in the UK definitely not see lower inflation and higher unemployment?
    Germany currently has an inflation rate of around 1.4% and unemployment at less than 6%.

    High inflation can destroy jobs.
  • HAMISH_MCTAVISH
    HAMISH_MCTAVISH Posts: 28,592 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    edited 3 November 2013 at 12:55AM
    ILW wrote: »
    Germany currently has an inflation rate of around 1.4% and unemployment at less than 6%.

    High inflation can destroy jobs.

    Germany has achieved that at the expense of wage suppression of it's citizens for a decade, and one of the lowest average net household worth in Europe.

    Germans are poorer than Greeks, on average.

    And I'm talking median, not mean.
    “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

    Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

    -- President John F. Kennedy”
  • the_flying_pig
    the_flying_pig Posts: 2,349 Forumite
    edited 3 November 2013 at 12:18AM
    ...Germans are poorer than Greeks, on average...

    it's late on a saturday night but as things stand i'm kind of scrabbling around for any meaningful sense in which that statement is at all true. blank so far.
    FACT.
  • it's late on a saturday night but as things stand i'm kind of scrabbling around for any meaningful sense in which that statement is at all true. blank so far.

    The median German household net wealth is €51,400

    The median Greek household net worth is €101,900.

    The median Spanish net wealth is around €170,000.

    The primary difference is that only 44% of Germans own their own home, whereas the Greek and Spanish rates are significantly higher.

    Secondary causes are that German household size is smaller, on average, than that of Greece and Spain. And that concentration of wealth in Germany is higher amongst a smaller group.

    While Germany is a richer country than most in Europe overall, this wealth has come at the expense of the masses.

    Even when comparing to basket case economies like Spain, the GINI coefficient measuring wealth inequality has Germany at 0.76 and Spain at 0.58.

    In other words, Germany is a significantly less equal society in regards to wealth distribution than Spain, and the benefits of German "wealth" are not trickling down to it's people.

    Therefore the average (median) German citizen is markedly poorer than the average citizens of many other European countries.

    Even if you adjust for skew in average household sizes, German per capita net wealth is around 15% lower than Spanish net wealth per capita.

    The average German citizen is amongst the poorest in western Europe. Despite Germany being amongst the richest countries in Western Europe.

    German economic policy is hardly something to aspire to.
    “The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie – deliberate, contrived, and dishonest – but the myth, persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic.

    Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.”

    -- President John F. Kennedy”
  • ILW
    ILW Posts: 18,333 Forumite
    Germany has achieved that at the expense of wage suppression of it's citizens for a decade, and one of the lowest average net household worth in Europe.

    Germans are poorer than Greeks, on average.

    And I'm talking median, not mean.

    Is it not true that the standard of living in Germany is higher though? Wealth (mainly tied up in the value of ones home) is rather illiquid and does not always put food on the table or pay for such things a medicine (eg Greece)
  • michaels
    michaels Posts: 29,238 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    The median German household net wealth is €51,400

    The median Greek household net worth is €101,900.

    The median Spanish net wealth is around €170,000.

    The primary difference is that only 44% of Germans own their own home, whereas the Greek and Spanish rates are significantly higher.

    Secondary causes are that German household size is smaller, on average, than that of Greece and Spain. And that concentration of wealth in Germany is higher amongst a smaller group.

    While Germany is a richer country than most in Europe overall, this wealth has come at the expense of the masses.

    Even when comparing to basket case economies like Spain, the GINI coefficient measuring wealth inequality has Germany at 0.76 and Spain at 0.58.

    In other words, Germany is a significantly less equal society in regards to wealth distribution than Spain, and the benefits of German "wealth" are not trickling down to it's people.

    Therefore the average (median) German citizen is markedly poorer than the average citizens of many other European countries.

    Even if you adjust for skew in average household sizes, German per capita net wealth is around 15% lower than Spanish net wealth per capita.

    The average German citizen is amongst the poorest in western Europe. Despite Germany being amongst the richest countries in Western Europe.

    German economic policy is hardly something to aspire to.

    Interesting numbers but could Germany not increase its apparent median wealth simply by the govt borrowing a large percentage of GDP (to put its debt to GDP ratio closer to Greece) and distributing it to the population at large. The people would appear to have more assets but the country's overall budget position is unchanged?
    I think....
  • antrobus
    antrobus Posts: 17,386 Forumite
    michaels wrote: »
    Interesting numbers but could Germany not increase its apparent median wealth simply by the govt borrowing a large percentage of GDP (to put its debt to GDP ratio closer to Greece) and distributing it to the population at large. The people would appear to have more assets but the country's overall budget position is unchanged?

    Interesting indeed. Here is an article from Forbes explaining why all is not what it might seem - http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/04/15/seriously-cyprus-is-not-richer-than-germany/

    Brief synopsis; the figures are for household wealth, and Germany has the lowest average number of persons per household in the Euro area (2.04 compared to say 2.68 for Spain) i.e if the average Spaniard and the average German possessed exactly the same amount of wealth, Spanish households would be richer because there's more people per household. Whilst the definition of wealth used excludes the value of pensions, both state and occupational. Which is rather a big omission really.

    P.S. Original source of numbers is this ECB report.
    http://www.ecb.europa.eu/pub/pdf/other/ecbsp2en.pdf?0696a13c1992dcabc79eebed533574f2
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