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As we all know we are in a global recession, sometimes I think depression but either way, what are some countries that were doing well that are now really suffering the most?
Also what countries seem to be doing good?
For instance I know the following have suffered:
1. United States
2. Greece
3. Portugal
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Ireland
7. Iceland
Going by Gallup the people of Britain, France, the Ukraine, the Baltics, and perhaps surprisingly Singapore saw large declines in personal economic satisfaction. While Cypriots and Romanians remain fairly downbeat on the job market and standard-of-living in their most recent polls.
Granted that's perception. The ILO has an article on jobs figures, "Challenges of a Jobs Recovery", but I couldn't get the PDF to work. Although a non-PDF summary indicates Brazil, Kazakhstan, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Uruguay actually had lower unemployment in 2010 than before the economic crisis. They didn't list who was doing the worst, although Europe and North Africa sounded potentially bad.
According to US News and World Reports Japan, St. Kitts and Nevis, Lebanon, Jamaica, Eritrea, Grenada, and Barbados are on the top ten for "debt to GDP." The three others (Greece, Iceland, and Italy) were on your list. Japan's had a bad economy for so long I've heard some call it "The Japanese Depression" or words to that effect.
Germany has been doing great. We (Belgium) are also back at before-crisis levels of economic activity and so are The Netherlands. I know France is also picking up...
The Bad: All the English speaking countries and affiliates (places they parked their funny money or fueled housing debacles). USA, England, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Australia.
Our capitalists have become more sleazy and predatory over the last few decades. None of these countries is really doing all that great financially in terms of real product output, but the appearance of productivity has been masked by ever more complex shell games. And the sheer rapaciousness of the financial sector has wrought havoc. We need to get back to actually building good products, instead of "derivatives" that enrich the few, and add nothing worthwhile to the country or the planet.
Greece. Who would have thought the cradle of democratic ideals would be so corrupt and incapable of self-governance? An embarrassment for all western culture.
The Good: Germany was not part of the whole screw up above, and they are doing fine. I think Germany is a good example of just doing good work day in and day out, instead of cooking the books.
A lot of other countries are coming into a period of incredible expansion (China, India,Brazil), and as their middle classes expand, they will continue to fuel explosive growth, that no first world countries can match. Apples and Oranges.
The In-between: Scandinavian countries cannot seem to decide if they want to be genuinely productive (a la Germany), or sleazy money changers (a la USA (Wall Street)). Iceland tried to play Wall Street, and look how that turned out.
Last edited by Fiddlehead; 06-16-2011 at 03:46 AM..
Germany has been doing great. We (Belgium) are also back at before-crisis levels of economic activity and so are The Netherlands. I know France is also picking up...
Even without federal government. Running on 5 governments in stead of 6.
As we all know we are in a global recession, sometimes I think depression but either way, what are some countries that were doing well that are now really suffering the most?
Also what countries seem to be doing good?
For instance I know the following have suffered:
1. United States
2. Greece
3. Portugal
4. Spain
5. Italy
6. Ireland
7. Iceland
Boy!!!!!! The U.K, is really in bad shape, and while the Brits I know complain, I'm not sure that they realize the extent to which it is not just financial but the decay in the social structure and the attitude of the population.
But then it is a mirror of the U.S. on those points, I believe.
Both the U.K. and the U.S. have been misled and undermined by poor political "leadership" from all the parties in their political spectrum.
Even without federal government. Running on 5 governments in stead of 6.
Yep, it's living proof we're better off without a federal government .
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