Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Its worth mentioning though that after c.1998 it was a very low base to rise from...If the US simply defaulted as many South American countries did and wiped 25%+ off its GDP, GDP would soon rise as it would start from a low base, even if it took years to recover to its pre-collapse level.
Russia also defaulted and experienced similar growth despite a capitalistic tax regime (flat tax rate of 13%) and widespread corruption. Achieving growth after a default is far easier than achieving growth without accepting writedowns, as Iceland has found out. Maybe someone can post some charts, but i doubt Brazil etc stand out compared to other developing nations over the last 20 years. In fact Zimbabwe is the only one I can think of that has not.
Not all coutries in South America have defaulted. Argentina and Ecuador did it. And I think they were the only to do it...
Brazil has not defaulted. It has an internal public debt of about 40% of the GDP, and spends a lot with interests every year, because of the high interest rates in the country.
Many people (including myself), believe that the Central Bank should reduce the interest rates more agressivelly, in order to cut down the interest payments, and make more money available for public investments.
Mexico and Brazil, admirably, have both brought their birth-rates under control, very drastically reducing their birth-rates to currently about 2 per woman. On the National Geographic Magazine's website you can read their very interesting, recent article about Brazil's extensive family planning.
The world's highest birth-rates today are throughout the African continent and the Middle-East, where population unfortunately continues to skyrocket to totally unsustainable levels, with much of the young ones unemployed, idle, and totally desperate. A recipe for disaster.
l
Mexico and Brazil, admirably, have both brought their birth-rates under control, very drastically reducing their birth-rates to currently about 2 per woman. On the National Geographic Magazine's website you can read their very interesting, recent article about Brazil's extensive family planning.
The world's highest birth-rates today are throughout the African continent and the Middle-East, where population unfortunately continues to skyrocket to totally unsustainable levels, with much of the young ones unemployed, idle, and totally desperate. A recipe for disaster.
l
Man, in present day's Brazil, women don't want to have lots of kids anymore. Our government provides contraceptive pills for free in the public healthcare system, for any woman who wants it.
I personally don't know any woman here in Fortaleza with age under 30 years old who have more than two kids. Most that I know in that age don't have any kids. Some have one kid, and the maximum is two kids.
The new generations don't want 3, 4, 5 kids anymore.
I think this is very good, because now the wealth of the nation can increase faster than the population.
I would say China, Israel and most of the Eastern European countries (that were formerly under the communist system) have also seen improvement in the past 20 years.
I would say China, Israel and most of the Eastern European countries (that were formerly under the communist system) have also seen improvement in the past 20 years.
No doubt about China...
It's almost impossible to compare China in 1992 to China in 2012... Hard to believe it's the same country...
This is really a complex question, because a booming country's growth in GDP, trade, etc., won't necessarily lead to a huge improvement in the life of the everyday people. India is a good example of this. The middle class there has boomed, hunger and disease are more under control than 20 years ago, so those are definite improvements. But there is still great poverty for many people, crumbling infrastructure, and social problems that keep persisting.
Overall... I'd say the BRIC countries have boomed the most (Brazil, Russia, India, China). There are several countries that improved their economies by huge leaps and bounds in the past 20 years in east Europe... Czech Republic, Poland... actually those are more like central Europe aren't they.
The shock right now is the sharp decline in some European countries with the European Union problems and economic crisis... Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain had made huge progress, now it's disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.
Angola has boomed since the end of the civil war. Lots of new $$ in Luanda.
03-01-2012, 09:47 PM
Status:
"From 31 to 41 Countries Visited: )"
(set 8 days ago)
4,640 posts, read 13,919,105 times
Reputation: 4052
Quote:
Originally Posted by That Ottawa One
This is really a complex question, because a booming country's growth in GDP, trade, etc., won't necessarily lead to a huge improvement in the life of the everyday people. India is a good example of this. The middle class there has boomed, hunger and disease are more under control than 20 years ago, so those are definite improvements. But there is still great poverty for many people, crumbling infrastructure, and social problems that keep persisting.
Overall... I'd say the BRIC countries have boomed the most (Brazil, Russia, India, China). There are several countries that improved their economies by huge leaps and bounds in the past 20 years in east Europe... Czech Republic, Poland... actually those are more like central Europe aren't they.
The shock right now is the sharp decline in some European countries with the European Union problems and economic crisis... Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain had made huge progress, now it's disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.
I rather call it the CIRB countries (China, India, Russia, Brazil) much more than BRIC.
Other countries that had huge improvements in their economy and plenty of other things in the past 20 years are Thailand, Vietnam, Taiwan, Australia, Canada, and UAE.
That is true for European countries such as Czech Republic and Poland booming a lot in the past 20 years with a lot of growth. That also seems true for Croatia, and Slovenia.
There are plenty of European countries still doing very well and also plenty of them decent enough.
However, some European countries such as what you mentioned (Greece, Ireland, Italy, Spain), Portugal, and Iceland seem to be experiencing a sharp decline.
Also, other countries with a sharp decline the past 20 years are Venezuela, Zimbabwe, and Pakistan with much more political/government conflict, much worse economies, higher crime rate, and many more social problems for those 3 countries.
For countries such as USA, France, and UK they would not make either of the 2 categories. In some ways these 3 countries are very mixed with this subject and kind of boomed, stayed the same, and declined a little bit all at the same time for different things in the past 20 years.
Location: The western periphery of Terra Australis
24,544 posts, read 56,054,732 times
Reputation: 11862
I'm not sure if it's accurate to say Australia has experienced 'huge improvements' since it was never really that bad. It's economy has grown a lot, but for a long time now it's quality of life has been the same as Europe and North America.
This is really a complex question, because a booming country's growth in GDP, trade, etc., won't necessarily lead to a huge improvement in the life of the everyday people. India is a good example of this. The middle class there has boomed, hunger and disease are more under control than 20 years ago, so those are definite improvements. But there is still great poverty for many people, crumbling infrastructure, and social problems that keep persisting.
Overall... I'd say the BRIC countries have boomed the most (Brazil, Russia, India, China). There are several countries that improved their economies by huge leaps and bounds in the past 20 years in east Europe... Czech Republic, Poland... actually those are more like central Europe aren't they.
The shock right now is the sharp decline in some European countries with the European Union problems and economic crisis... Greece, Ireland, Italy and Spain had made huge progress, now it's disappearing just as quickly as it appeared.
Greece is doomed, Ireland, Spain and Italy have a lot of hope- they have healthy manufacturing sectors unlike Portugal and Greece - Greece has nothing..
I actually discovered that if Greece went back to the drachma, it would devalue by 90% and wages in Greece would fall to the levels of Egypt and Moldova.. what an unholy mess it is in
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
