Posted on 01/09/2014 6:46:01 AM PST by IbJensen
European UnionIf you are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the "economic collapse", just open up your eyes and look at what is happening in Europe. The entire continent is a giant economic mess right now. Unemployment and poverty levels are setting record highs, car sales are setting record lows, and there is an ocean of bad loans and red ink everywhere you look. Over the past several years, most of the attention has been on the economic struggles of Greece, Spain and Portugal and without a doubt things continue to get even worse in those nations. But in 2014 and 2015, Italy and France will start to take center stage. France has the 5th largest economy on the planet, and Italy has the 9th largest economy on the planet, and at this point both of those economies are rapidly falling to pieces. Expect both France and Italy to make major headlines throughout the rest of 2014. I have always maintained that the next major wave of the economic collapse would begin in Europe, and that is exactly what is happening. The following are just a few of the statistics that show that an "economic collapse" is happening in Europe right now...
-The unemployment rate in the eurozone as a whole is still sitting at an all-time record high of 12.1 percent.
-It Italy, the unemployment rate has soared to a brand new all-time record high of 12.7 percent.
-The youth unemployment rate in Italy has jumped up to 41.6 percent.
-The level of poverty in Italy is now the highest that has ever been recorded.
-Many analysts expect major economic trouble in Italy over the next couple of years. The President of Italy is openly warning of "widespread social tension and unrest" in his nation in 2014.
-Citigroup is projecting that Italy's debt to GDP ratio will surpass 140 percent by the year 2016.
-Citigroup is projecting that Greece's debt to GDP ratio will surpass 200 percent by the year 2016.
-Citigroup is projecting that the unemployment rate in Greece will reach 32 percent in 2015.
-The unemployment rate in Spain is still sitting at an all-time record high of 26.7 percent.
-The youth unemployment rate in Spain is now up to 57.7 percent - even higher than in Greece.
-The percentage of bad loans in Spain has risen for eight straight months and recently hit a brand new all-time record high of 13 percent.
-The number of mortgage applications in Spain has fallen by 90 percent since the peak of the housing boom.
-The unemployment rate in France has risen for 9 quarters in a row and recently soared to a new 16 year high.
-For 2013, car sales in Europe were on pace to hit the lowest yearly level ever recorded.
-Deutsche Bank, probably the most important bank in Germany, is the most highly leveraged bank in Europe (60 to 1) and it has approximately 70 trillion dollars worth of exposure to derivatives.
Europe truly is experiencing an economic nightmare, and it is only going to get worse.
It would be hard to put into words the extreme desperation that unemployed workers throughout Europe are feeling right now. When you can't feed your family and you can't find work no matter how hard you try, it can be absolutely soul crushing.
To get an idea of the level of desperation in Spain, check out the following anecdote from a recent NPR article...
Having trouble wrapping your head around southern Europe's staggering unemployment problem?
Look no further than a single Ikea furniture store on Spain's Mediterranean coast.
The plans to open a new megastore next summer near Valencia. On Monday, Ikea's started taking applications for 400 jobs at the new store.
The company wasn't prepared for what came next.
Within 48 hours, more than 20,000 people had applied online for those 400 jobs. The volume crashed Ikea's computer servers in Spain.
Of course that should kind of remind you of what I wrote about yesterday. We are starting to see this kind of intense competition for low paying jobs in the United States as well.
As global economic conditions continue to deteriorate, things are going to get even tougher for those on the low end of the economic food chain. Poverty rates are going to soar, even in areas where you might not expect it to happen. In fact, one new report discovered that poverty has already been rising steadily in Germany, which is supposed to be the strongest economy in the entire eurozone...
A few days before the Christmas holidays, the Joint Welfare Association published a report on the regional development of poverty in Germany in 2013 titled “Between prosperity and poverty—a test to breaking point”. The report refutes the official propaganda that Germany has remained largely unaffected by the crisis and is a haven of prosperity in Europe.
According to the report, poverty in Germany has “reached a sad record high”. Entire cities and regions have been plunged into ever deeper economic and social crisis. “The social and regional centrifugal forces, as measured by the spread of incomes, have increased dramatically in Germany since 2006,” it says. Germany faces “a test to breaking point.”
Of course poverty continues to explode on this side of the Atlantic Ocean as well. In the United States, the poverty rate has been at 15 percent or above for three years in a row. That is the first time that this has happened since the 1960s.
And this is just the beginning. The extreme recklessness of European banks such as Deutsche Bank and U.S. banks such as JPMorgan Chase, Citibank and Goldman Sachs is eventually going to cause a financial catastrophe far worse than what we experienced back in 2008.
When that crisis arrives, the flow of credit is going to freeze up dramatically and economic activity will grind to a standstill. Unemployment, poverty and all of our current economic problems will become much, much worse.
So as bad as things are right now, the truth is that this is nothing compared to what is coming.
I hope that you are getting prepared for the coming storm while you still can.
Europe's act of a slow, sneaky oozing into world socialist governments and economies was an idea hatched all by themselves. While they were doing this George II was stirring the pot in order to fold us into the New World Order. Barry-Obama being the sort of indecisive little community organizer and trash pick up that he is rushed pell mell into destroying America as quickly as he could.
Part of his action had to do with the fact that he was no mere mortal Marxist....rather he had been street trained in passing out leaflets, stirring up riotous dissent then skinny would slither out before someone targeted him.
Bush helped as the Chinese squiggly light bulb edict should have been one of many tip offs. George is a statist!
global economy?..sure...he made moves that I hated....
but I respected the man and I still do....
barry is not even a grown man....he's a shallow little pipsqueak and the willing tool of America haters....America destoyers....
Is this why the UK is trying to get water cannons for the po,lice?
I’m curious as to what you are doing to prepare for the coming financial collapse. Are you buying metals?
I say- “Not again. You're on your own." This President doesn't have the intellect, experience, stature, diplomatic chops, what ever you want to call it... to do a single thing to help them if they get into a jam. They're on their own!
Yes, brass and lead.
Metals, especially gold, should be last on your list.
Go through your survival needs first, considering that any utility or line of supply may be hampered, severed, or non-existent.
After your basics, you might need silver to trade with, but arable land should be a priority.
Gold is only for preserving wealth for “the other side” of the crisis.
W outlawed the incandescent light bulb.
Sorry, but guilty. How can a free market conservative deign to take part in any sort of thing that would a) interfere with an open market, b) directly hurt the poor by depriving them of the best economic solution available, and c) use an act of legislation, rather than the development - by the marketplace - of a better solution?
On top of that, the act is going to leave a legacy of domestic toxic waste contamination that the X’s and Y’s will have to clean up.
Another gift from the boomer generation - GWB.
That’s the thing. Every ‘gift’ they will leave us will be wrapped beautifully, and if we are lucky, there will be nothing in the box. In this case, we’ll find mercury poisoning and $20 bulbs to do the work of a $2 bulb.
Both parties are to blame for what’s going on. There’s noting magical about Bush, other than his dad started undoing what Reagan painstakingly built, and his son took over where he left off.
In all of this, the question is never whether the Republican is going to stop the car from going over the cliff and actually back away from it. It’s just a matter of how fast we are going to be going as we go over it.
Obama’s got his foot through the floor, and with immigration reform, Boehner represents the nitrous oxide booster.
We are moving rapidly from the ballot box to the ammo box. Europe this year is going to be interesting to watch.
LOL, that’s a given.
Right now everyone should be buyig food and the means to protect it along wth PM. If you are waiting for the Republians to save this country you are dreaming. They are actively involved in the demise of the Constitutional Republic. The GOP elite are handmaidens of the progressives.
Sorry I don’t agree. George Bush (weather his fault or not) had an enormous economic crash under his watch. This gave us Obama, then loss of Congress, then Obamacare, Trillions in debt, etc etc.
And then he leaves office and never looks back except for a book tour or photo op. The nation is still burning and he says nothing, does nothing, promotes nothing, he’s a ghost!
At costco, you can get a pack of 4 cfl’s for 59 cents plus tax.
I turned away from compact flourescents after a little experience with them. I now only buy LED bulbs, yes they are expensive but they don’t contain mercury, at least as far as I know. They produce a white light that I prefer even over incandescent bulbs and my great room ceiling fixture containing fifty dollars worth of LED bulbs uses a total of 37 1/2 watts to produce a better light than incandescents that used 300 watts. I figure if the LED bulbs last anywhere near as long as they are supposed to I will come out well ahead in the long run due to reduced electricity bills. Eight hours of using that fixture now costs the same as one hour with incandescents.
LED bulbs are starting to drop a little in my area, they now are down ten percent or so from a year or two back. Soon they should be competitive in price with compact flourescents and I believe they will last much longer than flourescents as well as using less power for the same light output. LED light seems so far to stay the same rather than progressively going dimmer and more yellow as flourescents do. LED seems to either work or not work rather than needing to be thrown away while still technically working as flourescents do. So far the only failure has been one or two bulbs that did not light up when first installed, these were replaced by the store at no cost. I have yet to have an LED go bad in use.
I have four LED flashlights that have hand cranked battery recharging. One minute or so of cranking gives about 45 minutes of light, they are no match for the old two or three cell Maglight using D cells but they are quite adequate for walking lights and somewhat useful for seeing in the distance. It really is nice to have a lightweight flashlight (the whole thing weighs less than one D cell) that you can carry in a coat pocket and know that it won’t go dead when you need it most. A little cranking and you are back in business. I would like to see larger ones made available.
“The nation is still burning and he says nothing, does nothing, promotes nothing, he’s a ghost!”
W is following the long standing tradition (except for bj clinton) which is that after being potus, you ride off into the sunset.
Johnson did it, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, bush 41 all did it.
Clinton did not of course he is no class trailer trash.
If you have the money to invest in a long term lighting solution and are in a position to reap the benefits of the ROI over a period of time, then LED’s are great.
If you are in an economy that had 22% real unemployment in 2013 that was hit with the most massive tax increase in US history in 2014 (Obamacare), and you are living paycheck to paycheck (or unemployment check to welfare check), then all the ban did was kick the poor when they were down.
It was a blessing to go down to Safeway and buy a new bulb for a buck something.
Before long, there will be a government program that supplies LED’s and CFL’s to folks who can’t afford them, after stories in the press about poor families floating room to room with their last working incandescent bulb.
“This is my last light bulb. We use candles when we can. The new bulbs are so expensive that I’ve got to choose between feeding my family and keeping the house lit at night.”
And in the end, you’ll end up having to pay a fee, not unlike the one you pay on your cell bill, to provide LED’s to the folks who can’t afford them.
Screw with the free market at one’s peril. All it does is foster economic slavery.
That's what the libtard delusion,that people are helpless and the government is omniscient and benevolent, accomplishes in the long run.
I don't work for or own stock in Cree. I've liked them so much, though, that I thought it was worth mentioning.
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