I'm sure these would make his wife jealous
Posted on 07/19/2002 12:53:56 AM PDT by BlackJack
LONDON (Reuters) - Europe's biggest companies had 90 billion euros wiped off their market value at the open on Friday after U.S. shares slumped to fresh five-year lows in late trade on Thursday and as Ericsson posted gloomy earnings.
The world's biggest maker of mobile networks reported a worse-than-expected second quarter loss of 3.5 billion Swedish crowns, its seventh straight loss, and announced a long-awaited $3.25 billion rights issue.
That hit Ericsson shares hard in unofficial trading and knocked fellow telecom equipment makers Alcatel and Nokia down between 5.1 percent and 6.7 percent.
Epcos AG added to the tech gloom after the German electronic components maker unexpectedly announced a loss for the third quarter and said it saw no improvement in the fourth quarter, pushing its shares down by 13 percent.
"It's worrying that companies are not managing to transfer the seemingly good macroeconomic data into good profit growth, which indicates some sort of structural problem," said Sharon Coombs, European strategist for HSBC.
That echoed talk earlier in the year of a 'profitless recovery', although a weak Philadelphia Fed survey after most European markets closed on Thursday suggested the U.S. economy was flying into fresh turbulence anyway.
I'm sure these would make his wife jealous
However, the study alerts us to something that is much more important, and that is that the European welfare states are not making their citizens wealthier. Over time, the cracks in these relatively wealthy nations are growing larger, and if the disease is not arrested, much of Europe will tumble off into real poverty in the not-so-distant future.
And isn't that the crux of the matter? Sweden's politics stink, and they're going to get screwed by their politicians if they don't shape up. But as I said before, Sweden, no matter how you spin it, is not a third world country. And if you bothered to go there, you'd immediatly know what I'm talking about.
My biggest problem with the country is that, because of taxes, its ridiculously expensive even to visit. One of these days I'm going to write a student budget travel guide, entitled "Stockholm on $10,000 a day."
One thing we did for which I am gratefull is to take a ferry to Helsinki. I would have loved to stay in Finland for longer. Copenhagen was far more expensive than Stockholm. A Best Western was 300 bucks a night. Amsterdam was the cheapest place we visited. Meals were reasonable and you could find some tremendous bargains as far as lodging goes. And as much as people like to deride Amsterdam, it felt safe even at 2:00 AM. The Ann Frank House is a must see.
Been there. Done that. Forget it. It is a Socialist fantasy. Europeans (including Swedes) don't move to America because Sweden is better.
Last time I was there it cost $100 to fill up the rental Volvo. (20 gal at $US5)
It is all a paperwork exercise, anyway. They don't really have this much money. They just move it around from column to column. It is about time to begin the barter system again.
Great. I'll give you a dozen oxen, three hundred chickens, and a half acre of tilled chickpea-growing bottomland for a 2002 model BMW Z8, with a five liter, 394hp V8 engine.
What could these structural problems be? 30 hour work weeks? 4-6 weeks paid vacation? High personal, corporate and VAT taxes? The hoops and hurdles required to jump in order to fire employees?
Preaching to the choir my friend. What I took issue with was the absurd statement that Sweden (or any other country in Central or Western Europe, for that matter) is a third-world country. By any objective standard, that's pure horse pucky. Infested w/leftists. Yes. Third world. No.
A little welcome perspective....when the world seems likes it's crashing around us, it's nice to be reminded that there will always be beautiful gals, cute babies, cuddly puppies....much needed today.
Wrong, due to immigration reforms in the 1960's sponsored by Ted Kennedy, US immigration quotas favor the Third World applicants over Europeans.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.