2012-02-03

Greece shuts down

60,000 shops to shut down
The jobs to be lost concern 60,000 employers and 100,000 employees in the sector, ESEE expects. Given the data for a 6.2 percent fall in household consumption in 2011 and the Eurostat forecast for a further decline by 4.3 percent this year, ESEE warns that soon Greece will be in a condition of absolute poverty.
When socialists run out of other peoples' money, they really run out. Interesting that the end game for the more doctrinaire socialists in the former Soviet Union, Communist China and elsewhere, is the same for the less strict socialists in Europe—and probably the even-less-but-still socialist United States—total bankruptcy. China's economy was annihilated by Mao and the country switched systems in the late 1970s. The Soviets were more rational in their economics, but they were done by the end of the 1980s. China may yet go down again due to contradictions within the system, but Europe is the main event for now.

The safest places to invest are those where the internal social mood is positive and the country is starting from a low base, which allows them to grow through domestic demand. Indonesia and Vietnam would be good candidates, but they are tied to global trade. It will depend on whether China continues to grow through its real estate slowdown, or whether it tips into outright recession.

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