Europe should boo(u)st bail out fund-Japan
Japan has been trying to boost it’s Economy for decades, but without real success. Now they are telling Europe, what needs to be done. Boost the EFSF, and all will be great. It is funny, how all these failed policies, have not produced any wisdom, but to do the same thing over again. We know who does the same thing over and over, while expecting a different outcome-only idiots. From Financial Post.
Europe should boost the total firepower of its rescue fund and frontload its funding to send a positive signal to investors and international partners that it is determined to solve its debt crisis, Japanese officials said on Monday.
Japan has repeatedly expressed its willingness to help Europe contain its debt crisis, but has also stressed it wanted to see a convincing action plan before making any firm commitments.
“Japan like other non-euro countries is prepared to do something, but unless European contries take decisive action it is hard to make those steps effective,” a senior Japanese government official said.
Lifting the combined size of the current bailout fund (EFSF) and the new permanent European Stability Mechanism (ESM) beyond the current 500 billion euros would be a major step and an encouraging signal.
Spain faces a challenging 2012
The Trader has written extensively about the difficult situation in Spain. Somehow the problems in Spain have almost got “forgotten” due to the focus on Greece and Italy. We predict that the coming 2012 will be when the Spanish problems get more attention. The huge unemployment (+22%), the stagnating economy, and the property sector that needs to fall much more before attracting “bargain hunters”, will all add negatively to the economy in 2012. With more than one million empty properties, remarking the values on these properties will create black holes in bank’s balance sheets. During the holidays, the Economy minister, Luis de Guindos, is painting a rather muted economy ahead.
From Huff Post;
Spain will slide back into recession early next year with the current quarter and the first of 2012 both registering negative growth, new Economy Minister Luis de Guindos said Monday.
“Let nobody be fooled, the next two quarters are not going to be easy either in terms of growth or employment,” de Guindos said.
Spain has already made sharp cuts to its national spending and introduced several reforms under the former Socialist government, but the economy has failed to respond.
Spain began to emerge from a near two-year recession last year. It had two successive quarters of growth in 2011 before posting zero growth in the third period.
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