BillyB wrote:ksl wrote:BillyB wrote:
I'm on the fence about Spain. It looks to be almost bailing itself out with a lot of cuts but no-one, apart from Aster of course who knows everything about the E.U, really knows the state of the banks positions - they are loaded with all types of debt on their balance sheets that cannot easily be valued by its sheer complexity, same as with the CDS situation in the U.S.
Portugal could be the domino about to tip and open the floodgates and scrutiny into some of the other member economies. Most likely to be the banks getting visitors from the E.U auditors to see if they can support another collapsed economy or have enough safeguards in place. Ireland is stress testing things at the moment.
My wife's Singaporean brother in law is an ex banker, and through his grape vine, Spain will probably fall too. These are delayed reactions to the economic collapse and have been anticipated, we were discussing it sometime last year due to outstanding mortgage debts among other debts and financial scandals, and cover ups were quite obvious at that time. China can bail them out

if they take all the pirate goods

Watch this space eh!!
I watched a documentary on the pirate goods market, Chinese from Fujian, infiltrated Europe through illegal immigration, and have set up factories in home, with literally thousands of $ of equipment to carry out the piracy from inside the EU and also in USA too, the estimated cost of lost revenue, in UK alone was estimated at several billion. Famous brand names like TOP SHOP even copy the latest fashion from the cat walk, that normally costs hundreds of £ can be purchased for £50 to £80, Nike and other top brands have just given up pursuit, as soon as they close one, another one opens.
The amounts are very significant has the money flows back out of the Country into China, this is communism at its best and no one can do much about it. The amounts lost are staggering and unbelievable, how they have silently invaded the Western markets with illegal factories for fashion garments of all kinds.
The US and Europe are at the mercy of the mainland, so badly, that I hate to think what may develop. Libya was taken for no other reason than to control the flow of oil, through the pipelines to there delivery destinations, the economic fall out of the delivery oil would have sever effects on the oil price. There is economical worries everywhere just now!
Only the ASEAN Countries are relatively untouched, with signs of significant growth. The competitive market unfortunately includes China and Russia too, with there political idealism, with oil being delivered through to Europe from Russia puts Europe at a disadvantage, without Libya oil.
The bigger picture is politics, military strategy and commerce combined, though many do not see it. The situation in UK is in dire straights it's weak and defenceless, it has no Navy at present, that can launch aircraft, so they having to rely on allies in Europe for strategic operations until they can afford their new naval ship. China is investing heavy in military upgrades too, along with the US, the Brits have to save up first
