Australia/Europe/Asia/South America. How's your economic recovery going?

[bassguppy]

just wondering...

With all the alleged/real doom and gloom here in the USA it's hard to get any info on how everyone else is doing. Americans tend to live in a fishbowl and have little knowlege or for that matter concern for anyone else (usually).

What's methods are being undertaken to fix or improve your economies and is it working? Anything you like or dislike about it? Of course try to keep politics to a minimum.

[iamlowsound]

Here in Canada it is going very well. Our socialist ideals and heavily regulated banking system has made sure of that

lowsound

[champbassist]

What's making news in the Indian economy: petrol prices are rising like crazy and it's a similar story for diesel and cooking gas: these are the three most talked about, if not the three most important fuels w.r.t the Indian economy. And these rises have been unprecedented: petrol prices in my city (Kolkata) have gone up 31% in the last year alone

IMO, up until recently, concerns regarding inflation in the current scenario were addressed somewhat casually by our authorities; the rising inflation was attributed to temporary problems. Now it's apparent that this is not the case. Around a month ago, the Reserve Bank of India (the central bank which basically monitors all our finance and commerce related policies) raised the key policy rates by 0.5% (against the widely expected rise of 0.25%), in a bid to curb the inflation.

From what's being stated by the authorities, we might see some moderation in the inflation, by the second half of this fiscal year. I'm not sure. From a commoners POV, everything is getting expensive in a way we haven't seen before in our nation's fairly short independent history

[JacobE]

Australia is fairing very similar to Canada, whilst we did feel the impact of the recession we did not actualy go into recession. were riding high because of our vast natural resources

[Beamrider]

Spain is under the effect of a massive real estate bubble burst, which saw the collapse of the whole construction sector, the most important in spanish economy, and a raise of unemployment to 20% and more.
Since the average spanish family is heavily indebted with banks (mortgages, loans) and because effects of structural crisis like real estate tend to last for decades, things aren't looking bright here.
Politicians didn't see it coming and after the fact they put their head in the sand for too long. People are royally pissed off and - you might have heard it in the news - many are camping in the main squares, trying to push for change.
What kind of change escapes me - as I said, this recession is here to stay for a long time.

[alec]

It sounds to me like most of Europe is in a bad way and some of it is a total basket case.

As JacobE said, Australia didn't feel much pain. We have a highly regulated banking system so didn't go for those riduculous sub prime mortgages (though the screws have been tighted since).
And India & China are insatiable for our mining resources. We can't dig it up fast enough. Which is fine for everyone who's making money off it now, but it won't last for ever. Not enough is being done to prepare for the end of the boom.

[bassybill]

We're in the mire deep over here in the UK, owing to the collective greed of the financial sector and a total abject failure of government to regulate it. Recovery is not a word I'd use to describe our current situation.

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Originally Posted by bassybill

We're in the mire deep over here in the UK, owing to the collective greed of the financial sector and a total abject failure of government to regulate it. Recovery is not a word I'd use to describe our current situation.

The property market seems to be picking up a little at least.

But thats about it.

[caligula]

Originally Posted by bassguppy

just wondering...

With all the alleged/real doom and gloom here in the USA it's hard to get any info on how everyone else is doing. Americans tend to live in a fishbowl and have little knowlege or for that matter concern for anyone else (usually).

What's methods are being undertaken to fix or improve your economies and is it working? Anything you like or dislike about it? Of course try to keep politics to a minimum.

Doing absolutely ok over here, effects are still there to see though.
On average, people spend less money simply because many can't afford their "over-the-top" lifestyle anymore.
But, as I said, it's going ok.
IMHO It's only a matter of time until the next - maybe even worse - bubble bursts and things get real messy!
It seems we, the human species, are just a little bit too greedy.

However, I don't really get how getting information on other countries should be any problem. Gonna use my country as an example.
Harold Meyerson - How Germany got it right on the economy
BBC News - German economy sees 'record' growth of 2.2%
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/wo...14germany.html

[bmc]

Spain and Greece are basket cases. Switzerland and France are ok.

The Swiss franc is doing very well against the USD, GBP and EUR.

Time to relieve some GAS.

[allexcosta]

In Brazil Real Estate is booming and oil production is expected to bring economy to the roof in the next 10 years...

A friend of mine just signed a contract with Petrobras in the order of R$1 billion (around U$650.000.000) for 5 years of repair services in refineries and his company isn't that big.

[XtreO]

Fine it seems. Petrol up to nearly 3 usd per litre though.

[jmorbita]

thanks for asking.
I really don't undestand much about economy, but I don't think we're doing that good.
We should have followed Brazil's advice.

[MIJ-VI]

A perspective on why Greece's economy is collapsing, who's responsible, how it will affect other countries and what can be done about it:

YouTube - Max Keiser: Mass Rioting In Greece As Economists Warn Of Global 'Armageddon Scenarios' 1/3: YouTube - ‪Max Keiser: Mass Rioting In Greece As Economists Warn Of Global 'Armageddon Scenarios' 1/3‬‏ via @addthis

YouTube - Max Keiser: Mass Rioting In Greece As Economists Warn Of Global 'Armageddon Scenarios' 2/3: YouTube - ‪Max Keiser: Mass Rioting In Greece As Economists Warn Of Global 'Armageddon Scenarios' 2/3‬‏ via @addthis

YouTube - Max Keiser: Mass Rioting In Greece As Economists Warn Of Global 'Armageddon Scenarios' 3/3: YouTube - ‪Max Keiser: Mass Rioting In Greece As Economists Warn Of Global 'Armageddon Scenarios' 3/3‬‏ via @addthis

Stop Speculators: Stop Speculators via @addthis

[Pollinator95]

Originally Posted by Beamrider

Spain is under the effect of a massive real estate bubble burst, which saw the collapse of the whole construction sector, the most important in spanish economy, and a raise of unemployment to 20% and more.
Since the average spanish family is heavily indebted with banks (mortgages, loans) and because effects of structural crisis like real estate tend to last for decades, things aren't looking bright here.
Politicians didn't see it coming and after the fact they put their head in the sand for too long. People are royally pissed off and - you might have heard it in the news - many are camping in the main squares, trying to push for change.
What kind of change escapes me - as I said, this recession is here to stay for a long time.

Also, the government is throwing fistfulls of public money at private banks, and getting loans from the EU to give even more money to the banks. The whole country pays the bill, of course.

[GregC]

Good thread idea. There are definitely sources out there to check regarding economies all over the world; The Economist is one of the best (go figure ). So far, the posts here confirm what I've read (both positively and negatively), but it's good to hear from those on the ground.

The stock market is a little more optimistic on Greece today, it's betting that Papandreou will win a confidence vote later. Fingers crossed on that.

[odin70]

Everything is going fine here.
I was in Greece last month and i must say everyone seemed to be very relaxed down there..Maybe thats the attitude that brought them in this situation in the first place

By the way.. The Greek are great people. Hope they find a way out of the mess the are in right now.