Germany, Greece, and the EU

[Dirk]

Originally Posted by deanhills

I don't think so. They want their currencies to be low so that their exports can be more competitive. Especially the US that has such an enormous debt with China, and must be competing with China with exports to the world.

The US and UK simply don't have an important export economy. Their economies are service-based. You have Reagan and Thatcher to thank for that. Germany, however, has its economy based on manufacturing cars, chemicals, electronics etc. It exports these - it's one of the largest exporters in the world. Hell, in 2005, we WERE the largest exporter in the world.

[deanhills]

Originally Posted by Dirk

The US and UK simply don't have an important export economy. Their economies are service-based. You have Reagan and Thatcher to thank for that. Germany, however, has its economy based on manufacturing cars, chemicals, electronics etc. It exports these - it's one of the largest exporters in the world. Hell, in 2005, we WERE the largest exporter in the world.

The "serviced-based" parts are exported on a very big scale. For example in the Middle East there is a satellite campus of Harvard University, there are people from the UK training people here in the military, and many other establishments. Consultants and advisors. Dubai has a large percentage of people from the United States.

[Dirk]

I'm not sure exactly how to explain it, but it doesn't work that way.

Trust me, there's a reason the dollar was kept artificially high in value.

Anyone good with economics care to help explain?

[David]

Originally Posted by deanhills

The "serviced-based" parts are exported on a very big scale. For example in the Middle East there is a satellite campus of Harvard University, there are people from the UK training people here in the military, and many other establishments. Consultants and advisors. Dubai has a large percentage of people from the United States.

Dubai is bankrupt. Not an example I'd use.

[deanhills]

Originally Posted by David

Dubai is bankrupt. Not an example I'd use.

So is the United States. Apparently it does not matter how bankrupt you are, but how much credibility you have. By the way, Dubai is just one Emirate out of the total of seven Emirates that there are. Abu Dhabi is the Emirate that counts and where the oil is. There is no oil in Dubai. Dubai makes its money mostly out of trading and its money problem is pretty much the ones New York Banks had before Obama decided to bail them out. Bailing out in the UAE is a little different. They negotiate the bail-outs asset by asset, such as the name of Burg Dubai, being changed to Burg Khalifa. Very rare that countries give their leaders a blank cheque like they had given to Obama for 1.2 trillion dollars in January last year.

[Dirk]

Ahem, back on topic, I have an update.

I flicked on AJE earlier, and just as i predicted, most Germans oppose bailing out Greece.

So i clicked on the AJE website and found an article on it. It's here:

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/eu...228967537.html

The German Government is currently opposed to the bailout.

Also as i predicted, there will be no problems for the euro, according to the article.

I opposed a bail out anyway, but then i read this:

Originally Posted by Jan Kees De Jager

If we talk about measures, for example about loans, they will follow the same kind of methodology as the IMF.

Now i just hope this idea dies ASAP.

I'm sure we can all tell, if that goes ahead, there will be a LOT more fighting in Greece - i'm frankly surprised the Government got away with so much already!

[deanhills]

Originally Posted by Dirk

The German Government is currently opposed to the bailout.

Hope they will stick with this however, as their instincts are usually always right, but when it gets to nitty gritty negotiations and they are part of a Group, they may have to change their point of view.