Out of Pod Experience

But I never said that they were insolvent. It would seem that you are very defensive of Italy for some odd reason.
They could well be insolvent soon enough however. Hopefully their reforms work.



Well that is one way to fix it I guess. But you need more young people too. The ratio of working people to retired is an important one and in many places in Europe it is upside down. In Greece for example, there are 40 grandchildren for 100 grandparents.
Kind of makes a mockery with the not too distant legend of large Greek and Italian families. No more, that is a thing of the past.



Ok, I see that is your opinion - can you bring any facts to the table to demonstrate why?

HUGE WALL OF TEXT


If I seem defensive, it's a reaction to the uninformed *opinions* thrown around carelessly by people from North America who don't even understand the stark differences between these countries, and since they've never even set foot on this continent, they don't follow it as closely as people follow it here. The fact of the matter is there is much more information about it over here than over there simply because it affects us directly. As an American, I see it on both sides; for this same reason people here think that everyone in America has an RPG at home and is obese.

You ask for me to bring facts to the table. I thought it was rather obvious in the beginning with the difference between Italy and the PIGS: Italy is not being bailed out, nor is it asking to be bailed out. Fact. It doesn't get any more black and white than that. I'm not saying the economy isn't in the shitter...it's in the shitter everywhere. The bottom line is everyone these days is an internet expert in anything and they're perpetuating stupidity and ignorance with simple misconceptions...misconceptions like Italy's situation is anything like Spain's or Greece's, and I'm not speaking about their respective GDPs or deficits. People focus on just one single aspect of this and miss the bigger picture because they draw conclusions from half-ass blogs, wikis, and news sites that more often than not are completely bogus.

What you need to know is the end game for Italy in this and the possible repercussions. Italy is illiquid, not insolvent. What this means is that while the PIGS have the luxury of taking a handout from the rest of the EU (which includes Italy), Italy does not. Italy is too big to fail, yet its expenses are too great to be paid off by the EU. It's in a sort of limbo in which only it can get itself out of this situation. Imagine Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac having more expenses than the US treasury had money to bailout. This is the situation in Italy: 2 trillion euros of debt.

The biggest difference is that Italy brings much more to the table economically than the rest of the PIGS. As I said before, it's the 3rd largest exporter of goods in Europe and the 6th or 7th in the entire world. It's got tons of capital, but as you said it's all for naught due to waste, corruption, 60 million people living in a relatively small area, and a now-deposed overzealous capitalist named Silvio Berlusconi who did to Italy what Bush did to the US. Unfortunately, Italy doesn't have the resources the US has to get itself out of the hole as quickly, and as such we're usually 2-4 years behind economically for both booms and busts.

What everyone is worried about isn't that Italy will need a bailout, it's that Italy will have to withdraw from the EU altogether and go back to the lira, and that would almost certainly be the end of any meaningful entity known as the European Union. As a founding member and one of the biggest economies, that would be like taking New York City out of the state of New York. Just look at the panic over the repercussions of Greece leaving...and they don't contribute hardly ANYTHING.

Germany isn't worried about Italy's economy; they couldn't care less. They're worried about it causing Italy to recede from the EU because they would lose a gigantic chunk of money that is helping to prop up everyone else. It's like the US pulling out of NATO; if the US ever pulled out of NATO, NATO would cease to exist because it only exists due to the American money propping it up. When you see news headlines about the PIGS or Italy or any other struggling European economy and you see lots of brow furrowing and gnashing of teeth, it's not because they're worried about said country. They're worried about themselves. As I said before, Italy has suffered economically from the very beginning under the EU and has never had a booming economy with the euro. All this changes nothing. Honestly, the only way out of this is for more Italians to die off, and it's gonna start happening very soon because the median age is around 55 in Italy.

One thing that is starting to blossom, however, is more meritocracy. With less people sucking from the sow's teats, the bigger share goes to those truly deserving of it. This has always been a problem here due to heavy regulation. Now Monti is deregulating THE RIGHT THINGS, regulating THE RIGHT THINGS, and LITERALLY throwing out hundreds of superfluous laws EVERY WEEK that stifle growth.

As an American who is able to be flexible in the workplace and manipulate my skills to flex with the times, my freelance operation is doing very well in this economy due to the deregulation of certain things and smart regulation of others. All the whining and pissing and moaning you hear or see on tv is from people who want to work in a factory for 40 years and never have to worry about losing their job. They have no sympathy from me and they will be weeded out as better, more qualified people rise up and take their jobs.

That about sums it up!

Fair enough!

There are some good looking women in China... and I didn't see a single fat person in Shanghai. I was there for 2 whole weeks and not 1 fat person in sight.

I think they eat them over there

Sigh, all countries with currencies depend on this same thing. The market determines the value of the means of exchange.



Again, every currency in the world is measured this same way. The US dollar is commonly thought of as the 'safest' which is why most countries attempt to trade with it. It is the most universally accepted currency as well.



They made the switch because of the Oil for food embargo and that happened in 2000. If that was the impeteus, why do you think they waited three years to invade if it was so crucuial that Iraq continue to denominate in USD?

lol tin foil hat time.



As said previously, it was done three years before they invaded. lol

Here's another fact: Iraq was also attacked when they denominated their oil in USD...
That must be a real head scratcher for you.