| Poster | Message |
|---|
serge
|  04 May '04 15:41 : 0 recs
Thoughtful,
I've also seen this mentioned in hte Guardian that Brits now account for 75% of all credit card debts in the EU.
In fact credit card debt (non-secured debts) together with mortgages in the UK have grown from 70% to over 100% of disposable income within just 4 years. That's the equivalent of 25% of GDP and is solely resposible for the 'growth' in the UK.
I can hardly see why emulating this in the rest of Europe would be a good thing. Debts are debts and will have to be paid back which immediately puts a big question mark over the future of the UK economy. |
|
| |  You must either register or login to post to Serious Topics. |
|
S Saines
| 04 May '04 15:40 : 0 recs
Carried over from the "Was War in Iraq justified" forum at the HousePriceChat Domain:
GlobalistQuestMark
04 May '04 05:07
Oh, this starts good. Fran back also ,-) By necessity there will, maybe, need to be some procedural ‘talk’ in the very beginning. I’m as most of us mostly interested in discussing Europe and not a humanistic failure made by some non-humans and their bosses in the far East ;-) There has been a flooding of reports from Baltic States and also Hungary and Poland at Swedish TV after the ‘enlargement’. Very interesting development, where just, with the wielding of the enlargement magic wand, an enormous focus has been directed towards the Baltics, especially here in Scandinavia. Finns and Swedes are starting to buy ‘summer houses’ etc. Ferry traffic increasing exponentially.
It is also worth mention Sweden has as the sole European country decided not to apply ANY transitional rules. This happened not due to altruism but politicking and tactical play between the parties ending up in this ‘guard down position’ ;-) Now there are few analysts (what a beautiful word) predicting any large amount of ‘Social Tourism’, which was the fear of PM Göran Persson and probably by the rest of the parties ,-).
Nevertheless, I got an idea – now when writing – on how to entice FT-posters here, even more so if a Euro forum is started. I won’t give the details, not out of some secret(e) CIA plan, but simply because it could spoil the effort. I will post Steve some thoughts.
Furthermore, I wonder how many of the old FT regulars were interested in sharing their thoughts with a limited crowd of likeminded. It might have been the case some were caught by the idea all the globe were viewing their accomplishments by presenting them in the globally renowned tabloid ;-) I suspect we can get more readers here if marketed in the right way ;-) At least it can’t be worse than at FT ;-)
As an homage to the house market ;-) I will brief shortly on Estonia. At said report, Nordics were buying summer residences at a price as low as 1/10 of prices in for instance Sweden. That was for land only. Properties with buildings are priced at 1/5 to 1/3.
Estonia was calculated to catch in on West European standard of living within 15 years and then prices would presumably be the same there as in the rest of Europe. They showed a sea-side land lot priced at a fraction of what you have to cash up in Sweden, not to speak about the Stockholm archipelago.
Regards
Globalist?
___________________________________________________________________
fra
04 May '04 03:30
Steve and Globalist here I am!
The whole site is about house prices?!? Is it a real estate agents meeting place?
I guess to tie-in the topic that interest me, I would have ask here, when they think their "house price" will be expressed in euro, if ever?
I read a couple of articles and I was shocked to see that their argument was the same I made over and over: those EU members that will not ratify the new EU constitution will find themselves out of the EU, out of the new-EU or whatever name or legal way it will be agreed. Steve, the willingness of the eurozone members to make the EU/eurozone work is greater than the willingness to accommodate all the 25.
It was an historical day for Europe, after the party and EU flag waving, the real hard choices are coming: how to make it work effectively! To which the EU constitutional treaty is just the beginning to tackle to the problem, far from being the ultimate solution.
____________________________________________________________________
These posts were carried over from:
Was war in Iraq justified?
I will be posting myself later, but wished the string to be started from the above posts.
Please note that I will be signing with my real name from now on, save for the occassional appearance of "Le Beaver!" for lighter moments.
- Former FT Poster,
Steve Saines |
|
| | You must either register or login to post to Serious Topics. |
|
Thoughtful
| 04 May '04 15:23 : 0 recs : edited 1 time : last edit 04 May '04 15:24
Someone somewhere published some fascinating statistics on credit card debt in the UK compared with the rest of the EU ( any ideas).
I suppose credit cards are not so easily available in some countries as in others. So if credit was more easily available in some of the recent EU members would it be a good thing for the EU economy and for the economy in those countries?
Then again is credit out of control in the UK and responsible for the dramatic increase in house prices to mention but one consequence.
Then again when rates rise many could be in serious trouble. |
|
| | You must either register or login to post to Serious Topics. |
|
Former FT Poster
| 04 May '04 13:28 : 0 recs
Monitor! Once again, Thank You!
This should be an appropriate blurb for the heading, albeit if Globalist or Fran (A Swede and an Italian) have a blurb before the surmise is posted, I defer to either of them!
"The EU has just enlarged, and faces many issues. Please discuss any factors directly related to the EU's health, sense of identity, economics and politics and how that inter-relates with themsleves and the World".
Knowing both Globalist and Fran, this forum will reach speed, surmise or not! |
|
| | You must either register or login to post to Serious Topics. |
|
MonitorCM
| 04 May '04 09:01 : 0 recs
Welcome to the new "Europe: What is next?" thread. |
|
| | You must either register or login to post to Serious Topics. |
|
|
|
|
