Portugal

[cromwell]

Apparently they are on the edge of the financial precipice now. My son has just come back from a holiday there. They stayed in a lovely Villa near Albufuera; it was like a ghost estate; most of the other villas have not been sold since they were built. Like Ireland, Spain and Cyprus there seems to have been a big building boom and an even bigger bust.
And the government want us to start a building boom as well...

[Workingman]

It is very worrying. There are those who want us to borrow to build homes when there are over 1 million residential units empty. They want to borrow to build a train line: HS2. They want to borrow to upgrade or replace Heathrow Airport. They want to borrow.....

They do not want to borrow to ensure the lights stay on. They do not want to borrow to invest in factories to provide work. They do not want to borrow to invest in science, R&D or technology.

Portugal is only one example of worthless borrowing.

[Suff]

Portugal is just another of the "southern states" put on ice until the northern states could mitigate the cost of their unpaid debt.

They aren't descending into anything. They have been in the abyss since 2008 and we are allowed to see the depth of the mess, one small step at a time. This prevents panic, capital flight and keeps the rich nations rich.

I clearly recall reading a sidebar of the FT when flying into and out of Switzerland. It said "The bankers reports are like a Dance of the Seven Veils. Where the black hole becomes bigger as each veil is removed". In fact, from a banking perspective, world wide, we are at about Veil 4.

The bad news is being rationed. The true news is that Italy and Spain are likely to exit the Euro and devalue. Probably starting with Italy. Then, let the games begin.

This is not an "IF", this is a "When".

Time will tell.

[cromwell]

The bad news is being rationed.

I think there is a lot of truth in this.

[Workingman]

The bad news is being rationed.

Is it? The newssphere is full of it. What about the good news? Is there none or is it being hidden?

The true news is that Italy and Spain are likely to exit the Euro and devalue. Probably starting with Italy.

Not news at all, more a wish list of those who want the € to fail. It would be more correct if the adverb "Hopefully" was added to the beginning of the sentence or between "that" and "Italy".

Poor borrowing and disastrous financial mismanagement have nothing to do with the €. We are not members and look at how well we have done!

[Suff]

Poor borrowing and disastrous financial mismanagement have nothing to do with the €. We are not members and look at how well we have done!

Actually we're doing better than almost any country in the Eurozone except Germany.

A fact which is being withheld from the UK people by the press. Yes we had a catastrophic meltdown. Most of the Eurozone was in exactly the same situation as the UK except they have a catastrophic LieGate issue. Simply put, the lies are beginning to unravel the situation.

Italy is heading for 150% of GDP in debt. Ok it's a far cry from the 1,000% that Athens has to deal with but then The Athens economy was $345bn and the Italian economy is $2tn. Italian debt continues to grow year on year as they continue to run a deficit. Their debt continues to rise in cost so the cheap, expiring, 10 year bonds are being replaced with expensive 3 or 10 year bonds.

Just as everywhere in the EU debt circle, the situation is untenable and can't go on. There will be a "Lehmans" moment when they let someone go and the financial markets realise that the $3.3tn German GDP cannot support $10tn of Eurozone economy which is running a deficit and nobody is talking surplus. Everyone is talking "Borrow to invest and grow".

There is no growth, there is no "Invest". There is just more and more and more debt and higher and higher cost.

There is no good news in the Eurozone. It's all bad and it's getting worse.

The good news is in the UK economy and that is not being told because it would make the Eurozone news worse.