18 Signs That Massive Economic Problems Are Erupting All Over The Planet
By Michael, on June 2nd, 2013
In fact, a whole bunch of recent polls and surveys show that the American people are starting to feel much better about how the U.S. economy is performing. Unfortunately, the false prosperity that we are currently enjoying is not going to last much longer. Just look at what is happening in Europe. The eurozone is now in the midst of the longest recession that it has ever experienced. Just look at what is happening over in Asia. Economic growth in India is the lowest that it has been in a decade and the Japanese financial system is beginning to spin wildly out of control. One of the only places on the entire planet where serious economic problems have not already erupted is in the United States, and that is only because we have “kicked the can down the road” by recklessly printing money and by borrowing money at an unprecedented rate. Unfortunately, the “sugar high” produced by those foolish measures is starting to wear off. We are going to experience a massive amount of economic pain along with the rest of the world – it is just a matter of time.
But for the moment, there are a lot of skeptics out there.
For the moment, there are a lot of people that are declaring that the problems of the past have been fixed and that we are heading for incredibly bright economic times ahead.
Unfortunately, those people appear to be purposely ignoring the economic horror that is breaking out all over the globe.
The following are 18 signs that massive economic problems are erupting all over the planet…
#1 The eurozone is now in the midst of its longest recession ever. Economic activity in the eurozone has declined for six quarters in a row.
#2 Italy’s economy has now been contracting for seven quarters in a row.
#3 Industrial production in Italy has fallen for 15 months in a row. It has now fallen to its lowest level in about 25 years.
#4 The number of people that are considered to be “seriously deprived” in Italy has doubled over the past two years.
#5 Consumer confidence in France has just hit a new all-time low.
#6 The number of unemployed workers seeking a job in France has hit a brand new all-time record high. Many unemployed workers in France are utterly frustrated at this point…
“I’ve sent CVs everywhere, I come to the unemployment agency every day, for 3 or 4 hours to look for work as a truck driver and there’s never anything,” said 42-year old Djamel Sami, who has been unemployed for a year, leaving a job agency in Paris.
#7 Unemployment in the eurozone as a whole has just hit a brand new all-time record high of 12.2 percent.
#8 Youth unemployment continues to soar to unprecedented heights in Europe. The following is from an article that was recently posted on the website of the Guardian that detailed how bad things are getting in some of the worst countries…
In Greece, 62.5% of young people are out of work, in Spain it’s 56.4%, then Portugal with 42.5%, and then Italy with 40.5%.
#9 Youth unemployment is being partially blamed for the worst rioting that Sweden has seen in many years. The following is how the Daily Mail described the riots…
Sweden is reeling after a third night of rioting in largely run-down immigrant areas of the capital Stockholm.
In the last 48 hours violence has spread to at least ten suburbs with mobs of youths torching hundreds of cars and clashing with police.
It is Sweden’s worst disorder in years and has shocked the country and provoked a debate on how Sweden is coping with youth unemployment and an influx of immigrants.
#10 An astounding 10 percent of all banking deposits were pulled out of banks in Cyprus during the month of April alone.
#11 Economic growth in India is the slowest that it has been in an entire decade.
#12 Suddenly Australia is experiencing some tremendous economic challenges. The following quotes are from a recent Zero Hedge article…
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The BBC’s Jamie Robertson says the employment figures show “disparity across Europe”
Unemployment in the eurozone has reached another record high, according to official figures.
The seasonally-adjusted rate for April was 12.2%, up from 12.1% the month before.
An extra 95,000 people were out of work in the 17 countries that use the euro, taking the total to 19.38 million.
Both Greece and Spain have jobless rates above 25%. The lowest unemployment rate is in Austria at 4.9%.
The European Commission’s statistics office, Eurostat, said Germany had an unemployment rate of 5.4% while Luxembourg’s was 5.6%.
The highest jobless rates are in Greece (27.0% in February 2013), Spain (26.8%) and Portugal (17.8%).
In France, Europe’s second largest economy, the number of jobless people rose to a new record high in April.
“We do not see a stabilisation in unemployment before the middle of next year,” said Frederik Ducrozet, an economist at Credit Agricole in Paris. “The picture in France is still deteriorating.”
‘Social crisis’
Youth unemployment remains a particular concern. In April, 3.6 million people under the age of 25 were out of work in the eurozone, which translated to an unemployment rate of 24.4%.
Figures from the Italian government showed 40.5% of young people in Italy are unemployed.
Europe’s already dismal jobs situation has deteriorated further. If we needed a reminder of the lingering effects of the eurozone financial crisis, it is to be seen in the jobs data.
The general pattern is that the largest increases in unemployment over the last year were in countries at the centre of the crisis – Greece, Cyprus, Spain and Portugal. There was also a sharp increase in Slovenia, a country seen as a possible future candidate for a financial rescue.
The main exception to the pattern was Ireland, another country receiving a bailout, where unemployment nonetheless fell by almost one and half percentage points in twelve months.
The figures also highlight the “lost generation” concern that is, or should be, causing some lost sleep for political leaders. Unemployment among young people is approaching one in four across the eurozone and it is 40% or higher in a few countries – Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy.
“We have to deal with the social crisis, which is expressed particularly in spreading youth unemployment, and place it at the centre of political action,” said Italy’s President Giorgio Napolitano.
In the 12 months to April, 1.6 million people lost their jobs in the eurozone.
While the jobless figure in the eurozone climbed for the 24th consecutive month, the unemployment rate for the full 27-member European Union remained at 11%.
The eurozone is in its longest recession since it was created in 1999. At 1.4%, inflation is far below the 2% target set by the European Central Bank (ECB).
Consumer spending remains subdued. Figures released on Friday showed that retail sales in Germany fell 0.4% in April compared with the previous month.
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By Mark Lowen BBC News, Athens
Mark Lowen looks at the toughest equation Greece has to solve
Greece’s school exam season has arrived. But for many now facing the final-year tests known as the Panhellenics, the stress is twofold: last-minute cramming and the knowledge that they’ll soon enter the worst jobs climate in Europe.
At 64.2%, youth unemployment in Greece is the highest in the continent. Those between the ages of 16 and 25 are now the crisis generation.
At the Spoudi school in Athens, dreams have been put on hold. The school leavers longed for a stable job, for a future full of opportunity. But instead, unemployment and uncertainty beckon.
The economy won’t recover because the educated ones will go abroad and only the older people will stay here”
Christina Zahagou Law graduate, 23
In a final maths class, students pore over complex algebra problems. But how to stay positive in today’s Greece might just be the most difficult equation to solve.
“I’m not sure about my future,” says Nathalie Scholden, an 18-year-old who hopes to study economics. “I think I won’t stay in Greece because there’s high unemployment and bad salaries. A lot of kids my age feel the same. If we’re here and nobody gets the life they want, why should we stay?”
Among the other students, few are optimistic. One thinks of leaving Athens for the countryside, another of going into farming because of a lack of opportunities.
“In Greece today you can’t do what you want,” says Alexandros Delakouras, 17. “It will be very difficult to get a job in my country but I will try hard.” He adds with a smile: “Maybe, with God’s help, I’ll succeed.”
Before Greece’s first bailout three years ago – and the spending cuts that ensued – unemployment in the country was under 12%. Now it’s at 27%.
And among the youth, it’s more than doubled from around 31% in May 2010. Recession has hit hard but it’s the austerity demanded by the country’s international lenders that has had such a devastating impact.
Brain drain
Doing the sums
In Greece, 64.2% of 16 to 25-year olds are out of work
This has risen from 31.2% three years ago when Greece received its first international bailout
The economy is expected to stay in recession for the sixth consecutive year in 2013
Unemployment continues to rise and is not expected to start falling until 2015, the Greek central bank says
And so the brightest, like 23-year-old law graduate Christina Zahagou, are leaving. Greek emigration to Germany jumped by more than 40% last year. She is now following suit after failing to find work.
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By Niklas Magnusson & Johan Carlstrom – May 27, 2013 2:25 AM CT
A week of riots in Stockholm has torn a hole in Sweden’s image as a beacon of social harmony.
In Husby, a suburb north of the capital where 60 percent of residents were born outside Sweden and unemployment is twice the national average, youths torched cars, schools and other buildings in a show of anger that has unsettled one of Europe’s richest nations. The riots spread to more than 10 other suburbs in Stockholm.
A burning car set on fire in the Stockholm suburb of Kista after youths rioted in several different suburbs around Stockholm for a third executive night, late May 21, 2013. Photograph: Fredrik Sandberg via AP Photo/Scanipx Sweden
People exit Husby subway station to attend a demonstration against police violence and vandalism in the Stockholm suburb of Husby on May 22, 2013. Sweden’s youth unemployment rate was 23.6 percent last year– about three times the national average — according to the statistics office. Photographer: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP/Getty Images
“Exclusion, poverty and unemployment” are the main causes of the riots, Yves Zenou, a professor at Stockholm University who has done research on urban economics and migration issues, said in a May 24 interview. “They feel excluded from Swedish society. Many are not in employment, many because of discrimination, and many have low education levels.”
The unrest has shocked Sweden, where the economic policies of Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt helped the AAA rated nation emerge as a haven from the debt crisis raging across southern Europe. Yet Sweden’s aggregate wealth has hidden rifts in the economy as polices have failed to catch a demographic now taking to the streets to show its desperation.
Young people need “jobs as well as something to do in their spare time,” Iqra Siddiqui, a 16-year-old living in Hallunda, a suburb in south Stockholm, said yesterday in an interview outside the Skaerholmen subway station. “Another problem is that parents don’t know what their kids are up to.”
Police Detentions
Sweden’s youth unemployment rate was 23.6 percent last year — about three times the national average — according to the statistics office. A report this month by the Public Employment Services showed that about 77,000 people between 16 and 29 years haven’t studied or worked over the past three years, suggesting even larger hidden unemployment. By comparison, youth unemployment was about 153,000 last year, according to the agency.
Police, who as of May 24 had detained 29 people since the riots started on May 19, say most of those involved are about 20 years old. Their plight underscores how Europe’s economic pain is hitting young people hardest. According to Luxembourg-based Eurostat, youth unemployment in the 27-nation European Union reached 23.5 percent in March, versus 16.2 percent in the U.S.
Scenes outside Stockholm this week replayed images of youth unrest across Europe since the global economic crisis started. In 2011, riots that started in north London also spread to Manchester and the Midlands, in the worst youth unrest in the U.K. since the 1980s. Paris has seen similar violence.
‘Ordinary Night’
While unrest also spread to other towns over the weekend, including Oerebro and Linkoeping, violence in the Swedish capital have started to subside.
Last night was like “an ordinary night,” according to police spokesman Kjell Lindgren. Fewer than 10 cars were set on fire and there were no reports of stones being thrown at emergency services and no major vandalism. Between Saturday and Sunday, about 20 cars were set on fire and a school in a southern suburb was vandalized. Rocks were also thrown at police in the Vaarberg neighbourhood.
Reinfeldt, who gained power in 2006 on promises of bringing more people into the labor market, has struggled to carry that pledge over to immigrants and young adults. In Husby, an area dotted by concrete high rises, the number of people relying on state assistance is more than triple the average for Stockholm.
Sweden has suffered similar episodes of violence before, including in the southern city of Malmoe in 2008 as well as Gothenburg.
The Cause
Megafonen, a Husby advocacy group, traces the outbreak of Stockholm’s riots to the police shooting of a local 69-year-old man originally from Portugal. Police brutality and racist slurs have exacerbated tensions, the group says.
Dagens Nyheter, Sweden’s largest daily newspaper, has questioned those claims, as a columnist asked for specific examples of brutality and proof of racial insensitivity. The newspaper reported on May 24 that about half the people arrested on suspicion of rioting in Husby came from outside the neighborhood, and half of them had criminal records.
In response, the advocacy group posted witness accounts of police brutality and racism on its website.
“Megafonen doesn’t start fires, we don’t believe this is the right method for long-term change,” said the group. “But we know that it’s a reaction to deficiencies in society. Unemployment, inadequate schools and structural racism are reasons behind what we are seeing today.”
Small Group
The largest immigrant group in Sweden is from Finland, followed by Iraq and Poland. In Husby, of residents with a foreign background, those who were born abroad or have two non-Swedish parents, 80 percent have heritage from either Asia or Africa, according to city statistics.
Residents are quick to point out that the violence is being carried out by a small group that doesn’t speak for most people living there. Community groups have taken to the streets to help ease tensions and restore calm, which was successful over the weekend.
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