...An Introduction To The PIIGS Posted: Jan 25, 2012 PIIGS is an acronym, similar to others like BRICS and EAGLES, that defines a certain group of countries that have some commonality in location and economic environments. In this case, PIGS includes Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain. While not originally included in the group, Ireland has found its way into the mix, which is why the term PIIGS is more commonly used now. TUTORIALS: Macroeconomics All of these countries are part of the eurozone and have been grouped together with the unflattering acronym of a barnyard animal known for its proclivity to mud, dirt and not-so- pleasant smells. The term itself is not an official title, nor does it separately delineate these countries from the European Union (EU). The term became a convenient way for currency traders and global investors to group these countries together. It has lived on as a club, of sorts, that no country would want to join and each participant would like to quit. While primarily concerned with resolving their economic struggles, the members of the PIIGS resent the negative connotations and some have renounced the use of the term altogether. Though each member has become a staple of the media's attention, many professional organizations have made efforts to reduce or eliminate the term itself due to its negative connotations. Their efforts are commendable; however, there is no mistaking that these countries have a history of facing economic difficulties, high...
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...The countries known collectively as the PIIGS—Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain—are burdened with increasingly unsustainable levels of public and private debt. Portugal, Ireland, and Greece have seen their borrowing costs soar to record highs in recent weeks, even after their loss of market access led to bailouts financed by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Spanish borrowing costs are also rising. Greece is clearly insolvent. Even with a draconian austerity package, totaling 10 percent of gross domestic product, its public debt would rise to 160 percent of GDP. Portugal, where growth has been stagnant for a decade, is experiencing a slow-motion fiscal train wreck that will lead to public-sector insolvency. In Ireland and Spain, transferring the banking system's huge losses to the government's balance sheet—on top of already-escalating public debt—will eventually lead to sovereign insolvency. The official approach, Plan A, has been to pretend that these economies are suffering from a liquidity crunch, not a solvency problem. The hope is that bailout loans, with fiscal austerity and structural reforms, can restore debt sustainability and market access. But this "extend and pretend" or "lend and pray" approach is bound to fail, because most of the options that indebted countries have used in the past to extricate themselves from excessive debt are not feasible. For example, the time-honored solution of printing money and escaping debt via inflation...
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...EUROZONE CRISIS The Eurozone in 2012 EUROZONE CRISIS: Eurozone fracture in 2012 This paper outlines a plausible scenario in which the Eurozone fractures in 2012. Events are unlikely to follow the path precisely as described, given the complexity of the problem and the number of variables which are continually changing. That said, we feel 2012 is unlikely to end with all the current members still being part of the Eurozone. Mapping a ‘break-up’ scenario should help readers understand how fragmentation could occur and therefore assist businesses’ contingency planning. To this end the paper highlights some key events and when they are due to take place. It also identifies some key indicators to monitor which are likely to dictate how the crisis will unfold. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY A plausible scenario for Eurozone fragmentation in 2012 would see elections in Greece, France, Finland and probably Italy changing the terms of the debate to reflect frustration with economies in recession, rising unemployment and hostility to proposed or actual austerity measures. In this scenario, Greece receives an irregular rescue from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) and negotiates a rescheduling of its debt in March. But once its April elections are over, the new Greek government is unable to secure bailout funds having missed austerity and reform targets, prompting a formal sovereign default. Greece announces its withdrawal from the Eurozone, closing its banking...
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...real-world economics review, issue no. 58 The Eurozone crisis: Looking through the financial fog with Keynesian glasses Jorge Buzaglo [Sweden] Copyright: Jorge Buzaglo, 2011 You may post comments on this paper at http://rwer.wordpress.com/2011/12/12/rwer-issue-58-jorge-buzaglo/ It is easy to become confused about what is really happening to the European economies. The media are totally focused on financial surface phenomena. Attention is given only to the developments in the financial markets, in particular the growing difficulties of the so called PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain) for keeping on financing their government spending by increasing debt — as reflected by increasing spreads in interest rates (e.g. compared with German rates). However, looking just below the surface one discovers that the Eurozone is suffering from a kind of disequilibrium that is similar to the type of imbalance existing in the trade relationship between the US and China. The origin of the US-China imbalance can be found in the huge expansion of credit and debt in the US (a Minsky-type process), which financed a large consumption and import boom — including a boom in imports from China in particular. The vast import boom caused in turn a large US trade deficit and a growing external debt. External debts cannot grow indefinitely; at some point markets judge them unsustainable. With a de facto fixed exchange rate between the dollar and the yuan, the only way available...
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...THE EURO CRISIS The entire global attention is currently focused towards the ongoing crisis in the Euro zone. The present article seeks to simplify and logically explain the crisis which has engulfed PIIGS. Q1) What does the term PIIGS stand for? Ans. PIIGS stands for Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain. The current Euro crisis started in Greece and has now finally spread to Italy. In fact, there is a worry that ultimately it will slowly engulf the entire Euro zone and that there will be sovereign defaults. Q2) What is a sovereign default? Ans. Sovereign default occurs when a country defaults on the loans it has taken and is unable to repay them as per the originally decided terms. Sovereign default is considered catastrophic as the lenders normally have to make huge sacrifices. Q3) How did the crisis originate in Greece? Ans. Greece had a very liberal social security program for its citizens. Govt aided healthcare, education, pensions etc. which were heavily subsidised as the Greek Govt was bearing the major part of the expenditure. The Greek Govt went on a borrowing spree to finance its expenditure leading to the current debt position which looks unsustainable. It is feared that there will soon be a contagion effect. Q4) What is the contagion effect? Ans. Contagion is derived from the word “contagious” which means to spread. The worry is that this alarming situation would spread to soon other Euro regions leading to many sovereign defaults. Already pain is being...
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...EUROPEAN DEBT CRISIS – ORIGIN, CONSEQUENCES AND POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS F RA N TI Š E K N E M E T H Abstract What is the European debt crisis? As the head of the Bank of England referred to it in October 2011, it is “the most serious financial crisis at least since the 1930s, if not ever.”1 In fact, the European debt crisis is the shorthand term for the region’s struggle to pay the debts it has built up in recent decades. Five of the region’s countries – Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain – have, to varying degrees, failed to generate enough economic growth to make their ability to pay back bondholders the guarantee it’s intended to be. Although these five were seen as being the countries in immediate danger of a possible default, the crisis has far-reaching consequences that extend beyond their borders to the world as a whole. Introduction The global economy has experienced slow growth since the U.S. financial crisis of 2008-2009, which has exposed the unsustainable fiscal policies of countries in Europe and around the globe. Greece, which spent heartily for years and failed to undertake fiscal reforms, was one of the first to feel the pinch of weaker growth. When growth slows, so do tax revenues – making high budget deficits unsustainable. Greece's economy has struggled since the country joined the euro in 2001. In 2004, it admitted its budget deficit was higher than allowed under rules of entry. By 2008 the government had narrowly passed a belt-tightening budget...
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...SUKRITI JAIN Will EU survive the second decade of the new millennium? CONTENTS 1. ORIGIN........................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 1.2 2. 3. 4. Perceived benefits ................................................................................................................... 7 Rules governing union (Stability and Growth Pact and Maastricht Treaty) ........................... 7 Faultlines ......................................................................................................................................... 7 current SCENARIO ........................................................................................................................ 8 WHY SAVE EURO? .................................................................................................................... 10 4.1 ALTERNATIVES................................................................................................................. 11 Split ............................................................................................................................... 11 Institutionalised austerity and ECB bailing out ............................................................ 13 ECB lends money to IMF and latter disburses loans with stiff conditionality’s ........... 13 Creation ofEuropean treasury/ EmpoweringEFSF ........................................................ 13...
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...This essay will talk about what is currently going in Europe with the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis and the fiscal state the European Union is in, it is important and interesting because it is still current affairs and there are various factors and decisions that have helped the path that the crisis is going in, this essay will look at the crisis but on the implications and problems that European union face as well as what they have faced already and whether the European Central Bank are doing enough to improve the situation and what their plans are for the future. A sovereign bond serves as a floor for interest rates banks charged for loans and for the pricing of other financial contracts and securities. The global financial crisis led to the deterioration of government budgets and finances as nations utilized public expenditures to provide stability and stimulus. The Eurozone suffered because of heavy borrowing practices, property pebbles and living above their means. The Eurozone debt crisis started because Greece who had borrowed heavily in international capital markets over the past decade were turned against by investors this is because Greece in 2009 admitted that they had double the amount of debt that was allowed in the Eurozone limit. Ratings agencies started to downgrade Greek bank and government debt, and there was fear of Greece defaulting and not being able to pay back its debts but the Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou insisted otherwise however this was...
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...ISCOR 300 Spring 2014 Tuesday 4:00-6:00pm Exam Study Guide IDs: You should be able to identify major terms, concepts, events, and people. A good ID response requires that you state who or what it is, AND its significance in the context of the course (how, why important? The so what question). Study suggestion: go through the readings and video, lecture, and discussion notes; make an extended list of potential candidates (20-25). Choose 10-15 to concentrate and focus on in relation to what a good ID should be. YOU WILL HAVE A LARGE NUMBER OF IDs TO CHOOSE FROM, 5 out of 10-12. Each ID will be worth 10 points, for a total of 50 points. FOR EXAMPLE, in a class dealing with international security, an ID for Aum Shinrikyo would be as follows: Aum Shinrikyo was an apocalyptic Japanese religious cult that released sarin nerve gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995, killing 12 and injuring over 5,000. The ultimate goal of the cult was to bring about chaos on an international scale culminating in a nuclear war, as a means of ushering in the apocalypse. The 1995 attack was an effort to test methods of dispersing chemical weapons, a step towards achieving that goal. Significance: Aum Shinrikyo was the first non-state actor to successfully carry out a large-scale chemical weapon attack against civilians. The cult illustrates a new face of terrorism, post-modern terrorism. Post-modern terrorism is defined as groups without specific political or sub-national...
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...detrimental effects of flattening is easy to view in the recent crisis of the Greek economy and its effect on the global economy. Greece is one of the smallest economies in Europe, however between the technological ease of information of the Greek economies woes being broadcasted incessantly and the interdependency of the European and other world markets, what was once a regional concern about the amount of debt amassed by a small economy has rapidly turned into a worldwide economic contagion. “Worries that over indebted Greece could default sent investors scouring for the next ticking debt bomb. The euro zone has quite a selection to choose from: Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain, which, along with Greece, form the aptly nicknamed PIIGS. Yields on the sovereign bonds of Portugal and Spain have already risen, a sign that investors believe holding their debt is becoming riskier.” (Schuman, http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1987598,00.html) Greece’s economic turmoil combined with other EU member states poised to default has caused a global unease that endangers the recovery of the United States market as well. The U.S. was finally seeing some signs of growth after a trying recession but now fear is back with a vengeance. On May 6th, 2010, amid simulcast images of rioting in Greece against the austerity actions, this fear bounced across the world as traders cast off bonds and blue chips with equal abandon and the U.S. stock market briefly plummeted by...
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...Tom Fernandez Professor James Terry HIST-102-H1 25 April 2013 The 2003-2007 real estate boom which led to the eventual 2008 meltdown of the U.S. financial markets unfortunately was not contained to the big banks and investment firms based mostly in New York City. By the time bailouts were implemented by the United States government, the effects of the financial crisis were exported to Europe. States similar, but not limited to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece, and Spain (PIIGS) have each been in the media spotlight in recent years as attempts to rescue their respective financial markets are implemented. Unfortunately, many efforts made by Eurozone member states and other international actors have failed in alleviating the financial stresses of the region. Considering this, then, is there really a permanent solution that can not only relieve financial markets but also prevent the crises from spreading? To date, the European Unions’ collective response up to this point has been insufficient in order to curb the further slide into Europe’s second recession. I contend, then, that Europe and the Euro would greatly benefit from following many if not all of Germany’s internal budgetary constraints in order to fix the overall problem of debt and spending. One of original intentions of the euro when it was established in 1992 was to limit the amount of budget deficit a sovereign member state could have. Furthermore, the euro was designed to prevent a “bailout” should a state be...
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...IWhat is International Marketing? Marketing a product or service across national boundaries in order to satisfy the needs of customers and the objectives of the organization. Different Terms: Multidomestic marketing: adapting product and marketing programs to each foreign market independently. Global marketing: marketing activities in multiple country markets are coordinated and integrated. Foreign marketing: loosely refers to marketing a product in a market outside the home market. International Marketing Environments Global Economic Environment Cultural Environment International Marketing Global Competitive Environment Political/Regulatory Environment Systems Global Systems Global Financial Systems International Monetary Systems and Foreign Exchange Market Global/regional Trading Systems (WTO, EU, NAFTA, ASEAN,...) Importance of International Marketing • • • • World trade has risen from $2 trillion to $18 trillion in last three decades. International trade grows twice as fast as domestic trade. Global marketing is a “must” for firms to achieve sustained growth. Marketing success will be defined on a global scale. Domestic and International Trade Growth Percentage of Growth 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% Year International Trade Domestic Trade Financial Statistics Yearbook Source: International 2011, International Monetary Fund, Washington D. C. Uniqueness...
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...XvÉÇÉÅ|v bâàÄÉÉ~ ภาวะเศรษฐกิจไทยไตรมาสแรกและแนวโนมป 2555 สํานักยุทธศาสตรและการวางแผนเศรษฐกิจมหภาค เศรษฐกิจไทยไตรมาสแรกของปี ประมาณการเศรษฐกิจปี 2555 2555 2554 (% YOY) Q1 ประมาณการ Q3 Q4 ทั้งปี 0.3 5.5-6.5 GDP (ณ ราคาคงที่) 3.7 -8.9 0.1 5.2 การลงทุนรวม 3.3 -3.6 3.3 12.3 (ณ ราคาคงที่) 9.2 ภาคเอกชน 9.1 -1.3 7.2 13.0 -9.6 ภาครัฐ -10.9 -12.1 -8.7 10.0 1.3 2.0 การบริโภครวม 2.8 -3.0 4.4 (ณ ราคาคงที่) 2.7 ภาคเอกชน 2.4 -2.8 1.3 4.5 1.1 -1.6 ภาครัฐบาล 4.9 -4.1 3.5 -4.0 27.3 -5.2 16.4 15.1 มูลค่าการส่งออก สินค้า (US$) -5.0 ปริมาณ 19.7 -7.5 10.2 11.8 9.6 22.3 มูลค่าการนําเข้าสินค้า 33.4 12.2 24.7 (US$) 3.5 ปริมาณ 19.5 3.7 13.3 16.5 0.6 3.5 2.3 3.4 0.7 ดุลบัญชีเดินสะพัด ต่อ GDP (%) 3.4 3.5-4.0 เงินเฟ้อ 4.1 4.0 3.8 0.7 0.7 0.6 0.7 0.7 อัตราการว่างงาน แถลงขาว 9.30 น. 21 พฤษภาคม 2555 2555 ขยายตัวร้อยละ 0.3 โดยมีปจจัยสําคัญจากการฟืนตัวของ ั ้ ภาคการผลิต การบริโภค การลงทุน และการท่องเที่ยว โดยการผลิตภาคอุตสาหกรรม และ การส่งออกปรับตัวดีขน ึ้ ่ อ ปรั บ ปั จ จั ย ฤดู ก าลออกแล้ ว เศรษฐกิ จ ไทยขยายตั ว จากไตรมาสสุ ด ท้ า ยของปี 2554 เมื ร้อยละ 11.0 (%QoQ SA) การประมาณการแนวโน้มเศรษฐกิจไทยปี 2555 คาดว่าจะขยายตัวร้อยละ 5.5 – 6.5 จาก การขับเคลื่อนของอุปสงค์ภายในประเทศและการฟื้นตัวของภาคการผลิต โดยคาดว่าการ บริโภคของครัวเรือนและการลงทุนรวมขยายตัวร้อยละ 4.5 และ 12.3 ตามลําดับ ในขณะที่ มูลค่าการส่งออกสินค้าจะขยายตัวร้อยละ 15.1 อัตราเงินเฟ้อทั่วไปอยู่ในช่วงร้อยละ 3.5 – 4.0 อัตราการว่างงานร้อยละ 0.7 และดุลบัญชีเดินสะพัดเกินดุลร้อยละ 0.7 ของ GDP ประเด็นการบริหารนโยบายเศรษฐกิจในปี 2555...
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...This assignment´s main objective is to clarify the Great Recession, it´s causes and consequences. Then, it will be highlighted the possible relation between the actual crisis and one(s) of the “killer apps” listed by Neil Fergunson, a British Historian known by his provocative and controversial views. Many economics acknowledge the Great Recession to be the most devastating global economic crisis since the Great Depression in the 30´s. This crisis is based on some factors, worth to be emphasized, such as easy credit conditions that encouraged high risk lending and borrowing practices; international trade imbalances; the housing bubbles; the fiscal policy choices by the governments, related to their revenues and expenses or the position taken by some federal reserve banks, especially on the bailing out process of financial institutions. The first cause we can appoint it’s related to the risk or actual bankruptcy of the major financial institutions globally, starting with the collapse of the “Lehman Brothers” (September 2008), a global financial services firm. Some of these kinds of institutions highly invested in risky securities, which depreciate almost their entire value, when United States and European housing bubbles began to deflate during the 2007-2009 period. Consequently, as share and housing prices decreased, a major panic was installed on the inter-bank loan market, resulting on the failure of many others large and well established investment and commercial...
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...The debt crisis of Nigeria and Greece Introduction National debt is a problem that can inflict any country including the developed countries. Almost all countries go into budget deficit one way or the other and end up borrowing money. The most direct effect of the government debt is to place a burden on future generations of taxpayers. When these debts and accumulated interest come due, future taxpayers will face a difficult choice. Inheriting such a large debt cannot help but lower the living standard of future generations. In the 1960s and 1970 some developing countries were encouraged to borrow money to service old debts and also to finance development projects in their country like infrastructure. This has been necessitated by the availability of huge oil earnings deposited by OPEC member countries and were eager to lend at very low rates. Moreover, it is misleading to view the effects of government debt in isolation. Government debt can be divided into two categories namely domestic debt and international debt. The International debt is facilitated by the formation of such institutions like the International Monetary Funds (IMF) the International Bank for Construction and Development (World Bank). Governments borrow money from the private sector and foreign governments if they can't pay for all their spending with taxes and government revenues. A government will issue bonds at bond auctions every so often and market participants will come in and bid for them. Market participants...
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