Many Eastern European economies are in trouble and with them their Western European (mostly Austrian & Swedish) investors
Latin America will mostly just suffer a slowdown, the Mexican economy is expected to contract this year due to its high exposure to U.S. economic cycles
What does this mean? What we are seeing is the shift of economic power from the United States & Europe to markets elsewhere, and especially China, India and parts of the Middle East are in good shape to reap the rewards. However, since the system is built around the countries of the G7 with the US as the main motor of worldwide consumption, co-operation between all countries is needed, or else the rise of protectionism will amplify the current situation.
I wouldn’t be surprised if in case the crisis lasts long (hopefully not) China ends up bailing the US so that its own economy can keep on growing…
The funniest part of this event is that I probably understand more about Europe and Europeans than your average person hereabouts. After all, I’ve studied their languages and cultures for many years, and have lived here for a few.
There were two very interesting tidbits for me when they had this stand in Kamppi: I could read and understand more than 8 squares in this poster, which was surprising, and I was able to fill their test on European languages with full marks in under 2 minutes… and I’m not even European.
So, last night Spain were crowned (fairly) as champions of Europe. This tournament, in my opinion, was much, much better than 2004 in the sense that attacking football was rewarded, not only for the Spanish, but also for the Turkish, Russian, Dutch, Portuguese and even for moments German teams.
Pity we can’t have this kind of quality football every day.
In Europe, if you speak 3 languages you're trilingual. If you speak 2 languages you're bilingual. If you speak 1 language you're English, French or Spanish.
European tourists travel to be abroad, American tourists to be at home. Obvious when you compare the hotels catering to European and American tourists in Mexico.
With the current exchange rate, having expenses in US dollars or Mexican pesos and earning in euros is quite a nice value proposition. I could truly see that my money would last longer, and get more for it.
I have to say it was really nice since I already have a shopping list before arriving in the place.
While I agree with the right to strike, when it affects society in general or is pursued to maintain certain unfair privileges I am not so sure. I hope these are resolved soon.
The European Commission has unveiled a plan to copy the American "green card" scheme to attracked skilled immigrants to Europe. While it sounds interesting, I would really like to know what it means in practice, since as we know in the end the individual member states decide how to apply the Commission directives. It would be a good idea, but I'm still sceptic as it could encounter too much opposition from anti-immigration politicians, even if of course business leaders clamour for it. Question number two is how would a plan like that affect the naturalisation of said foreign citizens. People worrying from a brain drain should see what happened with India and China: their people left mostly for the U.S. and came back with experience and capital to improve their original communities.
A video was released of a Spanish man attacking an Ecuadorian immigrant in Barcelona because "she was an immigrant". Thankfully this man is now under prosecution. I started wondering how many of these attacks go unpunished. (via Alt1040)
In Japan (and in the rest of Asia and Latin America) one realises how low is the service level one is used to in Europe. Whereas in Spain or France a waiter will treat you with contempt and in the Nordic countries you will be challenged to find one, in Japan they will be tripping over each other to serve you. I hadn't noticed how much I missed not needing to wait ages to get the attention of restaurant personnel.
