h/t Gates of Vienna
"The Truth," leads Handelsblatt, giving short shrift to the alleged parsimony of the German state -- and the astronomical numbers support it. Officially, German debt in 2011 stands at 2,000 billion euros. But that's only half the truth, because the major portion of expenditure for pensioners, the sick and dependent persons is not included in the calculation. According to new figures, the real debt is 5,000 billion euros.
If these figures stand, Germany is in debt to the tune of 185 percent of its gross domestic product and not 83 percent, as officially declared. By comparison, Greek debt should be 186 percent of GDP in 2012, and Italy's debt is currently at 120 percent. The critical threshold beyond which debt crushes growth is 90 percent.
Since coming to power in 2005, Angela Merkel, "has created as much new debt as all the chancellors in the previous four decades together," writes the chief economist of the business daily. "These are 7,000 billion euros on a bad cheque that we have signed and our children and grandchildren will have to pay." I didn't know Germans had grandchildren Continued on Page 47
And who actually benefited from the massive expansion of credit? (Apart from governments who would otherwise be unable to hide the damage their taxation => Cronies policies have wrought?).
#4
For every debit there's a credit.
To whom we must ask?
At least here it seems like the government is borrowing from itself, and is thus both debtor and creditor - which is effectively printing money and thus confiscating the value of existing savings. Once savings have been devalued to nothingness, this economic tool will become useless.
h/t Gates of Vienna
Six member States refuse to allow funds from the Common Agricultural Policy to be used as food aid to the poor. On 1 January 2012, the budget for assistance to 18 million Europeans may drop from 480 to 113.5 million euros. The aid to "Palestinians" have to come from somewhere. Continued on Page 47
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
