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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Taro who wrote (214261)	1/4/2005 2:59:50 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578965

here some facts, check on them yourself: 2004 Germany Growth Rate: 0.0%. Unemployment: 10.7% (fresh as of 01/04/05 and growing). 2004 Italy Growth Rate: 0.8%. Unemployment: 8.6% (was 8.8% a year ago). Some other interesting info: Population (West only) Germany: approx. 65 Million Population Italy: approx. 58 Million (For all Germany add the ex GDR). That's about 16 million...... roughly a fourth of West Germany's population. That's the equivalent of the US taking on a third world country with a population of 70 million people. Is it all that surprising that the former GDR has been a drag on the German economy? As you know yourself the GDR part has so far not added much to the total productivity of Germany but is - your own words - rather a burden on the West (investments only, bound to yield a return in the future IMO). So why would it be so astounding that Italy could do better than Germany right now? Coming up from behind... It will be years.......probably a generation......before a revitalized GDR truly benefits the whole of Germany. Therefore it isn't astounding that Italy is doing better than Germany. But how would the comparison look if there was no GDR with which to contend? There is no question there are some problems with the German economic model.........after all, that's why they are pushing through reforms in the Bundestag. Everyone, including countries, need to 'reinvent' themselves periodically. Of course I am not talking about the total GNP but rather comparing deltas. With the Italian Delta a big plus and the Germans hanging in there, right at the bottom of the EU ladder for almost 4 years now. A fact. Add to that the intangibles, which you find out when spending time in Germany and Italy. Germany does, however, produce such important product as BMW, Daimler Benz and Porsche. Italy only provides rather unimportant stuff like food, wine, fashion and accessories of that and so on. Amazing they can do so well down there, really. indexmundi.com; I guess the issue at hand is do you stick with the one that has performed long term but is having trouble short term, or do you jump ship for the one that recently seems to have found economic religion. Frankly, I will stick with the long termer.

To: Taro who wrote (214261)	1/4/2005 4:28:27 PM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1578965

Italy only provides rather unimportant stuff like food, wine, fashion and accessories of that and so on. What a snob... Al

To: Taro who wrote (214261)	1/5/2005 2:44:49 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1578965

Angry Swedes vent frustration at their government's slow response to tsunami Matt Moore Canadian Press Tuesday, January 04, 2005 STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) - Hours after a tsunami flattened south Asia beaches, a magnet for thousands of vacationing Swedes, the Swedish foreign minister went to the theatre. Even though the vast extent of death and destruction was not known at the time, Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds' outing has come to represent for many Swedes the government's failure to fully realize the scope of last week's disaster and to respond quickly. As the extent of Swedish casualties has unfolded - 2,322 Swedes are missing and 52 are confirmed dead - normally tolerant Swedes have directed rage and frustration against government leaders, accusing them of incompetence and lack of leadership. That outrage is likely to haunt the current government when Swedes go to the polls in national elections next year, analysts warned Monday. The day after the tsunami crushed south Asian beaches on Dec. 26, Sweden, a Western country with a standard of living among the highest in the world, was slow to react. With thousands of its citizens injured, missing and dead, planes that could have been flying to Thailand to evacuate them were idle. In Finland and Norway, plans were already underway to evacuate their citizens, and the first planes were in the air Monday. Despite pleas from Swedish doctors in Thailand on Dec. 28 to immediately transport injured Swedes to European hospitals, the first two air ambulances didn't leave Sweden until Dec. 30. The number of missing is nearly six times the number of Swedes killed when the ferry Estonia sank in the Baltic Sea in 1994, the largest single loss of Swedish life in modern history. The reach is so pervasive in the country of nine million that Prime Minister Goeran Persson said it would be hard to find someone in Sweden untouched by the tragedy that has claimed more than 139,000 lives throughout Asia and Africa. "I am ashamed of being Swedish when I have a prime minister who says that they can't get more people answering telephones because it is Boxing Day and people have the day off," wrote Claes Thilander in an e-mail to the Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter. "Your government's incompetence shines like a bonfire in the night," another e-mail read. Persson was criticized for a lack of leadership with many pundits, political analysts and others warning him that his inaction would haunt him and the Social Democrats in the 2006 elections. But others reserved their rage for Freivalds, the foreign minister appointed by Persson in 2003 to replace the slain Anna Lindh. Tabloid Expressen said it received hundreds of e-mails demanding her resignation. Freivalds, a taciturn diplomat who is careful to avoid public displays or debate in the media, acknowledged that things should have been done differently. "We could have gotten started more forcefully, but the scope of the disaster did not become evident until after a while," she said. More... 1 \| 2 \| NEXT >> canada.com