Greece and Portugal in the red

[shanagarry]

There are two very large developments here in nearby Bognor Regis - one owned by Persimmon and the other by Berkeley Homes that were 'put-on-ice' in September 2008. They will create 4,000 homes when developed.

On January 4th (just gone) both sites sparked into life - with over 50 blokes doing whatever it takes to get the ground work underway. They are now fully operational with the attendant trucks and mess. I will be intrigued to learn who is going to be buying these properties and with what?

[martin]

perhaps some of the 200 billion that has been photocopied and then pumped into the economy

its all smoke and mirrors

one woman in portimao a few years ago had an accident in her vw..the repair bill was to about 2000 euros

she told the garage she didnt have 2000 euros

nao problemo...they just traded her car in and fixed her up with a brand new vw on credit

so she now drives around in a brand new car....although she didnt have the money for the repair..such is life..

as gordon gekko said in the film "wall street"

"illusion has become reality!"

[cereza]

It's a strange thing that a recession is declared after 2 quarters of negative growth yet to come out of that recession requires only 1 quarter of positive growth !!
The markets today were looking for a rise of 0-4% in 4th quarter GDP but in the event it was only the minimum at 0-1%.
Hardly inspiring and it resulted in a drop in cable although £/Euro has held up fairly well.
I wouldn't mind betting that the 1st quarter of 2010 results in another negative or zero growth figure. The UK position is dire and just from anecdotal information a return of consumer activity has to be very doubtful. There is no question that we are in for a tough time and that we need strong government to sort things out just as Portugal does.

[shanagarry]

OK - where do we start - Pato - what are you doing for the next 4 years

[martin]

looks like portugal are still in the "bad books"

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/22/20100204/tp ... b2d2f.html

[martin]

and the stock market went down in lisbon 4 percent as well

http://news.ino.com/headlines/?newsid=689687666759710

[EMM]

Although the Eurozone is having problems ( Spain and Italy to follow ) such are ours that Sterling does not appear to be benefiting.

[Bristle Si]

Although the Eurozone is having problems ( Spain and Italy to follow ) such are ours that Sterling does not appear to be benefiting.

The whole of the eurozone has different problems. The UK is heading for another dip, possibly, but the weaker pound does give a glimmer of hope for our exporting co.s which could help us on the road to recovery. But, i stress "could".

The relatively strong Euro is actually NOT helping those countries in the eurozone with their exports - this could yet have a severe detrimental effect on the major eurozone countries. Countries like Spain, Greece, Ireland and now Portugal are in severe difficulty, but a Euro economic 'fudge' will prob prop them up for another few months yet.

However, if things get really dire in the southern Med countries (incl. Portugal) expect disruption this summer and some of that will be directed at services linked to tourism esp. the airports. Hope not, but when things get desperate so do the people.

[EMM]

One thing is for sure Don,t bank on an export boom in the UK, we don,t manufacture anything in volume that the world wants.
As as we have seen this week most of our famous brands are now foreign owned with overseas production.

The threat of industrial action across Europe is a real one.
Within Portugal the government cannot risk upsetting the left as this would lead very quickly to another general election.

Expect VAT to rise on luxury goods and cars to get even more expensive,

[martin]

report from the telegraph, I suppose the sales of photocopy machines will soar as the bank of portugal photocopy loads of euros for their "reserves" or of course it could be germany will just bail them out ...and to think banks give out "financial advice"!!

see here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/fina ... tugal.html

[pato]

One thing is for sure Don,t bank on an export boom in the UK, we don,t manufacture anything in volume that the world wants.
As as we have seen this week most of our famous brands are now foreign owned with overseas production.

The threat of industrial action across Europe is a real one.
Within Portugal the government cannot risk upsetting the left as this would lead very quickly to another general election.

Expect VAT to rise on luxury goods and cars to get even more expensive,

"EMM" I won't tell you this again,. the apostrophy is the same key as the @ I dunno the things I have to do on this forum

[EMM]

@'@'@'''@''

[martin]

well I can see clearly where I have gone wrong in the past, when you are up to your eyes in debt ..spend more - you know just like portugal

see here

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/worrie ... =rss&rss=1

[SJ & RE]

With the UK insisting on building more and more houses, which any fool can clearly see is inapropriate. They state, 250.000 houses need to be built on an annual basis in the UK to house us all. STUPID.
Either use old existing housing stock that lay empty, or reduce number of influx of persons. Draconian laws need to be put in place before all the UK is covered with an obliteration of poor housing. A way to cut the UK defecit of money.
Re Greece, Portugal and Spain, their economy has always been precarious at the best of times, perhaps its all coming out in the wash so to speak. Employment is low and taxes are not their highest priority in getting from the indigenous people, many expats complain that they are easy targets for tax , whereas the others seem to get away with it.
Perhaps throughout the world tihs topsy turvy nature of finance is going through the melt down and shake up to re instate the true worth of countries, income, people etc which alone will financially settle down.
The Uk and other countries for a long time was continuing to have wealth gowth at an unpresedented scale, moreover it was more on paper than in reality, remeniscent in some ways, some financiers are saying, to the Wall Street crash in the early 20's etc.

[martin]

latest see below

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10041/10 ... nworld.xml