- Countries with broken economy like Italy win
- Countries that kept their economy more viable lose
- Zombie companies will keep going?
- Mortage owners lose (some European countries have floating rate mortages)
> - Countries with broken economy like Italy win
The reason private debt is relatively low is because their banks largely do not function and have turned into bailout mechanisms (and Italy had to take the step of bailing in private investors because they were unable to finance their debt, given the relatively large size of the banking sector, this basically froze their financial markets).
Correct, Italy has run primary surpluses since the 90s...their debt is 150% of GDP, the conclusion is what?
The other stuff is largely false...but assume it isn't, what is the explanation for Draghi's reforms? Youth unemployment is 35% (for reference, this is higher than many places in Africa). People confuse the policies that have been forced on Italy due to Germany's ordo-liberalism, and actual economic strength.
Also, there is massive regional inequality within Italy. Some regions in the North are basically Germany. The companies are run by Germans, the investors are German, the population largely speak German. Those areas, it is true, do well. But if you are looking at Southern Italy, there are huge problems (and btw, anyone who is trying to tell you the opposite has an agenda, I have never seen this outside the context of "...so ordo-liberalism works, it must continue, deflationism works"...because if it is true that Italy is a basketcase, which it is then people start asking whether a fixed exchange rate is a good idea...which it isn't).
Again though, what is the perspective...Turin is a famous manufacturing city but is still in decline, and is fairly grim overall...and that is supposed to be the part that works for citizens (same is true of Milan, which is a services hub so even more insulated from the decline that hit Turin...still grim, still in decline).
Btw, I think out of any place in Europe, Italy has the most economic potential. They have the financial markets, they have the universities, they have the people...but it is unfortunate that the only context in which they are presented as economically successful is within an agenda that attempts to further the status quo that has served them so poorly. If Italy stops believing in ordo-liberalism, they can grow.
source on that one?
Not sure how that would play out on todays (well, current as today Italy's last gov is no more) landscape...
Assuming 'stable' is a synonim for stagnationg and slow decline then yes. The 90's were pretty good but there has been been almost no real growth after the Euro was introduced in 1999.
It's even worse in relative terms. Back in 1995-2000 Italy's GDP per capita was around 130% of the EU average, now it's less than 100% and not that far from the more succesful Eastern European countries which joined in 2004 (around 80-85%). And these numbers only tell a part of the story since the average GDP per capita went down significancly after most ex-communist countries joined the EU between 2004 and 2007.
France, Germany, UK & Italy had almost equal GDP per capita in 2000, Italy was even ahead of France and Britain during most of the 1990's and look what happened later:
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD?locat...
Obiouviously Italy is still a rich country with a "strong" economy but if it stays on the same trajectory for the next few decades it will likely become one of the poorest countries in the EU.
Most of those countries aren't in the Eurozone, with the notable exceptions of Slovakia and Lithuania.
s/some/most/