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How Italy became a submerging economy


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2014 Jul 14, 11:05am   19,200 views  81 comments

by turtledove   ➕follow (11)   💰tip   ignore  

Economic decline takes many shapes. In the northern Italian town of Ivrea, it looks like the abandoned, overgrown tennis courts where the employees of electronics giant Olivetti SpA once played.

In the 1980s, Ivrea was a European version of Silicon Valley. Of the 50,000 people employed by Olivetti, half worked in the town, enjoying generous salaries and plush corporate recreation facilities. Today Ivrea's biggest employers are the state health service and two call centres. Together they employ 3,100 people.

Olivetti still exists, but these days it is a small office machinery company. Its former factories, jewels of 20th-century industrial architecture, have been refashioned as museums. Most of Ivrea's 30-year-olds have little work and live off their parents’ pensions.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/07/14/us-italy-economy-submerging-specialrepor-idUSKBN0FJ0QT20140714

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36   indigenous   2014 Jul 15, 10:39am  

Bellingham Bill says

Considering that the US numbers don't include public transfers to the po folk. And I would be suspicious that they show numbers after taxes for the rich folk.

But remember this is for a country with 300+ million people. With what 11 or 12 million on permanent disability. They say that one way or another 50% of the people are dependent on government to one degree or another.

How many countries can say that their government supports 150 million to one degree or another?

37   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 10:42am  

indigenous says

Heraclitusstudent says

If so, explain why France (very socialist) has a bigger economy than Britain (quite liberal).

They are almost equal?

Heraclitusstudent says

explain why France (very socialist) has a bigger economy than Britain

That would be because they sell more stuff than Britain.

There is not much difference between GDP and population of France/UK
California is the 8th largest economy in the world, and soon we will be overtaking France.
We should declare our Independence from the USA.

38   indigenous   2014 Jul 15, 10:44am  

Strategist says

We should declare our Independence from the USA.

But can we declare our independence from Sacramento?

39   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 10:46am  

indigenous says

Strategist says

We should declare our Independence from the USA.

But can we declare our independence from Sacramento?

hhmmmm. I forgot about the losers up there.

40   Entitlemented   2014 Jul 15, 10:54am  

Ask any Keynsian - yes we can outsource our way to prosperity! This is why most of the Keynsians in decision making positions have degrees in Political Science, Art and Humanities.

41   Entitlemented   2014 Jul 15, 10:56am  

Aside.

I had a visit over the weekend of an Electrical Engineering professor. He teaches a lot of foreigners (obviously).

Recently a Chinese PHD student graduated, and went back to China, and he told my friend " You'd better be learning Chinese" before leaving.

True story.

42   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 15, 11:20am  

Entitlemented says

You'd better be learning Chinese" before leaving.

True story.

Very arrogant of him...

43   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jul 15, 11:24am  

indigenous says

How many countries can say that their government supports 150 million to one degree or another?

you . . . have a point : )

http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=FHk

shows per-capita gov't spending is $24,000 or $2000/mo .

But to count DOD as part of socialism is stretching things, since socialism requires public provision of wealth, and there's no wealth being created there.

Now that, that's a remarkable graph.

44   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 15, 11:25am  

Strategist says

California is the 8th largest economy in the world, and soon we will be overtaking France.

Very arrogant.
I'm counting CA is 10th at $1.95T

1 United States 16,244,600
2 China 8,358,400
3 Japan 5,960,180
4 Germany 3,425,956
5 France 2,611,221
6 UK 2,471,600
7 Brazil 2,254,109
8 Russia 2,029,812
9 Italy 2,013,392

And soon India will overtake you.

45   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 11:33am  

Heraclitusstudent says

Strategist says

California is the 8th largest economy in the world, and soon we will be overtaking France.

Very arrogant.

I'm counting CA is 10th at $1.95T

1 United States 16,244,600

2 China 8,358,400

3 Japan 5,960,180

4 Germany 3,425,956

5 France 2,611,221

6 UK 2,471,600

7 Brazil 2,254,109

8 Russia 2,029,812

9 Italy 2,013,392

And soon India will overtake you.

Old data.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California

46   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 11:35am  

We are #8 folks. We will soon conquer France, then UK.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California

47   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 11:37am  

Eventually the top economies will be:
China
India
USA
EU

48   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 15, 11:43am  

Strategist says

Old data.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California

The link says $2.05 trillion in 2013.

- The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Italy was worth 2071.31 billion US dollars in 2013.
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/italy/gdp
- The Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Russia was worth 2096.78 billion US dollars in 2013
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/russia/gdp
- Google lists Italy at $2.19 Trillion US dollars at current prices - 2011

But anyway, you might over take these 2.
But who knows what might happen before you overtake France?

49   indigenous   2014 Jul 15, 12:25pm  

Bellingham Bill says

But to count DOD as part of socialism is stretching things

They certainly would have in the USSR or China?

50   indigenous   2014 Jul 15, 12:27pm  

Strategist says

Eventually the top economies will be:

China

India

USA

EU

I would not count on China being number 1, they have some major hurdles to get though.

51   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 12:34pm  

indigenous says

Strategist says

Eventually the top economies will be:

China

India

USA

EU

I would not count on China being number 1, they have some major hurdles to get though.

India
China
EU
USA

How does that look? Eventually it will all be based on population.

52   zzyzzx   2014 Jul 15, 12:35pm  

Mark D says

they are slowly running out of colonial loot.

Which reinforces my statement that Italy has gone steadily downhill since the fall of the Roman Empire.

53   indigenous   2014 Jul 15, 12:46pm  

zzyzzx says

How does that look? Eventually it will all be based on population.

Don't know but China will have a demographic problem that is huge compared to Japan.

They have devalued their Yuan for so long and deprived their people of so much they Have to revalue their currency to create their own consumption.

If they pull an FDR on this they are fucked. They need to create a middle class.

The other potential problem will be war as that is the usual bone head solution that the US uses.

Any of you know how game theory applies to this?

54   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 12:50pm  

Call it Crazy says

Strategist says

Eventually the top economies will be:

China

India

USA

EU

I told you to start learning Mandarin...

If they want to be #1 they will need to learn the #1 language - English.

55   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 12:56pm  

indigenous says

Don't know but China will have a demographic problem that is huge compared to Japan.

They have devalued their Yuan for so long and deprived their people of so much they Have to revalue their currency to create their own consumption.

If they pull an FDR on this they are fucked. They need to create a middle class.

Eventually they will have a demographic problem, after they get up there.
They buy more cars then we do. Looks like a booming middle class to me.

indigenous says

The other potential problem will be war as that is the usual bone head solution that the US uses.

Any of you know how game theory applies to this?

I don't think there will be major wars besides the looney Mid East and Africa.
Game theory......Yeah I remember taking a class on that. That's all I remember.

56   indigenous   2014 Jul 15, 1:00pm  

Strategist says

Eventually they will have a demographic problem, after they get up there.

They buy more cars then we do. Looks like a booming middle class to me.

Got a link on that?

Game theory might be handing in understanding the likelihood of war?

57   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jul 15, 2:30pm  

indigenous says

Don't know but China will have a demographic problem that is huge compared to Japan.

distribution wise, I don't see the problem. In 2050 their median age will be what Japan's is now, ~45, with their dependency ratio also rising to just about what Japan's is now (~60).

Japan's dependency ratio is going to rise to near 100, i.e. parity, almost 1 dependent per working-age person by 2050. China and Japan are nothing alike here.

Size-wise, sure, China is going to be big. But not much bigger than it is now, thankfully for them. China is so big it boggles the mind, growth is almost stopped but they still may add another 100M mouths to feed.

58   Strategist   2014 Jul 15, 2:32pm  

indigenous says

Strategist says

Eventually they will have a demographic problem, after they get up there.

They buy more cars then we do. Looks like a booming middle class to me.

Got a link on that?

Game theory might be handing in understanding the likelihood of war?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aE.x_r_l9NZE

59   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jul 15, 2:42pm  

indigenous says

They need to create a middle class

They have one -- Apple's sales in China are 2X that of their Japanese sales, and that's with Apple owning the Japanese phone market -- but another 1 billion people with an American standard of living ain't going to happen, or god help us if it does, since their consumption will come out of OUR current consumption.

This is a finite world for a lot of things; hell, we might even be seeing Peak Food right now for all we know.

I don't pretend to understand China, never been there never want to go there.

But knowing all the utter shit they've been through over the past 200 hundred years, man. The Japanese invasion '37-'45, horrific as it was, wasn't the worst they've gone through. I wish them the best, but damn it's not in our own national interest for them to take our place in the world.

I'm already afraid of seeing more food inflation as the yuan gets stronger and sucks more of our ag production over to them, taking food from our mouths as it were.

shows some of the FX shenanigans have been rolled back. China has a very large trade surplus still, though, indicating the necessity for greater strengthening. How much, couldn't tell ya.

The yuan might have to triple to 2 again, like what happened with the yen 1973-1988, but the global economy could handle a nation of 100M+ getting so much more buying power like that, especially since the Indians and Chinese were still largely sitting things out in the 1980s.

Now, things are different.

60   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 15, 3:43pm  

zzyzzx says

Which reinforces my statement that Italy has gone steadily downhill since the fall of the Roman Empire.

You never heard of the renaissance?

61   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 15, 3:45pm  

Bellingham Bill says

A demographic problem: whether the population keeps growing or shrinks, that's a demographic problem.

62   indigenous   2014 Jul 16, 12:38am  

Bellingham Bill says

distribution wise, I don't see the problem.

Me neither by looking at those graphs. But I have read that it will be a problem. Just like I have read that it is a problem in Japan? It does not appear the one child policy made much of difference in any particular age bracket.

63   indigenous   2014 Jul 16, 12:52am  

Bellingham Bill says

This is a finite world for a lot of things; hell, we might even be seeing Peak Food right now for all we know.

That is Malthus BS, he said that world growth would be constrained by food production. Or course he was projecting this through 1800 crop yields.

The whole idea of scarcity comes about through this idea of peak oil or peak what ever. Technology changes the peak.

The other thing that needs to be considered is that human knowledge grows geometrically.

The important thing to do is allow that nascent change be allowed to grow as that is where the solutions come from.

64   Strategist   2014 Jul 16, 1:07am  

indigenous says

Bellingham Bill says

This is a finite world for a lot of things; hell, we might even be seeing Peak Food right now for all we know.

That is Malthus BS, he said that world growth would be constrained by food production. Or course he was projecting this through 1800 crop yields.

The whole idea of scarcity comes about through this idea of peak oil or peak what ever. Technology changes the peak.

The other thing that needs to be considered is that human knowledge grows geometrically.

The important thing to do is allow that nascent change be allowed to grow as that is where the solutions come from.

Right on dude.

65   indigenous   2014 Jul 16, 1:20am  

Strategist says

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aE.x_r_l9NZE

That is a trip I did not know the Chinese bought that many cars.

66   Peter P   2014 Jul 16, 2:44am  

indigenous says

The other thing that needs to be considered is that human knowledge grows geometrically.

Human knowledge actually shrinks. We are acquiring false knowledge at an alarming rate.

67   zzyzzx   2014 Jul 16, 2:54am  

Heraclitusstudent says

A demographic problem: whether the population keeps growing or shrinks, that's a demographic problem.

Since when is a shrinking population a problem???

68   indigenous   2014 Jul 16, 3:02am  

Peter P says

Human knowledge actually shrinks. We are acquiring false knowledge at an alarming rate.

I hear you, but I'm not talking conjecture.

69   turtledove   2014 Jul 16, 3:05am  

zzyzzx says

Heraclitusstudent says

A demographic problem: whether the population keeps growing or shrinks, that's a demographic problem.

Since when is a shrinking population a problem???

That would depend on which demographic population is shrinking and which demographic population you belong to. There is potential strength in numbers, as they would have a seemingly endless supply of replacement soldiers. Though we might save resources by reducing our population, I could see where we'd run the risk of having those resources stripped by a country with enough manpower to simply take what they need, assuming they have the political will and organization to do so.

70   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 16, 3:12am  

indigenous says

That is Malthus BS, he said that world growth would be constrained by food production. Or course he was projecting this through 1800 crop yields.

The whole idea of scarcity comes about through this idea of peak oil or peak what ever. Technology changes the peak.

The other thing that needs to be considered is that human knowledge grows geometrically.

Malthus was absolutely right.

There is no amount of technology or knowledge that could sustain an exponential growth of population perpetually.

If you don't believe this is true, you don't believe in arithmetic.

71   Heraclitusstudent   2014 Jul 16, 3:15am  

zzyzzx says

Since when is a shrinking population a problem???

Since a shrinking economy is a problem.

72   Peter P   2014 Jul 16, 3:18am  

The demographics will change. As the educated and civilized have fewer kids, the rest are reproducing like rabbits.

The Armageddon will not be a mass extinction event. It is simply the intellectual de-evolution of the species.

73   Bellingham Bill   2014 Jul 16, 3:22am  

indigenous says

The important thing to do is allow that nascent change be allowed to grow as that is where the solutions come from.

Soylent Green here we come . . .

Sure we can make more food, maybe. But not necessarily of the quality or at least form we've grown up with.

Drop the yuan to 2 and we'll see a lot more exports to them

Maybe we can make the CAFOs to fulfill this new demand. We've certainly got the land, but we also need feed and water . . .

not seeing much upside growth in corn

unless we develop new ways of producing it, or other animal feeds

74   New Renter   2014 Jul 16, 3:25am  

Or eat less and stop using food as transportation fuel.

75   indigenous   2014 Jul 16, 3:26am  

Bellingham Bill says

Drop the yuan to 2 and we'll see a lot more exports to them

That will be part of re-balancing.

Bellingham Bill says

not seeing much upside growth in corn

Simple quit using it to make ethanol.

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