Adventures in Paradise - The Appeal of Foreign Markets

The way things are today, everyone likes to believe that it must be better somewhere else. It can't be, they say, that everywhere else is as bad as it is here. 

This seems to be especially the case with the American investment community. Every day there seems to be stories about how economic growth has returned to Europe, especially Germany. In Asia, it is China and India. In Latin America, since they were chosen to host the 2016 Olympics, it is Brazil. 

Well all you people looking for adventure in foreign lands, Guido has a big surprise for you. At  best, the economic / financial situation in foreign countries is no better than America. Usually it's a lot worse. 

Once US citizens realize this, and once they take a realistic look at just how bad everything is in their own country, maybe they will finally grasp at just what a momentous mess Bernanke and his banker pals have created in the world. 

For Brazil, just look at the October 5 article on this website entitled "Still the Country of the Future".

As for Europe, just look at Germany, its' largest economy. On this website, articles such as "German Car Industry Kaput"  for Sept 2, "Who Killed the Oktoberfest?"  on Sept 9, and "Hyped Real Estate  - Or is that Hypo?" on Sept 12, will give plenty of elaboration at just how dire things are in that country.

But Germany is not alone. Though they have more fiscal latitude, the French are running record deficits. Unenemployment in France is increasing every month. In fact throghout Europe, the number of unemployed is especially terrible among the young people. Most countries have double digit jobless figures for those 25 or younger. In Spain it is estimated that at least 35% of the eligable young are without jobs. 

But this is not just ordinary people. According to an Oct 6 story at DW-World.de Deutsche Welle, the number of German billionaires has shrunk rapidly. The record holder for this wealth loss seems to be Maria Schaeffler, who appears  to have had her net worth shrink 90%. And this was even without any help from that crook Bernard Madaff. But evidently, according to DW, she's not alone. 

Now you know when people like this are hurting, and they can't make this year's  holiday to Monte Carlo, that things must be  dire. . Here is a link to the DW story -

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4767051,00.html

And as for China, here is a link below on the IMFs assessment -

http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=de&tl=en&u=http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/soziales/0,1518,652625,00.html&rurl=translate.google.com&usg=ALkJrhgEOnTBi81ITVQ_OnBun_Gc2VJ0cA

It is not optimistic. On this website for further details, you might wish to read the story "China Plays Monopoly" dated Sept 1.

We are all one world. There is no place to hide.

"If the grass is greener on the other side, use fertilizer." - A small town radio announcer who got fired. < With jokes like this, is that any surprise? >