Tuesday, February 07, 2012

Is Europe really poor, relatively?

The former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad of Malaysia has called Europe poor, is he right? No.
He has called for Europe to 'act poor' Alternatively, Europe could just write off all of its debt in an instant, and carry on regardless. 
Wealth is also determined by infrastructure and education, and on that scale Europe remains very very rich. This kind of statement from Asian leaders shows a staggering amount of ignorance of simple economics. If Western European economies remain frozen for the next 50 years, it would still take that time for Asian countries to catch up.Anyone who has seen the poorer areas of in this case Malaysia, would understand that clearly, never mind the devastating poverty seen throughout China and India.

From the BBC
For decades the West has lectured the East on how to manage its economies. Not any more.
Now the emerging economies of Asia look like models of steady, consistent policy and sustained growth while Europe, America and Japan are mired in debt and are growing achingly slowly, if at all.
So what can the West learn from the East?
According to former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, the message is simple but devastating: Europe must face up to the new economic reality.
"Europe... has lost a lot of money and therefore you must be poor now relative to the past," he reasons in an interview with BBC World Service's Business Daily.
"And in Asia we live within our means. So when we are poor, we live as poor people. I think that is a lesson that Europe can learn from Asia."....cont

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16918000





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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous12:09 pm GMT

    There was a time in the 1980s when Japanese politicians and business leaders made statements about how "lazy and profligate" Europeans couldn't keep up the pace with the "industrious and frugal" Asians, predicting that Asia would take over the world's economic leadership in a matter of years.

    The statement by Mr. Mahathir Mohamad about "poor Europe" versus "rich Asia" seems to echo those decades-old Japanese attitudes, who have simce proven themselves fatally wrong. In terms of industrial, infrastructural and economic richness Europe is way ahead of Asia, and it's not likely that the gap will shrink noticeably in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:13 pm GMT

    There was a time in the 1980s when Japanese politicians and business leaders made statements about how "lazy and profligate" Europeans couldn't keep up the pace with the "industrious and frugal" Asians, predicting that Asia would take over the world's economic leadership in a matter of years.

    The statement by Mr. Mahathir Mohamad about "poor Europe" versus "rich Asia" seems to echo those decades-old Japanese attitudes, who have simce proven themselves fatally wrong. In terms of industrial, infrastructural and economic richness Europe is way ahead of Asia, and it's not likely that the gap will shrink noticeably in the near future.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous12:42 am BST

    Europe could simply write off it's debt? Are you serious?

    ReplyDelete

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