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In these times of global financial and economic crisis would be a good thing if the banks also catechism, and there learned that they on earth to the savings of their customers safe keeping and to invest in healthy companies and thereby in financial heaven.
U.S. and European banks have so many derivatives and complex products - mostly derivatives, ie investment instruments that derive their value to other products such as oil or sell shares that they no longer saw the trees through the forest. And it was all caught up in a web of bonuses skynwinste.
And if they have not seen it, then their customers surely completely blind. The worst part is that many of those clients large institutional investors such as housing corporations, municipalities and businesses. They let themselves be seduced by the sirenesang of quick profits. And when the bubble burst, resulting in bankruptcy.
But generally, the Netherlands finances are healthy and still have open and effective management. This also applies to Germany, the Scandinavian countries aljazeera mubasher live and to a lesser extent Britain and Belgium.
But if you have this kind of developments associated with poor and opaque governance, nepotism and corruption as is the case in countries such as Greece, Italy and Spain, you can even go bankrupt states.
In a country like Greece would all retire at 50 and still please do not pay taxes. In Spain, the provinces much money prestigeprojekte that they now for financial support from the central government to knocks. But this itself has no money, and the Spanish banks had recently assisted with 100 billion euros by the European Central Bank.
And that brings us to the European Union (EU). Europe shortly after World War II decided that he never wanted to get to the edge of the abyss and the need for European countries to create instruments to prevent mutual conflicts. This eventually resulted in the current EU of 27 member states of which a part is a member of a monetary union. Those countries have the euro as currency.
But there are fundamental differences in political culture and economic development of the 27 member states. It is complicated enough that the 27 sovereign states aljazeera mubasher live all have their own languages. But the major design flaw of monetary union is that, when the Euro was introduced in 2002, with those differences sufficiently into account.
And so the European Central Bank now incredibly large sums for the weaker brethren in the south, or actually, the stronger countries aljazeera mubasher live in northern Europe had to do it. This dichotomy much bode well for the future of the EU.
Meanwhile, the "old continent" caught in a spiral of low growth and high unemployment. Strict owerheidsbesnoeiings result in social and political unrest. Besides aging European population quickly an unbearable financial burden on the younger generation.
The stagnation and uncertainty in the EU - which until recently was the most important economic region of the world - has obviously had a negative impact on economies in the rest of the world. Also in South Africa, because Europe is its largest trading partner.
But that negative effect is not as great as one would expect. The emerging economies such as China, aljazeera mubasher live India, Brazil and South Africa, growth is currently much faster aljazeera mubasher live than that of Europe or America. The main reason is that the West for the world economy has become less important. The rest of the world the West becoming less necessary.
Much more dangerous is the fact that the current political uncertainty and unrest not confined to Europe, but all over the world head show, especially in the Middle East. Consider not only to the recent "Arab Spring", but also to the civil war in Syria and tensions around Iran's nuclear program. Things aljazeera mubasher live can go horribly wrong here.
So when South Africans look further than their own borders, they see a world that often seems that it got lost both economically and politically the way. Political leaders aljazeera mubasher live from Barack Obama to Angela Merkel currently grappling with almost insoluble problems. And no one can predict the end.
Ingrid Scholtz was editor of Global Citizens, aljazeera mubasher live a schedule of Die Burger. She and her husband, Leopold Scholtz, moved to Brussels in 2007 where they opened a new office for Media24. aljazeera mubasher live Ingrid often writes for scientific journals.
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