On 03/25/2015 3:26 PM, Ed Huntress wrote:
On Wed, 25 Mar 2015 14:13:34 -0500, wrote:

....

....

It's that overwhelming debt service that is crippling them
internationally as they're on the brink of default about every six
months or so.

Really? Japan, the leader in debt? Germany, where national debt is 40%
higher than the US on GDP, and 20% higher per capita? The UK, where it
is 400% of the per-capita debt of the US? Switzerland, where their
per-capita debt is 2.2 TIMES that of the US?

Greece's per-capita debt is lower than that of the Netherlands,
France, the UK, Belgium, Switzerland, Sweden, Denmark...

...and it's only slightly higher than that of Germany.

It appears that there's no relationship.


Besides the rampant corruption and all, the uncertainty
is the bane of any investment; entrepreneurial folks don't put money
where they perceive high risk/little reward.

The high risk doesn't appear to be related to perceived corruption.
Greece ranks 94 on the Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with India,
and there isn't any shortage of investment in India going on.
....

The problem isn't per capita, it's whether there's sufficient GDP to be
able to service it or not.

There's a reason the PIGS are the one dragging down the world system
every time they near default.

That four of the five are in the top six and the fifth (Spain) is only a
few places outside is a pretty telling statistic and Japan has been in
the doldrums for 20-odd year now.

Besides the rampant corruption and all, the uncertainty
is the bane of any investment; entrepreneurial folks don't put money
where they perceive high risk/little reward.

The high risk doesn't appear to be related to perceived corruption.
Greece ranks 94 on the Corruption Perceptions Index, tied with India,
and there isn't any shortage of investment in India going on.
....

Not what I said; the bane of investment is the uncertainty in the
financial markets...corruption just makes it tougher to be competitive
and to fix the internal problems.

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