Well Germany just avoided a recession by 0.1% and Japan just went into recession and China's growth has slowed so this could be the case. Unlike others in the EU the UK is doing a lot better thanks to Osborne. In my opinion more EU countries need to adopt more polish economic policies.
So what about the BS WE WERE FED at the G20...2% growth? Off to a bad start.. Japan and now England? If the price of oil goes back over $90US, A LOT OF g20 COUNTRIES will hit the wall. Regards Errol 43
I know, I think the commitment to 2% growth can be interpreted as. it isn't working and we need to try harder. Britain has done better compared to other European states though. And yes I think a high oil price would at this point be harmful, OPEC are expected to meet on Nov 27th to discuss the low oil price so this low price could change if they cut supply. also Abe just called an election for Dec 1st. so that (from what i've read) he can run a majority government and push through some painful unpopular measures to try and get Japan out of the danger zone.
It would be doing better still if Cameron, Merkel etc stopped trying to push Russia around at the behest of that deadbeat Obama. All Europe is doing is hurting itself as Gemany,France and the UK to a lesser extent, do a lot of business with Russia so these sanctions hurt our industries. Whereas the US does very little trade with Russia so the sanctions have 0 effect on the US.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/09/10/us-ukraine-crisis-russia-food-idUSKBN0H51K020140910 I couldn't source the original article I was reading but the above one is similar, I distinctly remember reading about Russia issuing a ban on EU food imports in retaliation to the sanctions, and the article specifically mentioned Italian parmesan. A good strategy for Putin over winter would be to put a large tarrif on petrolium and LNG for all trade done with EU members supporting the sanctions, so that he could divide and balkanise the EU. Although it could backfire because the russian economy is being affected by the low oil price.
As I understand it, contracts are in place and Europe has stockpiled what it can. Putin is waiting / hoping for a cold winter which means the stockpiles disappear faster than anticipated and he can then hit them with new contracts which are more punitive than the batch currently in place. Of course this could all be moot, depending on how US and EU react to six Russian divisions sitting on the border of Eastern Ukraine, awaiting a reason to enter it would appear.
I don't think Putin is in the mood to be so subtle, if it is a cold winter you can almost guarantee he will turn off the gas supplies to the Ukraine again.
Can't imagine what dirty little clauses the northern version of tppa has in ti to address the Russian sanctions approach.
