Tag: European

Eurozone Crisis in 590 words

The Eurozone Crisis was an economic crisis that occurred in Europe as a direct result of the US housing market crash in 2008. In short many European bank invested in the US housing market and in 2008 the US housing market crashed meaning it’s value dramatically dropped and European backs were left with property that was nearly worthless. Effectively what this means for the European banks is that they essentially lost large sums of cash and needed to be bailed out by national governments

Due to this crisis national government of Europe had to bail out their banks because the US housing market crashing. It was discovered in these difficult times for Europe that Greece had a large dept problem, the Greek government admitted to having a large dept which stemmed from poor collecting of taxes and corruption. Greece wasn’t able to bail out their banks thus other members of the European Union had step in and chip in to pay off the the Greek debt. It is repulsive to say the least that the national governments of the European Union have to bail out bankers in order to keep their economy flowing but it is more repulsive to know your own government cannot bail out the banks without a loan because they can’t afford to bail out the banks.

Germany, the economic pillar of the European Union alongside with its many allies from the EU aided Greece by sending Greece large care packages of cash. In reality the care packages are loans meaning Greece has to pay Germany and all the other EU members, in reality what this means for Greece is that they have to pay back all these loans. In addition, the European Central Banks decided to buy government bonds from the EU member states which suffered the most from the crisis (such as Greece, Italy & Spain) to aid the EU’s economies from nearly collapsing and starting a domino effect that could eventually affect other members of the EU. The decision by the European Central Bank garnered much criticism especially by a group of German eurosceptics due to the European Central Bank spending 2.1 trillion euros in the last 4 years in order bailout EU member states and the case was taken to court to the European Court of Justice in which they ruled in favor of the European Central Bank .

It is easy to blame Greece and say that they should leave the Eurozone or blame the banks because of their greedy investments, in reality it was a combination of all the disjointed decisions that enabled the Eurozone crisis to occur. The Eurozone crisis revealed larger problems of cohesion and transparency in the cogs of the grand machine that we refer to as the EU. It cannot be understated the huge oversight in part by the EU nor should we hold their identity to that mistake. Credit should be given and it should be given where it is due to the
European Central Bank and the EU member states that contained the situation from spilling over.

References
Landler, M. (2008). The U.S. Financial Crisis Is Spreading to Europe. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/01/business/worldbusiness/01global.html
Kosakowski, P. (2019). The Fall of the Market in the Fall of 2008. Retrieved from https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/09/subprime-market-2008.asp
Eurozone crisis explained. (2012). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-13798000
Bloomberg. (2015). The European Debt Crisis Visualized [Video]. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4_tyEl84IQ
Carvalho, R., Ranasinghe, D., & Wilkes, T. (2018). The life and times of ECB quantitative easing, 2015-18. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-ecb-qe/the-life-and-times-of-ecb-quantitative-easing-2015-18-idUSKBN1OB1SM
Greek bailout crisis in 300 words. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45245969
Sinner, M., & Canepa, F. (2018). ECB wins court’s backing for buying government debt. Retrieved from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecb-policy-court/ecb-wins-courts-backing-for-buying-government-debt-idUSKBN1OA0Q0

To be or not to be that is the Brexit question

In the simplest terms Brexit is the United Kingdom’s leave of the European Union based on a closed referendum vote by the people of England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland. What this means following the referendum vote in 2016 the United Kingdom began the tedious process of leaving the European Union. To add on to the already difficult process the United Kingdom government is dived on what it wants to do, in other words the government does not always know what it’s best to do for the people.

The Irish border plays a large role in the Brexit negotiations. Brexit could create a strange reality where the Republic of Ireland is part of the European Union and Northern Ireland is not. Meaning the border between Ireland and North Ireland would change into a border of the European Union that is visible (Peter Foster, 2019). While on the surface this change in the border seems small, in actuality this change goes against the peace agreement put forth by the Good Friday Agreement which renders the border invisible. This is the reality of Brexit that crossing to the other side of your own nation could possibly mean standing in a foreign country.

While a hard Irish border is of great concern but in the middle of it all are the people. The referendum vote brought to light the preexisting political division within the United Kingdom and only made worse than they had already been. The referendum votes divided friends, neighbors, even families “We just try not to talk about it because it still feels quite sore” says Jo (Cosslett, 2016). Regardless of which side you’re on, the whole process of Brexit ignited a civil political war which left both sides frustrated and hurt.

The vote hurt everyone, the youth are no exception. If, Brexit goes through young adults in particular that are now entering the workforce are the group of people that are going to bear the brunt the hardest. They are set to expect a drop in average income which was already lower than it has been 2007-8 and increase in unemployment, 520-820 thousand people are expected to be jobless following Brexit (Odendahl & Springford, 2016). The youth is right to feel discarded and pushed aside by the majority that chose to throw away their future opportunities.

It goes without saying that Brexit is no easy task to understand. It is a difficult process that the Untied Kingdom embarked on that could bring on disastrous changes for all people living under Her Majesty’s Kingdom. Whether it be living close to the Irish border, or somewhere in the middle trying to hold down a job in this Brexit environment these are real changes that seriously could affect people’s lives. Brexit should have never happened. As I mentioned before, the government does not always know what it’s best to do for the people.

Bibliography


Cosslett, R. (2016). Families divided by Brexit: ‘Part of me just wants to avoid my dad completely now’. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/dec/21/families-divided-brexit-rifts-arguments-avoid-dad
Kettle, M. (2019). May’s exit won’t halt Britain’s slow drift into a kind of Brexit civil war | Martin Kettle. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/mar/27/theresa-may-brexit-civil-war-crisis-parliament
Peter Foster. (2019). Brexit and the Irish border explained: why the headache is not going away any time soon. Retrieved from https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/0/brexit-irish-border-explained-headache-not-going-away-time-soon/
Odendahl, C., & Springford, J. (2016). Why young people are right to fear Brexit. Retrieved from https://www.cer.eu/insights/why-young-people-are-right-fear-brexit