英闻天下——115 The Eurozone Crisis and its Past as well as Possible Future Effects

 　　"We have taken numerous measures and put forward new laws in order to guarantee that we are doing the best to put our household back in order, especially to guarantee liquidity¹ which is the engine for a well running economy."

 

　　The Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, at the beginning of this year, clarifying the current economic picture of Greece after half a decade of one of the worst recessions Europe has ever seen.

 

　　The year 2012 repeatedly saw this one country struggle with the financial leaders of the European Union to agree on bailout packages ?C in return for sharp and decisive cuts in public spending.

 

　　Greece weren't the only ones struggling though. The likes of Spain and the Republic of Ireland, all had close shaves with bankruptcy². Avoiding it only by agreeing to more cuts to public spending, and further job losses throughout the continent.

 

　　In fact unemployment rates for the entire Eurozone hit record lows last November at 11.8 percent.

 

　　According to Eurostat estimates, November 2012 saw an additional 154,000 people added to the jobless category to hit the 26 million mark from November.

 

　　As Mike Bastin, an economic researcher at Nottingham University points out, the year 2012 was a chaotic³ one in Europe.

 

　　"Last year across Europe as one of tremendous confusion. I don't think there was a lot of integration⁴ across the EU institutions, so I don't think there was evidence of any combined attempt to improve the economic situation across the continent."

 

　　Amid the crisis, China was looked upon as an option to save the wobbling eurozone ship.

 

　　The World Bank's chief economist⁵ Justin Yifu Lin saying the country could continue growing for the next 2 decades.

 

　　"The newly elected top leadership has clear understanding of the opportunities and challenges the Chinese economy is facing. I'm sure China will follow the path of reform and opening up, and overcome difficulties in economic transformation⁶. in the coming 5, 10, or 20 years, China is likely to maintain high speed economic growth."

 

　　Could China provide the capital for European recovery?

 

　　Financial commentators⁷ such as Cao Can, think the Chinese economy may be wary⁸ of continually pouring money in to an economy unless there are certainties of getting a return.

 

　　"I Think China has already invested a lot in the European economy. The height of the financial crisis, when rating agencies downgraded the European debt and Greek debt to junk, China made ths strategic decision to buy a lot of European debt. China doesn't want the Euro to completely collapse⁹, they want actually the Euro to compete with the US Dollar as reserve currency of the world. So China has already done its part in stabilising the financial system. Can we expect China to continue to throw good money at the bad, I think there's a limit to that."

 

　　He also says the austerity measures may not even be a bad thing in the long run.

 

　　That, the current unemployment rates due to spending cuts could lead to private capital growing in the future.

 

　　"I think there's an erroneous belief that government spending generates economic growth. That is actually false, because government doesn't actually have any wealth. Wealth comes from either taxes or debt so when government spends a lot of money by either taxing the private sector¹⁰ or borrowing money from the bank, that's the money and resources that can not be utilised by the private sector so I think the government is actually a burden on a larger economy if government spends too much money. So when government shrinks, the tax payers would get more money to spend and businesses might be able to get access to financing."

 

　　There's different schools of thought regarding the outcomes from this coming year. While Cao Can expects the austerity to continue for the time being, Mike Bastin is expecting 2013 to bring about an improvement in the Eurozone fortunes.

 

　　"2013 will be very different, I think the Eurozone member nations will improve the outlook and there will be a much more co-ordinated attempt to shore up the Euro and I'm much more positive about the year ahead."

1 liquidity   

n.流动性，偿债能力，流动资产

参考例句：

• The bank has progressively increased its liquidity.银行逐渐地增加其流动资产。
• The demand for and the supply of credit is closely linked to changes in liquidity.信用的供求和流动资金的变化有密切关系。

2 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

3 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

4 integration   

n.一体化，联合，结合

参考例句：

• We are working to bring about closer political integration in the EU.我们正在努力实现欧盟內部更加紧密的政治一体化。
• This was the greatest event in the annals of European integration.这是欧洲统一史上最重大的事件。

5 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

6 transformation   

n.变化；改造；转变

参考例句：

• Going to college brought about a dramatic transformation in her outlook.上大学使她的观念发生了巨大的变化。
• He was struggling to make the transformation from single man to responsible husband.他正在努力使自己由单身汉变为可靠的丈夫。

7 commentators   

n.评论员( commentator的名词复数 )；时事评论员；注释者；实况广播员

参考例句：

• Sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 体育解说员翻来覆去说着同样的词语，真叫人腻烦。
• Television sports commentators repeat the same phrases ad nauseam. 电视体育解说员说来说去就是那么几句话，令人厌烦。 来自《简明英汉词典》

8 wary   

adj.谨慎的，机警的，小心的

参考例句：

• He is wary of telling secrets to others.他谨防向他人泄露秘密。
• Paula frowned,suddenly wary.宝拉皱了皱眉头，突然警惕起来。

9 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。

10 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。