Euro Crisis is the end in sight ?

A lot more bullish feeling is coming out of the economic power houses of Americ and Europe of late. Is this to be founded or is this just more wishful thinking. Economic figures due out shortly are set to show a ending or at least softening of the recession in the Euro zone and America growing slowly yet there is tentitive fear that this is a false start and a real recovery is still not appearing . On Bloomberg one of my favourite capitalist news outlets and superb for figures and long term trend analysis anyway has a good summary by Jeff Black By Jeff Black - Aug 12, 2013 2:13 PM GMT+0100 Q The euro-area economy probably edged back to growth last quarter for the first time since 2011, ending the longest recession since the single currency union started 14 years ago. Gross domestic product in the 17-nation region expanded 0.2 percent in the three months through June after shrinking for the previous six quarters, according to the median of 41 forecasts in a Bloomberg News survey. The European Union’s statistics office in Luxembourg will release the data on Aug. 14. Germany probably grew about 0.75 percent, according to a government estimate, exceeding the 0.6 percent economists predict. year of relative calm on financial markets, budget cuts from Spain to Italy and accelerating growth in the U.S., the world’s biggest economy, have helped the euro area start to recover. While the overall outlook has improved, the recession has left the region with a youth unemployment rate of 24 percent, and parts of southern Europe remain mired in a slump. “The external environment is really getting better, led by signs that U.S. demand is picking up,” said Nick Kounis, head of macro research at ABN Amro Bank NV in Amsterdam. “The second quarter should mark the end of the recession in the euro area, but the recovery will be excruciatingly slow. We’re not getting the champagne out yet.” say the capitalists. I always like to look at the bourgeois press and fianncial news in particular i think its good to know your enemy so to speak and read how they see the long term trends and slumps. Its clear anyway to me that any sort of recovery if we can call it that is a two speed one anyhow with southern Europe still very much in a slump ropean Central Bank President Mario Draghi has described progress as “tentative.” Against that backdrop, the ECB has cut interest rates to their lowest-ever level and Draghi has pledged they’ll stay there or lower for an “extended period.” Spain’s economy shrank just 0.1 percent in the second quarter from the prior three months. Still, the country’s youth unemployment is 56 percent. In Italy, where Prime Minister Enrico Letta is easing last year’s budget austerity, GDP fell a less-than-forecast 0.2 percent. Economic confidence in the euro area increased for a third month in July. Manufacturing expanded for the first time in two years, according to a purchasing-managers survey by London-based Markit Economics. Adecco SA (ADEN), the world’s largest provider of temporary workers, reported increased profit for the second-quarter, and the Glattbrugg, Switzerland-based company said it sees more positive signs for business as Europe’s labor markets stabilize. An expanding manufacturing figure is a sign of a weak attempt to try and claw back some edge in the market to start to slowly restart production towards a better level. Greece is still very much the sick man of the Euro zone though. It all looks a bit better than we thought,” said Evelyn Herrmann, an economist at BNP Paribas SA in London. “Our central case is a very modest recovery, and we’re still not overly bullish for the second half of the year.” Greece’s economy contracted for a 20th quarter, extending an economic slump that has left more than six in 10 young Greeks out of work, the Athens-based Hellenic Statistical Authority said today. Gross domestic product shrank 4.6 percent in the three months through June from the same period last year after dropping 5.6 percent in the previous quarter. That’s better than the median estimate of a 4.9 percent contraction in a Bloomberg News survey of six economist. Greece doesn’t publish seasonally adjusted or quarter-on-quarter GDP data. area of stress remains corporate access to credit. Lending to companies and households across the region fell the most on record in June. A review of banks’ balance sheets to be conducted by the ECB has probably been delayed until the first quarter of 2014 as the central bank says it can’t start preparing until EU lawmakers vote on the legislation, which won’t be before September. The review is part of a plan to strengthen the region’s financial system by building a banking union comprising ECB oversight, a single resolution mechanism for winding up failing lenders, and common rules for deposit guarantees. In the meantime, economic performance remains patchy. An unexpected 1.4 percent drop in French industrial production in June underlined the government’s struggle to revive growth in the region’s second largest economy. France is also due to release data for second-quarter GDP on Aug. 14. “Talk of an economic recovery, to say nothing about a sustainable one, when domestic demand is still contracting, government debt levels continue to surge and the economic and institutional reform agenda is unraveling, is wide of the mark,” said Nicholas Spiro, managing director of Spiro Sovereign Strategy in London. “Germany may be pulling ahead, but the bloc’s other main economies, including France, remain in dire straits.” Improving Indicators The euro area’s path out of recession will also be determined by conditions in major export markets such as the U.K., the U.S. and China. There, indications are improving. In China, July industrial output rose more than expected after a larger-than-forecast rebound in exports eased concern that a credit squeeze in the world’s second-biggest economy would curb growth. The U.S. economy grew at a 1.7 percent annualized rate from April through June after a 1.1 percent pace in the first quarter. For the whole of 2013, the ECB forecasts a contraction for the euro-area economy of 0.6 percent, before an expansion of 1.1 percent in 2014. “There’s still some fiscal adjustment going on and that’s weighing on consumption, as well as banks in the south not being in a position to support the economy,” said Laurence Boone, chief European economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch in London. “The consensus is for slight growth and we wouldn’t expect anything much more buoyant than that.” so all in all very mixed but signs of a possible upswing or anything like a boom period are well far wide of the mark. Any recovery will be very slow and drawn out. Painful for the working class's of Europe and beyond no doubt.

How small business's are struggling under the tories

As with a lot of small business's nothing has really improved under the tories.

Work has dried up for a lot of industries and it is looking bleak in the coming months.

This is no different for where i work a small manufacturing business which has no more than 50 members of staff and two workshops and a small office of about 8 people. This is a typical small business which relies on the contracts from public sector frameworks such as the water boards and sewage treatment works. All of these sorts of jobs have dried up with few if any new housing being built in the country despite us desperatly needing more and more.

With the addition of the VAT rise in January up to 20% now all of our suppliers have put up their prices so everything becomes a lot more competitive and harder to have that cutting edge on others in the industry.

Not only that but national insurance contributions are going up in April i hear which will affect workers having to contribute more to an already squeezed wage take home when you deduct tax and everything but also your company will have to contribute some too. Altogether this is not good news for a busienss like the one i work for. AWith jobs and work hard to come by these extra tax's and costs the tory lead coalition are throwing at us are simply not helping the situation.
The tories claim to be on the side of small business. I fail to see that personally they only people they are on the side of how i can see it is their rich banker friends from down the city.

I see no incentivs for small business's to employ more people like they want the private sector to do at all.

I'm no advocator of private sector work at all but as i happen to work in it i couldnt help notice these sorts of things. That the tories plans to help people into work by laying off people in teh public sector and hoping blindly that the private sector will pick up the fallout. This is just simply blind optimism from the tories i feel as they have no actual plan for this at all, no real awareness that the private sector is struggling too as a lot of it does rely on public sector contracts and work coming from there too.

As a result things are very tight and hard right now. I cant see things improving that much either with inflation going up and up and up.

Another period of negative growth and we are back in recession, i do see us going back into recession as things are just not picking up quickly enough or if at all. The tories have no plans for growth at all its just all cuts cuts cuts.

I do wonder if they have another plan