Re: [A-List] The Exodus from Eastern Europe

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 7/25/07, Michael Hudson <michael.hudson@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Actually, Latvia is losing 60,000 PER YEAR, not total to date.
>     Working conditions in Latvia are the worst in Europe, unionization among
> the lowest, health conditions worst, education worst, et al.
>     the post-Soviet economies are an entirely new kind of formation, not
> like the West, but with structural trade deficits (they must import all
> their manufactured consumer goods and capital goods), financed by borrowing
> against their real estate and public utilities as collateral (on private
> account, not gov't account). As the real estate bubble slows, the influx of
> foreign exchange for loans will decline, and the currency will plunge. But
> the mortgages (75% in Latvia) are denominated in euros and other foreign
> currencies, not lats.
>     It's a neoliberal paradise.
> Michael Hudson

Thanks for the correction about emigration stats.

I didn't realize that a real estate bubble was happening even in
Latvia.  Must have been a really worldwide phenomenon.
-- 
Yoshie