How Finland keeps its head above eurozone crisis

[cronus71]

What are your thoughts on this? Do you think Finland is being selfish and stingy?
I read the comments below the article, and I somewhat agree to what thorofnorth is saying (I included it below the article). Ever since Finland joined the EU, things in Finland have been done exactly by the book. All legislations dictated by the EU have been followed, e.g. the buses need to be of certain size etc. but other EU countries have done fuck all, mainly Italy and Spain.
There's probably still a massive amount of undeclared dinero negro in Spain, and had this chunk been taxed, and the actual deal they spring from also taxed, they might not be in such deep shit they are in now.


How Finland keeps its head above eurozone crisis

Finland's economy is dominated by services but it is competitive in manufacturing – and its revenues are bigger than its debt

• Josephine Moulds
  
• guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 24 July 2012 16.56 BST

Island, Lake Inari, Lapland, Finland. The country has maintained its stable outlook with credit ratings agency Moody's. Photograph: Jorma Jaemsen/zefa/Corbis

Finland – home of reindeer, pickled fish and Nokia – is now the only eurozone country with a stable triple-A credit rating, according to Moody's.
On Monday night, the credit rating agency hit Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands with a stinging blow, cutting the outlook on their triple-A ratings from stable to negative. That pushes them into the same bracket, on Moody's measures, as France and Austria – leaving Finland the only European country with a triple-A rating and stable outlook.
What is it about Finland? It is a big country, almost as large as Germany, but with a population of just 5.3 million – or just 16 people for every square kilometre. Two thirds of the country is covered in forest, and the far north forms part of the Arctic circle. The economy is not all mobile phones and forestry. Finland is also known for its metals, engineering and electronics industries, and exports account for a third of GDP. Income per capita is among the highest in western Europe and the country is celebrated for its generous welfare state.
Moody's said that while Finland would not be immune to the eurozone crisis, it had "strong buffers which differentiate it from the other AAAs". Among these were the fact it has no debt on a net basis. The IMF estimates Helsinki will collect taxes and other revenues of €105bn (£82bn) this year, compared with €101bn of government debt.
Finland has a small banking system focused on domestic customers, as well as "limited exposure to, and therefore relative insulation from, the euro area in terms of trade", notes Moody's.
Finland has also insisted on receiving collateral in exchange for its participation in eurozone bailouts – which has impressed Moody's. Last week, for example, Helsinki agreed to contribute to the Spanish banking bailout package, but only on the basis that Spain provides it with cash collateral worth €770m – around 40% of its share of the bailout. Every time Spain receives a payout from the bailout fund, it will hand over collateral to Finland. The deal was similar to a collateral agreement it struck with Greece in 2011, and could start a trend.
Michael Hewson, of CMC Markets, said: "The reason Finland appears to have escaped [the cut to negative outlook] is due to its insistence on collateral in exchange for aid. This could well see other countries start to demand collateral as well, which could well complicate the swift disbursement of future bailout funds."
Finland has taken a consistently tough line throughout the eurozone crisis. This month, it threatened to block an agreement to use Europe's bailout fund to start buying Italian and Spanish bonds in the secondary markets.
That stance has led some to believe that Finland, rather than Greece, might be the first country to quit the single currency.
The US economist Nouriel Roubini wrote on his EconoMonitor website: "If Greece moves closer to exit and Italy and Spain end up on the verge of losing market access and requiring even more risky financial support from the eurozone core, Finland may decide that the additional credit risk is not worth the benefit."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2...rt-of-comments

Quote from thorofnorth:

Let me explain it to you in way which even you can understand:
There are 2 farmers, A (Finland) and B (Spain/Greece/Portugal/etc). They decide to make a deal that if
someday something unexpected and bad happens to someones' farm (robbery/fire/animal disease/whatever), the farmer doing well will support the other farmer
to get back on his feet.

Farmer A is hard working, feeds his animals, buys new stuff to improve his farm and make it more secure. (Fire/burglar alarm etc)
Farmer B on the other hand is laughing to farmer A and instead of taking care of his farm, farmer B decides to sell all the animals, take the money and waste it on pr0stitutes and alcohol laughing even harder. Then...finally after partying too hard w/o any kind of work or responsibility farmer B runs out of his money and he doesn't beg/ask farmer A to help him, but he DEMANDS money from farmer A.
So should farmer A give his hard earned money to this irrisponsible and greedy man? Would farmer B use that money to develop his farm and get back to business or again just waste it and laugh about it?
...Exactly.

And maybe before connecting Finnish and Nazis, you should read little bit of history first. It wasn't exactly an option and last war Finland has had was against Nazi Germany.
Just because here in North Europe (+ Germany etc.) we take responsibility of our economy and try to build a stable future, it doesn't make us nazis or racial haters.

[CzarJunkie]

At this stage, not only the Eurozone but the whole EU 'project' is looking like a failed experiment. With no political union there could never have been fiscal union. Bringing together countries where tax is considered a joke and they like an afternoon nap (generally the Southern European countries where the sun seems to have baked their fucking brains) and countries where they seem more industrious, pay taxes more readily and spend less (generally the more Northern countries) was a huge mistake.

Call me racist, xenophobic or whatever else you like but it's time to cut the nap taking, tax dodging, scofflaw Southern European countries free and form a NEU (North European Union).

[cronus71]

At this stage, not only the Eurozone but the whole EU 'project' is looking like a failed experiment. With no political union there could never have been fiscal union. Bringing together countries where tax is considered a joke and they like an afternoon nap (generally the Southern European countries where the sun seems to have baked their fucking brains) and countries where they seem more industrious, pay taxes more readily and spend less (generally the more Northern countries) was a huge mistake.

Call me racist, xenophobic or whatever else you like but it's time to cut the nap taking, tax dodging, scofflaw Southern European countries free and form a NEU (North European Union).

Yep CJ.
I recall there was a thread on here, some years back where many of us discussed the EU. As I can often be an extremist and not seeing the middle-ground, I recall saying that the union (also the EMU), could lead to some countries turning to lemons and even war.
One thing is for sure, I'm not in hurry to return to something so unstable. Of course things will at some point echo in SE Asia as well, but hopefully not that soon.