It seems everywhere you look, the worldwide economic trend is down.
The country of Hungary is the latest to join the conga line of nations standing on the precipice of economic disaster. If Hungarians stand on their tiptoes they can see Greece ahead of them on the Slip- ‘N-Slide to national bankruptcy. Need some hard, cold facts to back up our assertion?
How about the words of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who said “…talk of default is not an exaggeration.” Default? A country in default? Not such a far-fetched concept these days. Apparently our own states of California and New York are teetering on the brink of that status, but back to Hungary.
Hungary’s GDP is down 6.4% from last year. Inflation is reported at 4.3%, and unemployment limping along at 11%. Public debt is a whopping 72.4% of GDP. Did you get that last number? Almost three quarters of the entire economy goes to service loans. I don’t care how you slice it, that is an unsustainable number, and it’s not even the worst part, in our view.
Put this one in your pipe and smoke it: May job creation clocked in at 431,000. Not so bad on the surface. It’s up from about 258,000 the month before but – get this – 390,000 of the 431,000 May jobs were created by the government. Newsflash! This economic trend spells disaster in big, flashing red letters. Duck and cover, Hungary, duck and cover. Say, America, where is your percentage of GDP diverted to cover public debt trending?
The Holistic Survival Team
Flickr / SF Brit