Good catch. S&F

The first of the dominoes to fall?

I hope not. But things are not looking good...

S&F for that! Now, they will be putting pressure on other fragile countries so that they will continue the disaster.

Good catch. I think a domino effect is inevitable because many countries are in bad shape. Greece, italy, spain, portugal, the uk and the rest. These are worrying signs indeed.

I can not believe I am going to be the first one to say this...

Dr. Doom must be really upset.

Originally posted by Dave157
this is scary stuff. it may not seem that big to the general public, but this does not look good for Europe or the rest of the world.

Lol.. I hate to be the bearer of Common Sense here but this isn't too big a deal..

Latvia is an EU state of 2.5 million people.. It can easily do without a government.. This kind of thing happens regularly in Europe..

Belgium.. where the Seat of the EU is.. Had no government for a period of nearly two years previous to the financial crises..

They will still have to function as a state as per the EU agreement they signed when they joined and will hold elections in order to reelect a government..

Yes, the reason for it is the Financial Crises but these Eastern Bloc countries are not as politically advanced as Western EU, are nowhere near as wealthy as West EU and have been hit very hard by the crises BUT..

It will not revert to Stone Age Anarchism.. Even though many people seem to want that to happen lol

Originally posted by TheOneElectric
I can not believe I am going to be the first one to say this...

Dr. Doom must be really upset.

Might be the first one to say that... but not the only one to think it.
Interestingly, that was also my first thought.




[edit on 19-3-2010 by LadySkadi]

In late 08 early 09 Iceland collapsed economically, and Ecuador defaulted on their debt. The first dominoes have already fallen. This is just a continuation.

Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK, and The US are sure to follow.

As has been stated, this isn't doom and gloom!

In most european countries, they use a voting system called proportinal representation, which usually results in coalition Governments.

Thats all the headline means, that the governing coalition has collapsed, meaning they fell out over tea and biscuits. It doesn't mean the country has stopped working!

The headline is probably being misunderstood by those who don't realise, but this doesn't mean the functions of State have shut down, merely the very boring fact that the Governing coalition of five parties can't work together anymore.

All this means is an election will be held, a new coalition will form and a new Government will take shape.

Question is, will the new gov't be able to do anything more than the last? The only thing I've seen these EU gov'ts do is go begging for bailouts. Not that they have a choice as you see what happens when they try to tighten down = Riots.

So yes, this may be just another part of the process, but what is the end game? Politicians pitted against a population that is used to a certain way of life and unwilling to accept anything less. A vicious circle that.

Ok guys. meet a man form Latvia!
At first - People's Party (Tautas Partija - latvian) leaving government is a wonderful thing, not even a sign of some kind of domino effect as you mentioned. They have been hated for a long time for slightly NOT democratic movement. There was even a questionaire, and 70% answered that Yes, their leaving is good. Corrupted Party, and also their working for their pockets (only).

So next thing - about whole picture in Latvia. I don't know what did you guys mean with Mr. Doom, but Latvia is definitely DOOMED... 20 % unemployment rate says by it self... Everyone has a debt, even more then one. Banks (from Sweden), International Monetary Fund and a couple of local oligarchs are leading this country.

How do we fight with this? Well.. we all are flying with Ryanair (cheap airline company in Europa) to London, looking for a job and better life. We even have a joke - "Who is gonna be the last one to turn off the lights in airport?"
We had one Riot - few windows of a ministry were crashed, few police cars were smashed and that's it. Even tough, this riot was organized by local Russians. We are kind of "i don't care" people - we just run away.

So guys, do you have some job offer for me!?

Wow! I need to check out more international news, I didn't know that Latvia was actually the third country to have problems, fourth if you count Greece. It's starting to sound more like a house of cards than a row of dominoes.

I'd just like to remind everyone of the old saying, "If you owe thousands & cant pay, you've got a problem. If you owe millions & cant pay, the lender has a problem."
At some point, some government is going to end up realising that their people will not stand for too much in the way of austerity, particularly when bankers are still getting chauffeur driven around in their Mercedeses. At which point they will say, "Tough luck. You'll just have to wait for your money."
Ah, what a shame. Oh well... see how I shed a tear lol!
No country ever got out of a recession by cutting Public Spending; in fact the opposite is true. Quite simply, cutting services shrinks the amount of money (wages) available in the domestic market making it even less likely that new business can succeed. Conversely, no instance of tax cuts for the rich has ever created the fabled "trickle down" effect, for the simple reason that, in uncertain markets, the rich do not invest in startups, but blue chips.
It could be the UK that makes our creditors wait 1st, if, by some miracle, the Conservative Party can be kept out of government. Very doubtful: the media have been hyping them for years. What is certain is that the French wouldn't put up with the sh!te that the EU is recommending to reduce debts in Greece, Portugal, UK etc.