Financial Crisis in Portugal

Greetings ATSers!
As some of you know, Portugal has been on a road full of holes since 2010 officially, although for me and my family it started prior to the 2008 financial crisis, exactly after José Socrates was elected as prime minister (2006), my mother was fired and since then has been unable to find a permanent place to work jumping between jobs but in the current days it's become impossible for a woman of her age to find a decent job, but in the same situation as I and my family are now, are also 100's of thousands of other portuguese.

So basically, the causes for this Finacial Crisis were:
-Poorly though out investments
-Mismanagement of funds since the carnation revolution some 40 years ago
-Corruption and Fraud
-Overexpenditure
-Portuguese Banks accumulated losses for years

In 2011 we declared bankrupcy and requested the help of the IMF, a bailout was issued and 3 years later, after loads of cuts and reforms we are now reaching the post-troika.
Supposedly, we are doing well so far, we've seen some minor growth, and we're told we will see some more in the coming years, but we are also being told we will only fully recover when we get to the 2030's, our debt is 130% of our GDP.
I'm left wondering, how are we supposed to pay this debt, and still grow? I'd like the opinion of all the ATSers that might be interested in this subject, when it comes to economics or finances, I know nothing, but I'm really worried about my country, because what happens to my country affects me and everyone that lives in it.
Can anyone predict how we're going to do in the future, have any of you studied this Crisis we're going through and can give a more detailed insight to it?

Thank you and cheers

originally posted by: WhiteWine
our debt is 130% of our GDP.
I'm left wondering, how are we supposed to pay this debt, and still grow?

you can't and you won't, instead you'll hand over all natural resources and any riches you have to the corpo-bankster world.

(portugal is not alone in this, just ahead in the schedule)

originally posted by: anHairInTheSoup

originally posted by: WhiteWine
our debt is 130% of our GDP.
I'm left wondering, how are we supposed to pay this debt, and still grow?

you can't and you won't, instead you'll hand over all natural resources and any riches you have to the corpo-bankster world.

(portugal is not alone in this, just ahead in the schedule)

That is terrifying.. our country is not exactly known for it's natural resources or riches.. what are we giving them? Wine?

a reply to: WhiteWine

what are we giving them? Wine?

Souls

a reply to: WhiteWine

We are told this is your country but that is not true, its where you were born but.... Is it yours? no! one lie after another. There are those who control and those who are controlled, its always been that way. Doesn't make it right of course but that's the way it is. My advice to your family, is don't look at the future but rather work with being happy in the present. Only you can know how to do that. The less material you need the better you will feel, this is what makes us more independent. An old Chinese Taoist once said I would rather wag my tail in the mud than work for you in your corrupt system. Slowly but surely, its our best goal. Some will take longer to realize as they still are caught daydreaming in the American dream. Cut through the lies and don't be fooled. Best wishes to you.

originally posted by: ancientthunder
a reply to: WhiteWine

We are told this is your country but that is not true, its where you were born but.... Is it yours? no! one lie after another. There are those who control and those who are controlled, its always been that way. Doesn't make it right of course but that's the way it is. My advice to your family, is don't look at the future but rather work with being happy in the present. Only you can know how to do that. The less material you need the better you will feel, this is what makes us more independent. An old Chinese Taoist once said I would rather wag my tail in the mud than work for you in your corrupt system. Slowly but surely, its our best goal. Some will take longer to realize as they still are caught daydreaming in the American dream. Cut through the lies and don't be fooled. Best wishes to you.

I know it's not my country, oh how I wish the country belonged to it's people, every single person that lives in it. I know it belongs to a minority, probably not even portuguese. My problem is, I consider it my country because I live in it, and I'm going to be here for a long time, not like I don't have a different country to live in, thankfully my father lives in Sweden and has plenty to provide, yet I can't imagine living in Sweden, it's not for me, the weather, the long nights, that just gets me depressed.
I want to stay here, I wanted to start something here, I'm 18 and the my plans for the future (professionally) as the country stands, won't be nothing but dreams. That's why I'm so concerned about the future, personally, I live the present but I'm more interested in the future because as of now, some things are not interesting at all. I love Portugal but the youth here is really really lost, including myself. I didn't want to wait 20 years to start a family because that's the only time I'll probably be able to start making real money, right now I'm working on a Call Center selling cable tv and getting payed 220€ a month, although I only work 4 hours a day and have expenses I know I can't live alone off of that and I don't want to work in a call center the rest of my life ofc, I hate depending on my parents money, I always pictured myself leaving my mothers house early but it seems like that won't be possible, and this really pessimist view of the future brings me down.
Best wishes to you too.

portuguese wine seriously ?

i know portuguese are very proud of everything they do but let's be honest for one second, portuguese wine is plain bad (which is the reason why you came up with porto wine - to make that bad taste wine somehow drinkable)

sorry for the sarcasm but let's face the truth (it'll set you free)

plenty of natural resources to steal from the locals in portugal : fish, forests (cork), iron ore, copper, zinc, tin, tungsten, silver, gold, uranium, marble, clay, gypsum, salt, arable land, hydropower

i've emphasized the metals, but cork or marble are also very valuable

Portugal together with Greece, Italy and Spain are junk economies run by nazi criminal politicians starting from their president and ending to the least relevant clown in parliament. This led to the financial and economic crisis, not the mortgages or pension age. Moreover, their actions of capitulation to the EU central and northern power is precisely what has worsened the crisis, because after Greece, they created a precedent where they can now blame "lazy workers" and so-called "early retirees" or whatever other term, due to the capitulation to the EUrogarchs and banks.

Germany would have never been able to militarily or economically destroy Greece, if the Greek govt. especially Tsipras didn't cave in to all their demands and to the IMF!

Let's remember that Greece and Italy especially were basically thrown into the EU while still massively exceeding all kinds of budget related limits set by the Maastricht treaty. At that time, neither Germany, nor other countries even dared to complain.

a reply to: WhiteWine


If you are in a village situation, just get organised. Everything we have is grown from the soil by swapping produce between each other you have bypassed the taxation drain. You are in a great country to organise a growing co operative. I know people who just go out into their garden and pick a decent meal and never go to a supermarket, they know what they are doing .

It's for sure crazy how it works.

There is a change most country's drown in debt. After that we must just invent a new system.

The current one isn't working anymore. 50% of the wealth is owned by 1%. Well that just doesn't work out in the long run. The top of the Pyramid gets more tiny and the lower part wider and wider. And the top part gets more heavy and the lower part, there the ''stones'' get softer and softer and crumbles bit by bit until the whole thing collapses at some point.

After this we try again, something better hopefully.. But a new start is always nice I guess.

How is the Austerity going ? All issues solved now ? I think the crisis of 2009 was caused by spending for a war against Russia.
A war that the EU lost. That excessive spending led to the so-called financial crisis .... by adhering to the IMF conditionality all EU countries declared that they were part of a failed war.

... but that was in 2009 ! What about the new war which the EU lost again during the past few years ?
Ger READY for IMF's 2nd tranche .... ain't I right ?

a reply to: WhiteWine

Ehhhh, Portugal has been in a crisis since the birth of that nation nearly a thousand years ago. Never has there been economical growth or even sustainable stability in Portugal, and the enormous fortunes that Portugal stole away from Mozambique, Angola, Brazil and from the rest of the Portuguese colonies was all put to waste, instead of using that immense flow of wealth to build the nation.

You people are the shortest people in the whole of Europe because you were ruled and oppressed by the Estado Novo, that fooked up Mini-Hitler, Salazar, for over 40 years, and due to the poverty created by Salazar, your ancestors didn't get enough to eat, and when they did get food it was low quality food.

Now look at Denmark. A tiny piece of land with nothing of worth, and it's one of the richest nations in the world, with gender equality, a highly developed educational system, and a national health service to make the USA jealous. And the average Danish man is soon to be above 6 feet tall. It's beautiful, bro.

I moved from the USA to Europe about 10 years ago, when I graduated from high school, and I lived in Countries ranging from Greece, Spain, Germany, Italy, and Portugal amongst others.

Portugal not only suffers from an economical crisis but also from a crappy educational system that cares nothing about it's students,(Portugal has the highest or second highest percentage of high school dropouts) it also suffers from a marriage-crisis(70% of all first-time marriages end in divorce after 4 to 7 years; 80% of all 2nd marriages end up in divorce after the same length of time, and 90% of all 3rd marriages end the same way).

The Birth rate in Portugal is the second lowest in all of the western nations if I'm not mistaken, with the govt. passing propaganda on the Portuguese tv Channels and newspapers trying to motivate people to make babies. Hell, they're even trying to boost the birth rates by making school books from the 1st grade up to the 12th grade free, and there's thousands and thousands of Africans and Brazilians moving to your Country every year, so 100 years or so from now, there won't be any native Portuguese people.

Bro, your entire Country is a walking crisis, and the advice I give to every smart or physically able young Portuguese man and woman is to leave. Leave Portugal. Portugal is a Country of old men and old women. Most of the people in Portugal are over the age of 70 lmao and the govt. even stated a few months ago that the last time Portugal had this very low number of 18 year old Portuguese citizens was like 50 years ago.

Portugal as a nation is dead. No point in staying there. Immigrate to France or to Germany.

Dat Cristiano Ronaldo tho! He's worth all of the 5 million Portuguese men and more put together.