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Tom Leander

Europe's failings

By Tom Leander

Friday 5 February 2010

IT IS hard to tell whether the reluctance of the rich countries in Europe to commit to giving aid to weaker nations in the European Union is simply a case of not wanting to encourage moral hazard or an attempt to push the problem away.

With the national deficit in Greece at 13% and Spain, Portugal and Ireland running huge deficits, the EU’s currency regime will be under threat if one or more of them default, with the likelihood of prolonging the global recession.

There have been whispers that Germany, France, the Netherlands and others are mulling a bailout should the worst happen.

For shipping, as with any major sector of the economy, a moribund Europe trailing Asia and the Americas out of a recession would be bad news indeed. It would only expand the scope for the already inexorable transfer of shipping interests to robust Asia.

We are not being Eurocentric. A global industry should be diversified in its power centres.

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