Economics: Europe: Jobless figures reach new h+s in Europe (Brits not included)

European unemployment

November 10, 2009 
 

  Nation by nation:

Austria	4.8%
Belgium	7.9%
Cypress	5.9%
Finland	8.6%
France	10%
Germany	7.6%
Greece	9.2%*
Ireland	13%
Italy	7.4%
Luxembourg	6.6%
Malta	7.2%
Netherlands	3.6%
Portugal	9.2%
Slovakia	12%
Slovenia	5.9%
Spain	19.3%

*Latest available was June

Hat Tip to Washington Post
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But notice  that Britain/UK unemployment is not listed, indeed neither Brit nor Lit is listed.  Okay, Britain is not continental Europe, but it's a European Island just east of the Irish Isle and west of France.  These both are major European islands. Still, like Cypress and Malta in the Mediterannean Sea, they are not geopolitically contiguous to the continent that makes Europe Europe, correct? They are are not in the Med, they are in the Atlantic Ocean off the continent. Okay, okay.

But why leave out the quite continental Lithuanians ("the Lits") in a bare bald list offered as a news report about European unemployment?  Ah, the pressure of the urge toward completeness that haunts so many theoreticians, the urge toward a systematics.

One thing of concern by a pensioner in Canada, is the nexus of the post-Meltdown economic situation and the immigration into Europe of so many jihadists, forming themselves for, and waiting for their chances to come along.  Like a 2nd generation American who woud make well known his direction and religious identity as a Muslim jihadist acting against his country by a public premeditated terrorist attack on his fellow US Army soldiers.  Post-Meltdown joblessness crosses with a 2nd but much smaller 9/11 -- November 5, 2009 -- 11/5.

The martyr-soldiers of Fort Hood, US Army base in Texas, were consecrated such by the intent in the deepest Muslim heart of a particular anti-USA jihadist.  At the same time, he was a deranged psychiatrist.  But his lone act has shaken the societal feelings of statistical groups who now distrust on the opinion graphs a whole level down their distrust has plummeted, a full degree more wary of  Muslim fellow citizens, and oftentimes neibors.

Along comes the Meltdown, with bouts of mass layoffs, then the 2nd terrorist attack, amidst increasing industrial and business shutdowns, layoffs, increase of joblessness.  The TARP Stimulus swings into action, but many TARP funds are witheld from first-round distribution (those moneys went to banks like Bank of America, the insurance conglomerate AIG, etc).  Now, the Recession, as named by the Federal Reserve Bank, is ended.  The economy is getting better, for somebody's benefit; but official unemployment and more widely-experienced joblessnes increases.

The historical thematics of both elements of this nexus reverberate, exchanging nuclear matter, each to each, as it were.

But the account (General Account, specific national accounts) may pique your interest for a moment because of the comparisons you'll come up with, upon analyszing the list of jobless workers in the various countries and overall.

I'm interested in the unemployment situation in all Britain -- England, Wales, Scotland, Ulster, and perhaps the new duchy of East Lothian (I blogged on this idea a little while back. ... once it popped into mind while writing here today, I decided to look up East Lothian, and discovered there's a member of Parliament from an electoral riding denominated "East Lothian."  The Member is Anne Moffat, sitting for the Labour Party there, and thus sits with the ruling party that maintains control of government. The Labour Party was headed by Tony Blair for a long time, and now UK's Prime Minister is Gordon Brown, a Scot I understand.  So why not a Duchy of East Lothian? ... as suggested in ... as suggested in ... ).

Found it!  A document quote (docquote) that says it all, but not in monarchist tones of "duchy," rather in the pragmatics of the UK's representational system, beginning with geocultural realities:

23. Nobody asked Cornwall if it wished to be subsumed into a macro-south west regional zone. It’s a pity that a Government, flushed with electoral success and reforming zeal, with Wales and Scotland excited by the prospects of devolution, and with a unique opportunity to de-centralise and to invigorate by not being jealous of power and control, did not take a moment to ask around. If it had set about regionalisation by asking for proposals for a regional network that could effectively replace the outworn legacy of World War 2 rationing and munitions supply, which included the enormous and dysfunctional ‘south west’, it would have received some innovative ideas which would have created a patchwork of regions, big and small, some founded on expediency, some upon industrial synergies and one – Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly - founded upon an historical, constitutional and cultural base and with a rapidly emerging will to positively address its growing economic failure and social deprivation.

I may be mistaken, but there seems to be some connection with one writer's Duchy of East Lothian and the actual (micro-)movement for a regional Government of Cornwall among the already-established regions.  See Philip Hosking, "Next steps for the Cornish constitutional convention," OurKingdom (Nov8,2k9).

- EconoMix