Screw that. We're the buyers. They need to learn English. I speak 2 1/2 languages. Born Slovak, raised English, learned some German in school.
Chinese would be good, 1 billion people there, but Do THEY know chinsese ? I can tak in any language where hands and legs are allowed... (body language)
Fast forward another 10 years and you'll be saying otherwise. The US economy is in the shithole and is sinking further everyday. I love how Canadian Dollars are on-par with US, after being way below for the last twenty years. Simply put, the US has thrown it's weight around too much. Bullying countries is no the way to stay an economic leader. China and India are the manufacturing capitals of the world now, so their economy is climbling like crazy (why hire an american teenager at $8/hour when you can hire a team of 10 indians for the same amount). I suspect the major economic power will stick with the EU for the next 5-10 years. Everywhere else is pretty unstable right now, whereas the EU is absorbing a few new countries every year. Get a head start and learn a few new languages. I'd recommend a chinese dialect and probably german or some other european language.
You're missing one thing, Christian - that booming Chinese and Indian economy is intrinsically linked with the buying power of the US economy. Americans stop buying those products, and those economies suffer. Ultimately, the Western world still has the bulk of the global buying power. The sinking US dollar is already causing a correction on the MacroEconomic level. Companies that had globalized are shifting production back to the US, and building new plants, to take advantage of the poor exchange rate. The company I work for has major operations around the world, and is continually shifting production back to the US.
EUR currency nor EU might not last forever, not for long time. It's because in US is one currency but almost everywhere same laws, and constitution or something like that. While in EU almost every country has another laws, and things how they work. For example, when some disastaer take place in Greece and burn very large area of trees, EU will pay it, so the rich pay for poor, and I don't think they will tolerate it forever.. I can't explain it very well, but also EU is not very stable, or won't be in next few years... (maybe)
Interesting. I can see the benefit of the EU, and how it can buffer against changed by shouldering a burden collectively, But it does seem like it would be difficult to convince others to continue to shoulder that burden when they do not have common interests.
Yes and no. They are starting to supply alot of other major countries now. I have friends in large companies in the EU that are getting supplied by India/China now. A few years ago this wasn't the case, but europe has really started opening it's doors to asia. Yes they will take a hit as the american dollar plunges further, and it will be interesting to see the results. However they'll just find new places to sell their stuff. That's the same thing for any country bagwell. Take the US for example, in the past several years they've had to deal with 911, Katrina, and what seems to be worse and worse weather conditions. Or how about south asia where that huge quake hit a few years ago and caused the tsunami that wiped out most of south east asia - those countries had to bear it financially and they are in ruins right now. The US has to bear that cost just as must as the EU would if one of their members faced a crisis. The only difference is that right now the EU has way more money and resources to deal with these problems. If anything, the EU is in the strongest position right now to face anything like these disasters.
Yeah, well, the way the US dealt with the burden of disasters like 9/11 and Katrina has been to simply "print money" by plunging interest rates to historic low levels, which has liquidated the dollar and caused an obese economy that has now burst. This is really Off-Topic, though, and probably needs to be taken to a new thread.
We might be the buyers right now, but their population is huge, and sooner or later they will start buying.
I live in a country (Moldova) which offered me the possibility to speak Romanian and Russian. And, English is my third language!