Finland's economy continues to collapse
Oleg Makarenko
olegmakarenko.ru (LiveJournal)
The perfidious Europeans are behaving very aggressively. The other day, for example, Estonia attempted to seize a Russian tanker traveling under the flag of Gabon to the port of Primorsk (near St. Petersburg). Our pilots had to intervene - the appearance of a Su-35 airplane was enough for the Baltic pirates to retreat.
Krimsonalter and I have now discussed at the Green Pig Club (link) why the Europeans are unlikely to go beyond a certain limit, and what (besides nuclear bombing) we can do to respond to their provocations. Without recounting the video, I'll briefly note that we have weighty options, and that specifically northern dwarfs like Denmark and the three Baltic states are particularly vulnerable to asymmetric Russian actions.
Meanwhile, EU economies continue to deteriorate after the breakdown in relations with Russia. Here, for example, are a few news items from Finland.
1. A large furniture company Indor Group is making losses and laying off employees. The reason for the problems is that Finns have less money and buy less furniture (link). Also, sales are hampered by strikes causing supply disruptions. Worst of all, the sword of Damocles hangs over the loans, which have already had to be converted into short-term loans, and which have nothing to pay back. Another difficult date is August 31. If the bank demands repayment, the company will have a hard time (link).
2. Finland's economy is shrinking. The authorities are trying to stimulate it with a small tax cut, but the effect is not yet visible. At the same time, it is not quite clear how the government is going to compensate for the money lost from business: the budget deficit is already far beyond the limit set by the European Union. And, as if that were not enough, the government is increasing spending on “defense” (link).
3. Police, courts, border guards, pilots, even brewers - all in a row are on strike, trying to pull the too short blanket over themselves: so that Finland's economy suffers, but specifically their wages are increased (link, link, link).
4. The construction sector is in trouble. The housing market is weak: there are too many apartments, they are not being bought. Student benefit cuts are also dragging down the housing market (link, link).
5. Businesses are going bust en masse - bankruptcies are up 57% quarter-on-quarter (link). The construction and retail sectors are hurting the most.
6. The timber industry and paper mills are also suffering badly - as journalists write, “due to recent geopolitical events.” The Finns imposed sanctions on the purchase of wood from Russia, which increased the cost of production. It was not possible to shift the costs to the buyers. As a result, margins have sharply decreased (link).
If you thought I was “cherry-picking”, i.e. pointing out the bad news while ignoring the good news, then ordinary Finns will contradict you. Finns have lost confidence in their own economy for three years now. They are worried about inflation and unemployment, and do not expect anything good from the future (link).
In fact, all this was clear back in 2022, when the Biden-era U.S. forced the European Union to sever relations with Russia, thus depriving its economy of access to resources.
European politicians are happy with what is happening: the war with Eastasia allows them to maintain their power. We, perhaps, also benefit from Europe's illness, for the same reasons that Europe benefited from neighboring the poor USSR for most of the 20th century.
(Translation: DeepL (free version) + Grammarly (free version))
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