Great Recession in Europe
[11] In February 2009, the government announced record levels of unemployment in the country, with its highest monthly increase in 40 years and 1,500 people being laid off daily.Spain's premier, Jose Luis Zapatero, blamed the European Central Bank for making matters worse by raising interest rates.The country's business lobby Circulo de Empresarios warned of a "high probability" that Spain's economy would fall into recession in the second half of 2008 due to the housing collapse.Eurostat's current forecasts also show Greece's economy declining further in 2012, by an estimated 4.4%[26] In Italy, Fiat announced plant closures and temporary layoffs at factories in Turin, Melfi and Sicily.[5] However the final estimates released by the INSEE, France's statistical agency, showed the French economy grew by 0.14 percent during the third quarter thus barely avoiding a technical recession.Further proposals include tax rebates for small businesses as well as easing restrictions on building permits and government contracts particularly with construction and civil engineering.[31] This is due to the "prime à la casse" program where buyers received a rebate of up to €1,000 for scrapping their polluting old vehicles and purchasing new environmentally friendly/ fuel efficient cars.[36] The French cooperative bank Caisse d'Epargne suffered a €600 million derivatives trading loss in October 2008, which it blamed partly on the high market volatility at the time.[44] On 19 March 2009, the INSEE announced worse contraction than previously said, predicting a −2.9% set back in growth, and a jobless rate up to 8.8 as soon as June 2009.Thus, in September 2010, the Portuguese Government announced a fresh austerity package following other Eurozone partners, through a series of tax hikes and salary cuts for public servants.In November 2010, risk premiums on Portuguese bonds hit euro lifetime highs as investors and creditors worried that the country would fail to reign in its budget deficit and debt.Apparently, the Prime Minister Sócrates's cabinet was not able to forecast or prevent any of this when symptoms first appeared in 2005, and later was incapable of doing anything to ameliorate the situation when the country was on the verge of bankruptcy in 2011.[48] On 23 March 2011, José Sócrates resigned following passage of a no confidence motion sponsored by all five opposition parties in parliament over spending cuts and tax increases.[61] Iceland's Althing responded to the crisis by approving a bill giving the Government wideranging powers over the banks, including the ability to seize their assets, force them to merge or compel them to sell off their overseas subsidiaries.[66] Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling announced that the UK government would foot the entire bill, estimated at £4bn,[67][68] and that he was taking steps to freeze the assets of Landsbanki.[69] The following day, Darling used the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 as the basis for seizing the assets of Landsbanki Islands hf, an Iceland-based bank.The ECB's unprecedented move in bailing out a non-euro state underlines the crisis unraveling in Hungary and its possible impact on the rest of Central Europe.[74] Hungary, which joined the European Union in 2004, has been hit hard by the current financial crisis due to its heavy dependence on foreign capital to finance its economy and has one of the biggest public deficits in the EU.Prior to the international bailout, the government had feared the worst, including a collapse of the national currency, Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány said.Sir Win Bischoff, chairman of Citigroup, spoke of his belief that house prices in Britain would fall constantly for two years from the end of 2007.[when?][88] A voter backlash due to the personal financial effects of the global credit crunch was widely attributed by politicians of the United Kingdom Labour Party, which had been in power since 1997, as the reason their political fortunes took a dramatic downturn through May 2008, with a succession of defeats in by-elections and the London Mayoral election, and the worst opinion poll result in their history.[citation needed] On 23 January 2009, Government figures from the Office for National Statistics showed that the UK was officially in recession for the first time since 1991; with a 1.5% fall in gross domestic product during the final quarter of 2008 being the sharpest for 28 years.[104] However, many economists were still unsure of the situation[105] – the relatively small drop in unemployment benefit claimants could be attributed to seasonal jobs, and with a general election imminent, the government had every reason to present the best economic picture possible.The popularity of Britain's Labour government, led by prime minister Gordon Brown since June 2007, slumped dramatically during 2008 and 2009, with low rankings in opinion polls, dismal performances in local and European elections, and losing several seats in parliamentary by-elections.The Conservative opposition, led by David Cameron, won the most votes and seats in the 2010 general election, but fell short of an overall majority, and agreed a coalition with the Liberal Democrats in order to form a new government.Despite high economic growth in 2008 (8.7%), Romania was affected very hard by the crisis, analysts forecasting a contraction of 8–9% for 2009, as the new government established in the late 2008 was unable to take any anti-crisis measures.[107] From 1999 until the autumn of 2008 Russia's economy grew at a steady pace,[108] which most experts attributed to Putin's policies,[109] a sharp rouble devaluation of 1998, Boris Yeltsin-era structural reforms, rising oil price and cheap credit from western banks.In October 2008 Russia emerged as one of the countries hardest-hit by the global economic crisis,[114][115] the stock market crash having been precipitated by Vladimir Putin's verbal attack on Mechel in July that year and the Russo-Georgian War in August.Electrification of transport (electromobility) figures prominently in the Green Car Initiative (GCI), included in the European Economic Recovery Plan.DG TREN is supporting a large European "electromobility" project on electric vehicles and related infrastructure with a total budget of around €50million as part of the Green Car Initiative.
Great RecessionSubprime mortgage crisis2000s energy crisis2000s United States housing bubble2000s United States housing market correction2007–2008 financial crisis2008–2010 automotive industry crisisDodd–Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection ActEuropean debt crisisCausesCauses of the European debt crisisCauses of the 2000s United States housing bubbleCredit rating agencies and the subprime crisisGovernment policies and the subprime mortgage crisisSummit meetings34th G8 summitG-20 Washington summitAPEC PeruChina–Japan–South Korea trilateral summitG-20 London Summit2008 European Union stimulus plan2008–2009 Keynesian resurgenceAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009Banking (Special Provisions) Act 2008Chinese economic stimulus programEconomic Stimulus Act of 2008Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008Federal Reserve responses to the subprime crisisGovernment intervention during the subprime mortgage crisisGreen New DealHousing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008National fiscal policy response to the Great RecessionRegulatory responses to the subprime crisisSubprime mortgage crisis solutions debateTerm Asset-Backed Securities Loan FacilityTroubled Asset Relief ProgramBusiness failuresAmerican International GroupChryslerCitigroupFannie MaeFreddie MacGeneral MotorsLehman BrothersRoyal Bank of Scotland GroupAfricaAmericasSouth AmericaUnited StatesOceaniaTimelinerecessionEuropeIrelandBlack WednesdayPost-2008 Irish economic downturnPost-2008 Irish banking crisisIrish property bubbleCentral Statistics OfficeMerrill Lynchforced to nationaliseAnglo Irish BankBank of Ireland2008–2014 Spanish financial crisisSpanish property bubbleMartinsa-FadesaCaja MadridBanco Popular EspañolPedro SolbesCastilla–La ManchaDeutsche BankJose Luis ZapateroEuriborBank of SpainMorgan StanleySpanish economyunemployment ratePurchasing Managers' Indexeconomy of GermanyAngela MerkelGreek government-debt crisisEurostatGreece's economySicily11 September attacks2008–2009 Belgian financial crisisFinlandNetherlandsNicolas SarkozyRenaultMistral BPCScorpène-class submarinesCaisse d'EpargnederivativesvolatilityBernard MadoffNatixisBNP ParibasSociété GénéraleCrédit AgricoleGroupamaBelgianFortisnationalizedBeneluxLuxembourgEconomic history of Portugal2010–2014 Portuguese financial crisisMoody'ssovereign bondEuropean sovereign-debt crisisdeficitpublic servantsfinancial marketsJosé SócratesEurozoneEuropean UnionStability and Growth Pactrisk premiumsFernando Teixeira dos SantosDiário de NotíciasCarnation RevolutionPortuguese Republic governmentsslippagepublic workscredit