Europeans are waiting like rabbits before snakes for the European Central Bank and the debt makers in politics for their money to be inflated away. In view of the dramatic debt situation of some countries, the debasement of money is pre-programmed and will be carried out before people's eyes. Just 10% of Europeans' assets are invested in shares. I am not even talking about the best protection against currency debasement, Bitcoin, but about applying the old principles of wealth preservation as the Americans do. It is also interesting to see that over the course of time there has been virtually no adaptation of knowledge or change in the reaction pattern of the European masses. This is the recipe for permanent and inherited poverty, because even in school education, and I know the example very well from Germany, no financial education is offered. The majority of Europeans are financially dumbed down.
I dont know if you realize this, but europe has been around for a while. The USA still has quite a young economy. I think you might later realize the europe knows what it is doing. America is the one that is in more trouble.
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The European era ended pretty much exactly with Bretton Woods. Europe is a dying cultural body that is being marginalized economically and in terms of energy policy. But for me, the South in particular is the most beautiful place in the world because of its history and nature.
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Cannot agree more on the financial illiteracy in the EU, people have no clue how things work. For many language barrier is a major hurdle, with no access to English content they rely on the very much filtered out information from the state media (i.e., propaganda) it is painful to watch
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I wonder how much of the difference in stock ownership is because in the US, people have retirement accounts like IRAs and 401k. Is there a similar situation in Germany?
It would be interesting to know how much shares people own, outside of retirement accounts.
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In Germany stocks aren't part of 401k-type retirement funds. There is a political debate on allocating funds into a type of a stare fund (of course) but no, there is no equity culture in Europe except of in rich families that are hiding this knowledge as good as they can.
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So what's in the German 401k type retirement funds? Bonds?
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There is no investment fund, it is a Ponzi scheme where the current payers cover the current retirees. It works when demography plays in your favour but like any Ponzi once you run out of new entrants the Ponzi collapses it's just a matter of when and how much money printing will be flooded to clean up the mess (same applies to France, Italy...)
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Of course. But most of the pensions paid come from a so-called pay-as-you-go system in which employees and employers pay the current pensioners and pension contributions.
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