Now I would like to tell you that I haven’t got any opportunity to listen to podcasts about Germany. Of course BBC World Service provides a large number of such podcasts, but unfortunately they are not connected with the economy at all. That’s why I decided to find podcasts concerning the latest economic facts and deeds. Here is the result of my search.
The title of this podcast is “Crossing Continents - Greece & Ireland”. We know that Greece and Ireland are very different countries, as they are not situated near each other and they are not the same in culture or economy. But how can we speak about them together? Let’s look.
Greece and Ireland were shining examples, it seemed, of what Europe could do for struggling economies.
From the moment the Greeks entered the eurozone in 2001 the economy appeared to take off. Growth was initially fuelled by low interest rates and a burst of foreign investment. The triumphant return of the Olympics to Athens in 2004 crowned a dizzying period of success. Behind the façade a bloated public sector, tax avoidance on a grand scale and dishonest bookkeeping that misled Europe about the true state of the Greek economy told a very different story. So Greece had to go to the European powerhouses to ask for a bailout.
In Ireland the road that was taken to economic ruin was a different one but the result was the same. An economy that seemed to be the pride of Europe - the so-called "Celtic Tiger" - was in reality a house of cards. It came tumbling down under the weight of unsustainable public debt and a wildly overheated property market.
Chris Bowlby met the ordinary people in these two countries. They were the middle-class. Many of them were facing a number of choices. Their governments were implementing tough austerity programmes and raising taxes. Jobless rates were soaring and disaffected youth.
Both Greece and Ireland were disadvantageous countries. But today we can say that they try to overcome these difficulties.
As a whole this report is not difficult for listening, but there are some economic terms, which I haven’t understood.
P.S.: this podcast was published by BBC World Service on the 23rd of April 2010.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0075s1s/Crossing_Continents_Greece_and_Ireland/
