Ecoball

Good to see Netherlands and then Germany making it to the final four. By the time you would be reading it, Spain shall make it too. But I could not find justification in supporting any of them. All throw their hearts out in the field, only to lose or win by some chancy goals. The truth is, I hardly know more than one player from every team and have not followed the club football ever.

So I thought and came to a conclusion : It'll be better off for the world if an European nation wins the cup. Put the economist's eye and you will be happy to agree.

The Euro crisis driven by mammoth Sovereign debts of many EEC members is looming large. Investors have started washing their hands off Euro. It's falling wrt. Dollar and other currencies and thus, the costs of repayments are getting higher. This discomfort is supposed to be healed by implementing austerity measures and rolling back of govt. stimulus. But the conditions have not improved with close to 20 percent unemployed population in many countries. The squeezing of money will actually affect demand adversely. A long recession resulting from deflation seems a possibility.

If any of the three wins the world cup, things can be lot optimistic. More so Spain, which is reeling under the Fiscal deficit of 11.4 percent needs spirited hope and actions. Needless to say that a Football world cup win in a sports crazy nation usher in a grand celebration lasting weeks.

Lets be hopeful that it will provide a much needed cushion to the treasury and more time to think. As we all know that

- Lots of beers will be boozed

- Festive occasion will grace population

- Families will spend on entertainment

which will generate taxes for the exchequers and income for people.

Crisis in Europe will affect developing world (say, India) adversely as exports will go down due to shrinkage of demands. Contrarily, imports will increase as the European currency will be relatively cheaper. Thus domestic production will suffer high competition due to technological imbalance. Moreover, lower interest rates in European countries will attract ECBs from corporate world. Indian banking system will be pressurised to compromise. Sub prime crisis in America may have not shown it's direct effects in India, but it has unsettled the public.

When debts range in thousands of billions of dollars, a world cup win will hardly titillate the foundation. But, the motivational self-esteem oozing out from the mega achievement shall inspire politicians, bureaucrats and the 'aam aadmi'. They'll be expected to act in their country's utmost interests.