Taoyuan Nights

Summary: Things continue to deteriorate. The government continues to claim it can’t be happening.

Taiwan’s jobless rate hits record high. Yes, despite the government spending an absolute bloody fortune employing hundreds of thousands of people to pick up dog turds and trap mosquitoes, unemployment continues to rise. No doubt there are plenty of entrepreneurial Taiwanese people in areas of high unemployment that are busily breeding mosquitoes and feeding up stray dogs to try and improve the local job market.

Just think what happens next when the economic stimulus runs out.

Taiwan’s May Export Orders Slide for an Eighth Month. Taiwan’s exports down 20%. This is interesting because it’s already a year since the economic crisis happened, but the export data is still looking awful. Remember, something like 70% of Taiwan’s GDP is exports.

Meanwhile, I hear that everyone in T is going crazy trying to get into ’safe’ government and teaching jobs. I wonder what will happen when the government notices that tax income and public expenditure are completely disproportionate? I don’t think ’safe’ government jobs are safe at all. Look at Latvia – the public sector is being cut by 20%!