Another day, another World Cup prediction.
This just in from Swiss wealth management company, UBS, which ran a few beads across their abacus and came up with: Italy wins the upcoming World Cup, beating Brazil in the July 9 final:
The simulation was carried out using scientific methods comparable to those used by experts to make economic and financial-market forecasts.
(snip)
According to the UBS simulation, further results will be as follows: Germany will lose to Argentina in the 3rd round and Italy will beat France at the same stage. They will be closely followed by the Netherlands, who will send England home. In the fourth pairing, the Brazilians will dominate the Spaniards. The semi-finals will then be down to the favorites: the Netherlands will draw the short straw against the Brazilians, the Italians will beat Argentina. In the final, the Brazilians will be forced to accept the fact that the Italians are the better team in this tournament.
Kind of confusing, all that. And personally, I can't see the Brazilians accepting anything of the sort. Even if they do lose.
Whatever, it looks like the big banks are lining up in Italy's corner. This from Dutch bank ABN:
"In the past, countries winning the World Cup added around 0.7% to their economic growth. And at the last three tournaments the winning country's stock market considerably outperformed the losing finalist's market. On average there was 10% positive effect in the winner and a 25% negative effect in the loser.
According to Charles Kalshoven of the ABN AMRO Economics Department: 'The Italian economy is hampered by an inflexible labour market and deteriorating competitiveness. An Italian victory in the World Cup final would boost consumer and producer confidence, and thus lead to more spending and investment. 'Made in Italy' would also reap more benefits abroad. This may well push economic growth upwards, which would then give the government scope to introduce economic reforms.'"
Recent Comments