Is The Marshall Plan still active? ...or what --- Mrs Clinton's comments, as Ms Merkel, the German Chancellor, ended a three-day visit to China in the southern city of Guangzhou, where she tried to reassure the world's second largest economy about the strength of the euro.Mrs Clinton, the US Secretary of State, said she was confident that Europe has "the will and the means" to cut its debt and restore growth, as she sought to reassure European nations that the Obama administration's avowed "pivot" toward Asia will not dilute its commitment to Europe. "I have heard all the talk about where Europe fits into America's global outlook. And I have heard the some of the doubts expressed. But the reality couldn't be clearer: Europe is, and remains, America's partner of first resort," she told the Munich Security Conference. "We remain confident that Europe has the will and the means not only to cut your debt and build the necessary firewalls but also to create growth, and to restore liquidity and market confidence." In an apparent attack on China, she added: "Too often, American and European companies face unfair practices that tilt the playing field against us - favoritism for state-owned enterprises, barriers to trade emerging behind borders, restrictions on investment, rampant theft of intellectual property." Other news : Well over 100 people have died in Eastern Europe due to a winter cold snap that has held the region in its icy grip for nearly a week. From Ukraine to Italy, snow and temperatures as low as minus 33 degrees Celsius (minus 27 degrees Fahrenheit) have clogged road and air traffic, caused power outages, closed schools, trapped mountain residents and claimed the lives of those caught outside, mainly the homeless. Some 101 people have died in Ukraine alone, with 38 new deaths reported overnight, the Emergencies Ministry said on Friday. Temperatures there have dipped to below minus 30 degrees Celsius, making it the country's coldest winter in six years. While most of the dead have been homeless people found on the streets, hundreds of others have also been treated for frostbite and other problems caused by the cold. Authorities have set up some 3,000 heated tents to protect the homeless. Most schools in the country are also reportedly closed. Deaths have also been reported in Romania, the Czech Republic and Poland, where firefighters reported on Thursday that 11 people had died from carbon monoxide that came from charcoal heaters they were using to warm their homes. Amid reports of record low temperatures across the Continent, many countries reported that natural gas deliveries from Russia had been reduced. Ukraine denied Russian accusations that it had used more than its share of the fuel, but the tone was reminiscent of gas disputes between the two countries in years past. So far, European officials have reportedly been able to compensate for the gas shortages with domestic supplies. Western Europe has also seen freezing temperatures and a handful of related deaths. Italian officials on Thursday reported a homeless man had died of exposure in Milan. In Germany, a homeless man in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt was found dead on Thursday, after an elderly woman in the neighboring state of Lower Saxony had succumbed on Wednesday. Warmer temperatures are unlikely in the coming days, though, the German Weather Service reported.
5 comments:
During the past 30 years, a growing share of the global economic pie has been taken by the world's wealthiest people. In the UK and the US, the share of national income going to the top 1% has doubled, setting workforces adrift from economic progress. Today, the world's 1,200 billionaires hold economic firepower that is equivalent to a third of the size of the American economy.
It is this concentration of income – at levels not seen since the 1920s – that is the real cause of the present crisis.
In the UK, the upward transfer of income from wage earners to business and the mega-wealthy amounts to the equivalent of 7% of the economy. UK wage-earners have around £100bn – roughly equivalent to the size of the nation's health budget – less in their pockets today than if the cake were shared as it was in the late 1970s.
In the US, the sum stands at £500bn. There a typical worker would be more than £3,000 better off if the distribution of output between wages and profits had been held at its 1979 level. In the UK, they would earn almost £2,000 more.
The effect of this consolidation of economic power is that the two most effective routes out of the crisis have been closed. First, consumer demand – the oxygen that makes economies work – has been choked off. Rich economies have lost billions of pounds of spending power. Secondly, the slump in demand might be less damaging if the winners from the process of upward redistribution – big business and the top 1% – were playing a more productive role in helping recovery. They are not.
Speaking after a meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, President
Sarkozy urged Greek political leaders to agree to reforms, saying the crisis had
to be solved "once and for all".
"Greece's leaders have made commitments and they must respect them
scrupulously," he told a press conference.
"Europe is a place where everyone has their rights and duties. Time is
running out, it needs to be concluded, it needs to be signed."
All this coming from two countries (France/Germany) who both breached the Maastricht treaty on GDP within 2 years (2003) of the Eurozone being established. Under the treaty both should have been censored and 'fined' for the breach, but instead they were allowed to escape without sanction after a Qualified Majority Vote (QMV) between the other Euro member states decided not to implement the sanctions available under the treaty. Now Sarkozy and Merkel are running around as if the are the most virtuous of leaders when it comes to complying with national obligations under Euro land treaties. Talk about stones and glass houses!.
I have been saying it on here f0r some days now, .
Greece will be officially announced in Default by the ratings agencies on the 23rd of March.
That banks and other contingency palns are underway.
That on Monday March the 26th Greek accounts will be frozen and all banks have been instructed not to be involved in forex in Greece.
Its really is going to happen and it will soon be out in the open fully.
Greece will exit shortly afterwards.
If any Greeks are reading this then ensure you exchange all euros for real currency asap.
There is no time to lose now, The smart money has already left.
Only the idiots will keep greek euros now and obly idiots will have euro denominated accounts in Greece,.
Clear the accounts get dollars and put it in a safe place.
The writing is on the wall clear for eveyone to see now including even the blindest quisling europhiles.
I'm fed up with the blinkered knocking of our wealth creators. I'm also fed up with the politicians who spent money like water and are now knocking the banks. And above all I'm fed up with the EU Commission and their bombastic President who should have ignored German and French pressure and enforced Maastricht rules on national deficits so avoiding the present overriding crisis. Sack the lot!!
How does it work when your country is subjected to an IMF style structural plan? The IMF promises you funds and in exchange you're supposed to implement its policy. But when the IMF has delivered the funds, what prevents you from delaying, not implementing etc? Is there some kind of "échéancier" (don't know the english word), money delivered drip by drip?
Short answer is Yes.
IMF delivers money in tranches (which may come from the French) and these are dependent on the borrowing government meeting progress targets.
Can't remember which they are on for the current Greek programme but there have been several times when funds have been delayed until the Greeks pledged to do better.
Any 2nd support programme would also be delivered in tranches but Greece needs the first to by 23rd March to avoid a messy default
Post a Comment