France's
highest court has approved a 75% tax on high earners that is one of
President Francois Hollande's signature policies.
The initial proposal to tax individual incomes was ruled unconstitutional by
the Constitutional Council almost exactly one year ago.
But the government modified it to make employers liable for the 75% tax on
salaries exceeding 1m euros (£830,000).
The levy will last two years, affecting income earned this year and in
2014.
Football clubs in France went on strike earlier this year over the issue,
saying many of France's clubs are financially fragile and say the plans could
spark an exodus of top players who are paid huge salaries.
The Qatari-owned Paris Saint-Germain has more than 10 players whose pay
exceeds 1m euros, including the Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
There has also been a chorus of protest from businesses and wealthy
individuals who have condemned the tax - including film star Gerard Depardieu,
who left the country in protest.
Polls suggest a large majority in France back the temporary tax.
Unlike many other countries in Europe, France aims to bring down its huge
public deficit by raising taxes as well as some spending cuts.
The highest tax rate in the UK is 45% and is applied to individuals.
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As Britain opened its borders to Bulgarian and Romanian workers on New Year's Day, shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, wrote that the government had ignored calls to strengthen existing legislation that could stop employers undercutting British employees' wages by recruiting cheaper staff from overseas.
David Hanson, the shadow immigration minister, told the BBC the government had allowed the proliferation of recruitment agencies that recruit solely from eastern Europe.
Their comments came as the first Romanians and Bulgarians with unrestricted access to the UK labour market began to arrive amid a deepening political row.
All political parties are aware that the possibility of high numbers of new migrants has become a highly charged issue, fuelled by unsubstantiated claims that the fresh arrivals could lead to more crime and social problems.
Cooper wrote on her blog that Labour wanted to prevent unscrupulous employers slashing existing wages to recruit cheaper foreign workers.
"We want to see action to stop immigration being abused and exploited as a source of cheap labour to undercut wages and jobs.
"That means stronger enforcement of the minimum wage and action against gangmasters or employers who put migrant workers in overcrowded accommodation then exploit them on poverty pay – undercutting local workers and responsible businesses too," she said.
She singled out Domino's Pizza chief executive, Lance Batchelor, for criticism after he complained last month that he was unable to fill 1,000 vacancies since migration rules were tightened."If he has trouble filling jobs, why doesn't he pay staff more – many aren't even paid the living wage," she said.
It is an inevitable law of finance that attempts to stamp out one sort of risk end up creating another. So it is with the response to the last financial crisis the seeds have been sown for the next.
The Basel III capital rules that are currently being implemented by banks around the world are generally thought to be making the financial system safer.
Force lenders to hold more capital and penalise them for taking too much trading risk, so the thinking goes, and you will end up with a banks that are more resilient to financial shocks.
Royal Bank of Scotland, once the world’s largest lender in terms of assets, has reduced its balance sheet by more than £700bn since its taxpayer-funded rescue in 2008, is on course to cut its investment banking division to about a tenth of its pre-crisis size, and has more than four times as much capital on hand as it did six years ago.
Look also at investment banks’ trading inventories of credit products, which stand at a decade-low, according to research by Oliver Wyman and Morgan Stanley, and are continuing to fall.
The IMF expects South Sudan to be the fastest growing country next year, although the prediction was made before the recent outbreak of unrest.
Oil accounts for more than 95pc of the South Sudan economy and before the crisis the world's newest country produced around 250,000 barrels a day.
The IMF had predicted the nation would see growth of 24.7pc due to rising oil production but the worry now is that civil unrest could hit production.
Bric nations - Brazil, Russia, India and China - will continue to growth but are being caught by the Mints (Mexico, Indonesia, Nigeria and Turkey).
Growth in the developed world is expected to remain sluggish as economies recover from the global financial crisis.
The energy efficiency design whitegoods manufacturing sector is a leading enterprise model in Turkey, poised to compete in the Emerging Europe and Black Sea Markets, inclusive of Russian Federation based manufacturing, which entails building a regional competitive advantage analogous to South Korea.
An efficient manufacturing sector is based in Bursa, known for the Bursa-Greece Pipeline. The pipeline, Turkey's leading energy infrastructure, serves the Black Sea-Aegean controlling interests.
Corruption and nepotism will continue in banks and government,people will get bored of the rhetoric of modest growth bollocks as living standards fall for the sixth year in succession six hundred and fifty overpaid dullard yes men and women will be invited at end of pitchforks to take a swim in the thames,creating the fowlest excrement slick in the river since bazelgette,followed by lickspittle "journalists" as they flow past wapping and as they pass canery wharf well suited gents with their pockets and mouths filled with GOLD will walk off a plank on millenium bridge thoughtfully provided as a fitting reward for "HONESTY AND GOOD BANKING GOVERNANCE"by the burghers of london. Sorry nodded off there,just like britains justice system for five years.
Better have a look at possible "sudden shocks" then, just in case the possibility of a sudden shock IS entirely possible because the economic background really is still horrendous. In Roubini's own words, shocks such as : "Households, banks and some non-financial firms in most advanced economies remain saddled with high debt ratios, implying continued deleveraging."
And, "a lack of clarity about the Federal Reserve's planned exit from quantitative easing (QE) and zero policy rates; and regulatory uncertainties."
And, "Still, some emerging markets – namely, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey, South Africa, Hungary, Ukraine, Argentina, and Venezuela – will remain fragile in 2014, owing to large external and fiscal deficits, slowing growth, below target inflation and election-related political tensions." (All implying fragility in both developed and emerging markets....all at the same time!)
And the problem of conventional (Keynsian?) economics itself, living in denial about crises or "sudden shocks!" Because Conventional economic theory itself says crises just don't happen!!......http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-29/steve-keen-briefly-explains-why-janet-yellen-wont-see-next-big-one-coming
The only recipe then, for economic improvement, (ahem! with conventional economics,) i.e the "only game in town" ......being practised by all the world's Central Banks is, the requirement for higher consumer spending and increased levels of debt! So, the plan is, there's only Plan A, in other words, more of the same! Yet all that has done so far is steadily make things worse...e.g...http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-12-05/food-poverty-uk-has-reached-public-health-emergency-levels
One thing you can be sure of...the more things get worse, the greater the levels of official "distraction, bluff, the odd bare-faced lie or two, etc" and insistence on you just getting "confident," or else...!!
Frankly the world economy largely run on monetarist/capitalist principles looks like it's suffering from a long term mild case of pneumonia, only kept on the go with large doses of medicine that at best alleviate the symptoms without any attempt to cure the illness. Surely this continued prescription is doomed to failure with a slow decline into increasing discomfort and eventual death?
Latvia's entry into the euro is expected to spike the flow of dirty money from former Soviet-states into its banking sector, reports the AP. Thirteen of Latvia's 20 banks operate by moving foreign funds and are considered safe havens for dubious funds. Stability and "permissible politics" are pull factors.
France's manufacturing PMI slipped to 47, lower than the flash estimate of 47.1, and below the 50 mark which separates expansion from contraction. That marks the 22nd consecutive month of contraction for factory activity in the eurozone's second largest economy.
France, along with Greece, were the only nations to report lower levels of new export business, despite the overall level for the eurozone rising for the sixth consecutive month and at a pace close to November's two-and-a-half year peak.
"France remains a concern. While Germany, Italy and Spain are seeing the strongest output growth since early 2011, buoyed to varying degrees by improved export sales, France is seeing a steepening downturn, in part the result of widening export losses," said Chris Williamson, chief economist at Markit, the author of the survey.
"This suggests that competitiveness is a key issue which the French manufacturing sector needs to address to catch up with its peers."
With the level of new orders dropping, France also saw a faster decline in its workforce.
But overall, the picture for the whole of the eurozone was much brighter, as the PMI manufacturing survey hit a 31-month high of 52.7.
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