French pension protests loom - After a quiet summer, anti-austerity protests will return to the streets of the eurozone today as French unions hold a day of protest action against Francois Hollande's pension reforms.

Let by the hardline CGT union, demonstrations will take place in 180 locations across France - as workers show their anger against Hollande's proposal to make them pay larger contributions and wait longer to collect their pensions.

Student unions and far-left groups are also expected to join the protests, in the latest expression of disquiet against Hollande's government.

The plans are meant to target France's pensions black hole, which is on track to hit €20bn by the end of the decade.

As Reuters explains:The draft pension law, to be presented to cabinet on September 18th and sent to parliament shortly thereafter, aims to wipe out an annual deficit that will otherwise hit €20bn in 2020. Its main effect is to extend the pay-in period for pension contributions to 43 years by 2035 from 41.5 now.Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault's government submitted a new reform draft to France's top administrative court on Friday adding an amendment that will reduce advantageous conditions for pensioners who have more than three children starting in 2020. 

Analysts have criticised the bill as being too timid, but the CGT argues that it places an unfair burden on workers.

Opinion poll data released last night found that 61% of the public back the protestors, with four in five saying they are concerned about their pensions.

However, the word from France is that today's protests are likely to be subdued, with some moderate unions declining to take part. It's unlikely to be a repeat of the pension protests that gripped the country for days in 2010.

Still, it should give an insight into the public mood in France, which faces many more tough decisions to bring its deficit into line in the years ahead.

I'll try to track the protests through the day, along with other key events as usual.

A political and economic system in which underachievers forcibly redistribute their mediocrity to the rest of society

E.U = Socialism: A political and economic system in which underachievers forcibly redistribute their mediocrity to the rest of society...or is it ???....Liberal bloggers always point to socialist Europe as a shining example of how wonderful life can be? Oliver Stone is coming out with a documentary about how Hitler and Stalin were just misunderstood. I read daily about how Europe is in economic free fall and see the same in the tea leaves for America. So death and destruction are goals to admire now??? God help us! Oh yeah, god is dead according to these nihilist lunatics. Oh yeah, I can't say lunatic anymore now that Congress has voted to ban that word. I'll stick with God help us.

Life is actually much better for European working class than in the US. US workers are more and more like obedient little slaves, working two jobs just to earn enough for living. 10-12 hour days and maybe two weeks holiday per year. Then they eat shit food which basically poisons them over the decades slowly but surely, causing high cholesterol, hypertension, diabetes and all sorts of other sicknesses. When they got sick, their health insurance is a form of financial torture, designed to find ways to not to pay. Public education is quite crappy and social safety nets are mostly missing.

The creation of the EU and the common currency was never anything more than a thinly veiled campaign to force European nations into a monolithic Socialist union and help the new Soviet Union (EEC) acquire the production and energetic capacities of Europe, while Germany gets to "administer" the EU states. Economists around the globe warned of the consequences and kept on warning over the last 15 -20 years. The voters in Europe ignored the harsh facts and instead chose bread and circus... and now they reap the benefits of their stupidity and greed. The Forth Reich is ruling Europe since the "independent union nations" budgets have to be approved by the Bundestag before being implemented !!! Deucland uber ales !!!

In a dramatic about-turn, German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble ditched his earlier objections that had led him to clash openly with his French counterpart, Pierre Moscovici, last week over the ECB's role in banking supervision.
With time running out to meet a year-end deadline, both sides managed to settle their differences and Germany won concessions to temper the authority of the ECB's Governing Council over the new supervisor.
Agreement on bank surveillance is a crucial first step towards a broader "banking union," or common euro zone approach to dealing with failing banks that in recent years dragged down countries such as Ireland and Spain.
The next pillar of a banking union would be the creation of a central system to close troubled banks.
The decision also sends a strong signal to investors that the euro zone's 17 members, from powerful Germany to stricken Greece, can pull together to tackle the bloc's problems. 

Poland under the current administration is based on “a system of clientelism”....

WARSAW–Tens of thousands of people marched through the center of the Polish capital Saturday in an anti-government rally organized by the conservative opposition hoping to unseat the country’s popular prime minister who it says has turned Poland’s democracy into a facade through his firm grip on power.   Police estimated that 50,000 people participated, while the conservative Law and Justice party said 200,000 people took part in the march, held under the slogan “Wake up, Poland.” The party’s leader, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, said Poland doesn’t give equal opportunities to all its citizens and discriminates against Catholics. He put the blame on Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“These huge crowds mean strength,” he said at the end of the march at Warsaw’s Castle Square. “This means that Poland has awakened. The cup of evil has overflowed and we Poles, we Polish patriots, say ‘no’.”    Mr. Tusk’s administration, which took power away from Mr. Kaczynski in 2007 and is now in its second term of office, has been going through several rough patches recently. The collapse of a gold fund, Amber Gold, which the authorities said was a Ponzi scheme, highlighted possible systemic problems with enforcement of financial regulation. On Mr. Tusk’s watch, bodies of victims of a Polish government airplane crash in Russia in 2010 were mixed up and buried in incorrect graves, with the administration taking the heat this month for relying on autopsies performed in Moscow and not ordering that all coffins be opened upon arrival.   The economy is slowing more than expected, while the latest statistical data showed that Poles continue to emigrate to other European Union countries in search of better life. Poland has been growing robustly since the early 1990s, at 4.3% in 2011, much above EU and regional averages. But the EU’s largest emerging economy is expected to grow 2.5% this year amid the crisis in the euro zone, the largest recipient of Polish exports.  With economic output per capita adjusted for purchasing power about $20,000 a year, Poland remains a poor relative of the more developed nations in the European Union, which it joined in 2004 after more than a decade of transition from communist central planning.

Mr. Kaczynski said Poland under the current administration is based on “a system of clientelism” and said the mostly leftist and liberal media flatter the ruling Civic Platform party by painting a rosy picture of Poland’s economic and international situation while ignoring challenges and keeping mum on the governing camp’s shortcomings.

There isn't a banking union, and no chance it will happen

As regards any idea of a Federal Europe is concerned it's interesting to see what's happening in Spain which is apparently in danger of fragmentation......"Hundreds of thousands of Catalans took to the streets of Barcelona  in an unprecedented show of mass support for autonomy from Madrid, blaming Spain’s economic crisis for dragging their wealthy region down.The central government said the crowd was 600,000 strong. Catalan police gave figures as high as 1.5 million...They held up banners and signs saying “No to the Fourth Reich”, “No to Europe”, “Independence Now!” and “Catalonia: the New European State”.  Catalans complain of paying billions of euros more in taxes than they receive back from Madrid, even as their regional government has been forced to fire workers and cut services."  In general people don't like the idea of supporting other populations, even within their own country. Asking nations to do it within a federation simply won't work.  There isn't a banking union, and no chance it will happen. They're talking about common banking regulation and Germany has said 'Nein' to Draghi's suggestion.....Reuters - Schäuble said that, despite the current crisis in the Euro zone, the Euro will ultimately emerge as the common currency of the entire European Union. He said he “respects” Britain’s decision to keep the pound, but insisted that the survival and eventual stabilisation of the Euro will convince non-members to join the currency club. “This may happen more quickly than some people in the British Isles currently believe,” he added....I say: Yet another example of the EU apparatchiks trying to gain control of the UK's financial structure by stealth....(and the other non Euro countries) - but the UK is the big target here.   Come on Great Britain! ... cut the head off this serpent and tell the EU to bugger off ... you'll be doing yourselves a great favor, not to mention the rest of Europe...Does anyone in their right mind think trade with the UK will stop if they leave the EU?   The vast majority of UK exports come here to the USA, Germany second, then France. A vast majority of UK imports come from Germany, USA second, then China, Netherlands, Norway, and France.  50 million quid a day dumped into this black hole the EU, and for what?!  Will Germany stop selling to the UK if they drop out of the EU?
Hell no! it's a major part of their economy.

Free as long as ...accept, pay, agree...

EUROPE will speak german - "Free" as long as you: Pay 50 million a day membership fees ; Agree to sanctions if your GDP debt deficit is more than 3 % ; Accept that we shall oversee and approve your budgets from Brussels/ Frankfurt HQ ; Rob you of the right to vote ; Impose further Tobin taxes on your financial transactions ; Impose the will of a European Commision of 27 unelected Kommisars and its Communist President many of whom have been Communists or former Supreme Soviet activists upon you.The EU is an evil institution. It is systematically removing the power of people to have any say in what happens to them. It is turning people into slaves rather than free people. It removes the democratically elected leaders of nations which criticize it, and then it replaces them with their unelected puppets. And all to further the agenda of the financial and political elites who hide in the shadows behind it. SHUT IT DOWN NOW, AND TRY THE LOT OF THEM FOR THEIR CRIMES AGAINST THE PEOPLE. The powers behind the EU (read banking elites) are removing democratically elected leaders of nations and then replacing them with their unelected henchmen (more bankers). And all to further their power mad agenda. You sir, need to get treatment in order to remove your head from your anus. Maybe then, you would be able to remove the crap from your eyes, which would in turn allow you to see what is actually going on. Free trade zone my backside, everything is being controlled by those who have been wrongly given the power to issue our currencies. Standard & Poor's warned France, Germany and 13 other eurozone members before last week's summit they faced a possible downgrade amid worsening economic conditions. But economists said France, which has been under the shadow of a downgrade for months, could fall further and faster than others despite the agreement reached in Europe on rules for budget-tightening. France, the second-biggest economy in the eurozone, was the only AAA country singled out for a possible two-notch credit downgrade because of growth predictions seen as too optimistic, the threat of recession, budget cuts judged to be inadequate and the exposure of its banks to the sovereign debt crisis in Greece, Portugal, Italy and Spain. A Reuters survey of 13 economists found 11 thought France would be downgraded by one of the major ratings agencies within the next three months. That would cause serious difficulties for Nicolas Sarkozy's 2012 re-election battle because he has staked his campaign on his personal ability to lead France out of the economic crisis. A downgrade could push the government to hurriedly introduce a third austerity plan, after two rounds of limited budget cuts and tax rises in recent months. Unlike Britain, France has focused chiefly on tax rises rather than sweeping spending cuts. "If we lose the triple A, I'm dead," the president was recently reported saying in private. A poll this weekend found just over half of French people feared a credit rating downgrade would have a big impact on their daily lives. A one-notch cut would hit the country with extra interest payments of up to €3bn (£2.5bn) a year if the markets react by pushing up bond yields.

Joseph Daul at the EPP Congress in Marseilles speaking at the EPP Congress in Marseilles

Joseph Daul at the EPP Congress in Marseilles, speaking at the EPP Congress in Marseilles. "We will not allow ourselves to be hindered in our effort to rebuild the 'House of Europe' by those who refuse to move forward. But we cannot build a solid, safe house if those living in it don't feel comfortable" - Speaking at the EPP Congress in Marseilles on the eve of the European Council, the Chairman of the EPP Group (center-right) of the European Parliament called for Europe to choose "the right path". "The right path is that of governance of the Euro through freely-shared sovereignty on budgetary, tax and social aspects. The right path is that of a common effort from the 27 Member States, and an even bigger effort from the 17+ Euro zone countries, to better manage their public finances and to help entrepreneurs create new wealth and jobs." Joseph Daul said that the EPP has the heavy responsibility of getting Europe out of the crisis: "But the EPP has always proved in the past that it is up to meeting challenges, be it the creation of the European Community, European reunification, the Single Market or implementing moral standards for the financial markets." Finally, the Chairman of the biggest parliamentary Group in Europe called for "great caution on how we plan our exit from this crisis." "We will either succeed or divide, depending on whether our plans are inclusive - equally respecting small and bigger Member States - or dictated. Depending on whether we prioritize relative strength or whether we prioritize cohesion, we will either emerge from this crisis or we will stay mired in it." On any eventual change to the European Treaties, Joseph Daul said that if the Council is in favor, the European Parliament and the European Commission, guarantors of the general European interest, will actively play their role in the negotiations.

BEIJING - Chinese and European officials sought to play down expectations about when and how China may deploy its vast financial resources to help bail out indebted countries in Europe. A Chinese Vice Finance Minister said China must first see the details of a new European bailout fund before making any commitments. "We of course must wait until its structure is extremely clear," Zhu Guangyao told a press briefing. "And moreover, this investment must be decided on after serious, technical discussions."

Klaus Regling, the chief executive of the European Financial Stability Facility, flew into Beijing on Friday on the first stop of his trip. Klaus Regling is the
German Governor of the new Europe" de facto !

KPMG profits report - Romania

KPMG, one of the biggest audit and consulting companies, posted a 34 million-euro turnover in the financial year ended on September 30th 2010, slightly up against the previous year, according to Şerban Toader, the company' senior partner for Romania and the Republic of Moldova. "In a difficult economic context, our turnover continued to increase. Audit continues to be KPMG's main line of business, accounting for 55% of the turnover. Fiscal consulting services continued to rise, but the biggest share, of around 35%, was accounted for by business consulting," Toader told ZF in an interview. The data reflect consolidated revenues for all KPMG companies in Romania and the Republic of Moldova in line with international financial reporting standards (IFRS), as of September 30th 2010. In the financial year ended in September 2009, KPMG's turnover amounted to 33.3 million euros, with 58% of it being generated by audit services.