Showing posts with label Romanian Global News. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Romanian Global News. Show all posts

Sunday, July 22, 2018

Monday, February 1, 2016

British couples should not try for a baby for a month if a partner has just returned from one of 23 countries affected by the Zika virus, public health officials have warned. Public Health England (PHE) said men should wear condoms for 28 days after coming home from countries like Brazil and Mexico if their partner was at risk of pregnancy, or already pregnant. Men who had suffered an unexplained fever while travelling, or who had been diagnosed with the virus, should avoid unprotected sex, or trying for children for six months. Woman have already been advised to avoid travelling to infected countries if they might be pregnant or are trying for a child. Around half a million people are believed to have travelled to Zika infected countries in the last six months, according to the most recent figures from the Office for National Statistics. The virus has already caused nearly 4,000 cases of malformed babies in the Americas and the World Health Organisation warned yesterday that the disease was spreading so quickly that four million people could be infected by the end of the year. Although the virus is mainly transmitted through mosquitoes, PHE said sexual transmission had been recorded in a ‘limited number of cases.’ Public Health England advised: “If a female partner is at risk of getting pregnant, or is already pregnant, condom use is advised for a male traveller for 28 days after his return from a Zika transmission area if he had no symptoms of unexplained fever and rash.  “Condom use is advised for a male traveller for 6 months following recovery if a clinical illness compatible with Zika virus infection or laboratory confirmed Zika virus infection was reported.”  Six Britons are already known to have picked up the disease through mosquito bites while travelling in Columbia, Suriname, Mexico, the Cook Islands and Guyana. Zika was first discovered in Africa in the 1940s but the first outbreak outside of Africa, Asia and the Pacific Islands only occurred last May, when a case was reported in Brazil. Since then the disease has spread to 22 other countries in south and central America and the Caribbean.

Thursday, January 21, 2016

GERMANY - Timmermans these days is having to exercise his utmost diplomatic skill in order to avoid an escalation of tensions. When, during a visit to Amsterdam on Thursday, Timmermans was asked about the Polish foreign minister's jibe, he could have struck back. But there is already enough tension, so he chose to take a different tack, instead praising the transformation of Eastern European countries from socialist dictatorships to free societies. But, he added, true democracies include two important elements: the protection of human rights and adherence to the rule of law. The fact that Timmermans had to utter something that obvious says a lot about the current state of the European Union -- and developments in Poland. In less than two months, the country's new nationalist-conservative government has succeeded in disempowering the constitutional court, passing a law establishing government control over public broadcasting and installing party-aligned political appointees at the head of its intelligence services. "We want to cure our country of a few illnesses," Foreign Minister Waszcykowski told Germany's tabloid Bild earlier this month.

Tuesday, May 26, 2015

WASHINGTON (AP) — The panel created to prevent a repeat of the 2008 financial crisis said Tuesday that banks and other financial institutions are stronger now but regulators must remain alert to new risks including the danger posed from cyber attack. In its annual report to Congress, the Financial Stability Oversight Council said recent cyberattacks have heightened concerns about the potential of even more destructive attacks that could significantly disrupt the workings of the financial system.  It said that greater attention must be paid to developing ways to combat computer hackers and it urged greater collaboration among financial institutions and government agencies to share data that could help thwart a growing threat.
"Over the past year, financial sector organizations and other U.S. businesses experienced numerous cyber incidents, including large-scale data breaches that compromised financial information," the panel said in its report.  The council was created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank Act which Congress passed in the wake of the worst financial crisis in seven decades. It is chaired by Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew and includes representatives from other government financial regulatory agencies including the Federal Reserve, the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.  Lew was critical of legislation being pushed by Senate Banking Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, which Lew said would put the country at greater risks of another crisis.  "Senator Shelby's bill ... contains changes to our financial regulatory framework that would roll back the clock and leave us with weakened oversight, fewer consumer protections and less effective tools to address risks in the system," Lew said. "It would also needlessly tie this council in knots with delays and hurdles that would significantly impair our ability to identify and mitigate threats to financial stability, while leaving potential risk unchecked."  Shelby's bill would raise the asset threshold for banks whose failure would present the greatest risks to the financial system from $50 billion to $500 billion. These banks are subject to greater regulatory oversight. The measure also gives regulators greater oversight powers over the Federal Reserve.  Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen, who did not address the pending legislation in her remarks, said that the largest and most complex banking firms have made "great strides" in building up their capital cushions. But she said more work is needed to understand new threats posed by rapidly changing markets.  "While we have made considerable progress in recent years in reforming the financial system, our job is not done," Yellen said. "We must continually look ahead to new risks to build and maintain the resilient financial system that can support economic growth."

Thursday, December 5, 2013

China's growing engagement with Central and Eastern European countries is an essential part of its China-Europe strategy, which has focused on achieving strategic win-win outcomes, said a senior Chinese diplomat.
"China has made great efforts to enhance mutual understanding and the willingness to deepen cooperation," Xu Jian, Chinese ambassador to Poland, told China Daily recently in an exclusive interview.
"Premier Li Keqiang's visit and talks in Romania with the regions' leaders demonstrate China's consistent efforts."
Xu, who was Chinese ambassador to Romania before his current position, said Beijing has been bridging the gap and exploring the potential of deepening exchanges in Central and Eastern Europe. By comparison, China's ties with Western European countries are relatively mature.
China launched the political dialogue with the region last year when then premier Wen Jiabao visited Poland. And Premier Li carried on the momentum through his summit with European Union leaders in Beijing last week, his first since taking office in March.
Observers have begun to refer to this month as Chinese leaders' "Europe season", following the frequent exchanges between China and EU member states.
"Poland, as the biggest trading partner of China in the region, has put China on the priority list when developing foreign relations, which is very encouraging," said Xu, adding that its top leaders have frequently stressed the strategic importance of deepening ties with China.    The ambassador said the Polish government has launched a "Go to China" project, but he did not elaborate. 
Poland, like other countries in the region, is still engaged in transforming its economic development patterns, the ambassador said, and China can offer its experience, technologies, finance and investment to speed up the process. "It is very complementary in this regard," Xu said.
Poland has been China's biggest trading partner in Central and Eastern Europe for eight years, Xu said, so bilateral relations have been fruitful. Trade volume reached $14.3 billion in 2012. "The two-way investment is also picking up," Xu said.
Investment and trade are expected to grow quickly within the framework of the EU-China 2020 strategy, which will double the trade volume, the ambassador said.
Poland's cultural strength and traditional friendship with China are the foundations for the future development of bilateral relations, Xu said.   Poland is the biggest country in the region regarding size and population, and it has growing influence in regional and international affairs, he added.

Saturday, November 23, 2013

The UK and US must do more to protect internet users' privacy, the inventor of the world wide web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, has warned as a new survey of online freedoms is released.
Berners-Lee warned that "a growing tide of surveillance and censorship" posed a threat to the future of democracy, even as more and more people were using the internet to expose wrongdoing.
His remarks came before the second annual release of a global league table that classifies countries according to a set of freedoms. Since last year, the US has dropped from second place to fourth, while the UK has remained in third place. Sweden still tops the list, though Norway now takes second place. All of the Scandinavian countries – Sweden, Denmark and Norway – feature in the top 10.
The UK was poorly placed on privacy rights but was lifted by its high scores for availability of relevant content and the internet's political impact.
The table is compiled by comparing 81 countries, combining measures such as the extent of access to the internet, how much censorship is employed, and how "empowered" people are by its availability. The list has been expanded from the 61 countries surveyed last year.
Last year Berners-Lee introduced the inaugural index by pointing out that there was no off switch for the internet – a fact that was proving uncomfortable for a number of governments that had tried to shut down radical dissent in the previous 12 months through the Arab spring.
But this year his remarks focused more on the threat of surveillance, which has been highlighted by the Guardian's revelations about the extent of online spying and subversion of internet protocols by the US's National Security Agency and the UK's GCHQ.
The survey found that 76 of the 81 countries examined did not meet "best practice" standards for checks and balances on government interception of electronic communications.
Speaking before an event to launch the updated version of the index, the 58-year-old British computer scientist said: "One of the most encouraging findings of this year's Web Index is how the web and social media are increasingly spurring people to organise, take action and try to expose wrongdoing in every region of the world.
"But some governments are threatened by this, and a growing tide of surveillance and censorship now threatens the future of democracy.
"Bold steps are needed now to protect our fundamental rights to privacy and freedom of opinion and association online."
The survey also found that almost a third of countries surveyed block politically sensitive content.
Web innovators, experts and policymakers, including Berners-Lee and the Wikipedia chief Jimmy Wales, were gathering in London on Friday to assess the World Wide Web Foundation's independent annual measure of the web's impact.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

If you listen to German politicians or economic leaders these days, Germany is being unjustly savaged in Europe for its export surplus. These German leaders largely argue the same thing: Germany is being punished for its success! Germany's performance must be rewarded!
But now -- in a move that was foreseen for some time-- the European Commission announced on Wednesday that it will put Germany's export surplus under the microscope. While the politicians have griped, Germany's export surplus has skyrocketed to around 6 percent of gross domestic product. In September alone, German exports exceeded imports by more than €20 billion. If the commission's investigation should decide the surplus is "excessive," then, in theory at least, Germany could be facing a fine of up to 0.1 percent of its economic output, more than €2.5 billion. According to experts in Brussels, it's unlikely things will come to that. In their anger, the German whiners are forgetting one small thing: They themselves were responsible for the rules designed to keep high export surpluses under control. This provision -- along with targets for deficits, national debts or inflation -- are part of the colorful bouquet of criteria which are supposed to finally make the euro zone macro-economically stable. Of course, German officials only agreed to this condition to prevent even more stringent regulations on export control. And yet in doing so, Berlin clearly recognized the principle that high budget surpluses, just like massive deficits, can lead to economic distortions. This principle has gained new relevance in the euro crisis, because many economists consider higher domestic demand and less exports in Germany an urgent necessity for the stimulation of growth in crisis states.
The real issue here is about rules and their application. The German government has emphasized at every opportunity that the euro zone must be a community of laws. It has admonished crisis states that have complained about overly rigid limits for budget deficits because, after all, they had agreed to the rules. But when it comes to Germany, apparently different standards apply. It's similar to how the Schröder government saw the country become one of the first EU member states to violate the Maastricht criteria -- the fiscal criteria which establish whether a country is allowed to enter the euro -- in 2003, when it implemented its Agenda 2010 social reforms.
If Germany once again displays a double standard, it will lose the credibility which is a nation's most important currency in these times of crisis. It should also not be surprised that the ambassador of a southern EU state angrily declared on Tuesday that German supremacy within the EU can only exist if "the same rules apply for all." Europe can afford such discord among partners even less than overly high deficits or surpluses. All which means: It's time the Germans quit their moaning.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

The following information focuses on earthquakes because seismic activity poses a significant risk for Romania. However, Romania is at risk for other natural and manmade hazards. While much of the information below specifically addresses earthquakes, it is applicable to multiple hazards, and we encourage you to think broadly about the possible risks you and your family may face and to be prepared for any kind of emergency that may arise.
Romania is situated in a seismically active region and has a history of devastating and deadly earthquakes. The Bucharest area has experienced a number of tremors of varying intensities, and the probability that a severe and damaging earthquake will occur is high. The consequences of such a disaster will vary greatly depending upon the circumstances surrounding the quake, and no one can predict with any certainty what conditions will exist immediately following an intensive shock.
It is prudent that everyone be prepared to care for themselves in the immediate aftermath of a major earthquake. Every family and company should develop its own emergency plan, stock its own emergency survival kit, and ensure that its personnel and their family members familiarize themselves with emergency procedures and take precautions to protect their personal safety.

The Role of the Embassy

The Romanian Government is responsible for assisting foreigners in the event of a disaster, but authorities may be stretched beyond their capacity to respond in the immediate aftermath of a major earthquake. Telephone services will be severely overloaded, if they are functioning at all, and the Romanian Government will likely restrict phone use to priority users. Nonetheless, the Embassy will quickly want to ascertain the welfare and whereabouts of American citizens.
To aid in this process, American citizens should cooperate with Romanian authorities at evacuation sites and clearly identify themselves as Americans. Those connected with larger organizations such as companies, schools, or church groups should try to let these organizations know of their welfare and whereabouts if this is practical. If possible, American citizens should try to contact their American Citizen Services wardens and/or the Embassy.

The Embassy will be in touch with the Romanian Government and with larger umbrella organizations to attempt to identify as many American citizens as possible and determine their welfare. In the likely event that it is impossible to communicate by telephone or use motor vehicles, Embassy consular assistance teams may be deployed to major evacuation sites, international schools, hotels etc. to collect information from and about American citizens.

The Embassy will help provide information about the situation and communicate with Romanian government officials, if necessary, in order to obtain proper food, shelter and medical attention. However, a significant earthquake will likely overwhelm the Romanian government’s resources and individuals should be prepared to provide for their own emergency needs.
We will pass as much information as possible about the welfare of individual U.S. citizens back to the Department of State in Washington, D.C. so that this information may be shared with families, friends and employers.

The Role of the Romanian Government

The Romanian Civil Protection Command is part of the Romanian Defense System and is responsible for protecting the population, assets, national heritage and geographical environment in case of a natural disaster. The command’s activities include disaster intervention, search & rescue, warning and notification, sheltering, evacuation, etc. A central committee for evacuations is set up under authority of the Government if evacuation is required. In the event of a disaster, the location of the centers is determined depending on the area affected and the type of disaster that occurred. The Civil Protection Command coordinates with the local authorities in order to notify the population regarding evacuation or taking shelter.

Evacuations

Evacuations will likely occur after an earthquake. City authorities will issue evacuation advice. Americans, as well as others affected by the disaster, may seek assistance from the Romanian authorities, but you should be prepared to take care of your own emergency needs for the first several days of any disaster.

Earthquake Preparedness/Survival Information

FEMA produces a comprehensive Disaster Preparedness Guide called Are You Ready?, which can be easily downloaded by section or in its entirety. This indepth guide provides a step-by-step approach to citizen preparedness by walking the reader through how to learn more about local emergency plans, how to identify hazards that affect their local area, and how to develop and maintain an emergency communications plan and disaster supplies kit. Other topics covered include evacuation, emergency public shelters, animals in disaster, and information specific to people with disabilities. However, it is designed primarily for residents of the United States, and not all of the information will be relevant to disaster preparedness in Romania. Regardless, it can be a useful resource and a good starting place when preparing for a disaster.

Additional resources are also available online. Please visit the following websites for additional information about preparing for a disaster:

Emergency Supply Kit

Essential Supplies (Store enough for three-five days)
 
  • Water (four liters or one gallon per person per day. Change water every three to five months)
  • Food (canned or pre-cooked, requiring no heat or water. Consider special dietary needs for infants, the elderly, pets, etc.). Can opener.
  • Flashlight with spare batteries and bulbs
  • Radio (battery operated with spare batteries)
  • Large plastic trash bags (for trash, waste, water protection, ground cloth, temporary blanket)
  • Hand soap and/or disinfecting hand cleaner gel that does not require water
  • Feminine hygiene supplies, infant supplies, toilet paper
  • Essential medications as required; glasses if you normally wear contacts
  • Paper plates, cups, plastic utensils, cooking foil and plastic wrap and paper towels
  • First Aid kit with instructions
  • Lei, euros, and/or dollars in small bills (ATMs may not work after a disaster), with coins and phone cards for public phones. Credit cards.
  • Sturdy, closed-toed shoes and work gloves
Place emergency supplies in a sturdy tub where you can quickly and easily access your kit.

Essential Home Preparations Before a Disaster
 
  • Secure water heaters, refrigerators and tall and heavy furniture to the walls to prevent falling.
  • Move heavy items to lower shelves, and install latches or other locking devices on cabinets.
  • Install flexible connections on gas appliances.
  • Remove or isolate flammable materials.
  • Move beds and children's play areas away from heavy objects which may fall in an earthquake.
  • Register at Embassy or Consulate serving your area. You can do so online at https://travelregistration.state.gov/ibrs/ui/ or contact the U.S. Embassy to register.
Essential Planning Before a Disaster
 
  • Draw a floor plan of your home showing the location of exit windows and doors, utility cut off points, emergency supplies, food, tools, etc. Share it with housekeeper, babysitters, neighbors, and guests.
  • Establish family meeting points with alternate sites inside and outside of your home for all members to gather in the event of an evacuation.
  • Establish reunion sites with alternate sites for when the family is not at home, e.g., local shelter, neighbor's house, park, school.
  • Designate a person outside of your immediate area for separated family members to call to report their location and condition if separated.
  • Learn or establish disaster policy/planning at your children's school.
  • Know your neighbors and make them aware of the number of people and pets living in your home.
  • Learn where the nearest designated shelter for your neighborhood is.
  • Photocopy passports and other important documents. Store copies away from home (for example, at work). Scan important information and keep a thumb drive with critical documents in a safe, easy-to-access place or save it in email that you can access from anywhere.
  • Learn how to contact the police, fire and rescue services in Romanian. Be able to provide your address in Romanian.
Essential Steps Immediately After a Disaster
 
  • Check your immediate surroundings for fire, gas leaks, broken glass, and other hazards.
  • Check your home for significant damage. Do not remain in your home if you believe there has been structural damage.
  • Open doors and/or windows to avoid being locked in if there are after-shocks.
  • Contact one friend or relative in the U.S., and ask them to inform other parties of your situation.
  • Monitor local TV and radio for evacuation information. Contact your American Citizen Warden or the Embassy, if possible.

Sunday, October 20, 2013

WASHINGTON—Senate leaders on Wednesday struck an 11th-hour agreement to avoid a U.S. debt crisis and fully reopen the federal government, putting lawmakers on track toward ending a stalemate that worried investors world-wide and provided striking evidence of congressional dysfunction.Negotiators rejected a Democratic proposal to delay for one year a fee of $63 per insured person levied on groups that offer health policies, including employers, labor unions and insurance carriers—a fee opposed by many large employers and unions. The agreement does includes backpay for all federal workers who were furloughed during the government shutdown.
The Senate deal doesn't include a provision granting federal agencies more flexibility to mitigate the effects of the across-the-board reductions known as the sequester. Congressional aides said the next round of cuts kick in when the stopgap spending measure ends in mid-January, motivating lawmakers to reach an agreement to ease the burden of the sequester's blunt cuts by then. The next round of reductions will bring annual spending levels down to $967 billion from $986 billion, largely through cuts to defense spending.
The setback in the House on Tuesday was the result of pressure from conservatives, who objected both to the Senate bill and Mr. Boehner's alternative because they gave Republicans too little of what they had been demanding. Conservatives have been pressing for major changes in the 2010 health-care law and additional measures to reduce the deficit.
GOP leaders had tried to build backing by including proposals sought by conservatives, including one that would have cut government health-insurance benefits for congressional and administration officials, including their staff, under the 2010 health-care law. But the bill met powerful headwinds when the conservative political group Heritage Action on Tuesday evening announced its opposition and said votes on the measure would be included in the group's influential ratings of lawmakers.
The White House Wednesday provided a little more clarity about when the Treasury will run out of its ability to borrow money. Mr. Carney said that moment will come "at the end of the day" Thursday. The Treasury had previously said the "extraordinary measures" it deployed to keep below the debt ceiling would run out on Oct. 17, without clarifying whether that meant midnight Wednesday or the subsequent day. Beyond Thursday, "the Treasury would have only cash on hand. It would not be able to borrow new money to meet obligations," Mr. Carney said. The Treasury has said that on Oct. 17 it would be left with only about $30 billion to pay the nation's bills.
There was palpable relief among Republicans who had been part of a bipartisan effort to break the deadlock. "We're ready to open the government and we are ready to make sure everyone around the world knows the U.S. pays its bills on time," said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.).

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Fiat money ...and than some...

The global economy cannot operate without fiat money  - it is too big. To be successful a thriving economy needs an expanding money supply. Unfortunately our expanding money supply has been achieved by commercial banks creating new money as a debt to them. Their greed ensured it got out of hand and now they are destroying money as quickly as they can "shrink their balance sheets" as they call it. It should never have been allowed to happen. The new money needed by thriving economies should have come in as debt free money created by the BOE/Treasury to pay government expenditure on normal outlays or on new infrastructure - or, of course as lower taxes. Just as with money created by the banks as debt, too much will cause inflation and too little will result in recession, deflation and ongoing depression - which is where we are now. But at least money created as cash does not have that debt to service. It is the creation of money as debt that has got us into the mess we are in. Ironically it is also the creation of money as debt that has prevented the excess that has been created causing hyper inflation. I'm afraid the banks are not fit for purpose; they are self programmed to cause Boom and Bust...  Well, the current experiment with fiat money has certainly demonstrated that central banks cannot be trusted to run the system.  That aside, the principle of fiat money only has peripheral connection with the size of the money supply - and will always tend towards fraud. There is no reason not to have an asset-correlated money supply assuring that money supply only increases in line with productivity.  Anyway, it appears that Stein's law applied to consumer leveraging has finally kicked in so the necessary correction may well happen on its own and the central bankster-induced super-bubble burst. Let's see what the Keynesians have to say as the consumer deleveraging gains pace...

Monday, May 27, 2013

Hey Mario: what part of "FUCK OFF" don't you undestand.

EUROSMOKE AND LIES - “The answer to the crisis has not been less Europe but more Europe... The EU and the [euro] are no exceptions. The choice is between adapting them to the new conditions or do nothing and risk their dissolution.” The EU is a body primarily driven by pure politics without any ameliorating rational input from experts in economics markets science etc. Both the creation of the Eurozone and the FTT were political projects making extensive use of confirmation bias and totally ignoring expert advice. The Eurozone is a failure and the FTT will kill off the City as well as destroy markets inside the EU which both sovereign states and EU companies rely on. Politicians and bureaucrats taking the decision have never even heard of the repo market but they are about to find out how important it was once they destroy it. Rational thought would mean taking account of the views of experts on the FTT but the FTT is a political dream where there is no room for reality. If there was there would be no FTT. Any organization run by purely political decisions is going to lose out against a more rational response elsewhere in the world. I doubt the EU will ever base its decisions on rational thought processes rather than politics as there is no mechanism in place to force elite politicians to take note of experts. In their conceit they only see their own narcissistic beliefs as relevant to decision taking. Confirmation bias means that politicians start by already knowing the answers and see the job as putting their irrational policies in place. When policies do not work in the real world confirmation bias is called upon again to warp data to explain failure without ever seeing any need to change policy. Failure followed by more failure is guaranteed by the political approach. Pressure from the UK public to leave will increase noticeably once the FTT is in place and the City goes down the tubes. This will be extensively reported by the media. How often have we heard this before? You will never convince the average Brit that having more decisions taken by the unelected elite in Brussels is going to deliver anything for us. The nearer you get to a EUSSR the less the Brits will like it and the more we will want to leave. We have a totally different mentality to the majority of the EU who think that taking all decisions centrally will lead to economic success. That idea is seen as rubbish here and unworldly. To work in the real world the people taking the decisions would have to real experts in many fields and driven by rationality instead of politics. That can never happen in the EU as it is a political construct. Instead decisions are from over-conceited politicians and bureaucrats whose knowledge and understanding of the real world is minimal. Whatever Draghi says about banking reform will be politically based and not based on research by experts. The starting point always has to be 'more EU' whereas it is unlikely in the real world that all answers would come out to be simply as case of more EU solving the problem. That is illogical. Draghi : "If we are successful in establishing (a federal Europe) as I am sure we will be..." "Europe is much more stable today (thanks to me)..." There you have it. Breathtaking arrogance combined with delusion. The only option we have is to gtf away from pr!cks like this.

Saturday, May 18, 2013

A British exit from the EU would send fateful signals around the world, in the US and the far east, of an inward-looking Europe mired in fragmentation, provincialism and bickering. While Merkel and senior cabinet members such asWolfgang Schäuble, the finance minister, favour renegotiating the Lisbon treaty to push through big political and economic policy shifts in the eurozone, Berlin acknowledges that this is a tall order because of the resistance in many other countries, mainly but not only France. Cameron argues the single currency crisis has changed the EU, and is transforming the eurozone into a much more integrated core Europe, changing Britain's status, and wants the treaty renegotiated to reflect this fundamental shift. But senior officials in Brussels warn that any moves to substantially rewrite the Lisbon treaty would trigger a referendum domino effect, with not only Britain, but Ireland, parts of Scandinavia, perhaps the Netherlands and then France needing to stage referendums on a new deal. The leading government figures in Berlin acknowledged that Hollande was opposed. The damage to Hollande could be twofold. The treaty changes would inevitably entail transfers of fiscal and economic policymaking powers to Brussels, something Paris opposes, then possibly a national vote on the new deal in an increasingly Eurosceptic country, according to recent opinion polls. Hollande played a prominent role in the yes campaign for the French referendum on an EU constitution in 2005 and lost. A repeat of the failure could cost him his office. The differences between Berlin and Paris are reinforcing their estrangement, with no improvement expected until the dust settles after the German elections in September when Merkel is bidding for a third term. Berlin is also worried that France, Italy, and Spain are stuck in a vicious downward cycle of growing unemployment, austerity, and relative lack of meaningful reform. The Germans are relaxing the austerity that has been the principal response to the sovereign debt crisis of the past three years, but are demanding sweeping structural reforms in return in the form of labour law and labour market changes, longer working weeks, pension and social security reforms. Berlin is prepared to give France and Spain an extra two years to reach budget deficit targets under the euro rulebook, but is insisting that the two years not be wasted in policy paralysis.

Thursday, March 7, 2013

ROME — A brief sampling of politicians’ remarks made on Monday underline how far Italy is from forming a government after last week’s surprisingly inconclusive general election.
“No solution can be reached without the Democratic Party,” Massimo D’Alema, a former prime minister, said in Rome. His party is the lead member of the center-left coalition that won the most votes in the election, which translates into 340 seats in the 615-member Chamber of Deputies, making its support of any prospective government truly indispensable.
Meanwhile, in Palermo, Angelino Alfano said Silvio Berlusconi’s People of Freedom party and the center-right coalition “have emerged as the winners.”  In fact, his party came in third and his coalition second, and will have only 20% of the lower-house seats. But Mr. Alfano sought to make the point that his coalition was surging in polls and saw itself as on course to win the next election.
Ultimately, the next election is what all today’s maneuvering is about.  That’s even more true of the Five-Star Movement, a protest movement led by Beppe Grillo that won more than a quarter of votes and enough seats to make it a potential kingmaker. Mr. Grillo strongly believes he can emerge the outright winner if Italy’s establishment politicians remain true to form and try to govern through an unwieldy coalition. That’s one reason why he is tempted to hope that happens. On Monday, he caustically suggested his rivals opt for a cabinet led by Corrado Passera, a former bank chief executive who served as Mario Monti’s industry minister in the technocratic government that is widely blamed for halfhearted reform efforts that, along with austerity measures required by Europe, led Italy into a prolonged recession.

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Mired in what economists are calling a "great depression", with its GDP set to contract for a sixth straight year, Greece is projected to see unemployment exceed 30% by the year's end as a growing number of businesses file for bankruptcy. Over 60% of those without work are under 25.
Public-sector firings are among a series of neuralgic points likely to be raised by the troika. Representatives, who indicated they would not be visiting Athens "to renegotiate its rescue package but supervise its economic performance", are also expected to address the thorny issues of progress on privatisations, tax administration reforms and bank recapitalisation.
Paitence is in short supply. Creditors have committed more funds to Greece – at €240bn, the biggest bailout in world history – than any other troubled economy since the tiny nation, revealing the unsustainable level of its public debt, triggered the eurozone crisis in late 2009.
Piling on the pressure ahead of the monitors' visit, the Euro Working Group chief, Thomas Wieser, emphasised that Athens had to keep its side of the deal. "All that was agreed in the bailout plan has must be implemented. These reforms were agreed to make the Greek economy stronger, flexible and more competitive," he told the Greek newspaper Realnews.
Although the IMF has publicly admitted that it seriously underestimated the impact of Greece's recession on its ability to deliver, there are growing concerns over the government's determination to crack down on tax collection – the single biggest drain on the country's economic performance.
A confidential report prepared by the EU and IMF and leaked to the Greek media last week showed that the nation was lagging severely in key revenue targets, with Athens' tax collection mechanism being singled out for particular criticism.
While Greece had managed to rein in public spending – pulling off the biggest fiscal consolidation of any OAED country – tax avoidance, particularly among high earners, remained "astounding", said the report, estimating that at €55bn unpaid tax amounted to nearly 30% of GDP.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

WELL....recovery from what? How the goalposts have been shifted!
“The financial markets are calmer this morning. But there's plenty of chatter about how the eurozone crisis is back -- if indeed it ever went away...”
Or indeed, if there ever really was one!
The analysis in this blog is utterly misleading rubbish, cleaving the British public from any genuine appreciation of what’s going on in the rest of Europe. And it started out so promisingly too. A pity it has descended into some sort of parrochial branch of an Ambrose Evans-Pritchard-style ‘euro-hate’/ Ukip fundamentalist party rag.  Last week, the financial press was full of ‘scratch my head’ stories, trying to explain why the stock markets had climbed to such dizzying heights, against all the struggling fundamentals. Could it be all the fake electronic money sloshing around and having an effect? Could it have anything to do with bonus season?  The quiet but dramatic drop in Sterling since Christmas was clearly a bit of sly competitive devaluation – market traders can’t drive it down that far that fast without some seriously organized large trades.
Yesterday, this blog told us with front page, headline confidence that ‘the eurozone crisis was back’ – that political instability over Berlusconi and Rajoy had shaken the markets and caused both the FTSE and the Euro to fall.
 But today, the markets are not just ‘calm’, both the FTSE and Euro are UP again. So what’s happened now? Have the traders simply forgotten yesterday’s news? Has the “eurozone crisis” gone away again? Have the “worries” slipped from their gnat-brained memories? Or were they just taking big fat profits from recent gains and using “Eurozone worries” as an excuse? (There were plenty of negative Eurozone stories last week, which had absolutely no effect whatsoever on the rising market.)
 Could anyone please remind me again, what exactly the “Eurozone Crisis” actually is these days? I mean, what exactly is it that we are supposed to fear? I thought it was originally a fear about Greece or Portugal or Ireland not being able to service their debt and defaulting, thus toppling banks and the financial system like a series of dominos, but since everybody now has a means of printing unlimited new money, that no longer looks likely to happen. So what unspecified event is it exactly that we now have to fear that justifies the claim “the eurozone crisis is back”?
 Are France and Spain going to be swallowed by sink-holes? Are the heads of European governments going to turn into Triffids and eat their own electorate? Really, I mean what precisely is the specific nature of “the Eurozone crisis” now?
 It seems to me, that the only real threat now, is of compliant junk reporting driving up bond yields to a point at which bond buyers rub their hands with glee.
 This is a crisis of Landfill Consumerism, and we’re ALL implicated up to our necks - it's not just a localised problem for the eurozone.
Call a halt to this pro-market, pro-Tory partisan rubbish blog and open up a rolling blog on the WORLD crisis. It might actually prove to be a better way of documenting, blow-by-blow, the changes the world is currently going through. Investigate all aspects…what do the stocks of resources look like? Raw materials, energy, water, etc? Who’s lying to whom and why? How can the environment possibly cope with a ‘return to growth’, given what we now know about the destructive force of our current business models? You know… some independent analysis, which doesn't merely reflect the stories that the financial markets want to tell.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

GERMAN Chancellor Angela Merkel has been left red-faced after shaking hands with world leaders on a rug looted by Hitler's second-in-command Hermann Goering.

The rug is part of more than 2,000 items looted by the leading Nazi, who killed himself after being sentenced to the death penalty at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946.
An investigation by journalists working for news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the true history of the Persian rug, which has caused embarrassment for the German leader.  Mrs Merkel is preparing to make her third bid for power this Autumn, and is said to be furious with her aides over the revelations .  It is understood the rug will be removed from view by the end of the week.   The former state minister for culture Michael Naumann has now urged the government to force the return of Nazi looted items to their rightful owners or their heirs.
"The legislature must concretise their return," he said. "More money must also be used for research in German museums."    The timing of the revelation is even more embarrassing as it comes hours after Holocaust Memorial Day, held on Sunday January 27..... In a podcast on her website, Mrs Merket said: "Naturally, we have an everlasting responsibility for the crimes of national-socialism, for the victims of World War II, and above all, for the Holocaust.
We’re facing our history, we’re not hiding anything, we’re not repressing anything. We must confront this to make sure we are a good and trustworthy partner in the future, as we already are today, thankfully."It is unclear how another Goering carpet ended up in the chancellor's office in Berlin.  The West German government in 1966 declared the task of reuniting owners with their stolen property to be 'concluded.'
But tapestry from the same collection as the rug in Mrs Merkel's office adorns the walls of a government guest house on the outskirts of Bonn.


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

After 10 years living in Spain, I got to know hundreds of German people and I've felt for years that they should be our closest friends and allies in Europe.
We're remarkably similar. When you talk politics or the EU, they have just the same views and concerns as us. They're decent hardworking people. They do actually have a sense of humour! They(surprisingly) really respect us and I have massive respect for them.
Out of the ashes of the EU we should be looking to the future and a trading bloc with the Germans, Dutch Scandi's etc. The rest of Europe is broken.
Sod the "special relationship" with the US. It's Germany we should try and work with. As a country who would like to and need to improve our manufacturing base - we have a lot to learn from them.
All of this scaremongering from the US, Ford, Honda, the City etc about how bad it would be for us to leave the EU is just risible b*llocks. There's a big world out there and let's be honest, the majority of the EU periphery are f**ked. The Germans know this too.
We should, for once, lead the way and show the world how successful we can be without all the BS form the EUSSR!...
When Britain leaves the EU, as it will, we should invite Germany to leave too. They have much more in common with an Anglo-Saxon nation like England than they do with France, Italy, Poland or Spain. A new Northern league pact: an economic alliance of free nations that trade with each other and the world but do not have ambitions to create a superstate, has much appeal to even Eurosceptics. Germany, Britain, Holland, the Scandinavian countries and maybe even the Baltic States could form a new EFTA.
Meanwhile, France and the Mediterranean countries could proceed at a slower, socialistic pace that allowed the Euro to devalue to its lowest common denominator. We would once more find holidaying in Spain and Greece cheap, they would not need to be straining their economies to stay within touching distance of German efficiency. Happiness all round.

Friday, January 11, 2013

I am afraid that Capitalism and Communism as with our left and right parties have all failed. we need a new "ism"!!!!
The Chinese do understand one thing we have forgotten and that is you need to make stuff to create wealth. They still have huge problems, like the debt for this development which is largely un paid and just floating, like our fiat currencies. They also have a population problem, as have far to few females to breed the next generation, so will be in the same old age situation as Japan in the future. Unfortunately what you say about the poor is not true as they are really suffering, it is the well off middle class workers that now want to consume and get higher wages.
The rich seem to have creamed off billions like Russia and there are more Rolls Royce sold in china today and property in Shanghai has gone out of the roof and flats now cost millions of dollars. Corruption is rampant and the Triads are firmly entrenched. So not all a rosy future for China, as the rest of the World is now broke and can not afford to by Chinese goods. But they seem to have a lot of gold, but their US bonds will crash in value soon, mas the USA can not keep interest levels down for long and has to inflate their debts away... If a politician is anything useful, it is as a device to deliver and oversea, as an elected representative, the welfare and security of their constituents. What then for Europe, as it is manifestly failing to deliver that with its unelected decision makers and a powerless Council neither of which is delivering their basic function. If Europe is achieving anything, it is its ability to explore the depths of crass incompetence and waste. Unemployment and despair are now the norm in several member states with just a few being forced to pay to keep others afloat to satisfy a corrupted vision. These vast numbers of unemployed youth are a powder-keg and heaven help us when the millions of people who have no chance of getting any kind of work in the foreseeable future decide it is time to pop down to their Parliament as and ask why.