KIEV, Ukraine — Prime Minister Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, a pro-Western technocrat who has guided the Ukrainian government through the tumultous months since the ouster of President Viktor F. Yanukovyvch, resigned abruptly on Thursday, after the governing coalition of Parliament collapsed.

“I declare my resignation in connection with the collapse of the coalition and blocking of government initiatives,” Mr. Yatsenyuk said from the rostrum of Parliament, according to Ukrainian news services.

Earlier in the day, two major parties announced they were leaving the governing coalition, a step that would allow President Petro O. Poroshenko to dissolve Parliament and call elections for next fall.

That announcement followed weeks of negotiations between the parties, but the move was apparently not supported by Mr. Yatsenyuk’s Fatherland Party, which is led by the former prime minister, Yulia V. Tymoshenko, who had challenged Mr. Poroshenko for the presidency.

Under the Ukrainian Constitution, the Parliament chooses the prime minister, and members must vote to accept a resignation. It was not immediately clear if Mr. Yatsenyuk’s announcement meant he was leaving the government or if relinquishing the prime ministership was a symbolic step.

Howard Archer, chief European economist at IHS Global Insight, said he believed the ECB would "sit tight for now at least". The ECB last month took its deposit rate into negative territory - effectively charging lenders for parking money with the central bank - a move which may take time to take a toll on the economy.  Nonetheless he added that continued low inflation meant that "expectations will likely persist that the ECB will ultimately have to take further action".  Within the headline inflation figure, price drops in vegetables, telecommunications and fruit offset rises in the cost of tobacco, restaurants and cafes and rents. ...Consumer prices in the eurozone rose 0.5pc in the year to June, unchanged from a month earlier, according to latest official figures.   Core inflation, which strips out the more volatile elements of energy, food, alcohol and tobacco, however edged up to 0.8pc in the year to June, from 0.7pc a month earlier.  The increase in core inflation is likely to ease fears that the bloc could enter a deflationary spiral and ease pressure on the European Central Bank to unleash further stimulus.  How about this! Inflation will likely dip by another 0.1% over July-August, cheaper food, less energy but come up again around September-October (first heating needed). This may well just allow the ECB, especially if there is no further deceleration in German growth and FRITSP flatten the tiniest bit, to avoid physical QE.
Germany will not support QE, other than with meaningless,metaphysical mumblings, but the slither of improvement and the national preponderance of Germany, well understood by JUncker 87, will allow Germany to accelerate 'more Europe' in terms of 3% budget (that France keeps delaying), a real banking union with realish stress tests, some form of not too debilitating FTT, common EZ business taxes etc. I think a short period of very, very slight improvement will cause a 'more Europe' drive and stop QE being an issue. The 'more Europe'will show us, notably in France, Italy and Portugal, how much political distrust, intolerance and national anger the euro has caused.

However, the EZ inflation figure of 0.5% is meaningless as the EZ is NOT one country.  What I want to see is the inflation rate for each EZ member state to see whether the 0.5% rate hides wide variations in inflation, as I suspect it does. What, for example, is the inflation rate for the EZ if you take Germany out of the equation?  If Germany, for example, has a lower rate of inflation than most other EZ countries, then we can conclude that Germany is becoming more competitive which would be bad news for the poorer member states trying to compete with Germany in the single market. But if other poorer EZ countries have a lower rate of inflation or even falling prices compared to Germany that too is very bad news for poorer EZ countries as that would mean falling tax revenues, falling wages and falling purchasing power in the economy and all that would combine to increase budget deficits and pressure on national banks.  What is needed from an economic point of view for the EZ is for Germany to have price inflation of 4% and everyone else to have price inflation of 2% for several years. That won't happen and therefore the gap between the richer member states led by the economic powerhouse of Germany over the poorer members will continue to get progressively bigger year after year. It is worth noting hat the gap between Germany and the poorer member states was closing before the advent of the Euro and that the Euro has permanently reversed this process. It is worth bearing in mind that German inflation rose from 0.6% to 1.0%. Across the majority of the euro-zone inflation actually fell even further. The euro-zone is still slipping towards the abyss even after Draghi's intervention last month. Draghi of course will use this "stable" situation as an excuse to once again do nothing.

 

Even offline computers can be monitored - The NSA uses radio technology to monitor offline computers, smart phones and other devices.   According to a New York Times report, the agency installed software on 10,000 computers which were shipped around the world, enabling NSA agents to locate and monitor the machines even when offline.  The NSA insists such technology – which relies on radio waves transmitted from tiny circuit boards and USB cards inserted into computers – is "only being deployed overseas".  The program, known as Quantum, has reportedly targeted Chinese Army, Russian military and Mexican drug cartels – among others – since its introduction in or before 2008.  The Internet isn't the only way to download information - On a more basic level, computers which aren't connected to the Internet still have any number of peripheral data ports that can be hooked up to USBs, disc drives or printers. Bradley Manning – now Chelsea Manning – transported 91,000 classified documents that became known as the Iran War logs via rewritable CDs.  Moreover, hard drives eventually break down, but remain susceptible to data harvesting. The same legal technology used by data reclamation companies to retrieve information from defunct computers can be used by thieves if old hard drives are not securely disposed of.  The Russians are already doing it - Last year Kremlin sources revealed Russia's Federal Guard Service (FSO) was spending 486,000 rubles – around £10,000 – on a number of electric typewriters.  The return to typewriters was prompted by the publication of secret documents by WikiLeaks, the whistle-blowing web site, as well as Edward Snowden, the fugitive US intelligence contractor. Directives to the defense minister and the supreme commander-in-chief, Mr Putin, were already printed on paper for security reasons, a defense ministry source said at the time. Each typewriter is uniquely traceable - Some models of typewriter including the Triumph Adler are designed so that each specific unit creates a unique "handwriting" traceable to that one alone.

However... Typewriters can be spied upon  - In 1952, the FBI analyzed the ribbon of a typewriter used by CIA officer Aldrich Ames – actually a double agent for the KGB – to unearth plans for a clandestine meeting in Venezuela.  And in 1985 Soviet spies installed secret "keystroke loggers" and antennas in at least 13 typewriters in the US Embassy in Moscow to detect and transmit the typing patterns of embassy secretaries.  The same technology is used more broadly today by criminals to steal passwords and credit card details.  And of course, paper documents are still unreliable - they can be stolen or photographed, or go up in smoke in case of a fire.  There is also the matter of human error – the history of intelligence is rife with examples of spies leaving briefcases of classified documents in public places, or in the company of friendly "honey trap" agents...

The president of Ukraine has accused pro-Russia rebels in the east of the country of shooting down a Malaysia Airlines jet, killing all 280 passengers and 15 crew.

The huge loss of life threatens to have wide-ranging and unpredictable consequences, coming just after the US imposed further sanctions on Russia for continuing to provide weapons to the rebels.

The plane, which was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, came down near the village of Grabovo, part of the area controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

The aircraft was flying just 1,000 feet above restricted airspace when it was shot down, according to the European air traffic control body. Eurocontrol said Ukrainian authorities had barred aircraft up to 32,000 feet but the doomed aircraft was cruising at 33,000 feet, still within range of sophisticated ground-to-air weaponry, when it was hit. All flights in eastern Ukraine have now been barred from the area.

The eurozone recovery is weak, its financial markets too fragmented, and the region risks falling into deflation, the International Monetary Fund has warned. The IMF urged members to shore up the single currency bloc, including repairing bank balance sheets and stepping up reforms to boost employment. It repeated a recommendation that the European Central Bank should be ready for quantitative easing should inflation stay too low. The Washington-based body concluded after its latest visit to the region that the euro area recovery was taking hold and action by national politicians and the ECB had helped boost investor confidence. But the euro-skeptic outcome of the European elections posed risks to the single market and the economic recovery was "neither robust nor sufficiently strong". "The recovery is weak and uneven. Inflation has been too low for too long, financial markets are still fragmented, and structural gaps persist: these hinder rebalancing and substantial reductions in debt and unemployment," said the report. It was completed in June, before troubles at one of Portugal's biggest banks sparked the latest bout of jitters in financial markets. The suspension of shares in Banco Espírito Santo last week prompted panic selling on both sides of the Atlantic amid concerns it would lead to a wider run on the eurozone's debt-ridden banking sector.  While markets have recouped some of their losses following reassurances from policymakers that the problems are contained, analysts said last week's turbulence was a wake-up call over unresolved problems.  The IMF highlighted "lingering damage" from the crisis, such as high unemployment, particularly among young people, and said that activity and investment were yet to return to pre-downturn levels. Growth was unevenly spread across countries and the flow of credit to businesses in stressed economies was contracting. "Weakness in banks' balance sheets and uncertainty about their quality are contributing to fragmentation, constraining the ability and willingness of banks to support credit and investment," the IMF said.  The fund added that inflation was worryingly low and deflation a real risk, prompting a raft of policies from the ECB to avoid the region tipping into it.  "Risks to growth are still tilted to the downside. With limited policy space in the near term, further negative shocks – either domestic or external – could undermine financial market sentiment, halt the recovery, and push the economy into lower inflation and even deflation," the IMF said. It painted a long road to full recovery. Growth was expected to accelerate only a little next year, to 1.5% from 1.1% in 2014 – a slight downgrade from April's prediction of 1.2% growth this year. That outlook compares with the IMF's forecast for the UK economy to grow 2.9% this year and for the US to expand 2%.  Inflation in the eurozone was forecast to remain below the ECB's target of around 2%. The IMF predicts inflation of 0.7% this year and 1.2% in 2015.  It recommended that policymakers focus on three areas to strengthen the recovery: supporting demand, repairing balance sheets and advancing structural reforms.  "Such policies would help mitigate risks to the recovery and reduce spillovers from low growth and low inflation to the rest of the world," it added.  It welcomed actions so far by the ECB and said it was reassuring the central bank had expressed willingness to do more if inflation remains too low. Such action should include asset purchases, known as quantitative easing, in the IMF's view.

"Buying sovereign assets, in proportion to ECB capital key, would reduce government bond yields, induce higher equity and corporate bond values, and ultimately raise demand and inflation expectations across the euro area," Monday's report said.... what misleading drivel….the euro zone is not weak…it is bankrupt insolvent skint…how exactly does a bank repair their balance sheet…apart from making profit…and how can they earn their way to profitability when in the real economy millions upon millions of eu citizens are jobless homeless or up to their eyeballs in debt….and most banks are stuffed up to the gills in toxic bonds from greece italy slovenia spain portugal ireland bulgaria …and most eu states have national debts fast approaching 100% of gdp if not greater than 100%..it is misleading because the article can't be referring to earning their way to better books of account so the article must be referring to other ways of improving balance sheets and that is is where it is misleading…..printing money….quantative easing…creating loans out of fresh air….are all just a dishonest kicking the can down the road...

The Austrian press claims that the Vienna visit of the Russian president was scheduled for May. But the visit was postponed due to the irreconcilable positions of the West and Russia regarding the situation in Ukraine. All the formalities were resolved only after the Russian leader’s trip to Normandy, where he met with many Western leaders for the first time after the beginning of the Ukrainian crisis. According to the Austrian Die Presse, Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European Council, as well as the leaders of France and Germany Francois Hollande and Angela Merkel approved the visit.  One must admit that the Austrian authorities are a lot more neutral than many of their Western partners. Despite the fact that Fischer along with everybody in the EU denounced Crimea joining Russia, he later stated that a hard choice between Russia and the West was impossible for Kiev. According to the Austrian president, Ukraine has centuries’ long ties to Russia, which are especially clear in the East of the country, while the Western part leans more towards the economic conversion with the EU. The Austrian leader is convinced that no consensus in the Ukrainian society is possible if exclusively one path is chosen.

Earlier, prior to the referendum in Crimea, Fischer warned his European colleagues of the danger of new sanctions against Russia. In his opinion, the correct policy should be based on geography and history; it should put together both economic ties with Russia and Europe. As Austrian political analysts point out, Austria itself is very interested in Russian money. Russia is very important for the Austrian economy: significant amount of Russian capital has been invested in Vienna and the territory around the capital. In general the volume of trade between the two countries last year reached 7.5 billion euro.

Besides his colleague Heinz Fischer the Russian president will meet with Austria’s Federal Chancellor Werner Faymann. Vladimir Putin will discuss with his joint projects. Naturally, the main issue is the destiny of the South Stream pipeline. Gazprom and the Austrian oil company OMV signed a memorandum of understanding regarding the implementation of the South Stream project on Austria’s territory back on April 29. Unlike other participants, Vienna has not taken any steps to review the agreement with Russia in connection with the Third Energy Package. However, naturally, there is pressure put on Austria, not only by the European Commission, but also by Washington. The US plans to force the European Commission to block South Stream and, as it puts it, "decrease the dependency of the European markets on the Russian gas" by increasing the supply of imported shale gas from America.

Speaking of Washington, it considers Vladimir Putin’s invitation to Vienna to be "a wrong signal at the wrong time" – it supposedly indirectly justifies Moscow’s actions in Ukraine. Poland and the Baltic countries are of the same opinion. However, Austria not being a NATO member back in the Cold War years performed the intermediary function between the USSR and the West. Political analysts even called it "bridge builder".

Thus, experts don’t exclude that Vienna once again could be chosen as a broker between Brussels and Moscow. Analysts are convinced that the talks will not be "ourely bilateral" – they will be translated to the other European capitals. There is some hope that the European capitals will understand Austria’s pragmatic position and will finally listen to Moscow’s arguments.

The head of the International Monetary Fund has warned that a persistent violation of ethics among bankers and rising inequality pose a major threat to growth and financial stability.

Christine Lagarde told an audience in London that six years on from the deep financial crisis that engulfed the global economy, banks were resisting reform and still too focused on excessive risk taking to secure their bonuses at the expense of public trust.

She said: "The behaviour of the financial sector has not changed fundamentally in a number of dimensions since the crisis. While some changes in behaviour are taking place, these are not deep or broad enough. The industry still prizes short-term profit over long-term prudence, today's bonus over tomorrow's relationship.

"Some prominent firms have even been mired in scandals that violate the most basic ethical norms - Libor and foreign exchange rigging, money laundering, illegal foreclosure."

Lagarde warned the too-big-to-fail problem among some of the world's largest financial institutions was still unresolved and remained a major source of systematic risk, with implicit subsidies of $70bn (£42bn) in the US, and up to $300bn in the eurozone.

In a speech littered with quotations from Winston Churchill to Pope Francis and Oscar Wilde, Lagarde said international progress to reform the financial system was too slow. "The bad news is that progress is too slow, and the finish line is still too far off. Some of this arises form the sheer complexity of the task at hand. Yet, we must acknowledge that it also stems from fierce industry pushback, and from the fatigue that is bound to set in at this point in a long race." Lagarde told the inclusive capitalism conference that rising inequality was also a barrier to growth, and could undermine democracy and human rights. The issue has risen up the agenda in recent months with the publication of the French economist Thomas Piketty's book, Capital in the Twenty-First Century.

"One of the leading economic stories of our time is rising income inequality, and the dark shadow it casts across the global economy," Lagarde said.  Borrowing from Oxfam research, she noted that the world's richest 85 people, who could fit into a single London double-decker bus, control the same wealth as the poorest half of the global population of 3.5 billion people.

Options to address inequality include more progressive tax systems and greater use of property taxes, she said.

"We must recognise that reducing inequality is not easy. Redistributive policies always produce winners and losers. Yet if we want capitalism to do its job – enabling as many people as possible to participate and benefit from the economy – then it needs to be more inclusive. That means addressing extreme income disparity."

Lagarde compared the rising awareness of social responsibility tied into the financial system with the world's expanding environmental consciousness. "Just as we have a long way to go to reduce our carbon footprint, we have an even longer way to go to reduce our 'financial footprint'. Yet we must take those steps."

The US has moved a step closer to becoming a global gas exporting power with the approval of a major liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal on the west coast that will send a warning signal to the Kremlin. The Department of Energy authorized a permit on Monday for the Jordan Cove LNG project in Oregon to export 800m cubic feet per day (cfpd) of gas for the next 20 years to countries that don't have a free-trade agreement with the US.

The approval comes amid concern that Russia will use its vast gas and oil resources as political leverage in its dispute with the West over the future of Ukraine and Crimea. The US recently released 5m barrels of oil for sale from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve in a move that was interpreted at the time by some analysts as a warning to Moscow not to use energy as a weapon. 

If Putin gets even more annoyed, he will do a massive deal with China (he's going there in May) to flog Russia's oil using a commodity-backed reserve currency that bypasses the petrodollar.

That might well further crash both the US economy and ours.

Is this deliberate neocon policy?

“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor; he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine the pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear.”

US lawmakers are pushing the Department of Energy to speed up approvals of gas export projects to add to international pressure already building on Vladimir Putin after the White House and the European Union hit Russia with sanctions. 

“Given the situation in Ukraine, this licence sends a positive signal to our allies and to energy markets that the United States is ready to join the growing global gas trade,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, who sits on the influential US Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in a statement following the gas export approval. LNG, shipped by boat, could be cheaper than Russian gas transported by pipeline over thousands of miles. Always useful to have an alternative source of supply to keep the prices on a level. Russia has played the shut off game before and is relying on it now ( it may well succeed in the short term - I would place bets on Russia retaining the Crimea ) Remember OPEC in the 70s ? That promoted alternative supplies of oil....I think people are missing the main point here... Russia can't be dealt with in the same way Irak and Lybia were... and if they start selling oil and gas in ANY currency the dollar will have no support.. the days of the petro-dollar are now numbered and the logic of tripling the money supply will soon arrive, i.e. the dollar will drop like a Ukrainian soldier gun... watch inflation shooting up in the US and GDP dropping also, which will bring about a reduction in the budget and overall power of the US to the level of a major power but no longer super-power... those days are gone, so let's all thank the EUSSR for bringing something good to the table for the first time in my rusty memory...

European Union officials take three times more sick days off work than an average British worker in the private sector, research by The Telegraph suggests.

According to official figures, European Commission officials took an average of 14.6 days off sick last year, with one in seven staff absent for more than 20 days.

By contrast, a survey by the Confederation of British Industry found that British staff working in the private sector took around five sick days a year.

European officials even outstripped Britain's civil servants and public sector staff, who took half as many days off work.

Peter Bone, a prominent Eurosceptic Conservative MP, said the figures were "disgraceful". He said: "I'm appalled at the waste of money. It is unbelievable that they are taking so much time off. However, nobody in truth would notice whether they are there or not. They have no real job, they are just pushing bits of paper around and costing taxpayers billions of pounds." EU officials are well paid, according to British figures, 16 per cent of administrative staff at the commission earn more than 100,000 or £84,000 a year, paid at low "community" tax rates of around 20 per cent.

The high wages comes on top of annual holidays of 24 days as well as seven days off for public holidays, and this year eight "non-working" days out of the office when the Brussels institutions are closed in summer and at Christmas.

Many commission staff are also eligible for a "flexitime" scheme that gives an extra 24 days off work every year for those that put in an extra 45 minutes a day in the office.

The holiday and flexitime allowances meant that in 2010, many EU staff were entitled to 66 days or a quarter of the year off work, without taking time off sick.

A spokesman for the European Commission said: "We don't have high sickness absence rates.

"The standard comparison is percentage of working days lost to sickness. While this varies very slightly from year to year, for the Commission it is generally 3.5 -3.7 per cent." "We find that in fact the commission compares very, even extremely, favourably to national administrations. That is the inconvenient truth."

The head of the venerable Deutsche Bank reprimanded like a schoolboy... UUUU

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble recently gave a German banker the most brutal lesson to date -- delivered in a series of apparently incidental comments. At a press conference last Thursday afternoon, Schäuble launched into one of his notorious lectures on sound fiscal policy in times of crisis.  But then, finally, he had an opportunity to air his frustration over the incorrigible banker caste. A journalist asked Schäuble about his response to recent comments by Deutsche Bank co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen. The previous day, Fitschen had accused Schäuble of irresponsibility and populism, because the finance minister had insinuated that the banks were still bypassing financial industry regulations.

 "I don't know if Herr Fitschen has understood what I mean," Schäuble complacently replied. He also noted that he had only recently reminded the bank executive that the financial crisis had not been caused by politicians. Then, as if he hadn't already sufficiently lambasted one of the country's leading bankers, Schäuble added: "If Herr Fitschen carefully reviews his statement, he will undoubtedly come to the conclusion that he is incorrect in this matter." And Fitschen has undeniably adopted the wrong tone, he said.   The head of the venerable Deutsche Bank reprimanded like a schoolboy? Ouch.  

Schäuble's slap in the face is a warning to Deutsche Bank. The minister's portfolio includes Germany's Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). These days, the Bonn-based financial watchdog is conducting far more than the usual number of investigations into Germany's largest bank, and the consequences of these probes -- for the bank and its co-CEOs Fitschen and Anshu Jain -- are ultimately a political issue.

A railway tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait is due to open in Turkey, creating a new link between the Asian and European shores of Istanbul.  The tunnel is the world's first connecting two continents, and is designed to withstand earthquakes.   It is being opened on the 90th anniversary of the Republic of Turkey.    Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has for years championed the undersea engineering project, first conceived by an Ottoman sultan in 1860.  Work began in 2004 but archaeological excavations delayed construction.  The underwater section runs for 0.8 miles (1.4 km), but in total the tunnel is 8.5 miles (13.6 km) long. It is scheduled to be inaugurated at 13:00 GMT.

Reha Muhtar in Vatan: "It is a miraculous project that tells something about the horizons of this country and its people… Today, two continents are being united under the sea. This is a first in the world."

Suleyman Solmaz, from the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, in Radikal: "Firstly there are no safety wagons; secondly, there is no electronic security system. The tunnel about to open doesn't have a safety control centre."

Taha Akyoll in Hurriyet: "Let us make the opening of a historically great project like Marmaray, on the 90th anniversary of the Republic, a symbol of overcoming polarisation. In the inauguration of this work, which was constructed with the taxes of 75 million people, the government should use an inclusive tone."

Japan invested $1bn of the $4bn (£3.4bn) total cost of the project, named Marmaray, which is a conflation of the nearby Sea of Marmara with "ray", the Turkish word for rail.    The BBC's James Reynolds in Istanbul says the Turkish government hopes the new route under the Bosphorus will eventually develop into an important trading route.  In theory it brings closer the day when it will be possible to travel from London to Beijing via Istanbul by train.   The Marmaray project will upgrade existing suburban train lines to create a direct link joining the southern part of the city across the Bosphorus Strait.    Istanbul is one of the world's biggest cities, with about 16 million people. Some two million, according to the AFP news agency, cross the Bosphorus every day via just two bridges, causing severe traffic congestion.    The rail service will be capable of carrying 75,000 people per hour in either direction.

Take to the streets now, and bring down the Corrupt Romanian Authorities

I'm glad foreign media is picking up on this disgraceful story as the local media has been muzzled by its executives who are in bed with Gabriel Resources and the criminal Government run by Victor Ponta. Make no mistake The President is no stranger to this issue , nor are the former communists running the country. In fact now any Romanian should realize that the country is dismantled piece by piece by these criminals. 

This project is a scandal and its handling by Romanian officials stinks to high heaven of corruption and bribery. There's even the prime minister, Victor Ponta who is exhibiting signs of multiple personality disorder, being both for and against the project as the wind blows. I guess the only advantage to the Romanian taxpayer is that they get two faces for the price of one.

Back to this issue, I would like to urge everybody who reads this article to spread awareness of the situation. Romanian corrupt officials and Gabriel Resources are banking on misinformation and apathy to put this project in motion, so the best way to help is to inform everybody you know of what is going on.

Besides the loss of natural beauty, one must keep in mind that pollution is very difficult to contain and that any industrial accident at this godforsaken mine will be affecting other countries and eco-systems and have far reaching consequences in Europe. After all, this project is expected to leave behind a 250,000 ton cyanide lake, on the site of the razed mountains, which incidentally will also be flooding 30 km of Roman archaelogical ruins.

Please, help us stop this outrage. Why don't they do a long term study of alternative mining, say using corn starch or something, like an alternative to 130,000 tons of cyanide in any case? These 4 mountains, and other areas in the Apuseni mountains not mentioned in the press are supposedly the largest gold and silver reserves ON THE PLANET, and not only. There is also supposedly a wealth of precious and native metals useful in defense and communication industries that the Romanian state reputedly has no right to according to the contract. These special metals are a lot more valuable than the gold. So ... why all the hurry to destroy these mountains in the worlds biggest pool of cyanide? This project needs to be thought out a lot more carefully, and should be controlled in it's entirety as a nationalised, Romanian state enterprise, not a greedy foreign corporation with no experience in mining. As it stands the whole project stinks, so it should be canned, if not for all the reasons mentioned above, then at the very least for the intention of creating the worlds largest standing pool of CYANIDE!

A leading member of Germany's leftwing Die Linke party has warned that a grand coalition between Angela Merkel's CDU and the Social Democrats would leave the country with a weak opposition unable to stand up to a powerful government.

Gregor Gysi, writing in the Guardian, says: "Europe will be watching how serious Germany is about democratic principles."

A powerful coalition is looking the most likely outcome of negotiations between the parties, particularly after the SPD's leadership announced on Friday that they would start exploratory discussions with the CDU next week.

Gysi says such a coalition would have 503 out of 630 seats in the Bundestag, leaving only 127 seats for Die Linke and the Greens. This would mean that they could not effectively interrogate or block legislation passed by parliament.

A former member of the East German Communist party, Gysi was a key figure in Die Linke's election campaign. The party gained 8.6% of the vote in last Sunday's general elections, making it the third largest force in the next parliament.

However, the party suffered a 3.3% decline in its share of the vote from the last election, losing 360,000 voters to the newly formed anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), particularly in the east where Die Linke has traditionally been most successful.

In an interview on Friday, Die Linke's party leader, Katja Kipping, has suggested a joint member's vote among all left-of-centre parties on the country's political future. "The cleanest solution would be if all parties left of the centre would ask their base if they preferred red-red-green or a coalition with Merkel," she said.

A coalition between the SPD, the Greens and Die Linke would achieve an overall majority over Merkel's party and its Bavarian sister-party, the CSU, but any coalition with Die Linke is still considered a taboo because of some of its politicians' links to the old communist GDR regime. Both the Social Democrats and the Greens have ruled out such a union for now.

Either way, it is looking increasingly unlikely that the next German government will be formed any time soon. According to a report in Süddeutsche Zeitung, the SPD is also considering a member's vote on the possibility of a grand coalition.

Such a vote would most likely be held before the party's conference in mid-November. Many party members are said to be against a grand coalition since the party suffered from such an arrangement in 2005 – 2009.

In spite of Merkel's triumphant win on Sunday, the onus is on her to coax a reluctant SPD into coalition talks. Tax rises, dual citizenship and the introduction of a minimum wage have been mooted as areas in which the conservatives may make concessions in order to lure the Social Democrats to the negotiation table.

According to a survey by state broadcaster ARD, a grand coalition would be the solution most favoured by German citizens. Forty-eight per cent of those asked would most like to see a coalition between the CDU and the SPD, while only 16% would prefer a red-red-green accord.

As long as we don't worship the Keynesian Dogma we are going to read things like this one.

Mr Rajoy said the eurozone's fourth largest economy was "out of recession but not out of the crisis", and faced a long period of more austerity before the country could sustain the recovery.

"The task now is to achieve a vigorous recovery that allows us to create jobs," he told the Wall Street Journal.

Spain's unemployment rate, at 25pc, is among the highest in the eurozone. The bloc's official unemployment rate of 12.1pc also masks huge disparities. While Austria boasts an unemployment rate of just 4.8pc, the jobless rate in bailed-out Greece is 27.6pc.

The recovery in Germany, Europe's largest economy, has also been fragile. Data on Tuesday showed business sentiment rose for a fifth consecutive month in September. The Ifo Institute's business climate index, which is based on a survey of 7,000 firms, rose to 107.7 in September, from 107.6 in August. However, the reading fell short of the 108.2 expected by economists.

European Central Bank rate-setter Ewald Nowotny said on Tuesday that the bank had "flexible" tools at its disposal if it needs to take additional measures, including providing banks with additional central bank money. ECB President Mario Draghi said on Monday that the ECB stood ready to deliver a fresh injection of cash into Europe's banks. Asked about the possibility of the central bank giving banks another chance for those loans, known as Long Term Refinancing Operations (LTRO), Mr Nowotny said: "It is certainly important to show all that we have in the way of instruments, which are flexible...Pier Carlo Padoan, the OECD's chief economist, said he expected growth in the 17-nation bloc to be negative this year, despite several countries showing signs of recovery. Mr Padoan said the single currency area, which emerged from its longest recession in more than 40 years in the second quarter, remained "a considerable source of risk" to the global recovery, though he added that the systemic risk from the eurozone's debt crisis had subsided. He added that while countries should continue to implement austerity policies, automatic stabilisers such as unemployment benefits should be allowed to kick-in if economies stalled. Mr Padoan also urged policymakers to tackle high jobless rates. "There is no doubt that policy priority number one in the euro area is fighting unemployment. Let's not fool ourselves and expect unemployment to come down in a stable fashion," he said.

Economists expect growth in the eurozone to pick up in the second half of the year. On Monday, Spanish prime minister Mariano Rajoy said the country would exit recession - defined as two or more consecutive quarters of negative output - in the third quarter, following two years of contraction. 

China's National Bureau of Statistics has accused a county government in southern China of faking economic data by coercing local companies to boost industrial output figures, state media have reported. Luliang county in southern Yunnan province pressured 28 local companies to report 6.34bn Yuan (£665m) of industrial output last year, while according to "initial calculations" the true figure was less than half of that, the state newswire Xinhua reported on Thursday night. "Companies complained that if they did not fraudulently report higher data their reports would be returned by local government departments," it said, citing a National Bureau of Statistics report. "They also said that fake reports would ensure they would enjoy favorable policies such as securing bank loans."

The county government itself reported fake investment data, Xinhua added. Analysts say that phony economic data is nearly ubiquitous in China, as officials are promoted based on their ability to present favorable numbers. "You have an incentive system that encourages the falsification of data," said Fraser Howie, the co-author of Red Capitalism: The Fragile Financial Foundation of China's Extraordinary Rise. "We known that for literally decades provincial GDP figures have never totaled the national GDP figures – you have a fundamental mismatch of those numbers." "Anybody who's working with Chinese statistics runs up against problems, inconstancies, and incomplete data," Howie added. "There are just black holes in information gathering." Howie said that while false data was a long-running national problem, Chinese authorities may launch selective crackdowns every few months to demonstrate vigilance. "It could be that this is a particularly egregious case, it could be that there's political infighting, it could be that this leaked somewhere else first," he said. He drew a parallel to President Xi Jinping's anti-corruption drive, which critics have dismissed both as lip service and as a political purge. "Its like the corruption thing – they're not going after nobody, but they're certainly not going after everybody," he said. "Yunnan is far away, nobody really goes there, nobody really cares. It's not like this happened right in Beijing, at the heart of things."

I am going to ruffle a few feathers, but let me still say it – We had a dream run from 2003-2008 and now it is over. The days of 20% salary hikes and 30% stock returns are gone (at least for now) for the masses.

If you are really good at your job or in investing, you may get above average raises or returns, but that is not going to be the norm for everyone

If you entered the workforce in 80s or 90s, you may have seen tough times yourself (or maybe your family did). The reason why the current slowdown feels horrible is because our expectations are high now. Don’t get me wrong – I am equally angry with the government for running the economy to the ground.

I  faced a similar market from 2000-2003, when the market dropped by around 50% over a three year period. At the market bottom in April 2003, capital goods companies like BHEL, Blue star were selling at 5 times earnings. The current market darlings like Asian paints (15 times PE), Marico (around 5-7 times PE) and other consumption stocks were selling a very low PEs too.  At the risk of getting philosophical, I can think of the following things to do this time around.

- Assess your risk tolerance:  If you have trouble sleeping in the night after seeing your portfolio drop by 10-15% ,  you should reduce your level of equity holdings.  My thumb rule – will I be able to sleep well if my portfolio dropped by 40%+ ? 

- Clean out the trash: Now is a good time to clear up junk from the portfolio. A bear market and 40% loss on weaker ideas concentrates your mind. One should evaluate each position closely, sell the weaker ones and redeploy the cash in the better ideas.

- Have faith:  There is no data or logical argument which can make you hold on to your stocks or add money to it. You need to trust that the markets will recover in time and so will your portfolio.

It is easy for people to say that they want to think independently and stand apart from the crowd. Now that that we have a blood on the streets and no end in sight, you will know whether you can truly do that.

A point of view...

Since restrictions on the free flow of capital are forbidden by the EU Charter of fundamental rights, Cyprus is no longer in the same Europe with the same currency as the rest of the Euro Area members, its position in the Eurosystem is different, unequal. This also means that the single currency has already broken up, albeit on a small scale and in a way that has received little fanfare in the press. On the other hand this is probably the start of something bigger and not the end of the crisis. The break up of the eurozone could be 'sneaky' in just this way, the slow failure of 'peripheral' states and the implementation of capital controls, without changing the name of the individual currencies. This would still leave the larger (population size) nations in the main position of power.
Short of revolution, the contradictions in treating a small country the same as a large one in terms of economic policy seems like it can never be overcome in Europe, or will take forever, because essentially it would mean the end of the national borders and the re-shaping of regions of more-or-less similar size, so that they become like, say, the 'counties' of the UK. Member states of a union can be different sizes, as in the USA, but measures are taken federally to relativize the effect of this. While the smaller countries are by necessity already more open in this respect to outside influences, the larger nations with the clout are more likely to resist, even though they are understood as the main motors of integration. The brings up the question exactly what kind of integration is being sought here? A democratic, relatively equalized regional unity? Or, one that has the largest economies with the biggest populations in the same positions of economic and thus financial power?...For example: the Greek GDP is roughly the same as that of the German state of Lower Saxony. Lower Saxony (Niedersachsen) is the second largest in area in the country with 47,624 square kilometers, and is fourth in population size with 8 million people, while Greece has about 11 million citizens, so it is comparable, but eighty percent of Greece consists of mountains and it has the eleventh longest coastline in the world. When we compare these two, Greece no longer seems so bad in terms of productivity, yet the rhetoric of power is that Greece is the basket case of Europe because of its history of entitlement and state interference in the 'free economy'. In other words 'socialism' is blamed and more raw capitalist free enterprise is seen as the answer. Why is Greece focused on? Because in other nations suffering the crisis it was, in a big way, the major private 'free' financial institutions that blew up needing, you guessed it, public sector welfare, or in other words 'socialism for the rich'.

CAIRO—At least 120 people were killed and 748 injured in early morning fighting between police and supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, the Ministry of Health said, as Egypt's political divisions edged toward prolonged conflict.  Saturday morning's violence was the deadliest single episode in the more than two years since Egypt's first revolution. The killings mark a dangerous escalation in a conflict that has already badly damaged Egypt's emerging democracy and ruptured a society that had once prided itself on its cohesiveness. The violence seemed to further polarize both sides of Egypt's ideological divide, and many appeared to be digging in for a prolonged showdown between supporters of Egypt's ousted president and security forces.  "We are protesting and we will not give up," said Mourad Mohammed Ali, a former spokesman for Mr. Morsi's office and a leader in the Brotherhood. "We will continue fighting to get our freedom."  The violence came hours after dueling protests brought Egyptian streets to a standstill as millions of Mr. Morsi's opponents staged a show of force following a call by army chief Gen. Abdel Fattah Al Sisi, who had asked Egyptians to protest Friday to give him a "mandate to confront terrorism"—a request widely thought to refer to Mr. Morsi's mostly Islamist backers.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke stressed that central bank's timetable for pulling back on its $85 billion-a-month bond-buying program hasn't been determined and could be delayed if the economy continues to weaken. Mr.Bernanke kicked off two days of congressional testimony on the economy and monetary policy by noting risks to growth, inflation and financial markets that could alter the Fed's plan to start pulling back on the bond-buying program, known as quantitative easing, later this year and end it by the middle of 2014. "We need accommodative monetary policy for the foreseeable future," he said more than once during the testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, possibly his last appearance before Congress as Fed chief. His term expires at the end of January. "Because our asset purchases depend on economic and financial developments, they are by no means on a preset course."

U.S. markets strengthened modestly from the latest reassurances from Mr. Bernanke. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.1% at 15472 shortly after noon New York time, and the 10-year Treasury note gained in price, with the yield falling to 2.496%.

Fed officials were jarred four weeks ago by the sharp market reaction to the central bank's tentative timetable for winding down the program. Stocks initially fell, though they've recovered, and long-term interest rates shots up. Ever since, Fed officials have been trying to calm investors about the outlook for the program, which is designed to push down long-term rates and push up prices of stocks, homes and other assets.

BLOWIG HOT AIR ... Greece is far form being OK...Greeks are though...

GERMANY BLOWING HOT AIR - "Greece is getting on track," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble said in Brussels as the meeting ended. "It is not easy for them."  The agreement reached on Monday night foresees an initial payment of €2.5 billion this month to be followed up by more payments in subsequent months. Greece's creditors are primarily concerned by the slow progress Athens has made on downsizing its public sector, with thousands of additional layoffs pending. The country's privatization program has also generated much less cash than expected, most recently as a result of the government's inability to find a buyer for the natural gas company DEPA. Tax reform and the pursuit of tax dodgers is another area where Greece's creditors have demanded improvement. "It's time to step up the momentum of reform in Greece," said European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn.  Still, the public sector cuts are controversial in Greece, with thousands of teachers and municipal workers taking to the streets of Athens on Monday and Tuesday. Some 12,500 state employees are to be placed on administrative leave by the end of September with an additional 12,500 to join them by the end of the year. They will receive 75 percent of their salary for eight months. If they haven't found a new job by then, they will be unemployed.

There is concern that the additional cuts could further damage the country's fragile economy which, while slowly improving, is still stuck in its sixth straight year of recession. Economists forecast that the country could return to growth next year -- a tiny increase of just 0.6 percent -- but some worry that dividing up aid payments could derail the slow recovery. The agreement to continue funding Greece, however, was by no means unexpected. Despite widespread concern with Athens' slow pace of reform, there is little appetite for risking a return of the euro crisis by withholding funding. The situation in Portugal has made European finance ministers even more cautious. Political instability in Lisbon last week recently triggered a spike in the interest rate on Portuguese sovereign bonds. The country was able to avoid a collapse of the government, but Lisbon must nevertheless push through an additional €5 billion austerity package in the coming months, and there are concerns that political worries might return.

Greece too has seen its share of political instability in recent weeks, with the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras almost collapsing due to its sudden and controversial shutdown of public broadcaster ERT. One of the parties in his three-party coalition left, leaving him with a tiny three-seat majority in parliament.

It is unclear whether France's proposal to provide direct aid to Greek banks will gain much traction. Some €60 billion of the €500 billion ESM fund has been made available to provide direct assistance to euro-zone banks that need it. But it remains controversial. Furthermore, European leaders only recently agreed to involve shareholders, creditors and individual countries should large banks find themselves in need of help. It remains unclear whether that agreement applies to existing cases like Greece.