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Monday, November 30, 2015

EU Labour Conditions: First findings : Sixth European Working Conditions Survey

The sixth European Working Conditions Survey (WCS) presents the diverse picture of Europe atwork over time across countries, occupatiRons, gender and age groups

Read more: First findings: Sixth European Working Conditions Survey - ef1568en.pdf

"The Corporate Takeover of American Minds": Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: Which is better?- by Kirsten VerHaar

Black Monday : Frenzied Shoppers
"There's nothing quite like the thrill (and novelty) of piling into the car in the wee hours of the morninand waiting for your favorite retailer to open its doors.

Adventure awaits: Will you score the ultimate doorbuster deal? Or how about that unannounced surprise sale that could be offered? Both are very real possibilities that you can only experience live and in person.

And sometimes nothing can replace the sensory experience, especially when shopping for clothing or furniture.

You don't have to worry about shipping costs or canceled orders either, because you'll be carting your loot home.

To some, Cyber Monday offers many of the same benefits of Black Friday without all the hassle. According to the National Retail Federation, Cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving weekend) is expected to contribute significantly to overall holiday sales — an anticipated $105 billion in online sales, So, is it worth opting for the couch instead of the mall?

Shopping from the comfort of home or work makes for more rational decisions, and you're not dealing with the crowds.

Finally, the pleasure of shopping in PJs can't be discounted. There's nothing better than curling up on the couch with a cup of cocoa and getting your spend on.

Bottom-Line: do you really need all  those so-called "bargains" and make retailers happy as they deposit your hard earned cash in the bank ?  As a passerby of a major US  department store noted when he saw all the frenzied shoppers trying to get into the store: "Every One Has The Right To Do Stupid Things But The American Consumers Are Abusing that Privilege."


 Read more: Black Friday vs. Cyber Monday: Which is better?

Sunday, November 29, 2015

EU-USA: Transatlantic trading deal

The guns of the long transatlantic beef war are silenced. Last year the European Union more than doubled its quota of American beef imports (so long as it is not treated with hormones) and America removed punitive duties on imports of Roquefort cheese. The Americans should soon ease a ban on beef imports imposed in 1997 to prevent the spread of mad cow disease. In November the EU accepted the American practice of decontaminating meat with lactic acid. A final skirmish, over American beef fat, could soon be settled through plans to allow imports of tallow for biodiesel (but not for cosmetics).

After decades of trade rows and lawsuits, the truce is meant to clear the air for an ambitious transatlantic free-trade deal. EU officials speak of creating “something approaching a transatlantic single market in goods”. Even a less grand pact could help to re-energise struggling economies on both sides of the Atlantic. It could also help America and Europe to set international trade rules in the face of a fast-rising China.

Big business wants a deal. Trade unions and greens are no longer so worried about a race to the bottom. The ever-protectionist French and Italians are on board. And yet there is genuine wariness, particularly on the American side.

The report of a high-level group that is expected to recommend the start of talks has been delayed. Perhaps, think some, President Barack Obama is trying to squeeze concessions out of the Europeans; or, Europeans worry, he cares more about a transpacific deal; or he is busy setting up his second-term administration; or is he waiting for the right moment for an announcement, for instance in his state-of-the-union message on February 12th?

American officials say they want to ensure that any negotiation is both unusually ambitious and unusually fast. The deal, they say, has to be done “on one tank of gas”, by which they mean in the next two years. Neither side wants a repeat of the moribund Doha round, now in its 12th year.

America and the EU make up the world’s biggest and richest trading partnership, accounting for about half of global GDP and one-third of trade. They are the biggest investors in each others’ economies. But this very closeness makes progress harder. Easy deals have mostly been done; what is left is complicated. Tariffs are low (below 3% on average, though higher on farm products) but non-tariff barriers abound. Many have to do with consumers, public health, the environment or national security. Governments are not usually elected to compromise on such matters.

One European aim is to open up America’s public-procurement market, which is more protected than Europe’s; one reason is that the federal government cannot force states to open tenders to foreign bidders.

Another is to dismantle restrictions on services, which represent the lion’s share of output but a relatively small part of exports. European airlines cannot take over American carriers or carry passengers between American cities. Similar restrictions apply to coastal shipping under the 1920 Jones Act. Yet the EU market in services also remains fragmented. A transatlantic deal could spur further integration.

Other difficulties include France’s insistence on the “cultural exception” to protect French-language audio-visual products, and the EU’s wish for America to respect hundreds of “geographical indications” on everything from Parmesan cheese to French wines.

Read more: Transatlantic trading | The Economist

Friday, November 27, 2015

US Economy: The Crisis Of The American Working Class

The disturbing evidence about the health of white middle-aged American working class, discovered and publicized this week by Nobel prize winner Angus Deaton and his wife Anne Case, is not tied to just one trend in the culture, policies, or economic factors at work within the United States.

It is not the fault of one party or movement, but has multiple root causes. But it is something we all ought to be concerned about, both for the future fiscal and policy burden it represents, and for the broader lesson it tells us about how America is changing.

The numbers clearly indicate that these Americans are increasingly likely to kill themselves
– whether on purpose or through the slow gradual death of addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs.

The rate of mortality increased most dramatically for white Americans lacking any more than a high school education.

There have been a host of reports about the rise in the number of Americans receiving disability payments over the past three decades – this one, from This American Life, is still fairly definitive. It is impossible to understand the current Labor Force Participation situation without acknowledging this dramatic growth.

Read more: The Crisis Of The American Working Class

Spanish Economy: Summer tourism helps Spain’s economy grow more than other eurozone countries

Summer tourism helped Spain’s economy grow faster than most others in the eurozone in the third quarter.

Figures from Spain’s National Statistics Office (INE) showed that output expanded by 0.8 percent between July and September, as household spending recovered from the doldrums.

The effects of the recession still hit many Spaniards hard – a major challenge for the centre-right government ahead of next month’s elections.

“I keep saying that we’re coming out of the recession. We’ve seen two and a half years of positive growth. But we still haven’t reached, in terms of income, the levels we had before the crisis. We’ll get there, if we maintain this pace of growth, at the end of next year,” said Spanish Economy Minister Luis de Guindos.

Falling unemployment has helped boost spending – but more than 20 percent are still out of work.
Labour reforms are credited with having stemmed job losses – but critics say they’ve failed to tackle employers’ abuses of short-term contracts. Economists also say the gap between Spain’s highest earners and its poorest is on the rise.

Tourism accounts for around 11 percent of Spain’s output. A record year for foreign visitors brought a rise in the number of jobs in hotels, restaurants and other parts of the service sector.

Read more: Summer tourism helps Spain’s economy grow more than other eurozone countries | euronews, economy

Monday, November 23, 2015

Agriculture Linked to DNA Changes in Ancient Europe -

The agricultural revolution was one of the most profound events in human history, leading to the rise of modern civilization. Now, in the first study of its kind, an international team of scientists has found that after agriculture arrived in Europe 8,500 years ago, people’s DNA underwent widespread changes, altering their height, digestion, immune system and skin color.

Researchers had found indirect clues of some of these alterations by studying the genomes of living Europeans. But the new study, they said, makes it possible to see the changes as they occurred over thousands of years.

“For decades we’ve been trying to figure out what happened in the past,” said Rasmus Nielsen, a geneticist at the University of California, Berkeley, who was not involved in the new study. “And now we have a time machine.”

Before the advent of studies of ancient DNA, scientists had relied mainly on bones and other physical remains to understand European history. The earliest bones of modern humans in Europe date to about 45,000 years ago, researchers have found.

Early Europeans lived as hunter-gatherers for over 35,000 years. About 8,500 years ago, farmers left their first mark in the archaeological record of the continent.

Read more: Agriculture Linked to DNA Changes in Ancient Europe - The New York Times

Friday, November 20, 2015

EU Economy: Europe’s housing crisis far from over, says report - by Robert Hackwil

Europe’s housing crisis that was triggered by the 2008 financial meltdown is far from over and is getting worse in some places, a new report has claimed.

The price of a European way of life keeps rising

Both groups seem to be coming to the same conclusion; for some Europeans, spiralling housing costs mean their continent is becoming too expensive for them to live in.

Every EU member has at least one “hotspot” city, whose economic dominance means everyone wants to live there for the jobs or client base it provides, and the education, health and leisure facilities. The top six overheated housing markets are Paris, Helsinki, Amsterdam, Luxembourg, London and Brussels.

However, these hotspot cities are also extremely attractive for another group – investors. Land is a finite resource, so the wealthy have twigged that property values in these places are never going to drop and are a sure thing where making money is concerned. This has skewed the housing market in these places, with plenty of housebuilding for the wealthy, who often buy property not to live in or let, but simply as an investment, but little or no “affordable” housing being built.

Read more: Europe’s housing crisis far from over, says report | euronews, world news

Thursday, November 19, 2015

SA and Netherlands sign agreements to strengthen trade, investment

Businesses from South Africa and the Kingdom of Netherlands have signed fifteen co-operation agreements in Newtown, Johannesburg on Tuesday night.

The contracts relate to co-operation in areas such as ICT, waste technology, renewable energy and water management amongst others.

The agreements are expected to further strengthen trade and investment between the two countries which currently stands at around R50 billion.

Prime Minister Mark Rutte says trade relations between both countries can still be expanded.

Read more: SABC News - SA and Netherlands sign agreements to strengthen trade, investment:Wednesday 18 November 2015

Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Has EU gender equality policy lost its momentum?

Yes, reckons Finnish researcher Johanna Kantola. The EU Court of Justice, meanwhile, is having a positive impact through judgements which could also have major consequences in the Nordic region, according to Kirsten Ketscher, Professor of Social Security and Welfare at the University of  Copenhagen.


Read more: Has EU gender equality policy lost its momentum? — Nordic Labour Journal

Monday, November 16, 2015

Paris attacks: Where does Isis get its money and arms from? - by Tom Brooks-Pollock

Jeremy Corbyn posed a series of rhetorical questions when asked whether bombing Isis following the Paris terror attacks would make a significant difference to the situation.

In an interview with Lorraine Kelly on ITV, the Labour leader answered "probaby not", adding: "Who is funding Isis? Who is arming Turkey? Who is providing safe havens for ISIS. You have to ask questions about the arms everyone has sold in the region."

The Paris attackers were armed with AK-47s and identical suicide vests, while police seized a rocket launcher and a huge cache of weapons in terrorists raids in Lyon following the attack. Some are said to have been trained in Syria.

So where does Isis get its money, guns and bombs, both in Europe and in the Middle East?

To a large extent Isis is now funding itself – through oil sales, kidnap ransoms, smuggling, extortion, taxes, looting, bank robberies.

When it was starting out, Isis was ‘seed funded’ by wealthy donors –individuals and charities from across the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait.

At first, the governments of the Persian kingdoms openly gave money to the opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including Isis. This has since become politically and diplomatically incorrect – but large amounts of money still finds its way to Isis from wealthy individuals from the Persian gulf.

Note EU-Digest: Wouldn't it be far more effective if the West and specially the US, which probably has the worlds most sophisticated surveillance and electronic spy network, also starts gathering information on who are buying ISIS commodities and where ISIS buys their weapons?  Nothing would work faster in stopping their maniactic activities than closing their access to financial sources and putting those who buy and sell from them in jail. Then again, this information could probably open a can of worms for the West?

Read More: Paris attacks: Where does Isis get its money and arms from? | World | News | The Independent

Sunday, November 15, 2015

US Economy: The decline and fall of America's working people - by Noah Smith

One big piece of news in the past couple of weeks has been the release of a new paper by recent economics Nobel-winner Angus Deaton and his co-author, Anne Case.

The paper highlights a very disturbing trend -- death rates are increasing for white people in America, especially for working-class, middle-aged whites. The increase looks like it has been going on since the late 1990s.

Among other American groups, such as Hispanics and blacks, mortality has fallen across all age and income groups during the past decade and a half.

The trend is concentrated among the less educated. For college-educated whites, mortality fell, much as it did for other racial groups and other nations. For those with some college, mortality was unchanged -- a poor result, but not disastrous. But for white Americans with no college education, deaths have soared.
Something very troubling and very unique is happening to American working-class whites.

The immediate causes of the increase are not hard to identify. Drugs and suicide are the culprits. There is an epidemic of prescription painkiller, alcohol and heroin abuse among American whites. Deaths from alcohol and drug poisoning among middle-class whites have skyrocketed. White suicide rates have also risen dramatically to more than 20 per 100,000 people in the 45-54 age cohort.


One big piece of news in the past couple of weeks has been the release of a new paper by recent economics Nobel-winner Angus Deaton and his co-author, Anne Case. The paper highlights a very disturbing trend -- death rates are increasing for white people in America, especially for working-class, middle-aged whites. The increase looks like it has been going on since the late 1990s.

Among other American groups, such as Hispanics and blacks, mortality has fallen across all age and income groups during the past decade and a half.


The trend is concentrated among the less educated. For college-educated whites, mortality fell, much as it did for other racial groups and other nations. For those with some college, mortality was unchanged -- a poor result, but not disastrous. But for white Americans with no college education, deaths have soared.
Something very troubling and very unique is happening to American working-class whites.

The immediate causes of the increase are not hard to identify. Drugs and suicide are the culprits. There is an epidemic of prescription painkiller, alcohol and heroin abuse among American whites. Deaths from alcohol and drug poisoning among middle-class whites have skyrocketed. White suicide rates have also risen dramatically to more than 20 per 100,000 people in the 45-54 age cohort.

Read more: http://www.lowellsun.com/news/ci_29120350/decline-and-fall-americas-working-people#ixzz3rbX1iQNr


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Wednesday, November 11, 2015

USA Presidential Election: Fourth Republican Debate showed Republican candidates are unprepared for a general election fought over the economy - by Jamelle Bouie

There are a few things we can get out of the way about Tuesday’s Republican presidential debate. First, after months of decline, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul had his first great night, challenging Sen. Marco Rubio on tax expenditures and defense spending, pushing Donald Trump on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and stepping into his father’s role as the libertarian gadfly in the race.

 “If you’re a profligate spender and you spend money in an unlimited fashion for the military, is that a conservative notion?” Paul asked in his closing statement. “We have to be conservative with all spending, domestic spending and welfare spending. I’m the only fiscal conservative on the stage.”

The GOP contenders were out of step with the actual economic needs of ordinary Americans. Each candidate talked about relief for workers and families, but outside of Rubio’s child tax credit, few offered it. Instead, candidates came out against raising the minimum wage, called for a new gold standard for currency, and pushed plans for massive upper-income tax cuts. Unlike the first Democratic debate—when Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley, Jim Webb, and Lincoln Chafee tussled over college affordability and health care costs—there was little in the Republican debate that spoke to the challenges of ordinary people rather than businesses.*

Read more: Republican candidates aren’t prepared to argue over the economy in a general election: The GOP fourth debate revealed how little they understand about everyday economic issues.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

US leads world toward economic crisis’ says Ron Paul

Dr. Ron Paul, the former congressman and US presidential candidate, says unless the United States shuts down the Federal Reserve System - the US central bank known as “the Fed” - the world will experience a major economic crisis.

Paul, the founder of the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, made the remarks in an article published on Monday while commenting on the US economy and the role the Federal Reserve plays in it.

“Allowing a secretive central bank to control monetary policy has resulting in an ever-expanding government, growing income inequality, a series of ever-worsening economic crises, and a steady erosion of the dollar’s purchasing power,” Dr. Paul wrote.

“Unless this system is changed, America, and the world, will soon experience a major economic crisis. It is time to finally audit, then end, the Fed.”

He called on the United States to restore a free-market monetary policy “to prevent the monetary system’s inevitable crash from causing a major economic crisis.”

The basic source of the economic trouble is America’s central banking system, which cannot function in a real market economy, he observed.  

“The failure of the Fed’s policies of massive money creation, corporate bailouts, and quantitative easing to produce economic growth is a sign that the fiat money system’s day of reckoning is near,” he predicted.

The Obama administration has given the Federal Reserve new powers to oversee the financial system and regulate it, but Paul believes there should be more transparency on the side of the government.

In 1983, the Texas Republican proposed legislation to audit the Federal Reserve, but it failed to gain much support at the time.

Read more: PressTV-‘US leads world toward economic crisis

Sunday, November 8, 2015

Estonia: The two Estonians who are taking on the banks at currency exchange

Kristo Kaarmann, one of the founders of peer-to-peer money sending firm TransferWise, has a glint in his eye as he recounts how the business he created with his friend Taavet Hinrikus has grown.

The firm, founded just four years ago, has already moved more than $4.5bn (£3bn) of customers' money across the world and employs 400 people in five offices globally.

Banks once had a near monopoly on this lucrative sector, where people send more than $500bn (£334bn) abroad each year.

But not anymore, according to Mr Hinrikus who says the banks "have fallen asleep".

"They have been quick to adopt modern technology to optimize the way things work internally, but when it comes to services for customers their processes haven't really changed for many decades."

Read more: The two Estonians taking on the banks at currency exchange - BBC News

Saturday, November 7, 2015

US Federal Reserve is right to raise interest rates, yet risk remains - by Larry Elliott

 Janet Yellen’s finger is poised over the button. The US Federal Reserve will finally take the plunge and raise interest rates when it meets again just before Christmas. The days when borrowing costs were kept at zero are coming to an end.

That was the interpretation Wall Street was putting on Friday’s news that the world’s biggest economy created 271,000 extra jobs in October and, barring a big domestic or global crisis in the next month or so, it is almost certainly the correct one.

US looks set for December interest rate rise after jobs boost
Read more

The reason for the heightened speculation about a Fed tightening was that the employment news did not so much exceed expectations as smash them.

After a couple of months in which employment growth had been disappointing, the markets were betting on non-farm payrolls – all sectors barring agriculture – increasing by 185,000 last month.

The number of jobs created in September was revised down a bit, but that was more than compensated for by the October increase and by two other pieces of information that will make the Fed think the labour market is getting stronger.

First, the unemployment rate edged down from 5.1% to 5%, within the range that the Fed categorises as full employment. Second, hourly wages were up by 0.4%, taking the year-on-year increase to 2.5%. That might not sound too impressive, and indeed is quite poor for a US economy now into the seventh year of recovery, but it is the strongest annual increase since 2009.

If the Fed moves next month, the search will be on for the next major central bank to raise rates. Given that the European Central Bank and the Bank of Japan are still increasing the amount of stimulus they are providing, every pronouncement by members of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee will be scrutinized.

Read more: US Federal Reserve is right to raise interest rates, yet risk remains | Business | The Guardian

Friday, November 6, 2015

Banking Industry: Yellen: U.S. Banks Are Still a Risk to Financial Stabilityby- by David Francis

As the US economy gains strength, the near-collapse of the U.S. financial system after the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008 is fading from the memories of most Americans. On Wednesday, Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen warned the United States is still at risk of something similar happening again. 
 
Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, Yellen said “substantial compliance and risk management issues” remain at some of the larger financial firms that the Fed regulates. She didn’t get into specifics, but her message to lawmakers was clear: Banks are healthier than they were at the start of the Great Recession, but they still aren’t in tip-top shape — and that poses a risk to the U.S. economy. 

“While we have seen some evidence of improved risk management, internal controls, and governance … compliance breakdowns in recent years have undermined confidence,” Yellen said in prepared testimony. She was speaking specifically of 16 large financial companies, including the biggest U.S. banks, that are overseen by the Fed. 

“[This] could have implications for financial stability, given the firms’ size, complexity, and interconnectedness,” Yellen said.

Read more: Yellen: U.S. Banks Are Still a Risk to Financial Stability | Foreign Policy

Thursday, November 5, 2015

US Economy: Dr. Doom, Marc Faber, calls bubble, adding to gloomy calls- by Leslie Shaffer

The Federal Reserve has inflated an asset bubble and that's going to damp market returns, perma-bear Marc Faber, publisher of The Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, told CNBC Tuesday.

Faber's remarks follow downbeat assessments from the likes of former Pimco co-chief executive Mohamed El-Erian and Nobel economics laureate Robert Shiller, who have recently spoken on the increasing odds of a US recession and frothiness in stock markets, respectively.

"The Fed has basically created with their colleagues in Japan and at the European Central Bank (ECB) and the Bank of England (BOE), they've created a colossal asset bubble. And the returns going forward will be disappointing."

Global central banks have created easy liquidity in markets via zero interest rate policies, and sometimes negative-rate policies, as well as through asset purchases. That's driven up prices across a range of assets.

Read more: Dr. Doom, Marc Faber, calls bubble, adding to gloomy calls

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Germany - gadget leasing: ByeBuy Raises €1M To Make It Easier To Switch Gadgets - by Steve O'Hear

 German startup ByeBuy, which offers a pay-as-you-go and on-demand alternative to gadget ownership, has raised a €1 million seed round. Backers include Commerzbank subsidiary Main Incubator, in addition to Rocket Internet’s venture arm Global Founders Capital, Hannover Innovation Fund, KRW Schindler Investments, and previous investor Seedcamp.

The new capital will be used for a planned U.S expansion, as well as finding new ways to power what ByeBuy CEO and founder Michael Cassau, who was previously at Goldman Sachs and Rocket Internet, calls the “switching economy”. This will include partnering with online and offline retailers to offer ByeBuy as a checkout option.

Just as you don’t have to own a car to drive one, the startup wants to make gadget ownership a thing of the past, providing consumers with the option to consume the latest tech on a monthly rental basis with the advantage that they can switch or ‘upgrade’ at any time.

“We offer people the opportunity to enjoy their favourite items on a fully flexible pay-as-you-go basis and remove the high implicit and explicit cost of accessing cool products,” Cassau told TechCrunch back in June.

Since then ByeBuy has ratcheted up around 1,000 members and is available in 4 countries: U.K., Germany, Netherlands and Austria. It now lists 200 or so products on its site and Cassau says the startup is seeing “very strong traction across all asset classes,” citing the Apple Watch, iPhones, and MacBooks, along with the PS4/Xbox, e-health/fitness trackers and cameras as particularly strong products.

More interesting is the possibility of ByeBuy’s model being offered at online retailers and even traditional brick ‘n’ mortar stores. “This means for example you can see us soon as a payment alternative at your favourite consumer tech ecommerce store, where, in addition to credit card and PayPal, you may see ByeBuy as a new checkout option,” explains Cassau.

“A monthly price without any commitment instead of buying or committing to 3-year financings. We step in and buy it for you so you don’t you have to. Switch and send back at any time.”

Read more: ByeBuy Raises €1M To Make It Easier To Switch Gadgets | TechCrunch

E-Insurance: Making digitized policies mandatory will give e-insurance a boost - by Subbarao Mukkavilli

An insurance repository is a facility which allows policyholders to digitize their insurance policies or, in other words, hold their policies in a demat form.

The objective of creating insurance repositories was to help policyholders keep their insurance policies in
electronic form and to undertake changes, modifications and revisions in a policy with speed and accuracy.

This was aimed at bringing about efficiency, transparency and cost reduction in the issuance and maintenance of insurance policies.

After opting for this facility, policyholders can access their policies any time from their computer, mobile and tablet, and can also track the policy details, make renewal payments and initiate service requests.

Read more: Making digitized policies mandatory will give e-insurance a boost: Subbarao Mukkavilli, Karvy Insurance Repository - The Economic Times

Britain-EU: 12 reasons why Cameron will lose on Brexit – by Denis MacShane

Commentators on British affairs spend much of their time dwelling on Brexit these days; and while acknowledging the passion and verve of the Out camp, their consensus appears to be that the British are too pragmatic a people to tear down the European status quo. Here’s why the pundits are wrong, and why Britain will vote to leave the European Union in the forthcoming referendum called by Prime Minister David Cameron.

1. British history is different

Britain has not been invaded or occupied, or lost sovereignty to any foreign power, in centuries. When people like Alexander Stubb, Finland’s finance minister, tell the BBC that the EU has brought “peace, prosperity and security and there’s no price tag on that,” such soaring rhetoric may play well in countries that once were taken over by the Nazis or Soviets, but it sounds much too far-fetched and continental for the average Brit.

2. No-growth eurozone

Britain was pro-European from the 1950s to the 1980s when continental Europe had growth rates double or triple those of the U.K. Since the launch of the euro, however, the EU has been the slow coach of the global economy, comfortable but out-performed by North America and the BRICs, with all the exciting economic energy coming from Silicon Valley, Singapore, Apple, Samsung, and anything made-in-China. U.S. universities add economic value. European universities give us cause for philosophical introspection.

3. Britain’s off-shore media owners

Britain is unique in allowing its major newspapers to be owned by men who pay no tax in Britain and who dislike the EU. That’s their right, but as a result, the news coverage of Europe over 25 years has been skewed to crude misreporting and propaganda. Even the Guardian regularly runs pro-Brexit columns from its stars like Simon Jenkins or Owen Jones, the rising young-left writer. The BBC has turned Nigel Farage into a national hero by giving him unimpeded access to all major political discussion programs.

4. Tony Blair

The former Labour prime minister was pro-European, but he dodged all difficult European decisions. He offered a referendum on joining the euro, which meant the pound would never fold into the single currency. He offered a referendum on the EU constitutional treaty, which forced Jacques Chirac to do the same, and thus, with the help of a divided French Socialist Party, brought European integration to a full stop in 2005. Cameron has copied Blair by offering a referendum on Brexit. At least Blair was smarter. He bought time with referendum pledges but never actually held one.

5. The Tory party

From Churchill’s United States of Europe speech in 1946 through Edward Heath’s joining Europe in 1973 to Margaret Thatcher adopting majority voting and thus sharing sovereignty in the European Single Act of 1985 — initiatives all opposed by Labour — the Conservatives were the European party in Britain. Today, all top Tories proclaim themselves Euroskeptic. It has been impossible to be selected to be a Tory MP without swearing an oath of Euroskepticism to party militants.

6. Pro-EU campaign muddles

A dismissive Napoleon said England was a nation of shopkeepers, so the U.K. has found one: Stuart Rose. He began selling underwear in Marks and Spencer and rose to become Britain’s Number One shopkeeper and thus was seen as a natural choice to head the anti-Brexit campaign. But a few months before he featured as a star in the pro-Brexit “Business for Britain” organization, so the double-messaging is confusing.

7. Money

The Vote Leave campaign is drowning in cash, with £20 million raised already. Rich City types, Mayfair hedgies, online betting billionaires, and others sitting on cash piles who like access to top political personalities have funded endless Euroskeptic campaigns since the 1990s, ranging from Sir James Goldsmith’s Referendum Party to Lord Rodney Leach’s Open Europe think tank. By contrast the Remain or In campaigners are badly underfunded. Under the law on political donations, FTSE 100 firms that oppose Brexit cannot give money to political campaigns without a special shareholders’ meeting which CEOs do not want to call for fear of infiltration by UKIP and other anti-EU fanatics.

8. Brussels and Strasbourg

It’s not their fault, but the bigwigs of Brussels and orators of Strasbourg cut no ice in Britain. They are seen as over-bossy, over-greedy, and over there. Nigel Farage boasted on TV in 2009 that he had collected £2 million in expenses as an MEP, and ever since, MEPs have been seen as being on a rolling gravy train. At every meeting on Brexit someone asks why the U.K. should belong to an organization that cannot even audit its books properly. Most top EU leaders speak fluent “EU-nglish.” It is perfectly understandable. But in a nation that is taught by Shakespeare to mock foreign accents, being told to love Europe by non-natives doesn’t work.

9. Brits can have two votes

The most seductive line from the Out campaigners is that nothing much will change. The ambitious mayor of London, Boris Johnson, constantly tells anyone who will listen that the U.K. will “flourish” outside the EU. Others say that a Brexit vote will have a catalytic impact on a sclerotic EU that will finally accept British demands for reforms which return Europe to its earlier condition of sovereign nation-states. And then when Britain is offered a Europe it likes, a second referendum can take it back in.

10. Business

Employer outfits like the Confederation of British Industry, the British Chambers of Commerce, or the Institute of Directors have produced report after report in recent years criticizing the EU for red tape and supporting dialogue with trade unions. Business has told the prime minister he must get concessions from Brussels to weaken social Europe or special protectionist measures for the City. The sound of the CBI, BCC or IOD on Europe this century has been one long moan. Now they are panicking as they realize that their non-stop complaints about what Cameron calls the “bossy and bureaucratic” EU have been absorbed by their members, who may decide to vote down an outfit that British business has been so hostile to.

11. The liberal Left

It’s not just classic little Englander xenophobes who find fault with Europe. The Labour Party in Scotland last weekend voted to oppose TTIP, and for many of the leftish intelligentsia Europe is a wicked conspiracy to promote globalized capitalism with all power flowing to multinationals at the expense of workers. The Guardian recently gave a page to a leading TV economics reporter, Paul Mason, to denounce the treatment of Greece by Europe. Another totemic veteran of British leftism, Tariq Ali, gravely informed his readers that he would vote Out in Cameron’s plebiscite to show solidarity with the Greeks and their Syriza government. He did not seem to know that in the July referendum and September election, the Greeks voted Yes to Europe and then Yes to staying in the euro — so for British lefties to vote the U.K. out of Europe is solipsistic self-indulgence even by British leftie standards.

12. Europeans

The Brits, over the years, have been shaped by foreigners arriving from persecution or poverty — Protestants from France, Jews from Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany, Poles and Hungarians from Communist tyranny, peasant laborers from Ireland and black, Muslim and Hindu citizens from the Commonwealth. But the enlargement of the EU to poor east and south-east European nations has seen a massive influx of 3 million new inhabitants in little more than a decade. They work hard, pay taxes, pay rent and fill churches. But for the average Brit, too many have arrived too fast, and so the cry to “regain control of our frontiers” resonates.

Denis MacShane is a former minister of Europe in Tony Blair’s Labour Government. He is the author of “Brexit: How Britain Will Leave Europe” (IB Tauris, 2015) and works as an adviser on European politics and policy in London and Brussels.

Read more: 12 reasons why Cameron will lose on Brexit – POLITICO

Monday, November 2, 2015

Eurozone prices and jobless data better, but still not good enough - by Alasdair Sandford

Prices in the eurozone were unchanged in October compared to the same period last year, according to an initial estimate by Eurostat.

In September prices fell by 0.1 percent year-on-year.

The only slight improvement to zero percent keeps up the pressure for more stimulus measures to accelerate price growth.

The prices of food,  alcohol and tobacco (+1.5 percent), services (+1.3 percent) and industrial goods (+0.4 percent) all increased, but the factor that prevented the overall figure from rising was energy – the cost of which was 8.7 percent down on the same period last year.

Read more: Eurozone prices and jobless data better, but still not good enough | euronews, economy

Sunday, November 1, 2015

EU: Energy Visions – Plugging the Carbon Leak: Emissions and Competitiveness

The EU has some of the most ambitious targets for greenhouse gas reductions in the developed world. But cutting emissions poses challenges for energy-intensive industries. The cost of pollution rights can affect a company’s global competitiveness and drive it to shift production to regions with less strict emissions limits – a trend known as carbon leakage.

Following an intense debate between legislators, regulators, industry and environmental campaigners about the risk of carbon leakage, the Commission unveiled plans in July to reduce the amount of free emissions allowances so that industry will have to pay more for the right to emit greenhouse gases. The Commission wants to increase the financial incentive for companies to lower carbon emissions as part of the move to a low-carbon economy. Part of the proceeds from selling emissions rights will be available to finance innovation to reduce carbon emissions from industrial processes.

At this event, senior policymakers and industry representatives will debate how much of a threat carbon leakage presents to the competitiveness of EU-based industries and the role innovation can play in cutting emissions.

Read more: Energy Visions – Plugging the Carbon Leak: Emissions and Competitiveness – POLITICO