The stock market has recently hit record highs, but Americans are increasingly worried that the boom won’t last much longer.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 61% of American Adults are at least somewhat concerned that the stock market bubble will burst and push the economy back into recession with 23% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-five percent (25%) don't share that fear, but that includes only seven percent (7%) who are Not at All Concerned.
Read more at:
Americans Wary That Stock Market Bubble Will Burst - Rasmussen Reports®
Thursday, December 31, 2020
Wednesday, December 30, 2020
Arms Sales versus Human Rights: US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia
Arms deals with Middle East dictatorships are being rushed through by Trump, critics say, despite opposition over human rights records.
The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration.
Critics of the sales say they are being rushed through despite broad congressional and public opposition to such military support because of the human rights records of the regimes involved and in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the huge civilian death toll from the war in Yemen.
Read more at: US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia | US news | The Guardian
The US state department has approved the sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia as part of a flurry of arms deals with Middle Eastern dictatorships in the last weeks of the Trump administration.
Critics of the sales say they are being rushed through despite broad congressional and public opposition to such military support because of the human rights records of the regimes involved and in the case of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the huge civilian death toll from the war in Yemen.
Read more at: US approves sale of $290m in bombs to Saudi Arabia | US news | The Guardian
Tuesday, December 29, 2020
EU-China Relations: EU edges closer to China investment deal, irking US
The EU and China are edging closer to a long-sought investment deal which would give European firms better access and protection in the Chinese market, but is bound to irk the new US administration.
The EU Commission, on Monday (28 December), briefed the 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels on the latest progress in talks, which have been going on since 2014.
And none of the envoys raised any objections to going ahead, which meant an announcement on the deal could come as early as this week.
Read more at: EU edges closer to China investment deal, irking US
The EU Commission, on Monday (28 December), briefed the 27 EU ambassadors in Brussels on the latest progress in talks, which have been going on since 2014.
And none of the envoys raised any objections to going ahead, which meant an announcement on the deal could come as early as this week.
Read more at: EU edges closer to China investment deal, irking US
Monday, December 28, 2020
USA: Trump signs COVID-19 relief bill, averts U.S. government shutdown
U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday signed into law a $2.3 trillion US COVID-19 aid and government-funding bill, restoring unemployment benefits to millions and averting a partial federal government shutdown.
Read more at: Trump signs COVID-19 relief bill, averts U.S. government shutdown | CBC News
Read more at: Trump signs COVID-19 relief bill, averts U.S. government shutdown | CBC News
Saturday, December 26, 2020
European Union, U.K. unveil post-Brexit trade deal set to take effect on Jan. 1
EU ambassadors and lawmakers on both sides of the English Channel will now pore over the "EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement," which contains 1,246 pages of text. EU envoys are expected to meet on Monday to discuss the document, drawn up over nine intense months of talks.
Most importantly, the deal as it stands ensures that Britain can continue to trade in goods with the world's biggest trading bloc without tariffs or quotas after the U.K. breaks fully free of the EU. It ceased to be an official member on Jan. 31 this year and is days away from the end of an exit transition period.
Read more at: European Union, U.K. unveil post-Brexit trade deal set to take effect on Jan. 1 | CBC News
Most importantly, the deal as it stands ensures that Britain can continue to trade in goods with the world's biggest trading bloc without tariffs or quotas after the U.K. breaks fully free of the EU. It ceased to be an official member on Jan. 31 this year and is days away from the end of an exit transition period.
Read more at: European Union, U.K. unveil post-Brexit trade deal set to take effect on Jan. 1 | CBC News
Friday, December 25, 2020
EU-Britain Relations: Brexit: EU, UK finally clinch ′historic′ trade deal
The United Kingdom and the European Union have agreed to a post-Brexit free trade deal, sealing the UK's exit from the bloc, the UK government and EU announced on Thursday.
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference on Thursday that: "It was a long and winding road, but we have a good deal to show for it."
The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted an image of himself in front of a British flag with his thumbs up. The picture was accompanied by the text: "The deal is done."
Read more at: Brexit: EU, UK finally clinch ′historic′ trade deal | News | DW | 24.12.2020
EU Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said at a press conference on Thursday that: "It was a long and winding road, but we have a good deal to show for it."
The UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted an image of himself in front of a British flag with his thumbs up. The picture was accompanied by the text: "The deal is done."
Read more at: Brexit: EU, UK finally clinch ′historic′ trade deal | News | DW | 24.12.2020
MERRY CHRISTMAS
As we celebrate Christmas around the world, let us not forget the reasonfor this festive season: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life".Hope you and yours are having a Merry and Blessed Christmas.
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
USA: Trump threatens to scuttle coronavirus aid bill, demands changes -
President Donald Trump late Tuesday threatened to torpedo Congress’ massive pandemic relief package in the midst of a raging pandemic and deep economic uncertainty, suddenly demanding changes fellow Republicans have opposed.
Trump assailed the bipartisan $900 billion package in a video he tweeted out Tuesday night and suggested he may not sign it. He said the bill would deliver too much money to foreign countries, but not enough to Americans.
Read more at: Trump threatens to scuttle coronavirus aid bill, demands changes - MarketWatch
Trump assailed the bipartisan $900 billion package in a video he tweeted out Tuesday night and suggested he may not sign it. He said the bill would deliver too much money to foreign countries, but not enough to Americans.
Read more at: Trump threatens to scuttle coronavirus aid bill, demands changes - MarketWatch
Monday, December 21, 2020
Brexit Stalemate: Britain, EU tell each other to give way in 'difficult' trade talks
Negotiations are expected to continue on Monday, beyond a Sunday deadline set by the European Parliament, and a senior British government source described them as “difficult” because of the “significant differences” in position.
With less than two weeks before Britain leaves the EU’s orbit, both sides are calling on the other to move to secure a deal and safeguard annual trade in goods from tariffs and quotas. But so far, neither has budged far enough for a breakthrough.
Read more at Britain, EU tell each other to give way in 'difficult' trade talks | Reuters
With less than two weeks before Britain leaves the EU’s orbit, both sides are calling on the other to move to secure a deal and safeguard annual trade in goods from tariffs and quotas. But so far, neither has budged far enough for a breakthrough.
Read more at Britain, EU tell each other to give way in 'difficult' trade talks | Reuters
Sunday, December 20, 2020
China-US Relations: Chinese Factories Want to Make Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners. A US Company Is Blocking Them - by Phil McKenna and Feng Hao
Air conditioners sped down the assembly line at the Midea appliance factory on a recent Saturday afternoon, as pop music blared over the din of fans and motors. The workers, mostly 20-somethings in crisp blue uniforms, were working quickly and on track to meet their daily target of 3,300 units.
Stretching the length of a football field, the assembly line in Wuhu was retooled in 2016 to produce hundreds of thousands of climate-friendly air conditioners per year, funded with money from the United Nations. The goal was to help reduce a class of key climate super-pollutants.
Air conditioners now use fluorinated chemical refrigerants. While each air conditioner contains only a small amount of refrigerant, the chemicals eventually make their way into the atmosphere, as the devices slowly leak or are destroyed at the end of their useful life. Those emissions add up and wreak havoc. As greenhouse gases they are hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the planet. Newsletters
Note EU-Digest:Presently China and the US, regardless of their different political ideologies, need each other. China as a producer of products and the US as a major consumer of Chinese products. Unfortunately, because the US has completely neglected their own local production industries and facilities , while China expanded its global sales network of Chinese products, it does not appear the US will be able to hold on much longer to the title of "the number one nation on the block".
Read more at: Chinese Factories Want to Make Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners. A US Company Is Blocking Them - Inside Climate News
Stretching the length of a football field, the assembly line in Wuhu was retooled in 2016 to produce hundreds of thousands of climate-friendly air conditioners per year, funded with money from the United Nations. The goal was to help reduce a class of key climate super-pollutants.
Air conditioners now use fluorinated chemical refrigerants. While each air conditioner contains only a small amount of refrigerant, the chemicals eventually make their way into the atmosphere, as the devices slowly leak or are destroyed at the end of their useful life. Those emissions add up and wreak havoc. As greenhouse gases they are hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide in warming the planet. Newsletters
Note EU-Digest:Presently China and the US, regardless of their different political ideologies, need each other. China as a producer of products and the US as a major consumer of Chinese products. Unfortunately, because the US has completely neglected their own local production industries and facilities , while China expanded its global sales network of Chinese products, it does not appear the US will be able to hold on much longer to the title of "the number one nation on the block".
Read more at: Chinese Factories Want to Make Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners. A US Company Is Blocking Them - Inside Climate News
Saturday, December 19, 2020
USA - Economy: Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Covid-hit Texas - by Melissa Alonso and Susannah Cullinane
North Texas Food Bank (NTFB) distributed more than 600,000 pounds of food for about 25,000 people on Saturday, according to spokeswoman Anna Kurian. There were 7,280 turkeys distributed to families, Kurian told CNN.
Read more at: Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Covid-hit Texas - CNN
Read more at: Thousands of cars form lines to collect food in Covid-hit Texas - CNN
Thursday, December 17, 2020
Eurozone reform—it’s not just the fiscal rules –by Willi Koll
The Covid-19 pandemic has eclipsed the general overhaul of the economic-policy framework of the European Union and the eurozone initiated in February by the European Commission. Comprehensive reform of economic governance remains nevertheless urgent and indispensable.
Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the Regulation on the Prevention and Correction of Macroeconomic Imbalances (MIP), within the framework of the ‘six-pack’ and ‘two-pack’ of the European Semester and other regulations, should again be at the centre of discussions, as soon as—at the latest—the consequences of the pandemic have been dealt with.
Read more at: Eurozone reform—it’s not just the fiscal rules – Willi Koll
Reform of the Stability and Growth Pact (SGP) and the Regulation on the Prevention and Correction of Macroeconomic Imbalances (MIP), within the framework of the ‘six-pack’ and ‘two-pack’ of the European Semester and other regulations, should again be at the centre of discussions, as soon as—at the latest—the consequences of the pandemic have been dealt with.
Read more at: Eurozone reform—it’s not just the fiscal rules – Willi Koll
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
US Economy: How a weaker dollar could help fuel a commodities boom in 2021
Long-suffering commodity markets may have turned a corner after a pandemic-induced collapse in 2020. What happens next may depend on the fate of the U.S. dollar.
“The only way to get commodities moving in an inflationary, buying power way is a weaker dollar,” said Doug King, head of RCMA’s Merchant Commodity Fund and one of the world’s best known commodity traders, in an interview with MarketWatch.
Read more at: How a weaker dollar could help fuel a commodities boom in 2021 - MarketWatch
“The only way to get commodities moving in an inflationary, buying power way is a weaker dollar,” said Doug King, head of RCMA’s Merchant Commodity Fund and one of the world’s best known commodity traders, in an interview with MarketWatch.
Read more at: How a weaker dollar could help fuel a commodities boom in 2021 - MarketWatch
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
European Commission Report - Economy: Recovery plan for Europe - the largest ever
The EU’s long-term budget, coupled with the NextGenerationEU initiative, which is a temporary instrument designed to boost the recovery, will be the largest stimulus package ever financed through the EU budget. A total of €1.8 trillion will help rebuild a post-COVID-19 Europe. It will be a greener, more digital and more resilient Europe.
The new long-term budget will increase flexibility mechanisms to guarantee it has the capacity to address unforeseen needs. It is a budget fit not only for today's realities but also for tomorrow's uncertainties.
On 10 November 2020, an agreement was reached between the European Parliament and EU countries in the Council on the next long-term EU budget and NextGenerationEU. This agreement will reinforce specific programmes under the long-term budget for 2021-2027 by a total of €15 billion.
Read more at: Recovery plan for Europe | European Commission
The new long-term budget will increase flexibility mechanisms to guarantee it has the capacity to address unforeseen needs. It is a budget fit not only for today's realities but also for tomorrow's uncertainties.
On 10 November 2020, an agreement was reached between the European Parliament and EU countries in the Council on the next long-term EU budget and NextGenerationEU. This agreement will reinforce specific programmes under the long-term budget for 2021-2027 by a total of €15 billion.
Read more at: Recovery plan for Europe | European Commission
Monday, December 14, 2020
EU Economy and Lithuania: Best EU Economy in Year of Covid Was Bloc’s Worst-Hit After 2008 -- by Milda Seputyte
The European Union’s worst-hit economy in the wake of the global financial crisis is looking like the bloc’s least affected during the coronavirus pandemic.
Lithuania suffered the deepest recession in 2009 as it became a testing ground for the harsh austerity that later ravaged Greece. This time, the European Commission reckons it will notch the shallowest contraction of all, with forecasts this month pointing to a dip in gross domestic product of just 2.2%.
Read more at: Best EU Economy in Year of Covid Was Bloc’s Worst-Hit After 2008 - Bloomberg
Lithuania suffered the deepest recession in 2009 as it became a testing ground for the harsh austerity that later ravaged Greece. This time, the European Commission reckons it will notch the shallowest contraction of all, with forecasts this month pointing to a dip in gross domestic product of just 2.2%.
Read more at: Best EU Economy in Year of Covid Was Bloc’s Worst-Hit After 2008 - Bloomberg
Sunday, December 13, 2020
EU: The Costs of Merkel’s Surrender to Hungarian and Polish Extortion - by George Soros
The European Union is facing an existential threat, and yet the EU’s leadership is responding with a compromise that appears to reflect a belief that the threat can simply be wished away. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s kleptocratic regime in Hungary and, to a lesser extent, the illiberal Law and Justice (PiS) government in Poland, are brazenly challenging the values on which the European Union has been built. Treating their challenge as a legitimate political stance deserving of recognition and a compromise solution will only add – massively – to the risks that the EU now faces.
Orbán has stolen and misappropriated vast sums during his decade in power, including EU funds that should have gone to benefit the Hungarian people. He cannot afford to have a practical limit imposed on his personal and political corruption, because these illicit proceeds are the grease that keeps the wheels of his regime turning smoothly and his cronies in line.
Threatening to torpedo the EU’s finances by vetoing its budget was a desperate gamble on Orbán’s part. But it was a bluff that should have been called. Unfortunately, Merkel has, it appears, caved in to Hungarian and Polish extortion.
Read more at: The Costs of Merkel’s Surrender to Hungarian and Polish Extortion by George Soros - Project Syndicate
Orbán has stolen and misappropriated vast sums during his decade in power, including EU funds that should have gone to benefit the Hungarian people. He cannot afford to have a practical limit imposed on his personal and political corruption, because these illicit proceeds are the grease that keeps the wheels of his regime turning smoothly and his cronies in line.
Threatening to torpedo the EU’s finances by vetoing its budget was a desperate gamble on Orbán’s part. But it was a bluff that should have been called. Unfortunately, Merkel has, it appears, caved in to Hungarian and Polish extortion.
Read more at: The Costs of Merkel’s Surrender to Hungarian and Polish Extortion by George Soros - Project Syndicate
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Brexit negotiations: EU leaders close ranks as no-deal talk mounts - by Katya Adler
Normally after big summits like the one we've just had in Brussels, leaders make media statements about their most pressing discussions.
Europe's leaders are keen to clarify they won't personally intervene in the current impasse in trade talks. There'll be no last-minute handshake or "a-ha" moment in Paris, Warsaw or Berlin.
Read more at: Brexit: EU leaders close ranks as no-deal talk mounts - BBC News
Europe's leaders are keen to clarify they won't personally intervene in the current impasse in trade talks. There'll be no last-minute handshake or "a-ha" moment in Paris, Warsaw or Berlin.
Read more at: Brexit: EU leaders close ranks as no-deal talk mounts - BBC News
Friday, December 11, 2020
Capitalism and the Green New Deal - by Bob Urie
Optimism that the incoming Democratic administration will take decisive action to address environmental decline is misplaced. An analogy, in terms of the institutional and political backdrop and an alleged public purpose, is the Affordable Care Act. Sentiment amongst its supporters is that the ACA was better than nothing. In fact, the ACA did not improve health outcomes. What it accomplished was to secure the role of health insurance companies as healthcare intermediaries and increase executive pay. Thomas Ferguson’s ‘investment model,’ where policy favors are exchanged for political contributions, well predicted this outcome.
Read more at: Capitalism and the Green New Deal - CounterPunch.org
Read more at: Capitalism and the Green New Deal - CounterPunch.org
Thursday, December 10, 2020
EU breaks deadlock (by caving in to Hungary and Poland ?) on budget, coronavirus recovery fund
European Union leaders on Thursday reached agreement on a long-term budget and coronavirus recovery package, after weeks of resistance from Poland and Hungary, according to EU Council President Charles Michel.
"Now we can start with the implementation and build back our economies. Our landmark recovery package will drive forward our green and digital transitions,'' Michel said in a tweet.
No details of the agreement were immediately available, however ahead of the summit, EU diplomats and officials said there would likely be a declaration that the rule of law mechanism would only be used after a ruling from the European Court of Justice — a process that could take a year.
Read more at: EU breaks deadlock on budget, coronavirus recovery fund | News | DW | 10.12.2020
"Now we can start with the implementation and build back our economies. Our landmark recovery package will drive forward our green and digital transitions,'' Michel said in a tweet.
No details of the agreement were immediately available, however ahead of the summit, EU diplomats and officials said there would likely be a declaration that the rule of law mechanism would only be used after a ruling from the European Court of Justice — a process that could take a year.
Read more at: EU breaks deadlock on budget, coronavirus recovery fund | News | DW | 10.12.2020
Wednesday, December 9, 2020
China-US Relations: Biden Very Weak President: Chinese Advisor Says Joe Biden Could Start Wars
China must drop its illusion that its relations with the United States will automatically improve under President-elect Joe Biden's administration, a Chinese government adviser has said, adding that Beijing should be prepared for a tough stance from Washington.
Zheng Yongnian, the Dean of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies, a Shenzhen-based think tank, has said that the Chinese government should utilise every opportunity to mend ties with the US, South China Morning Post has reported.
Read more at: Very Weak President: Chinese Advisor Says Joe Biden Could Start Wars
Zheng Yongnian, the Dean of the Advanced Institute of Global and Contemporary China Studies, a Shenzhen-based think tank, has said that the Chinese government should utilise every opportunity to mend ties with the US, South China Morning Post has reported.
Read more at: Very Weak President: Chinese Advisor Says Joe Biden Could Start Wars
Tuesday, December 8, 2020
BREXIT: Talk of a 'no deal' Brexit grows as deadline looms - by: Elizabeth Piper, Padraic Halpin
Talk of a chaotic British split from the European Union grew on Tuesday with just three weeks left to break a deadlock in trade deal negotiations, with UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson warning that the two sides may have to accept “no deal”.
Read more at: Talk of a 'no deal' Brexit grows as deadline looms | Reuters
Read more at: Talk of a 'no deal' Brexit grows as deadline looms | Reuters
Sunday, December 6, 2020
EU extends a hand (or two) to Joe Biden – By David M. Herszenhorn
In a sign of just how eager Brussels is to move past the acrimony created by President Donald Trump, the European Commission and Council have put forward competing policy papers outlining how they would like the EU to team up with the new U.S. administration on a wide array of policy issues.
Read more at: EU extends a hand (or two) to Joe Biden – POLITICO
Read more at: EU extends a hand (or two) to Joe Biden – POLITICO
Friday, December 4, 2020
Vaccine distibution Logistics: Pfizer & BioNTech Experience Early Vaccine Shipping and Distribution Hiccups - by Mark Terry
On Tuesday, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine was granted temporary authorization in the UK and dosing will begin next week. The FDA has scheduled an advisory committee meeting for next week, December 8, 9 and 10, for the Pfizer-BioNTech product and potentially could grant approval on December 10, or within a few days afterward. The Moderna’s advisory committee meeting is scheduled for December 17.
The companies, including AstraZeneca-University of Oxford, which is running a close third, as well as the numerous others who have COVID-19 vaccines in development, have astonished skeptics by the speed with which they have developed vaccines that appear to be safe and effective. But now comes an even more daunting challenge—scaling up manufacturing and distribution to deliver the vaccine to populations around the world in a timely and effective manner.
In November, Pfizer and BioNTech had indicated it expected to transport half the COVID-19 vaccine it had originally planned for the year. That didn’t go quite as hoped.
“Scaling up the raw material supply chain took longer than expected,” a company spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. “And it’s important to highlight that the outcome of the clinical trial was somewhat later than the initial projection.”
Pfizer-BioNTech had original plans to roll out 100 million vaccines globally by the end of this year, but are now saying 50 million. They still believe they can manufacture more than a billion doses in 2021, enough for about 500 million people.
Read more at: a href="https://www.biospace.com/article/covid-19-vaccine-approval-is-one-challenge-manufacturing-and-distribution-quite-another/">Pfizer & BioNTech Experience Early Vaccine Shipping and Distribution Hiccups | BioSpace
The companies, including AstraZeneca-University of Oxford, which is running a close third, as well as the numerous others who have COVID-19 vaccines in development, have astonished skeptics by the speed with which they have developed vaccines that appear to be safe and effective. But now comes an even more daunting challenge—scaling up manufacturing and distribution to deliver the vaccine to populations around the world in a timely and effective manner.
In November, Pfizer and BioNTech had indicated it expected to transport half the COVID-19 vaccine it had originally planned for the year. That didn’t go quite as hoped.
“Scaling up the raw material supply chain took longer than expected,” a company spokeswoman told The Wall Street Journal. “And it’s important to highlight that the outcome of the clinical trial was somewhat later than the initial projection.”
Pfizer-BioNTech had original plans to roll out 100 million vaccines globally by the end of this year, but are now saying 50 million. They still believe they can manufacture more than a billion doses in 2021, enough for about 500 million people.
Read more at: a href="https://www.biospace.com/article/covid-19-vaccine-approval-is-one-challenge-manufacturing-and-distribution-quite-another/">Pfizer & BioNTech Experience Early Vaccine Shipping and Distribution Hiccups | BioSpace
Thursday, December 3, 2020
Aircraft Industry: Boeing 737 Max sees first firm order since crashes - by Theo Leggett
Its clearance to fly again comes after Boeing implemented a series of modifications including updating flight control software, revising crew procedures and rerouting internal wiring.
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is yet to give the Boeing 737 Max the go-ahead to return to service.
EASA is in charge of re-certification for EU member states, as well as the UK.
Read more at: Boeing 737 Max sees first firm order since crashes - BBC News
The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is yet to give the Boeing 737 Max the go-ahead to return to service.
EASA is in charge of re-certification for EU member states, as well as the UK.
Read more at: Boeing 737 Max sees first firm order since crashes - BBC News
Wednesday, December 2, 2020
USA: Joe Biden warning dashes UK hopes of early US trade deal
Britain’s hopes of securing an early trade deal with the US have been dashed by a warning from Joe Biden, the president-elect, that America will not sign a trade deal with anyone until the US has sorted out its competitiveness.
Read more at:Joe Biden warning dashes UK hopes of early US trade deal | Trade policy | The Guardian
Read more at:Joe Biden warning dashes UK hopes of early US trade deal | Trade policy | The Guardian
Monday, November 30, 2020
Germany: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Monday that it would send a bad signal to the world if a Brexit trade deal could not be reached, as an EU negotiating team stayed in London for additional talks.
With just one month remaining for the European Union and the UK to come to an agreement, Merkel told a virtual gathering of parliamentarians from across the continent: "Britain and the EU share common values. If we failed to reach a deal, it would not send a good signal."
Read more at: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world | News | DW | 30.11.2020
With just one month remaining for the European Union and the UK to come to an agreement, Merkel told a virtual gathering of parliamentarians from across the continent: "Britain and the EU share common values. If we failed to reach a deal, it would not send a good signal."
Read more at: Angela Merkel: No-deal Brexit would send a bad signal to the world | News | DW | 30.11.2020
Sunday, November 29, 2020
EU: Poland could be expelled (exit) from EU over judicial reform clash: top Polish court
Poland could end up leaving the European Union because of plans by the ruling nationalists that would allow judges to be fired if they question the legitimacy of the government’s judicial reforms, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.
The court said the plans could contravene European law and exacerbate existing tensions between Brussels and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).
“Contradictions between Polish law and EU law ... will in all likelihood lead to an intervention by the EU institutions regarding an infringement of the EU treaties, and in the longer perspective (will lead to) the need to leave the European Union,” Poland’s Supreme Court said in a statement.
Read more at: Poland could exit EU over judicial reform clash: top Polish court | Reuters
The court said the plans could contravene European law and exacerbate existing tensions between Brussels and Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party (PiS).
“Contradictions between Polish law and EU law ... will in all likelihood lead to an intervention by the EU institutions regarding an infringement of the EU treaties, and in the longer perspective (will lead to) the need to leave the European Union,” Poland’s Supreme Court said in a statement.
Read more at: Poland could exit EU over judicial reform clash: top Polish court | Reuters
The Netherlands: Unilever officially no longer Dutch company
For 91 years, the company structure was divided between the Netherlands and Great Britain, with two head offices in London and Rotterdam. The company also had two boards and two types of shares.
To simplify its structure, the company decided in 2018 to opt for one main office. Initially, the choice fell on Rotterdam, possibly partly due to the government's announcement to abolish the dividend tax. However, after opposition from influential shareholders, London became the final choice. In the end, the abolition of the dividend tax in the Netherlands was not passed.
The restructuring means that important strategic decisions will subsequently be made in London. This brings an end to the long Dutch history of the company, but in practice – at least in short term – there won't be much change.
Read more at: Unilever officially no longer Dutch company | NL Times
To simplify its structure, the company decided in 2018 to opt for one main office. Initially, the choice fell on Rotterdam, possibly partly due to the government's announcement to abolish the dividend tax. However, after opposition from influential shareholders, London became the final choice. In the end, the abolition of the dividend tax in the Netherlands was not passed.
The restructuring means that important strategic decisions will subsequently be made in London. This brings an end to the long Dutch history of the company, but in practice – at least in short term – there won't be much change.
Read more at: Unilever officially no longer Dutch company | NL Times
Saturday, November 28, 2020
USA: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline - by James Traub
A few years ago I developed a moderately cheering theory about the effects of four years of U.S. President Donald Trump. The thought came to me while I was covering the French presidential elections in 2017. Very few French voters seemed to be attracted to Emmanuel Macron’s Anglo-American brand of liberalism, but they voted for him in overwhelming numbers against Marine Le Pen because they felt called to defend so-called republican values against her populist nativism. The French had a collective memory of their own brush with fascism during the Vichy era and the 1930s. So, too, the Spanish, who kept their own right wing firmly in check. Perhaps, I thought, Americans’ own problem was historical complacency; if so, Trump could provide a kind of homeopathic remedy which would inoculate them against the full-blown disease of authoritarianism without making them gravely ill.
I was wrong. The democratic catharsis that I hoped this election would produce did not happen and is not happening. I need not recite the evidence, as so many others have, including Foreign Policy’s editor, Jonathan Tepperman. It is enough to say that my medical metaphor got it backward: Trump exploited a preexisting condition of contempt for democratic norms and then made it vastly worse.
Read more at: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline
I was wrong. The democratic catharsis that I hoped this election would produce did not happen and is not happening. I need not recite the evidence, as so many others have, including Foreign Policy’s editor, Jonathan Tepperman. It is enough to say that my medical metaphor got it backward: Trump exploited a preexisting condition of contempt for democratic norms and then made it vastly worse.
Read more at: Biden Can’t Stop America’s Democratic Decline
Thursday, November 26, 2020
EU Counter Measures To Be Taken- Article 7: Hungary and Poland maintain united front blocking EU COVID-19 recovery fund
The leaders of Hungary and Poland have vowed to maintain a united front and uphold their veto of the EU's budget and its massive pandemic relief fund.
They continue to oppose the mechanism that ties funding for countries to rule of law principles, arguing that the EU plan risks derailing the bloc.
" Note EU-Digest: Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union should be applied, which is a procedure in the treaties of the European Union (EU) to suspend certain rights from a member state and consequently stop all funding to these two countries within this legal framework".
Read more at: Hungary and Poland maintain united front blocking EU COVID-19 recovery fund | Euronews
They continue to oppose the mechanism that ties funding for countries to rule of law principles, arguing that the EU plan risks derailing the bloc.
" Note EU-Digest: Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union should be applied, which is a procedure in the treaties of the European Union (EU) to suspend certain rights from a member state and consequently stop all funding to these two countries within this legal framework".
Read more at: Hungary and Poland maintain united front blocking EU COVID-19 recovery fund | Euronews
Wednesday, November 25, 2020
UK economy to suffer 'largest fall in output for 300 years' as GDP down 11.3% in 2020, says Sunak
Debt would be 91.9% of GDP this year, rising to 97.5% in 2025-26, he said. In comparison, government debt in the eurozone stood at 95.1% of GDP in the second quarter of 2020, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics agency.
The OBR said that if the UK trades with the EU under World Trade Organization (WTO) terms, as would happen should no trade deal be reached by the end of the transition period on December 31, the effect would "reduce real GDP by a further 2% in 2021". Bottom line, the economic picture for Britain looks quite bleak.
UK economy to suffer 'largest fall in output for 300 years' as GDP down 11.3% in 2020, says Sunak | Euronews
The OBR said that if the UK trades with the EU under World Trade Organization (WTO) terms, as would happen should no trade deal be reached by the end of the transition period on December 31, the effect would "reduce real GDP by a further 2% in 2021". Bottom line, the economic picture for Britain looks quite bleak.
UK economy to suffer 'largest fall in output for 300 years' as GDP down 11.3% in 2020, says Sunak | Euronews
Tuesday, November 24, 2020
EU - Opinion on Hungary and Poland: The E.U. Puts Its Foot Down on the Rule of Law - editorial board
After years of passively watching nationalist governments in Hungary and Poland undermine democratic rule, the European Union finally drew the line this year and declared that disbursements from the E.U. budget and a special coronavirus relief fund would be contingent on each member’s adherence to the rule of law. Hungary and Poland have shamelessly retaliated by threatening to veto the Union’s next seven-year budget, emergency funds and all, unless the condition is scrapped.
The governments in Budapest and Warsaw couched their defiance with their usual plaints that the bloc was behaving like their former Soviet overlords. “This is not why we created the European Union, so that there would be a second Soviet Union,” declared Viktor Orban, the proudly illiberal prime minister of Hungary. But such posturing has long been discredited, especially as both right-wing governments have happily reaped huge subsidies from the European Union.
The cynical reactions of Mr. Orban and the right-wing Law and Justice government in Warsaw demonstrated how far they have strayed from the fundamental principles they signed on to when they joined the European Union. They make no bones about it: Hungarian and Polish officials recently met to set up a joint institute to combat the “suppression of opinions by liberal ideology.”
Mr. Orban in particular has systematically worked to curtail the independence of the judiciary, bring the press to heel and curb civil society. With Fidesz, his nationalist party, in full control of Parliament, he took advantage of the coronavirus pandemic in March to assume broad and open-ended emergency powers that effectively allow him to rule by decree for as long as he wants.
Note EU-Digest: "Hungary and Poland want all the benefits of the EU, but do not want to comply with the rules - it's hight time for the EU Commission to give them an ultimatum- live up to the rules of the EU or lose your membership"
Read more at: Opinion | The E.U. Puts Its Foot Down on the Rule of Law - The New York Times
The governments in Budapest and Warsaw couched their defiance with their usual plaints that the bloc was behaving like their former Soviet overlords. “This is not why we created the European Union, so that there would be a second Soviet Union,” declared Viktor Orban, the proudly illiberal prime minister of Hungary. But such posturing has long been discredited, especially as both right-wing governments have happily reaped huge subsidies from the European Union.
The cynical reactions of Mr. Orban and the right-wing Law and Justice government in Warsaw demonstrated how far they have strayed from the fundamental principles they signed on to when they joined the European Union. They make no bones about it: Hungarian and Polish officials recently met to set up a joint institute to combat the “suppression of opinions by liberal ideology.”
Mr. Orban in particular has systematically worked to curtail the independence of the judiciary, bring the press to heel and curb civil society. With Fidesz, his nationalist party, in full control of Parliament, he took advantage of the coronavirus pandemic in March to assume broad and open-ended emergency powers that effectively allow him to rule by decree for as long as he wants.
Note EU-Digest: "Hungary and Poland want all the benefits of the EU, but do not want to comply with the rules - it's hight time for the EU Commission to give them an ultimatum- live up to the rules of the EU or lose your membership"
Read more at: Opinion | The E.U. Puts Its Foot Down on the Rule of Law - The New York Times
Monday, November 23, 2020
Germany: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents
From November 23, landlords in the German capital must lower excessively high rents — that is, if they exceed a standardized limit by more than 20% — or face heavy fines. The German constitutional court dismissed the landlord associations' attempts to halt the imminent reductions at the end of October.
Read more at: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 23.11.2020
Read more at: Berlin landlords forced to reduce rents | Germany| News and in-depth reporting from Berlin and beyond | DW | 23.11.2020
Sunday, November 22, 2020
EU: We need to call Orbán's bluff by going ahead without him - by Guy Verhofstadt
By vetoing the EU's recovery financing, Viktor Orbán and Jarosław Kaczyński are putting at risk the lives of all Europeans threatened by a needlessly prolongued Covid-19 crisis, as well as the livelihood of everyone whose job or business is harmed as a result, only because they want the EU to continue to fund their increasingly corrupt power grab. We must not let them.
Luckily, the EU Treaties provide other options. We need to call their bluff and we need to do it now.
Financing the recovery through enhanced cooperation of the 25 other member states is the way to do it.
Read moe at: We need to call Orbán's bluff by going ahead without him
Luckily, the EU Treaties provide other options. We need to call their bluff and we need to do it now.
Financing the recovery through enhanced cooperation of the 25 other member states is the way to do it.
Read moe at: We need to call Orbán's bluff by going ahead without him
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Global Economy: G20 Summit kicks off in Saudi Arabia
In his opening speech, Saudi King Salman bin Abdelaziz focused on the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on international economies. This as many human rights groups around protested Saudi Arabia's very poor human rights record.
Read more at: G20 Summit kicks off in Saudi Arabia
Read more at: G20 Summit kicks off in Saudi Arabia
Friday, November 20, 2020
EU - former Eastern bloc Nations: ‘Work, family, fatherland’: populist social policies in central and eastern Europe – by Mitchell Orenstein and Bojan Bugaric
The rise of authoritarian populists in Hungary and Poland has shocked the European Union, forcing it to contemplate new procedures to ensure compliance with the rule of law. But these regimes have an enduring electoral appeal to many voters, including those naturally inclined to the left. Why?
Our research shows that central and east European populists have developed a new approach to social policy, based on past conservative models, which can be encapsulated in the old Vichy slogan, ‘work, family, fatherland’. Developed in Hungary and Poland, it is now spreading across Europe. Hungary, Poland, populistsBojan Bugaric
Responding to decades of neoliberal economic policies, these populist parties advance a nationalist programme. This seeks to build up domestic as against foreign capital, and support indigenous versus migrant workers, addressing native population loss through ‘pro-family’ measures. The pitch is to protect ‘ordinary people’ from ‘liberal elites’, while growing the economy through economic self-rule and a conservative developmental state.
Read more at: ‘Work, family, fatherland’: populist social policies in central and eastern Europe – Mitchell Orenstein and Bojan Bugaric
Our research shows that central and east European populists have developed a new approach to social policy, based on past conservative models, which can be encapsulated in the old Vichy slogan, ‘work, family, fatherland’. Developed in Hungary and Poland, it is now spreading across Europe. Hungary, Poland, populistsBojan Bugaric
Responding to decades of neoliberal economic policies, these populist parties advance a nationalist programme. This seeks to build up domestic as against foreign capital, and support indigenous versus migrant workers, addressing native population loss through ‘pro-family’ measures. The pitch is to protect ‘ordinary people’ from ‘liberal elites’, while growing the economy through economic self-rule and a conservative developmental state.
Read more at: ‘Work, family, fatherland’: populist social policies in central and eastern Europe – Mitchell Orenstein and Bojan Bugaric
Thursday, November 19, 2020
China-USA relations: A Growing Threat from China - Note EU-Digest - "but doesn't the blame for this lies with the USA ? "- by Mackubin Thomas Owens
It has been clear for some time that the People’s Republic of China (PRC) seeks to displace the United States as the leading power within the global order. China has sought to do so in a number of mutually reinforcing ways by employing all available tools, from military means to trade and technology.
In the area of trade, the PRC has exploited the openness of the liberal global system. Seduced by the conceit that the fall of the Soviet Union had heralded the triumph of a liberal world order of free trade and interdependence, the U.S. and other liberal countries invited China to join the World Trade Organization, believing that Beijing would happily accept the tenets of a liberal economic order and play by that order’s rules.
Read more at: A Growing Threat from China
In the area of trade, the PRC has exploited the openness of the liberal global system. Seduced by the conceit that the fall of the Soviet Union had heralded the triumph of a liberal world order of free trade and interdependence, the U.S. and other liberal countries invited China to join the World Trade Organization, believing that Beijing would happily accept the tenets of a liberal economic order and play by that order’s rules.
Read more at: A Growing Threat from China
Wednesday, November 18, 2020
EU-China Trade Relations - Germany: 'Better off thanks to China': German companies double down on resurgent giant - by Michael Nienaber
German industrial robot-maker Hahn Automation plans to invest millions of euros in new factories in China over the next three years, keen to capitalise on an economy that's rebounding more rapidly than others from the COVID-19 crisis.
Read more at: 'Better off thanks to China': German companies double down on resurgent giant
Read more at: 'Better off thanks to China': German companies double down on resurgent giant
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
US Economy - the great divide between Wall Street and Main Street: as thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’
Thousands of families lined up in Dallas on Saturday for a giveaway hosted by the North Texas Food Bank, and the organization called it its largest ever.
Organizers said the NTFB gave away over 7,000 turkeys and around 600,000 pounds of food in Fair Park to those families in need as the holidays approach and the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Saturday’s event was also the NTFB’s fifth food giveaway in Fair Park since the pandemic began in March.
Note EU-Digest: US Economy: Wall Street versus Main street - total disparity - the recent Wall Street bounce can be better described as the US Economy's "Dead Cat bounce" , before "the walls from Jericho came tumbling down ".
Read more at: Thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’ – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
Organizers said the NTFB gave away over 7,000 turkeys and around 600,000 pounds of food in Fair Park to those families in need as the holidays approach and the COVID-19 pandemic continues.
Saturday’s event was also the NTFB’s fifth food giveaway in Fair Park since the pandemic began in March.
Note EU-Digest: US Economy: Wall Street versus Main street - total disparity - the recent Wall Street bounce can be better described as the US Economy's "Dead Cat bounce" , before "the walls from Jericho came tumbling down ".
Read more at: Thousands Line Up In Dallas For North Texas Food Bank’s ‘Largest Mobile Food Distribution Ever’ – CBS Dallas / Fort Worth
Monday, November 16, 2020
USA: Dow on verge of 30,000 and first record close in 10 months on back of Apple’s stock surge
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Monday was knocking on the door of a psychologically significant 30,000 milestone, which would mark the first such round-number level for the benchmark since mid January as the stock market attempts to punch higher in the wake of the volatility inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Read more at: Dow on verge of 30,000 and first record close in 10 months on back of Apple's stock surge - MarketWatch
Read more at: Dow on verge of 30,000 and first record close in 10 months on back of Apple's stock surge - MarketWatch
Saturday, November 14, 2020
American Global dominance coming to an end: It’s time the world looks beyond Pax Americana - by Tee Ngugi
Since World War II, America has been the premier military and economic power. Western Europe, faced with the ‘Russian threat’, worried whether the incoming US administration would still commit to the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military framework.
The reality is China has overtaken America as the provider of aid and loans around the world and is beginning to challenge American military hegemony in places like South East China. It would now make more sense for countries in that region to start cultivating strong ties with China and putting more emphasis on regional blocks as guarantor of their security. While American support is still crucial for Israel, the Jewish state - perhaps more perceptively than most — has been reaching out to a resurgent Russia and ratcheting up diplomatic ties with Arabs as a way of guaranteeing its future security.
Read more at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/oped/comment/it-s-time-the-world-looks-beyond-pax-americana-3020104
The reality is China has overtaken America as the provider of aid and loans around the world and is beginning to challenge American military hegemony in places like South East China. It would now make more sense for countries in that region to start cultivating strong ties with China and putting more emphasis on regional blocks as guarantor of their security. While American support is still crucial for Israel, the Jewish state - perhaps more perceptively than most — has been reaching out to a resurgent Russia and ratcheting up diplomatic ties with Arabs as a way of guaranteeing its future security.
Read more at: https://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/tea/oped/comment/it-s-time-the-world-looks-beyond-pax-americana-3020104
Friday, November 13, 2020
The Origins of the EU: How the CIA Created the EU - by Eric Zuesse
The details are supplied in an exhaustive 1,000-page biography of Jean Monnet by Éric Roussel, which was published only in France in 1996, and which seems to have been successfully suppressed. It has never been translated, and has no reviews even at Amazon. However, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard of UK’s Telegraph newspaper has provided some of the core information from it. Furthermore, Richard J. Aldrich’s 2003 The Hidden Hand also provides key details, such as by Aldrich’s saying, on page 366, about the American Committee for a United Europe: ACUE, more than any other American front organization of the Cold War, was a direct creature of the leading lights of the CIA. Indeed, it was so replete with famous CIA figures that its ‘front’ was very thin. Its early years seemed to have formed something of a laboratory for figures such as [Bill] Donovan, [Allen] Dulles, [Walter] Bedell Smith and [Tom] Braden, before they moved on to other projects in the mid-1950s. Over its first three years of operations, 1949-51, ACUE received $384,650, the majority being dispersed to Europe. This was a large sum, but from 1952 ACUE began to spend such sums annually. The total budget for the period 1949-60 amounted to approximately $4 million. As the quantity of money flowing across the Atlantic began to increase, ACUE opened a local Paris office to monitor more closely groups that had received grants. By 1956, the flood of increased funding was prompting fears among the Directors of ACUE that its work would be publicly exposed.
The emerging European Economic Community (EEC) and the growing Western intelligence community overlapped to a considerable degree. This is underlined by the creation of the Bilderberg Group, an informal and secretive transatlantic council of key decision-makers [representatives of the billionaires who controlled U.S. and U.S.-allied international corporations]. Bilderberg was founded by Joseph Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1952 in response to the rise of anti-Americanism in Europe. … Retinger secured support from Averell Harriman, David Rockefeller and Walter Bedell Smith. The formation of the American wing of Bilderberg was entrusted to Eisenhower’s psychological warfare chief, C.D. Jackson, and the funding for the first meeting, held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Holland in 1954, was provided by the CIA.
Funds for these CIA operations came not only from the U.S. Treasury but from private sources, America’s super-rich, and, also from organized gangsters, as was revealed in the 1998 classic by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. This off-the-books funding comes from narcotics kingpins throughout the world, as protection-money, which is essential to keep them in business. So, the EU was financially fueled from all of these sources, and, basically, was a bribing-operation (to end up getting the ‘right’ people into the EU’s Parliament, etc.), in addition to be receiving funds from what might be considered idealistic philanthropic donors (because the dream of a united Europe had long preceded the grubby version of it that the CIA created for Europeans). The EU was a Cold War operation, from the very start. Though the Cold War was allegedly ideological, it was actually the result of a decision that U.S. President Harry S. Truman made on 26 July 1945, for the post-WW-II U.S. to achieve, ultimately, the world’s first all-encompassing global empire. The EU was designed to serve the political aspects of that, and NATO the military aspects, for America’s European ‘allies’ (America’s European vassal nations). The aim was for the Soviet Union (subsequently only Russia) to become surrounded by enemies, so that, in the final analysis, the U.S. and its ‘allies’ would be offering the U.S.S.R. “a deal they can’t refuse.” This deal (quite fitting to come from an international gangland operation such as America’s Deep State) would be inclusion in the U.S. empire, on terms that are set solely by the U.S. Government — either this, or else conquest. Then, the same thing would be done to China.
Pritchard issued two important articles about this, the first being his 19 September 2000 “Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs”: DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. … One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA.
The documents were found by Joshua Paul, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington. They include files released by the US National Archives. Washington’s main tool for shaping the European agenda was the American Committee for a United Europe, created in 1948. The chairman was Donovan, ostensibly a private lawyer by then.
The vice-chairman was Allen Dulles, the CIA director in the Fifties. The board included Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA’s first director, and a roster of ex-OSS figures and officials who moved in and out of the CIA. The documents show that ACUE financed the European Movement, the most important federalist organisation in the post-war years. In 1958, for example, it provided 53.5 per cent of the movement’s funds.
The European Youth Campaign, an arm of the European Movement, was wholly funded and controlled by Washington. The Belgian director, Baron Boel, received monthly payments into a special account. When the head of the European Movement, Polish-born Joseph Retinger, bridled at this degree of American control and tried to raise money in Europe, he was quickly reprimanded.
The leaders of the European Movement — Retinger, the visionary Robert Schuman and the former Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak — were all treated as hired hands by their American sponsors. The US role was handled as a covert operation. ACUE’s funding came from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as well as business groups with close ties to the US government.
Read the complete report at: How the CIA Created the EU - Modern Diplomacy
The emerging European Economic Community (EEC) and the growing Western intelligence community overlapped to a considerable degree. This is underlined by the creation of the Bilderberg Group, an informal and secretive transatlantic council of key decision-makers [representatives of the billionaires who controlled U.S. and U.S.-allied international corporations]. Bilderberg was founded by Joseph Retinger and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands in 1952 in response to the rise of anti-Americanism in Europe. … Retinger secured support from Averell Harriman, David Rockefeller and Walter Bedell Smith. The formation of the American wing of Bilderberg was entrusted to Eisenhower’s psychological warfare chief, C.D. Jackson, and the funding for the first meeting, held at the Hotel de Bilderberg in Holland in 1954, was provided by the CIA.
Funds for these CIA operations came not only from the U.S. Treasury but from private sources, America’s super-rich, and, also from organized gangsters, as was revealed in the 1998 classic by Alexander Cockburn and Jeffrey St. Clair, Whiteout: The CIA, Drugs and the Press. This off-the-books funding comes from narcotics kingpins throughout the world, as protection-money, which is essential to keep them in business. So, the EU was financially fueled from all of these sources, and, basically, was a bribing-operation (to end up getting the ‘right’ people into the EU’s Parliament, etc.), in addition to be receiving funds from what might be considered idealistic philanthropic donors (because the dream of a united Europe had long preceded the grubby version of it that the CIA created for Europeans). The EU was a Cold War operation, from the very start. Though the Cold War was allegedly ideological, it was actually the result of a decision that U.S. President Harry S. Truman made on 26 July 1945, for the post-WW-II U.S. to achieve, ultimately, the world’s first all-encompassing global empire. The EU was designed to serve the political aspects of that, and NATO the military aspects, for America’s European ‘allies’ (America’s European vassal nations). The aim was for the Soviet Union (subsequently only Russia) to become surrounded by enemies, so that, in the final analysis, the U.S. and its ‘allies’ would be offering the U.S.S.R. “a deal they can’t refuse.” This deal (quite fitting to come from an international gangland operation such as America’s Deep State) would be inclusion in the U.S. empire, on terms that are set solely by the U.S. Government — either this, or else conquest. Then, the same thing would be done to China.
Pritchard issued two important articles about this, the first being his 19 September 2000 “Euro-federalists financed by US spy chiefs”: DECLASSIFIED American government documents show that the US intelligence community ran a campaign in the Fifties and Sixties to build momentum for a united Europe. It funded and directed the European federalist movement. … One memorandum, dated July 26, 1950, gives instructions for a campaign to promote a fully fledged European parliament. It is signed by Gen William J Donovan, head of the American wartime Office of Strategic Services, precursor of the CIA.
The documents were found by Joshua Paul, a researcher at Georgetown University in Washington. They include files released by the US National Archives. Washington’s main tool for shaping the European agenda was the American Committee for a United Europe, created in 1948. The chairman was Donovan, ostensibly a private lawyer by then.
The vice-chairman was Allen Dulles, the CIA director in the Fifties. The board included Walter Bedell Smith, the CIA’s first director, and a roster of ex-OSS figures and officials who moved in and out of the CIA. The documents show that ACUE financed the European Movement, the most important federalist organisation in the post-war years. In 1958, for example, it provided 53.5 per cent of the movement’s funds.
The European Youth Campaign, an arm of the European Movement, was wholly funded and controlled by Washington. The Belgian director, Baron Boel, received monthly payments into a special account. When the head of the European Movement, Polish-born Joseph Retinger, bridled at this degree of American control and tried to raise money in Europe, he was quickly reprimanded.
The leaders of the European Movement — Retinger, the visionary Robert Schuman and the former Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak — were all treated as hired hands by their American sponsors. The US role was handled as a covert operation. ACUE’s funding came from the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as well as business groups with close ties to the US government.
Read the complete report at: How the CIA Created the EU - Modern Diplomacy
Thursday, November 12, 2020
History - repeating itself?: Can History Predict the Future? - by Graeme Wood
The fundamental problems, he says, are a dark triad of social maladies: a bloated elite class, with too few elite jobs to go around; declining living standards among the general population; and a government that can’t cover its financial positions. His models, which track these factors in other societies across history, are too complicated to explain in a nontechnical publication. But they’ve succeeded in impressing writers for nontechnical publications, and have won him comparisons to other authors of “megahistories,” such as Jared Diamond and Yuval Noah Harari. The New York Times columnist Ross Douthat had once found Turchin’s historical modeling unpersuasive, but 2020 made him a believer: “At this point,” Douthat recently admitted on a podcast, “I feel like you have to pay a little more attention to him.”
Read more at:Can History Predict the Future? - The Atlantic
Read more at:Can History Predict the Future? - The Atlantic
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
EU: Budget deal struck, with Hungary threat still hanging - by Eszter Zalan
After what negotiators described as "tough" and "long" talks, MEPs and diplomats from the German EU presidency struck a deal on Tuesday (10 November) on the long-term EU budget and the coronavirus recovery package.
Momentum on the budget talks picked up after the European Parliament and the EU presidency agreed on how to link EU funds to the respect of rule of law in separate talks last week.
Read more at: Budget deal struck, with Hungary threat still hanging
Momentum on the budget talks picked up after the European Parliament and the EU presidency agreed on how to link EU funds to the respect of rule of law in separate talks last week.
Read more at: Budget deal struck, with Hungary threat still hanging
Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Global Economy: China’s On Top Of The World, But Not For Long - by Sam Hill
China is feeling pretty good about itself. On November 1, President Ji Xinping said the economy will double by 2035. He has reason to be bullish. China has the most people. It produces the most Apples, Aluminum and Autos, and has the world’s biggest Army. And we’re not even out of the “A’s” yet. (Further down the alphabet, it also grows the most wheat.) Each year China files more patent applications than every other country in the world put together. It has $3.3 trillion in foreign reserves and is the world’s number one exporter. It’s not the largest economy in the world yet, but it should pass the U.S. as its domestic consumption takes off. They should enjoy it while they can, because China’s time at the top will be short. How short? 30 years or so, according to the analytics.
Read more: China’s On Top Of The World, But Not For Long
Read more: China’s On Top Of The World, But Not For Long
Monday, November 9, 2020
Coronavirus vaccine : Our COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, says Pfizer - by Alice Tidey
A potential COVID-19 vaccine being developed by Pfizer and BioNTech has been found to be more than 90% effective.
The vaccine has been tested on more than 43,500 participants during Phase 3 — the final stage of development when it is given to thousands to test its efficacy and safety.
Analysis carried out evaluated that 94 trial participants had been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19.
"Today is a great day for science and humanity," Pfizer Chairman and CEO, Dr Albert Bourla, said in a statement.
Read more at: Coronavirus: Our COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, says Pfizer | Euronews
The vaccine has been tested on more than 43,500 participants during Phase 3 — the final stage of development when it is given to thousands to test its efficacy and safety.
Analysis carried out evaluated that 94 trial participants had been confirmed to have contracted COVID-19.
"Today is a great day for science and humanity," Pfizer Chairman and CEO, Dr Albert Bourla, said in a statement.
Read more at: Coronavirus: Our COVID-19 vaccine is 90% effective, says Pfizer | Euronews
Sunday, November 8, 2020
US Elections: Trump's Turkish Ally Erdogan and other populists/authoritarian leaders around the world Stay Mum on Biden Victory
Erdogan, along with the leaders of Russia, Israel, Iran, Hungary, Saudi Arabia and China, offered no initial congratulations to the president-elect.
Read more at: Trump's Turkish Ally Erdogan Stays Mum on Biden Victory | Greek Reporter Europe
Read more at: Trump's Turkish Ally Erdogan Stays Mum on Biden Victory | Greek Reporter Europe
Saturday, November 7, 2020
USA - Live: Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania - by Lauren Chadwick
Joe Biden is the president-elect of the United States after being projected to win the battleground state of Pennsylvania. He is also projected to win the state of Nevada.
Read more at: Live | Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania | Euronews
Read more at: Live | Joe Biden elected president of the United States after winning Pennsylvania | Euronews
Friday, November 6, 2020
US elections are not all you can read about: Five key European news stories you may have missed while all eyes were stateside
While our collective attention has been gripped by the unusually tight race to see who will prevail in the US presidential election between President Donald Trump and challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, the world has continued to turn and with it, a lot of important news stories have broken that have by and large flown under the radar.
Here are the five biggest stories in European which may have missed your attention during coverage of the race for the White House. Click on link below
Read more at: US election: Five key European news stories you may have missed while all eyes were stateside | Euronews
Here are the five biggest stories in European which may have missed your attention during coverage of the race for the White House. Click on link below
Read more at: US election: Five key European news stories you may have missed while all eyes were stateside | Euronews
Wednesday, November 4, 2020
US Election 2020 - final results will be days off: Tighter than expected vote may take days to resolve
Mr Trump, a Republican, claimed to have won and vowed to launch a Supreme Court challenge, baselessly alleging fraud, while Mr Biden, a Democrat, said he was "on track" to victory.
Read more at: US Election 2020: Tighter than expected vote may take days to resolve - BBC News
Read more at: US Election 2020: Tighter than expected vote may take days to resolve - BBC News
Tuesday, November 3, 2020
Brexit negotiations: Britain snubs EU deadline over bill breaking Brexit deal
To date, the EU has received no reply from the UK,” spokesman Daniel Ferrie told journalists, three days after a deadline for London to reply to Brussels had passed.
“We are therefore considering the next steps, including issuing a reasoned opinion,” the next stage in the EU’s legal action launched against Britain a month ago, Ferrie said.
Read more at: Britain snubs EU deadline over bill breaking Brexit deal
“We are therefore considering the next steps, including issuing a reasoned opinion,” the next stage in the EU’s legal action launched against Britain a month ago, Ferrie said.
Read more at: Britain snubs EU deadline over bill breaking Brexit deal
Sunday, November 1, 2020
The Global Economy: Real World Economics: Bad trade policies will last for years – by Edward Lotterman
The election Tuesday will be a momentous one in U.S. history, perhaps the most important since 1932 or even 1860. The last four years have been turbulent indeed for our politics and economics. Those splits will remain as we now vote against a backdrop of a world pandemic not seen in a century.
Read more at:Real World Economics: Bad trade policies will last for years – Twin Cities
Read more at:Real World Economics: Bad trade policies will last for years – Twin Cities
Saturday, October 31, 2020
Wall Street: The stock market's 'presidential predictor' is forecasting a Biden victory - by William Watts
The stock market’s Friday fall spells trouble for President Donald Trump’s re-election hopes.
The “Presidential Predictor,” popularized by Sam Stovall, CFRA’s chief investment strategist, tracks the S&P 500 index’s SPX, -1.21% presidential election-year performance from July 31 to Oct. 31. Going back to 1944, it’s found that a positive move over that period usually corresponds to a presidential victory by the incumbent party, while a negative move signals a loss (see chart by clicking on link below).
Read more at: The stock market's 'presidential predictor' is forecasting a Biden victory - MarketWatch
The “Presidential Predictor,” popularized by Sam Stovall, CFRA’s chief investment strategist, tracks the S&P 500 index’s SPX, -1.21% presidential election-year performance from July 31 to Oct. 31. Going back to 1944, it’s found that a positive move over that period usually corresponds to a presidential victory by the incumbent party, while a negative move signals a loss (see chart by clicking on link below).
Read more at: The stock market's 'presidential predictor' is forecasting a Biden victory - MarketWatch
Friday, October 30, 2020
Coronavirus - Flu Vaccination: A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests - by Melinda Wenner Moyer
U.S. health officials are urging Americans to get their flu shots this year in the hopes of thwarting a winter “twindemic”—a situation in which both influenza and COVID-19 spread and sicken the public. But a new study suggests that there could be another key reason to get a flu jab this year: it might reduce your risk of COVID-19. The research, released as a preprint that has not yet been peer-reviewed, indicates that a flu vaccine against the influenza virus may also trigger the body to produce broad infection-fighting molecules that combat the pandemic-causing coronavirus.
n the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.
Read more at: A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests - Scientific American
n the new study, Mihai Netea, an infectious disease immunologist at Radboud University Medical Center in the Netherlands, and his colleagues combed through their hospital’s databases to see if employees who got a flu shot during the 2019–2020 season were more or less likely to get infected by SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19. Workers who received a flu vaccine, the researchers found, were 39 percent less likely to test positive for the coronavirus as of June 1, 2020. While 2.23 percent of nonvaccinated employees tested positive, only 1.33 percent of vaccinated ones did. Netea and his team posted their findings on the preprint server MedRxiv on October 16.
Read more at: A Flu Shot Might Reduce Coronavirus Infections, Early Research Suggests - Scientific American
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Multilateralism: Trudeau, EU leaders express faith in American people and call for return to multilateralism
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the European Union's two top political leaders expressed faith in the American people Thursday ahead of next week's U.S. presidential election whose outcome will have major implications for global relations.
rudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the European Union Council president, all refrained — as is customary — from directly commenting on whether they'd like to see current U.S. President Donald Trump remain in office or his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, take over.
The choice is up to the American people, the three leaders said.
Read more at: Trudeau, EU leaders express faith in American people and call for return to multilateralism | CBC News
rudeau, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel, the European Union Council president, all refrained — as is customary — from directly commenting on whether they'd like to see current U.S. President Donald Trump remain in office or his challenger, Democrat Joe Biden, take over.
The choice is up to the American people, the three leaders said.
Read more at: Trudeau, EU leaders express faith in American people and call for return to multilateralism | CBC News
Wednesday, October 28, 2020
USA: Stocks Close Sharply Lower on Rising Coronavirus Cases - as Donald Trump brags the US turned the corner on the Coronavirus
U.S. stocks continued to sell off on Wednesday in what is shaping up to be their worst week since late March, as rising coronavirus infections shook investors’ confidence in the global economic recovery.The Dow industrials lost 943.24 points, or 3.4%, to 26519.95, their fourth losing session in a row and worst day since June 11.
Read more at: Stocks Close Sharply Lower on Rising Coronavirus Cases - WSJ
Read more at: Stocks Close Sharply Lower on Rising Coronavirus Cases - WSJ
Tuesday, October 27, 2020
Democracy: A free press and a continuous and active involvement of private citizens in matters of public interest
"The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens" - Alexis de Tocqueville - It was as true then as it is today. Don't sit on your hands, do your part and voice your opinion. Check out all our MORBIR Electronic Publications. Scan the QR codes below📱
From top to bottom: EU-Digest, Turkish-Digest, Almere-Digest and Insure-Digest.
Insure-Digest
For all your advertising requirements, please see the advertising application form on each of the above mentioned MORBIR publications.
From top to bottom: EU-Digest, Turkish-Digest, Almere-Digest and Insure-Digest.
Insure-Digest
For all your advertising requirements, please see the advertising application form on each of the above mentioned MORBIR publications.
Monday, October 26, 2020
USA: Could Wall Street Crash: It's been years since investors have been this fearful of a stock market crash, Nobel-winning economist warns - by Shawn Langlois
Robert Shiller, a Nobel Prize-winning economist and Yale professor, urging a cautious approach to investing in the top-heavy stock market in an op-ed for the New York Times: “The coronavirus crisis and the November election have driven fears of a major market crash to the highest levels in many years,” Shiller wrote. “At the same time, stocks are trading at very high levels. That volatile combination doesn’t mean that a crash will occur, but it suggests that the risk of one is relatively high. This is a time to be careful.”
Read more at: It's been years since investors have been this fearful of a stock market crash, Nobel-winning economist warns - MarketWatch
Read more at: It's been years since investors have been this fearful of a stock market crash, Nobel-winning economist warns - MarketWatch
Sunday, October 25, 2020
Economics: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - by Noah Smith
Ever since China’s spectacular economic growth became apparent in the 2000s, people have wondered whether that country’s brand of authoritarian state capitalism has proven superior to the more liberal American model. Until recently, it was possible to dismiss those concerns, but Chinese successes and U.S. failures keep piling up. If the U.S. wants to maintain both its relative power and its prestige as a model for the world, it needs to make some big adjustments.
Read more at: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - Bloomberg
Read more at: China Has a Few Things to Teach the U.S. Economy - Bloomberg
Saturday, October 24, 2020
America's Latest Export: The Conspiracy Theorists Crazies have crossed the Atlantic and QAnon is now in Europe–by Mark Scott
If you don't know what QAnon is this is how wikileaks divines the cult - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QAnon.
At first glance it’s not a natural fit. The U.S. conspiracy theory — now with millions of acolytes worldwide — alleges a vast deception to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump. It blends anti-government, anti-lockdown and anti-Semitic rhetoric with unfounded beliefs about a vast pedophile ring run by the global elite. Its followers adhere to a quasi-religious belief that a great savior — aided by “Q,” an anonymous government insider from whom QAnon gets its name — will protect followers from the dark forces behind the conspiracy.
In the U.S., discussion about QAnon has broken into the political mainstream. When Trump was asked to disavow the group at a recent town hall event, he first said he knew “nothing about QAnon” but then added: “I do know that they are very much against pedofiles.
Despite its digital roots, this conspiracy based, populst, ultra -right-wing QAnon has extended its reach into the real world, with attendees at protests against anti-coronavirus measures and supportive of conspiracy theories spreading its talking points across Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Read more at: QAnon goes European – POLITICO
At first glance it’s not a natural fit. The U.S. conspiracy theory — now with millions of acolytes worldwide — alleges a vast deception to undermine U.S. President Donald Trump. It blends anti-government, anti-lockdown and anti-Semitic rhetoric with unfounded beliefs about a vast pedophile ring run by the global elite. Its followers adhere to a quasi-religious belief that a great savior — aided by “Q,” an anonymous government insider from whom QAnon gets its name — will protect followers from the dark forces behind the conspiracy.
In the U.S., discussion about QAnon has broken into the political mainstream. When Trump was asked to disavow the group at a recent town hall event, he first said he knew “nothing about QAnon” but then added: “I do know that they are very much against pedofiles.
Despite its digital roots, this conspiracy based, populst, ultra -right-wing QAnon has extended its reach into the real world, with attendees at protests against anti-coronavirus measures and supportive of conspiracy theories spreading its talking points across Europe, the U.S. and other parts of the world.
Read more at: QAnon goes European – POLITICO
Thursday, October 22, 2020
US Presidential elections: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally in new Quinnipiac poll
Former Vice President Joe Biden maintains a wide national lead over President Trump heading into the final 12-day stretch before Election Day, according to a new Quinnipiac University poll released on Thursday.
The Democratic nominee has a 10-point advantage in the race, garnering the support of a slight majority of likely voters — 51 percent — while Trump lagged behind him at 41 percent, according to the latest poll. That margin is virtually identical to the lead Biden held in two Quinnipiac polls from September that showed the former vice president ahead of Trump 52 percent to 42 percent.
Read more at: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally in new Quinnipiac poll | TheHill
The Democratic nominee has a 10-point advantage in the race, garnering the support of a slight majority of likely voters — 51 percent — while Trump lagged behind him at 41 percent, according to the latest poll. That margin is virtually identical to the lead Biden held in two Quinnipiac polls from September that showed the former vice president ahead of Trump 52 percent to 42 percent.
Read more at: Biden leads Trump by 10 points nationally in new Quinnipiac poll | TheHill
Wednesday, October 21, 2020
EU-Britain Relations: How a ‘Global Britain’ Could Cope With the Brexit Consequences - by Ben Judah, Georgina Wright
Over the past four years, as the United Kingdom has wrestled with the consequences of its narrow vote to leave the European Union, there has been little to no broader foreign policy debate in the country. Instead, Britons seem to have become caught between three temperaments. There are the catastrophists, who argue the U.K. has become completely irrelevant on the international stage as a result of Brexit; the nostalgics, who see a powerful Britain through the lens of a great colonial power; and the denialists, who refuse to accept that Britain must adapt to a changing global context. All are characterized by a surfeit of emotion and deficit of strategy⎯and none have answers to the key questions their government must now answer.
Read more at: How a ‘Global Britain’ Could Cope With the Brexit Consequences
Read more at: How a ‘Global Britain’ Could Cope With the Brexit Consequences
Tuesday, October 20, 2020
EU-Britain Negotiations-Stalemate: No more trade talks unless EU changes position, Johnson says
There will be no more trade talks with the European Union unless the bloc fundamentally changes its stance on the discussions, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson told his Greek counterpart in a call on Tuesday.
Read more at: No more trade talks unless EU changes position, Johnson says | Reuters
Read more at: No more trade talks unless EU changes position, Johnson says | Reuters
Sunday, October 18, 2020
Canadian-US relations: Trudeau and Trump are worlds apart on the Canada-U.S. border closure
Although Canada and the U.S. have agreed to close their shared
land border to non-essential travel, they don't appear to agree on
several related issues — including what to do next.
More than seven months after the border closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have offered up contradictory messages about what happens now.
The Canada-U.S. border is set to stay closed until Oct. 21, and Trudeau implied this week that the date will be extended.
In an interview Wednesday on Winnipeg podcast The Start, Trudeau said Canada plans to keep the border closed as long as COVID-19 case counts in the U.S. remains high.
Read more at:
Trudeau and Trump are worlds apart on the Canada-U.S. border closure | CBC News
More than seven months after the border closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and U.S. President Donald Trump have offered up contradictory messages about what happens now.
The Canada-U.S. border is set to stay closed until Oct. 21, and Trudeau implied this week that the date will be extended.
In an interview Wednesday on Winnipeg podcast The Start, Trudeau said Canada plans to keep the border closed as long as COVID-19 case counts in the U.S. remains high.
Read more at:
Trudeau and Trump are worlds apart on the Canada-U.S. border closure | CBC News
Saturday, October 17, 2020
US Economy: It is time to stop looking at the US economy from Wall Street - by Cristina Ramirez
Crises
have a way of turning existing cracks in political and economic systems
into fault lines. They bring to light what has been hiding beneath the
surface. This is why the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic, the most serious global health crisis in a century,
has exposed the many pre-existing weaknesses of the US economy and laid
bare the nation’s failure to judge the economy by what actually
matters: How it works for working and middle-class Americans.
In a matter of weeks, the pandemic left 26 million Americans unemployed and food
banks overwhelmed. As one in four workers in the country are not
entitled to a single day of paid sick leave, COVID-19 also forced many
Americans to choose between staying healthy and putting food on their
tables. It brought to the surface the growing economic precarity
of tens of millions of Americans which Wall Street, and many in
Washington, have long been ignoring.
While some economists and politicians, such as Treasury
Secretary and former Goldman Sachs Executive Steven Mnuchin, claim that
the American economy was doing just fine before the start of the
pandemic, the truth is many Americans have been
living on the verge of economic collapse long before COVID-19 reached
the country. After the 2008 economic crash, Wall Street and big
corporations rebounded quickly, but millions of Americans did not.
The likes of Mnuchin get away with
claiming the US economy was doing brilliantly before the outbreak
because they judge economic success merely by the success and
profitability of big corporations and not the economic stability and
wellbeing of ordinary Americans, such as small business owners,
warehouse workers and delivery drivers.
If Mnuchin judged the health of the US economy by how
well everyday people are coping, he would have seen that things were not
so rosy on “Main Street” even before COVID-19.
It is time to stop looking at the US economy from Wall Street | US & Canada | Al Jazeera
Friday, October 16, 2020
Brexit negotiations: EU tells UK to move if it wants post-Brexit deal - by Eszter Zalan
EU leaders on Thursday (15 October) called on London to make the "the
necessary moves" in negotiations on the EU-UK future relationships, in
order to have a deal ready for January next year.
The EU-27 also called on the EU Commission to draw up contingency measures in case there is no deal.
The heads of government talked Brexit for over two hours at their Brussels summit, and without phones in the room, as the negotiations now enter two critical weeks.
The EU wants to UK to move on the following issues: fair competition and state aid, fisheries, and governance of the future agreement.
"We are united and determined to reach on agreement, but not at any cost," European Council president Charles Michel told reporters online in a break of the EU summit, which is also dealing with climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I will continue intensive discussion in the coming weeks," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said, who gave the press conference along with Michel after commission president Urusla von der Leyen had to abruptly leave the summit to go into precautionary self-isolation after one of her staff tested positive for coronavirus.
Barnier said that he will discuss with his British counterpart, David Frost, a schedule for talks, adding he will be in London ready to continue talks throughout next week, and offered to continue in Brussels the week after.
Read more at:
EU tells UK to move if it wants post-Brexit deal
The EU-27 also called on the EU Commission to draw up contingency measures in case there is no deal.
The heads of government talked Brexit for over two hours at their Brussels summit, and without phones in the room, as the negotiations now enter two critical weeks.
The EU wants to UK to move on the following issues: fair competition and state aid, fisheries, and governance of the future agreement.
"We are united and determined to reach on agreement, but not at any cost," European Council president Charles Michel told reporters online in a break of the EU summit, which is also dealing with climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.
"I will continue intensive discussion in the coming weeks," EU chief negotiator Michel Barnier said, who gave the press conference along with Michel after commission president Urusla von der Leyen had to abruptly leave the summit to go into precautionary self-isolation after one of her staff tested positive for coronavirus.
Barnier said that he will discuss with his British counterpart, David Frost, a schedule for talks, adding he will be in London ready to continue talks throughout next week, and offered to continue in Brussels the week after.
Read more at:
EU tells UK to move if it wants post-Brexit deal
Wednesday, October 14, 2020
The US Economy and the US Dollar: the US is facing a dollar collapse by the end of 2021 and an over 50% chance of a double-dip recession, economist Stephen Roach says - by Shalini Nagarajan
- The US dollar could collapse by the end of 2021 and the economy can expect a more than 50% chance of a double-dip recession, the economist Stephen Roach told CNBC on Wednesday.
- The US has seen economic output rise briefly and then fall in eight of the past 11 business-cycle recoveries, Roach said.
- Grim second-quarter data cannot be dismissed, he said, pointing out that "the current-account deficit in the United States, which is the broadest measure of our international imbalance with the rest of the world, suffered a record deterioration."
- Roach last predicted a crash in the dollar index in June, when it was trading at about 96. He said at the time that it would collapse 35% against other major currencies within the next year or two.
Roach,a former chairman of Morgan Stanley Asia, also said he sees a more than 50% probability of a double-dip recession in the United States.
He based that prediction on historical evidence, saying that in eight of the past 11 business-cycle recoveries economic output has risen briefly and then fallen.
"It's certainly something that happens more often than not," he said.
Roach last predicted a dollar crash in June, saying it would collapse 35% against other major currencies within the next couple of years. At the time, the dollar index traded at about 96. On Thursday, the index traded at about 94.41.
He said on Wednesday that he expected the collapse to happen by the end of 2021, but he did not say by how much.
Read more at:
The US is facing a dollar collapse by the end of 2021 and an over 50% chance of a double-dip recession, economist Stephen Roach says | Markets Insider
Tuesday, October 13, 2020
The Covid-19 Vaccine development pains: COVID-19 vaccine setback weighs on Wall Street
News of a setback on a coronavirus vaccine candidate and reports of the
first COVID-19 reinfection in the United States are sapping investor
sentiment, while the official start of earnings season, the unofficial
start of the US holiday shopping season, and Apple’s iPhone launch event
are all moving markets.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson were down more than two percent minutes into the trading session after the pharmaceutical giant said it had paused clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate due to an “unexplained illness” in a study participant.
Last month, AstraZeneca halted a late-stage trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate after a participant fell ill.
The news follows in the wake of more documented evidence that sheds doubt on whether herd immunity to COVID-19 is possible.
Read more at:
COVID-19 vaccine setback weighs on Wall Street | US & Canada News | Al Jazeera
Shares of Johnson & Johnson were down more than two percent minutes into the trading session after the pharmaceutical giant said it had paused clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine candidate due to an “unexplained illness” in a study participant.
Last month, AstraZeneca halted a late-stage trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate after a participant fell ill.
The news follows in the wake of more documented evidence that sheds doubt on whether herd immunity to COVID-19 is possible.
Read more at:
COVID-19 vaccine setback weighs on Wall Street | US & Canada News | Al Jazeera
Monday, October 12, 2020
The Global Pandemic: COVID-19 situation update worldwide, as of 12 October 2020
Since 31 December 2019 and as of 12 October 2020, 37 568 843 cases
of COVID-19 (in accordance with the applied case definitions and
testing strategies in the affected countries) have been reported,
including 1 077 508 deaths.
Read more at:
COVID-19 situation update worldwide, as of 12 October 2020
Read more at:
COVID-19 situation update worldwide, as of 12 October 2020
Sunday, October 11, 2020
Britain: Brexit poll: Brits say leaving EU without a trade deal would be bad - by Adam Payne
- Nearly two-thirds of Brits believe leaving the Brexit transition period without a trade deal with the EU would be a "bad" outcome for the UK, a new poll has found.
- The survey shared exclusively with Business Insider, found strong opposition to a no-deal outcome in every part of the UK.
- The highest level of opposition was in Scotland, where polls suggest growing support for independence.
- Prime Minister Boris Johnson recently described no deal as a "good outcome" and last weekend said the UK would "prosper mightily" in the event of widespread disruption.
Brexit poll: Brits say leaving EU without a trade deal would be bad - Business Insider
Saturday, October 10, 2020
EU-Britain-Brexit: Trade negotiators meet, as deadline looms
Downing Street said the meeting with Lord Frost - held with less than
a week to go until the UK's deadline for agreeing a deal - had been
"useful".
But differences remained on important issues, a spokesperson added.
A No 10 spokesman confirmed that informal discussions would resume in Brussels next week.
"We have had useful discussions this week," the spokesman said.
"Progress has been made in some areas, however there still remains differences on some important issues but we remain committed to trying to agree a FTA (free trade agreement).
"We continue to want an agreement, we continue to want an FTA but it is important that we can agree on some issues."
The talks came after European Council President Charles Michel said the sides were approaching "the moment of truth".
The UK's post-Brexit transition period, during which its trading relationship with the EU has remained the same, is due to end in December.
Read mor at:
Brexit: Trade negotiators meet, as deadline looms - BBC News
But differences remained on important issues, a spokesperson added.
A No 10 spokesman confirmed that informal discussions would resume in Brussels next week.
"We have had useful discussions this week," the spokesman said.
"Progress has been made in some areas, however there still remains differences on some important issues but we remain committed to trying to agree a FTA (free trade agreement).
"We continue to want an agreement, we continue to want an FTA but it is important that we can agree on some issues."
The talks came after European Council President Charles Michel said the sides were approaching "the moment of truth".
The UK's post-Brexit transition period, during which its trading relationship with the EU has remained the same, is due to end in December.
Read mor at:
Brexit: Trade negotiators meet, as deadline looms - BBC News
Friday, October 9, 2020
Internet - and working from home: Berlin, Lagos, Budapest: How fast is your internet?
Working from home can be a challenge in itself: no office chair, no
canteen, no colleagues to chat with over coffee. But with the
coronavirus here to stay for the foreseeable future, millions of people
around the world have gotten used to sitting at the kitchen table just
like Merguet to work on spreadsheets or take conference calls. But
without a fast and reliable connection, slow downloads, choppy audio or
video calls that keep freezing up can make life difficult for
telecommuters.
Merguet isn't the only one who has had to wind down data-intensive tasks. Even in well-off countries like Germany, internet problems are common. DW used open-source data from M-Lab to compare the speed of internet connections around the globe. M-Lab collects data from many millions of speed tests that users perform every month.
For the complete report go to:
Berlin, Lagos, Budapest: How fast is your internet? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 09.10.2020
Merguet isn't the only one who has had to wind down data-intensive tasks. Even in well-off countries like Germany, internet problems are common. DW used open-source data from M-Lab to compare the speed of internet connections around the globe. M-Lab collects data from many millions of speed tests that users perform every month.
For the complete report go to:
Berlin, Lagos, Budapest: How fast is your internet? | World| Breaking news and perspectives from around the globe | DW | 09.10.2020
Thursday, October 8, 2020
EU: Coronavirus -Remdesivir: Commission signs a joint procurement contract with Gilead for the supply of Remdesivir
The Commission has signed a joint procurement framework contract with
the pharmaceutical company Gilead for the supply of up to 500,000
treatment courses of Veklury, the brand name for Remdesivir, and the
opportunity to increase supply beyond the 500,000 treatment courses.
There are 36 signatories of the Joint Procurement Agreement
participating in this joint procurement, including all EU countries,
the EEA countries of Norway and Iceland*, the UK, as well as six
candidate countries and potential candidates (Albania, the Republic of
North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Kosovo** and Bosnia and
Herzegovina). All participating countries can now place their orders to
procure Veklury directly. Veklury is at this stage the only medicine
with a conditional marketing authorisation in the EU for the treatment
of COVID-19 patients needing oxygen supply.
Read more at: Coronavirus: Remdesivir
Read more at: Coronavirus: Remdesivir
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
USA: The Economic Recovery Story Is As Fake As Ever - by Jeffrey Snider
Disastrous to employment. Absolutely right. And in the more modern, 21st century
sense it doesn’t even have to be outright deflation anymore. We’ve seen
time and again that a realistic threat is all it takes (a reminder
about what happened last September before this March).
Familiar to us, if not always easily recognizable, it’s the very hazard of unsolved, chronic liquidity risks that spikes the dollar, keeps interest rates low (interest rate fallacy), and, as Keynes said, is therefore disastrous to employment by the introduction of what current Economists and central bankers otherwise call, while they do everything humanly possible to avoid recognizing, macro slack.
Bernanke, like his predecessors and successors, claims to be a keen follower of Keynes anyway.
What comes next is the weekly reminder about the labor market; initial jobless claims were 870k last week. That is, still, in the middle of September, 200k more than any of the worst weeks on record before March. And this latest “disastrous to employment” comes to us on top of the macro slack which has already forced the Fed to redefine (undefine, really) their whole conception of full employment.
They’ve got everything covered. Recovery’s in the bag. That’s the story, and it’s one with all the same characters, all the same scenery, and, least surprising of all, the same ending.
Read more at:
The Economic Recovery Story Is As Fake As Ever | RealClearMarkets
Familiar to us, if not always easily recognizable, it’s the very hazard of unsolved, chronic liquidity risks that spikes the dollar, keeps interest rates low (interest rate fallacy), and, as Keynes said, is therefore disastrous to employment by the introduction of what current Economists and central bankers otherwise call, while they do everything humanly possible to avoid recognizing, macro slack.
Bernanke, like his predecessors and successors, claims to be a keen follower of Keynes anyway.
What comes next is the weekly reminder about the labor market; initial jobless claims were 870k last week. That is, still, in the middle of September, 200k more than any of the worst weeks on record before March. And this latest “disastrous to employment” comes to us on top of the macro slack which has already forced the Fed to redefine (undefine, really) their whole conception of full employment.
They’ve got everything covered. Recovery’s in the bag. That’s the story, and it’s one with all the same characters, all the same scenery, and, least surprising of all, the same ending.
Read more at:
The Economic Recovery Story Is As Fake As Ever | RealClearMarkets
Sunday, October 4, 2020
Rebooting the EU economy during a world health pandemic
The EU economy is starting to wake up again after suffering the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, it is far from over and the recovery is not going to be smooth.
For this episode of Real Economy, Euronews went to the Brussels Economic Forum and spoke to the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni - and the European Council President, Charles Michel, about the EU's €1.82 trillion joint recovery package, and how it is helping to cushion the economic fallout.
Read more at
Rebooting the EU economy during a world health pandemic | Euronews
However, it is far from over and the recovery is not going to be smooth.
For this episode of Real Economy, Euronews went to the Brussels Economic Forum and spoke to the European Commissioner for Economy, Paolo Gentiloni - and the European Council President, Charles Michel, about the EU's €1.82 trillion joint recovery package, and how it is helping to cushion the economic fallout.
Read more at
Rebooting the EU economy during a world health pandemic | Euronews
Saturday, October 3, 2020
Canada: Swiss bank UBS says Toronto has 3rd biggest housing bubble in the world
A Swiss bank has concluded that Toronto's housing market is in
bubble territory, as homes in the city are more overpriced based on
local rents and incomes than in places like New York, San Francisco,
London and Hong Kong.
In an annual ranking, UBS looks at 25 major cities in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia to track and compare the risk of housing bubbles at the local level in each of them, and it then assigns them a number based on that ranking.
A score above 1.5 indicates the bank thinks there's a risk of a bubble, which UBS defines as "a substantial and sustained mispricing of an asset, the existence of which cannot be proved unless it bursts."
Read more at: Swiss bank UBS says Toronto has 3rd biggest housing bubble in the world | CBC News
In an annual ranking, UBS looks at 25 major cities in Europe, North America, the Middle East and Asia to track and compare the risk of housing bubbles at the local level in each of them, and it then assigns them a number based on that ranking.
A score above 1.5 indicates the bank thinks there's a risk of a bubble, which UBS defines as "a substantial and sustained mispricing of an asset, the existence of which cannot be proved unless it bursts."
Read more at: Swiss bank UBS says Toronto has 3rd biggest housing bubble in the world | CBC News
Friday, October 2, 2020
Spain's job market: Labor market sets positive records in September, but employment still far from pre-pandemic levels
Despite the covid-19pandemic 15-million-spaniards-are-either-jobless-or-furloughed-due-to-coronavirus.html" target="_blank">devastating effect
that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the Spanish economy, September
was a record month for the labor market. Registered unemployment fell
by 26,329 people, which is the highest figure since at least 1996, when
the current statistical series began. Employment also grew, with 84,013 new registrations with the Social Security system,
also the highest figure for the month of September. This was partly due
to new hirings of teachers – more staff are being drafted in across the
country so that schools can cope with coronavirus measures – as well as
of agricultural workers. The total number of workers signed up with
Social Security reached 18,876,389 last month.
that the coronavirus pandemic has had on the Spanish economy, September
was a record month for the labor market. Registered unemployment fell
by 26,329 people, which is the highest figure since at least 1996, when
the current statistical series began. Employment also grew, with 84,013 new registrations with the Social Security system,
also the highest figure for the month of September. This was partly due
to new hirings of teachers – more staff are being drafted in across the
country so that schools can cope with coronavirus measures – as well as
of agricultural workers. The total number of workers signed up with
Social Security reached 18,876,389 last month.
Read more at:
Spain's job market: Labor market sets positive records in September, but employment still far from pre-pandemic levels | Economy And Business | EL PAÍS in English
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
The Netherlands: Hundreds of UK firms turn to Netherlands with Brexit transition wrapping up
Hundreds of British companies are working on opening a branch in the
Netherlands by the end of this year, when the Brexit transition period
ends. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) is receiving
Daily requests for information from British companies, AD reports.
open a Dutch branch. "And that number will grow in the near future. The
search in the Netherlands as business location halted in March due to
he coronavirus, which meant that investments were postponed, but now
everyone feels the increasing time pressure," Michiel Bakhuizen of the
NFIA said to the newspaper.
Read more at: hundreds-uk-firms-turn-netherlands-brexit-transition-wrapping">H
Netherlands by the end of this year, when the Brexit transition period
ends. The Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency (NFIA) is receiving
Daily requests for information from British companies, AD reports.
open a Dutch branch. "And that number will grow in the near future. The
search in the Netherlands as business location halted in March due to
he coronavirus, which meant that investments were postponed, but now
everyone feels the increasing time pressure," Michiel Bakhuizen of the
NFIA said to the newspaper.
Read more at: hundreds-uk-firms-turn-netherlands-brexit-transition-wrapping">H
Tuesday, September 29, 2020
The Netherlands (finally) considers nationwide face mask obligation
Following the Netherlands’ announcement of the stricter measures against the coronavirus on Monday, calls for a national facemask obligation in the country are rising.
The Dutch government’s current measure– that shopkeepers in the cities of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague should only allow customers wearing a face mask to enter their shops –
is perceived as unclear, according to the Dutch Lower House.
Read more at: The Netherlands considers nationwide face mask obligation
Monday, September 28, 2020
US Elections: Why stock-market investors are starting to freak out about the 2020 election - by Mark DeCambre
Less than a month and a half from the 2020 presidential elections and
investors are starting to get panicky about the race for the White House
and what that presidential contest means for already rocky markets in
the coming weeks
Read more:
Why stock-market investors are starting to freak out about the 2020 election - MarketWatch
investors are starting to get panicky about the race for the White House
and what that presidential contest means for already rocky markets in
the coming weeks
Read more:
Why stock-market investors are starting to freak out about the 2020 election - MarketWatch
Sunday, September 27, 2020
Switzerland: Geneva voters approve 'world's highest' minimum wage - The Local
Geneva voters on Sunday came out in support of introducing a minimum
wage, guaranteeing every worker in one of the world's priciest cities at
least $25 an hour.
Read more at:
Geneva voters approve 'world's highest' minimum wage - The Local
wage, guaranteeing every worker in one of the world's priciest cities at
least $25 an hour.
Read more at:
Geneva voters approve 'world's highest' minimum wage - The Local
Saturday, September 26, 2020
Brexit negotiations between EU and Britain: EU′s Charles Michel lashes out at UK over withdrawal treaty
European Council President Charles Michel took a thinly veiled swipe at
the United Kingdom on Friday over its threats to renege on parts of the
EU withdrawal treaty it signed in January.
Read more:
Brexit: EU′s Charles Michel lashes out at UK over withdrawal treaty | News | DW | 25.09.2020
the United Kingdom on Friday over its threats to renege on parts of the
EU withdrawal treaty it signed in January.
Read more:
Brexit: EU′s Charles Michel lashes out at UK over withdrawal treaty | News | DW | 25.09.2020
Friday, September 25, 2020
USA: An 'ominous’ report reminds us the U.S. economy is far from OK - by Sam Ro
On the one hand, we should be encouraged by how much the ;economy has improved since the most intense days of the Covid-19 pandemic." On the other hand, the economy is far from fully recovered , but the good news is that this was the fourth consecutive week the number was below 1 million.
Read more at: An 'ominous’ report reminds us the U.S. economy is far from OK: Morning Brief
Read more at: An 'ominous’ report reminds us the U.S. economy is far from OK: Morning Brief
Thursday, September 24, 2020
EU: ECB plots Amazon-style market to prevent Wall Street COVID debt swoop
Europe is working on an Amazon-style website to sell hundreds of
billions of euros of bank loans which have been soured by the
coronavirus crisis, in a bid to shore up the economy and challenge the
dominance of big Wall Street debt investors. Read more at:
ECB plots Amazon-style market to prevent Wall Street COVID debt swoop | Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
billions of euros of bank loans which have been soured by the
coronavirus crisis, in a bid to shore up the economy and challenge the
dominance of big Wall Street debt investors. Read more at:
ECB plots Amazon-style market to prevent Wall Street COVID debt swoop | Hellenic Shipping News Worldwide
Wednesday, September 23, 2020
Airlines call for virus tests before all international flights
Global airlines called on Tuesday (22 September) for airport COVID-19tests for all departing international passengers to replace the quarantines they blame for exacerbating the travel slump
Rapid and affordable antigen tests that can be administered by non-medical staff are expected to become available in “coming weeks” and hould be rolled out under globally agreed standards, the head of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) said during an online media briefing.
Read more at Airlines call for virus tests before all international flights – EURACTIV.com
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Rebooting the EU economy during a world health pandemic
According to the EU Summer forecast, the economy is set to contract by 8.3% in 2020 and grow by 5.8% in 2021.
Read more at:
Rebooting the EU economy during a world health pandemic | Euronews
Read more at:
Rebooting the EU economy during a world health pandemic | Euronews
Monday, September 21, 2020
Coronavirus: Beware: Fall and winter could be a friend to COVID-19, experts say - by Peter Krouse
A pandemic of the novel coronavirus has now killed more than 942,000 people worldwide.Over 30 million people across the globe have been diagnosed with COVID-19, the disease caused by the new respiratory virus, according to data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.The criteria for diagnosis -- through clinical means or a lab test -- has varied from country-to-country. Still, the actual numbers are believed to be much higher due to testing shortages, many unreported cases and suspicions that some national governments are hiding or downplaying the scope of their outbreaks.
Since the first cases were detected in China in December, the virus has rapidly spread to every continent except Antarctica.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with more than 6.6 million diagnosed cases and at least 197,397 deaths.
Read more at: https://www.cleveland.com/news/2020/08/beware-fall-and-winter-could-be-a-friend-to-covid-19-experts-say.html
Sunday, September 20, 2020
Airbus displaces Boeing as aerospace’s biggest company
Airbus displaces Boeing as aerospace’s biggest company | Analysis | Flight Global: FlightGlobal’s latest Top 100, based on 2019/20 financial year figures, before the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, show Boeing’s annual sales at $76 billion, down from $101 billion the previous year.
Airbus’s turnover rose from $75.1 billion in 2018 to $78.9 billion, allowing the European company to take top spot in the annual ranking for the first time in over a decade.
Read more at:ttps://www.flightglobal.com/aerospace/airbus-displaces-boeing-as-aerospaces-biggest-company/140026.article
Saturday, September 19, 2020
Germany: Oktober Fest Cancelled
There will be no Oktoberfest this year because of the coronavirus. Although Munich residents are understanding, it's a heavy financial and emotional blow for people whose livelihood depends on the festival, like show booth operators.
Read more: News | DW
Friday, September 18, 2020
China-EU Relations: Remarks by President Charles Michel after the EU-China leaders' meeting via video conference
Remarks by Charles Michel after the EU-China leaders' meeting via video conference. as a result of the coronavirus.
Read more at: Remarks by President Charles Michel after the EU-China leaders' meeting via video conference - Consilium
Read more at: Remarks by President Charles Michel after the EU-China leaders' meeting via video conference - Consilium
Thursday, September 17, 2020
Britain: Biden threatens UK trade deal over Brexit shambles
Britain's US trade deal is in jeopardy if the UK endangers Northern Ireland peace over Brexit, US Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has said.
We can't allow the [1998] Good Friday Agreement that brought peace to Northern Ireland to become a casualty of Brexit," Biden said on Wednesday (16 September).
Read more at: Biden threatens UK trade deal over Brexit shambles
Tuesday, September 15, 2020
Global Economic Recession: "US, China, India, Europe can't save global economy from recession - by Linette Lopez
The coronavirus depression will be much worse than the last worldwide
recession, because this time no country is strong enough to rescue the
global economy.
The story of the Great Recession goes like this: the US and Europe were crippled while working to clean up their devastated banking system, the global services sector suffered without its biggest player — the US consumer engine — but global economic growth didn't completely fall off a cliff because other countries kept money moving around the planet.
Over in China policymakers enacted a massive stimulus to skip over the recession entirely. The country's GDP grew 9.4% in 2009. India chugged along as if the crisis barely happened, with its GDP growing 7.9% in 2009.
But this time there is no corner of the globe that has been left untouched by the pandemic or its effects. And so, there's no country that can reasonably chug along and keep things from getting truly disastrous.
Read more at:
US, China, India, Europe can't save global economy from recession - Business Insider
The story of the Great Recession goes like this: the US and Europe were crippled while working to clean up their devastated banking system, the global services sector suffered without its biggest player — the US consumer engine — but global economic growth didn't completely fall off a cliff because other countries kept money moving around the planet.
Over in China policymakers enacted a massive stimulus to skip over the recession entirely. The country's GDP grew 9.4% in 2009. India chugged along as if the crisis barely happened, with its GDP growing 7.9% in 2009.
But this time there is no corner of the globe that has been left untouched by the pandemic or its effects. And so, there's no country that can reasonably chug along and keep things from getting truly disastrous.
Read more at:
US, China, India, Europe can't save global economy from recession - Business Insider
Monday, September 14, 2020
China-Netherlands Relations:: How China Made the Netherlands Question the Free Market - by Diederik Baazil
When the Dutch government invested in home-grown chipmaker Smart Photonics this summer, it was a departure for a country with a hands-off approach to business.
A small company with big plans, Smart Photonics was struggling to attract financing to scale up production of its next-generation chips, whose applications include self-driving cars and datacenters.
Smart’s chief technology officer, said in an interview at the company’s offices outside Eindhoven, in the southern Netherlands. “The most serious interest came from Asia,” specifically Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and from China, he said.
In late June, just as it looked like Smart Photonics was about to be lured to Asia, the Dutch government stepped in with 20 million euros ($23.7 million). A similar sum came from a consortium including a government-backed agency, PhotonDelta, whose chief executive, Ewit Roos, raised the alarm at the Ministry of Economic Affairs as soon as he learned of the company’s predicament. “The government acted swiftly and decisively,” Roos said by phone.
he Dutch government says that its decision was taken to retain key technology and wasn’t driven by concerns over China. Even so, its investment was just the latest example of a more defensive economic stance that has accompanied a hardening of the country’s attitude to Beijing.
The shift has “been very noticeable, because the Netherlands has always been that kind of small, open, free-market economy that wanted nothing to be touched and everything to be open,” said Agatha Kratz, an associate director at Rhodium Group in Paris.
Beijing still regards the Netherlands as an important trade partner and investment destination, even though the Netherlands is getting “harsher” toward China, said a researcher with the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who asked not to be identified due to rules for speaking with media. One reason for that change is China is becoming more competitive economically with Europe, the researcher said.
On the political front, the Netherlands angered Beijing this year by changing the name of its representation in Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province. That prompted the Chinese embassy in The Hague to request clarification from the government. Taiwan’s president pointedly tweeted her gratitude to the representation’s outgoing head.
Read more at:
How China Made the Netherlands Question the Free Market - Bloomberg
A small company with big plans, Smart Photonics was struggling to attract financing to scale up production of its next-generation chips, whose applications include self-driving cars and datacenters.
Smart’s chief technology officer, said in an interview at the company’s offices outside Eindhoven, in the southern Netherlands. “The most serious interest came from Asia,” specifically Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and from China, he said.
In late June, just as it looked like Smart Photonics was about to be lured to Asia, the Dutch government stepped in with 20 million euros ($23.7 million). A similar sum came from a consortium including a government-backed agency, PhotonDelta, whose chief executive, Ewit Roos, raised the alarm at the Ministry of Economic Affairs as soon as he learned of the company’s predicament. “The government acted swiftly and decisively,” Roos said by phone.
he Dutch government says that its decision was taken to retain key technology and wasn’t driven by concerns over China. Even so, its investment was just the latest example of a more defensive economic stance that has accompanied a hardening of the country’s attitude to Beijing.
The shift has “been very noticeable, because the Netherlands has always been that kind of small, open, free-market economy that wanted nothing to be touched and everything to be open,” said Agatha Kratz, an associate director at Rhodium Group in Paris.
Beijing still regards the Netherlands as an important trade partner and investment destination, even though the Netherlands is getting “harsher” toward China, said a researcher with the government-affiliated Chinese Academy of Social Sciences who asked not to be identified due to rules for speaking with media. One reason for that change is China is becoming more competitive economically with Europe, the researcher said.
On the political front, the Netherlands angered Beijing this year by changing the name of its representation in Taiwan, which China regards as a renegade province. That prompted the Chinese embassy in The Hague to request clarification from the government. Taiwan’s president pointedly tweeted her gratitude to the representation’s outgoing head.
Read more at:
How China Made the Netherlands Question the Free Market - Bloomberg
Sunday, September 13, 2020
Natural Disasters - Chart: Natural Disasters on the Rise Around the Globe - by Katharina Buchholz
MunichRe registered 820 natural disasters
causing insured losses in 2019 - three times as many as thirty years
ago. Some – but not all – of that rise can be chalked up to more people
carrying insurance.
MunichRe estimates that the share of natural disaster losses which are insured only doubled since 1980.
Read more at:
• Chart: Natural Disasters on the Rise Around the Globe | Statista
MunichRe estimates that the share of natural disaster losses which are insured only doubled since 1980.
Read more at:
• Chart: Natural Disasters on the Rise Around the Globe | Statista
Saturday, September 12, 2020
EU-US Relations: How Europe can defend itself against US economic sanctions
The idea of US senators threatening a German state-owned port with
“devastating legal and economic sanctions” was something that seemed
unthinkable – until now. But recent developments around the Nord Stream 2
Baltic Sea pipeline (designed to transport Russian gas directly to
Germany) have broken yet another taboo in transatlantic relations.
Since December, Europe’s closest partner has been trying hard to prevent the completion of the pipeline, using coercive measures in an attempt to achieve this. The pressure of sanctions and an initial threatening letter led European companies to stop work on the project at the end of 2019.
Now US senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Ron Johnson have ratcheted matters up yet further by sending another threatening letter to the operator of Sassnitz port, which serves as a key logistical base for building the pipeline. The Protecting European Energy Security Clarification Act (PEESCA), which is currently making its way through Congress and which Cruz introduced, takes the same line. Cruz and his Republican colleagues are threatening to destroy the port of Sassnitz through financial means. Should PEESCA become law, the United States will have significantly expanded its sanctions on European companies and officials.
Read more at:
How Europe can defend itself against US economic sanctions | European Council on Foreign Relations
Since December, Europe’s closest partner has been trying hard to prevent the completion of the pipeline, using coercive measures in an attempt to achieve this. The pressure of sanctions and an initial threatening letter led European companies to stop work on the project at the end of 2019.
Now US senators Ted Cruz, Tom Cotton, and Ron Johnson have ratcheted matters up yet further by sending another threatening letter to the operator of Sassnitz port, which serves as a key logistical base for building the pipeline. The Protecting European Energy Security Clarification Act (PEESCA), which is currently making its way through Congress and which Cruz introduced, takes the same line. Cruz and his Republican colleagues are threatening to destroy the port of Sassnitz through financial means. Should PEESCA become law, the United States will have significantly expanded its sanctions on European companies and officials.
Read more at:
How Europe can defend itself against US economic sanctions | European Council on Foreign Relations
Friday, September 11, 2020
EU - Controlling the Tech Giants: EU warns tech giants 'time to go beyond self-reguation': Elena Sánchez Nicolás
Two years after a code of practice to fight online disinformation,
the European Commission has concluded the self-regulatory mechanism
fails to guarantee enough transparency and accountability from the tech
platforms and advertisers that signed up to it.
"The code of practice has shown that online platforms and the advertising sector can do a lot to counter disinformation, but the time has come to go beyond self-regulatory measures," EU commissioner for values and transparency, Věra Jourová, said on Thursday (10 September).
Read more at:
EU warns tech giants 'time to go beyond self-reguation'
"The code of practice has shown that online platforms and the advertising sector can do a lot to counter disinformation, but the time has come to go beyond self-regulatory measures," EU commissioner for values and transparency, Věra Jourová, said on Thursday (10 September).
Read more at:
EU warns tech giants 'time to go beyond self-reguation'
Wednesday, September 9, 2020
Global Warming: Rise in sea level from ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica match worst-case scenario: study
About a year ago, water and climate expert Bob Sandford flew
over Greenland at a moment he says was historic, both scientifically and
climatically — the island recorded the most ice melt, about 11.3
billions tonnes, in a single day since recording began in the 1950s.
"It's an understatement to say that what I saw left me really quite devastated," Sandford said. He's the chair in water and climate security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Now, according to a recent study, led by Thomas Slater, a climate researcher at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds, those rapidly melting ice sheets in Greenland, along with melting ice sheets in Antarctica are thought to be the main contributor to a rise in sea levels around the world. And the rate of the melt matches the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst-case climate warming scenario.
The study was co-authored by Anna Hogg, climate researcher with the University of Leeds in England, and Ruth Mottram, a climate researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute.
The researchers compared the latest results from satellite surveys from the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) — an international scientific collaboration of estimates of the ice sheet contribution to sea level rise — with calculations from climate models.
It shows that since the 1990s, melting ice sheets have raised the global sea level by 1.8 centimetres, but the latest measurements show that the world's oceans are now rising by four millimetres each year.
"The implications are profound; the risks posed by future sea level rise may be of a scale we simply are unprepared for. The speed at which ice melt contributions have overtaken thermal expansion contributions to sea level rise should alarm everyone on this planet."
Read more at:
Rise in sea level from ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica match worst-case scenario: study | CBC News
"It's an understatement to say that what I saw left me really quite devastated," Sandford said. He's the chair in water and climate security at the United Nations University Institute for Water, Environment and Health.
Now, according to a recent study, led by Thomas Slater, a climate researcher at the Centre for Polar Observation and Modelling at the University of Leeds, those rapidly melting ice sheets in Greenland, along with melting ice sheets in Antarctica are thought to be the main contributor to a rise in sea levels around the world. And the rate of the melt matches the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's worst-case climate warming scenario.
The study was co-authored by Anna Hogg, climate researcher with the University of Leeds in England, and Ruth Mottram, a climate researcher at the Danish Meteorological Institute.
The researchers compared the latest results from satellite surveys from the Ice Sheet Mass Balance Inter-comparison Exercise (IMBIE) — an international scientific collaboration of estimates of the ice sheet contribution to sea level rise — with calculations from climate models.
It shows that since the 1990s, melting ice sheets have raised the global sea level by 1.8 centimetres, but the latest measurements show that the world's oceans are now rising by four millimetres each year.
"The implications are profound; the risks posed by future sea level rise may be of a scale we simply are unprepared for. The speed at which ice melt contributions have overtaken thermal expansion contributions to sea level rise should alarm everyone on this planet."
Read more at:
Rise in sea level from ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica match worst-case scenario: study | CBC News
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