The banks stand on the edge of collapse. But it is the European Central Bank that has pulled the plug by threatening not to accept Cypriot government debt as collateral against liquidity support.
Big trouble from little Cyprus - FT.com - 0 views
-
-
A restructuring of public debt is still likely. As Hamlet advises: If it be not now, yet it will come.
-
Is there no alternative to the bail-ins? Yes: direct bank recapitalisation by the eurozone, for which the sum required is a small matter. If the banking union had been up and running, that would have happened. It is not, presumably because core countries do not want to bail out mismanaged banking systems,
- ...6 more annotations...
Dmitri Trenin says that only one major country stands to gain from Russia's conflict wi... - 0 views
-
Similarly, Russia’s nominal partners in its Eurasian Union project – Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan – will need to balance carefully between Russia, their nominal “strategic” ally, and the US, which holds the keys to the international political and economic system.CommentsView/Create comment on this paragraph
-
-
As a result of US pressure, the EU will eventually buy less gas and oil from Russia, and the Russians will buy fewer manufactured goods from their neighbors.
Deutsche Post - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views
-
The Mail division inherits most of the traditional mail services formerly offered by the state-owned monopoly, for which it uses the Deutsche Post brand. Its exclusive right to deliver letters under 50 grams in Germany expired on 1 January 2008, following the implementation of European legislation. A number of companies are vying to challenge Deutsche Post's near monopolistic hold on letter deliveries, including Luxembourg-based PIN Group and Dutch-owned TNT Post.[2] In 2002, Deutsche Post was granted a license to deliver mail in the United Kingdom, breaking Royal Mail's long-standing monopoly.
-
Beginning in the early 1990s, Deutsche Post started an e-mail service called ePost. Today, a verified e-mail hosting service is run under this brand which allows customers to send and receive messages with digital signatures according to the De-Mail law.
Cyprus adds to Europe's confusion - FT.com - 0 views
-
First, the eurozone does indeed have the capacity to do the right thing in the end, though not before first exhausting all the alternatives.
-
It protects the small deposits and imposes a rational resolution process.
-
Second, a euro is indeed not a euro everywhere.
- ...6 more annotations...
Op-Ed Contributor - The Greek crisis shows why Germany should leave the European Moneta... - 0 views
-
THE European Monetary Union, the basis of the euro, began with a grand illusion. On one side were countries — Austria, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands — whose currencies had persistently appreciated, both within Europe and worldwide; the countries on the other side — Belgium, France, Greece, Italy, Portugal and Spain — had persistently depreciating currencies.
-
Rather than pulling the lagging countries forward, the low interest rates of the European Central Bank have lured governments and households, especially in the southern part of the euro zone, into frivolous budgetary policies and excessive consumption.
-
the solution is clear: the only way to avoid further harm to the global economy is for Germany to lead its fellow stable states out of the euro and into a new and stronger currency bloc.
- ...8 more annotations...
PrudentBear - 0 views
-
German exporters were major beneficiaries of this growth. German banks and financial institutions helped finance the growth.
-
Exports have provided the majority of Germany’s growth in recent years. Germany is heavily reliant on a narrowly based industrial sector, focused on investment goods—automobiles, industrial machinery, chemicals, electronics and medical devices. These sectors make up a quarter of its GDP and the bulk of exports.
-
Germany’s service sector is weak with lower productivity than comparable countries. While it argues that Greece should deregulate professions, many professions in Germany remain highly regulated. Trades and professions are regulated by complex technical rules and standards rooted in the medieval guild systems. Foreign entrants frequently find these rules difficult and expensive to navigate.
- ...18 more annotations...
Seven ways to clean up a banking stench | Martin Wolf, Financial Times | Commentary | B... - 0 views
-
As Per Kurowski, a former executive director of the World Bank, reminds me regularly, crises occur when what was thought to be low risk turns out to be very high risk.
-
Not least, I would do everything I can to eliminate the idea that the state stands behind investment banking. That is an insane idea.
Mario Draghi Cannot Save the Euro - Bloomberg - 0 views
-
Once you have understood that the ECB does not necessarily stand behind euro-area government debt, it is hard to disabuse yourself of the notion.
-
A broader question is what, if anything, Draghi might achieve with a looser monetary policy.
-
The euro area has many problems, including a lack of competitiveness in the periphery, chronically poor growth in countries such as Portugal and Italy, deeply damaged public finances in Greece and Spain, and a labor force that’s not mobile enough to go where the jobs are. Which of these could be resolved by reducing interest rates across the board?
- ...4 more annotations...
New Truths That Only One Can See - NYTimes.com - 0 views
-
New Truths That Only One Can See
-
Given the desire for ambitious scientists to break from the pack with a striking new finding, Dr. Ioannidis reasoned, many hypotheses already start with a high chance of being wrong
-
Taking into account the human tendency to see what we want to see, unconscious bias is inevitable.
- ...5 more annotations...
Should You Eat Chicken? - NYTimes.com - 0 views
-
U.S.D.A. does not stand alone. The Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.), knowing that manufacturers grow animals under conditions virtually guaranteed to breed disease, allows them to attempt to ward off disease by feeding them antibiotics from birth until death. (This despite the stated intention of the agency to change that, and a court order requiring it to.)
-
About a quarter of all chicken parts are contaminated,
-
The F.D.A. must disallow the use of prophylactic antibiotics in animal production.
- ...1 more annotation...
allAfrica.com: Ethiopia: Gambling On Education (Page 1 of 6) - 0 views
-
The communist Derg junta was ousted in 1991 and five years later only 27.5% of school-aged children received primary education; today that figure stands at over 85%, according to the World Bank.
-
In August 2005 the government embarked on an ambitious expansion plan, simultaneously building 13 universities across the country at a cost of $550m, paid for out of the education budget.
-
Ten more universities are under construction, all of which have already begun to admit students, increasing even further the country's higher education capacity.
BBC News - Battle of the knowledge superpowers - 0 views
-
Instead of basking in the reflected glory of a prize winner funded by European grants, she said she had to listen to a speech attacking the red-tape and bureaucracy - and "generally embarrassing the hell out of me".
-
But the knowledge economy does not always scatter its seed widely. When the US is talked about as an innovation powerhouse, much of this activity is based in narrow strips on the east and west coasts. A map of Europe measuring the number of patent applications shows a similar pattern - with high concentrations in pockets of England, France, Germany and Finland.
-
Jan Muehlfeit, chairman of Microsoft Europe, explained what was profoundly different about these new digital industries - that they expand at a speed and scale that would have been impossible in the traditional manufacturing industries. Governments trying to respond to such quicksilver businesses needed to ensure that young people were well-educated, creative and adaptable, he said.
- ...2 more annotations...
Incomes in sub-Saharan Africa: Standing still but going backwards | The Economist - 0 views
-
Incomes in sub-Saharan Africa
-
But sub-Saharan Africa shifted to the left. Whereas in 1993 about 25% of the world’s poorest 5% lived in sub-Saharan Africa, by 2008 it was nearly 60%.
Recasting high school, German firms transplant apprentice model to U.S. - The Washingto... - 0 views
-
Recasting high school, German firms transplant apprentice model to U.S.
-
The apprentices are grouped together for coursework that leads to an associate’s degree in mechatronics, a hybrid discipline pioneered in Japan and Germany that melds the basics of mechanical engineering, electronics and other areas.
-
It produces workers that can program, operate and fix the machines common to the factories run by Siemens and other top companies. There used to be an elective among the 24 courses the students take. That was replaced with a logic class.
- ...1 more annotation...
Revisiting the pain in Spain | vox - 0 views
-
The fundamental reason why this was possible was the ECB’s announcement in 2012 that it would perform the role of lender of last resort in the government bond markets. This took the fear factor out of the market, and allowed yields in the Spanish (and other) government bond markets to decline without fundamentals showing much – if any – improvement.
-
This was made possible by the fact that in the UK – a stand-alone country – the adjustment mechanism included a large currency depreciation that led to a significantly higher nominal growth rate than in Spain, where currency depreciation was not possible and where intense austerity measures were imposed.
-
This in a way can be said to be the price Spain paid for being in a monetary union.
- ...1 more annotation...
IEA - December:- Coal's share of global energy mix to continue rising, with coal closin... - 0 views
-
Although the growth rate of coal slows from the breakneck pace of the last decade, global coal consumption by 2017 stands at 4.32 billion tonnes of oil equivalent (btoe), versus around 4.40 btoe for oil, based on IEA medium-term projections. The IEA expects that coal demand will increase in every region of the world except in the United States, where coal is being pushed out by natural gas.
-
“This report sees that trend continuing. In fact, the world will burn around 1.2 billion more tonnes of coal per year by 2017 compared to today – equivalent to the current coal consumption of Russia and the United States combined. Coal’s share of the global energy mix continues to grow each year, and if no changes are made to current policies, coal will catch oil within a decade.”
-
The report notes that in the absence of a high carbon price, only fierce competition from low-priced gas can effectively reduce coal demand. “The US experience suggests that a more efficient gas market, marked by flexible pricing and fueled by indigenous unconventional resources that are produced sustainably, can reduce coal use, CO
- ...1 more annotation...
Across Eastern Europe, Military Spending Lags - NYTimes.com - 0 views
-
Across Eastern Europe, Military Spending Lags
-
After years in which a combination of fiscal pressures and a complacent trust in the alliance’s protection may have led them to drop their guard,
-
many countries are building from a very limited ability and remain years away from fielding anything resembling a formidable force against a military as large as Russia’s.
- ...6 more annotations...
1 - 18 of 18
Showing 20▼ items per page