Traffic Snarls Expected in Europe as Taxi Drivers Protest Against Uber

Several of Europe’s largest cities were snarled by traffic jams on Wednesday when thousands of taxi drivers blocked roads and held rallies in protest of ​an upstart​ American​ service that lets customers book rides through smartphones.

Founded in 2009

Ireland’s Government Says It Will Curb a Tax Strategy That Faced U.S. Scrutiny

Even Before Apple Tax Breaks, Ireland’s Policy Had Its Critics

Apple’s Web of Tax Shelters Saved It Billions, Panel Finds

Companies Quietly Apply Biofuel Tools to Household Products

A liquid laundry detergent made by Ecover, a Belgian company that makes “green” household products including the Method line, contains an oil produced by algae whose genetic code was altered using synthetic biology. The algae’s DNA sequence was changed in a lab, according to Tom Domen, the company’s manager for long-term innovation.

Unilever recently announced that it was using algae oil made by a company called Solazyme in Lux, a popular soap

How highly educated immigrants raise native wages

Analysis

Eurozone's economic troubles are far from over

Productivity and ULC by main economic activity (ISIC Rev.4) : ULC, hourly labour compensation and productivity

How to End State Subsidies

Global flows in a digital age

Global flows in a digital age

Intel to downsize Costa Rica operations, several media sources report

Intel reportedly plans to move its manufacturing operation to Asia and lay off 1,500 employees, according to “well-placed” sources in the company, reported the newspaper El Financiero.

Microprocessors are Costa Rica’s primary export. Over 20 percent of Costa Rica’s exports in 2013 were microprocessors, worth some $2.4 billion, according to statistics from the Foreign Trade Ministry (COMEX).

Demography, growth and inequality

Bureaucratic France has 90 public-sector staff per 1,000 people compared to 50 in Germany. Most enjoy almost total job security.

France’s serial requests are treated as duplicitous by those who ask why big countries break rules that smaller ones have to obey (a game that first began when France and Germany bust the stability pact in 2002). The Hollande government has already been given one delay

Another would mark the third time in seven years that France has missed targets.

Intel, based in Santa Clara, Calif., has been grappling with the effects of a slowdown in sales of personal computers that use its microprocessor chips. The company has also been slow to build a sizable business in chips for smartphones and tablets.

Brian Krzanich and Renee James —appointed last May as Intel's chief executive and president, respectively—have been studying Intel operations and concluded that reducing the assembly and test operations in Costa Rica made most economic sense, said Chuck Mulloy, an Intel spokesman. "We have to be more efficient and effective," he said. Most of Intel's chips are fabricated in the U.S., Ireland or Israel and then sent to other companies to be encapsulated in packaging and tested. Those chores now handled in Costa Rica will be moved to existing Intel operations in Malaysia, Vietnam and China, Mr. Mulloy said.

Citi Cuts Costa Rica Growth Forecast After Firings

Hours later, BofA said it would be exiting operations in Costa Rica, Guadalajara, Mexico and Taguig, Philippines, without saying how many jobs would be lost. Costa Rica’s foreign investment agency said the BofA move would result in 1,500 layoffs.

“This is a strong call to the country to keeps tabs on things like the rising cost of electricity, telecommunications, wages and social guarantees.”

We have neither the mental capacity nor the understanding to decipher the full web of cause-and-effect relations in our social existence. So our daily behavior and reactions must be based on incomplete, and occasionally misleading, mental models.

Social scientists – and economists in particular – analyze the world using simple conceptual frameworks that they call “models.”

Useful social-science models are invariably simplifications. They leave out many details to focus on the most relevant aspect of a specific context.

Transatlantic Economic Sanctions Against Russia

First, I have recommended to government officials that US and EU negotiators give priority to energy cooperation and promotion of US exports of liquefied natural gas to Europe during the fourth round of talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) that start on March 10 in Brussels. Efforts should be made to conclude this part of the agreement quickly and immediately implement the obligations on a provisional basis

Second, the United States and the European Union should call for special consultations in the International Energy Agency (IEA) to review current oil and gas supply arrangements and reserves in Europe. The IEA should also be called on to assess the implications of the crisis in Ukraine for member and nonmember countries and their options for dealing with potential supply disruptions. Ukraine participates in consultations with IEA members on a regular basis anyway and clearly should be doing so now.

Work Like a German

In the German job-share model (known as “Kurzarbeit”), if an employer cuts an employee’s hours so that income is reduced by more than 10 percent, the government compensates workers for a large portion of wages lost. This enables companies to cut costs during downturns without having to lay workers off.

For the long-term unemployed who take significantly lower-paying jobs (typically, at minimum-wage levels), the unemployment benefits could offer stop-loss insurance to put a floor under their losses.