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Volkswagen May Buy Back Diesel Cars It Can’t Fix

The euro itself was a leading cause of this crisis by ushering in a remarkably swift convergence in interest rates, which had the effect of directing too much capital into countries that formerly had had to pay high interest rates. This undermined the competitiveness of these countries through inflation and gave rise to huge deficits in their current accounts.

The euro is not suffering from a mere confidence crisis that can be resolved by assuaging the markets; it is experiencing a profound balance‐of‐payment crisis that is being prolonged by the expansion of public financial aid.

Since autumn 2007, long before the official bail‐out initiatives began, some of the crisis‐hit countries have replaced dwindling private capital imports and capital flight with their money‐printing presses (Target credits).

A single, large coal plant, if built with the best-available technology, can reduce emissions by the annual equivalent of taking a million cars off the road compared to the subcritical coal-plant technology still prevalent in most countries.

Those in employment don’t want their salaries to adjust downwards and insist on maintaining regulations that protect them from competition from the unemployed. Impossible to justify regulatory barriers to entry remain in many employment sectors (such as French rules that make becoming a ski guide almost as onerous as it is to get a pilot’s license).

They agreed that there shall be no common bank recapitalisation until a full banking union is established. And the Bundesbank has reminded us that the latter is not possible without a political union. The logical implication is that we won’t solve the crisis for the next 20 years.

What we know now is that Germany will not agree to mutualised deposit insurance. It cannot even agree to give the European Stability Mechanism a banking licence so that it can leverage itself.

A narrow majority is still in favour of the euro, but a majority is against further rescues.

As a result, technocrat prime minister Mario Monti is considering cutting back on public holidays in a bid to increase growth after officials said even slashing days off by a working week would boost growth and raise GDP by as much as 1%.

Italy has a total of 11 recognised public holidays a year but unlike Britain these remain fixed and if they fall mid-week people traditionally take the days off either side as well in order to ''make a bridge'' until the weekend, which has drastic consequences on industrial output.

Sources say the Government will keep the ''main religious festivals such as Easter and Christmas'' but are looking at scrapping some of the secondary ones such as Boxing Day, Epiphany on January 6th and the Immaculate Conception on December 8th.

Sixty-four percent of the population lives on less than $1 per day, 14 percent have HIV, 40 percent don’t have access to clean drinking water. Almost 90 percent of women in rural areas cannot read or write. Name a category—schools, health care, environment—and I’ll give you statistics that will depress the shit out of you.

For more than 150 years, the only reason to come to Kitwe—to Zambia, really—was the copper.

Most of the buildings in Kitwe, the roads, the health clinics, the schools, were built by the national mining company

Poland’s Eurozone Tests

As long as eurozone debts continue to rise and member economies diverge rather than converge, prospective members should also be stress-tested to see if they can withstand external shocks and sustain the membership criteria over the long term.

Rather, Poland simply combines low costs (including wages) and high-quality production.

Steel Industry Feeling Stress as Automakers Turn to Aluminum

These are headed for Mexico, to Navistar’s stamping plant there.Continue reading the main story

Now, they are trying to respond, making lighter, stronger steel in a bid to retain one of their most important customers, the automakers.

Green growth is a worthwhile goal

A particularly important aspect of that uncertainty is tipping points

It is irrational to play in the climate casino without seeking to eliminate worst-case outcomes

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.

Adjustment is the key to ending the eurozone crisis. The optimists are saying that this process of regaining competitiveness is now taking place.

This judgment is profoundly wrong.

In other words, the eurozone is adjusting at the expense of the rest of the world.

But more important is the manner in which a damning verdict from the voters would make governments more cautious about eurozone integration, limiting the extent to which the strong support the weak and all feel they are in the same boat.

These four steps are: to set up a comprehensive banking union; to ensure hard-pressed companies in recession-hit southern Europe receive credit at interest rates comparable to those enjoyed by their competitors in the north; to reduce mass unemployment, especially among youth; and to make sustainable the public debts of Greece and other states deep in hock.

The euro crisis has already transformed the European Union into something radically different from what was originally intended. The EU was meant to be a voluntary association of sovereign and equal states that surrendered part of their sovereignty for the common good. It has turned into a relationship between creditors and debtors that is by its nature compulsory and unequal. When a debtor country gets into difficulties the creditor countries gain the upper hand.

Only the creditors are in a position to prevent this outcome but they do not seem to show any inclination to do so.

In the end, it’s up to Germany to take the initiative to provide a fix, said Soros, who has advocated some form of joint debt liability, or euro bonds.

Picking Lesser of Two Climate Evils

ound for pound, methane is a far more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. But in stark contrast to CO2, methane breaks down quickly in the atmosphere.

He argues, essentially, that the world has yet to mount a serious effort to control carbon dioxide, which will be vastly more harmful in the long run, and that methane and other short-term pollutants should largely be ignored until that bigger problem is fixed.

Profits Vanish in Venezuela After Currency Devaluation

The country’s high inflation — currently around 60 percent a year — has also meant that the prices in bolívares that companies charge for many goods and services have risen sharply.

Now companies are feeling the pain from a series of currency devaluations over the last year and a half. Photo