Global Economy

Germany and EU row over energy subsidies

The dispute relates to the billions of euros of German public subsidies deployed to promote the energiewende shift to renewables while at the same time shielding heavy industry from the costs

Germany plans to generate up to 60 per cent of its electricity from renewable sources by 2035, as part of a radical shift in energy supply which involves a complete exit from nuclear power. The expansion of clean energy has been encouraged by a generous system of subsidies paid to renewables operators. These have been funded by surcharges that have left Germany with some of the highest household electricity bills in Europe.

Europe risks ‘significant’ gas shortages this winter

Eastern European nations are working on ambitious plans to develop terminals to import liquefied natural gas but these will not be ready by the winter.

July 23, 2014 6:40 pm EU energy saving plan targets Russian gas links

According to EU estimates, a 25 per cent target would cut EU gas imports by about 9 per cent, while a 35 per cent target would slash gas imports by 33 per cent by 2030.

Eastern European nations fear they will shoulder a disproportionate burden in reaching tough targets because of how costly it would be to overhaul inefficient Soviet-era central heating systems that dominate their cities.

France Banned Free Shipping. So Amazon Made It Cost One Cent.

France's fun didn't last long. With the law officially in effect, Amazon announced that it is indeed complying with the terms and charging for shipping—a full one cent.

Where Amazon can't shirk the law so easily is in its second provision: that online retailers can no longer legally discount the price of books.

With the dexterity of thieves stripping a vehicle for parts, they remove each van’s engine, bumpers, tires, drive shaft, fuel tank and the exhaust system.

Next, the crews pack everything into steel freight containers, which begin a journey by river barge and cargo ship to Ladson, S.C., near the port of Charleston. There, American teams put the vans back together again.

It would be more efficient to ship the vans in one piece, of course. But with current trade rules, efficiency is seldom the goal.

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.

Russia Responds to Western Sanctions With Import Bans of Its Own

These are the companies abandoning the U.S. to dodge taxes

Europe Toughens Stance against Putin

As such examples suggest, political identity has shifted to something less civil and more primordial.

When sectarian or ethnic minorities have ruled countries – for example, the Sunnis of Iraq – they typically have a strong interest in downplaying sectarianism or ethnicity. They often become the chief proponents of a broader, civic concept of national belonging, in theory embracing all peoples. In Iraq, that concept was Ba’athism. And while it was more identified with the Sunni minority than with the Shia majority, it endured for decades as a vehicle for national unity, albeit a cruel and cynical one.

Sectarianism thus came to frame Iraqi politics, making it impossible to organize non-sectarian parties on the basis of, say, shared socioeconomic interests. In Iraqi politics today (leaving aside the Kurds), seldom does a Sunni Arab vote for a Shia Arab, or a Shia for a Sunni. There is competition among Shia parties and among Sunni parties; but few voters cross the sectarian line –

this aircraft, which can hold more than 500 passengers. The plane dwarfs every commercial jet in the skies.

Its two full-length decks total 6,000 square feet, 50 percent more than the original jumbo jet, the Boeing 747.

The A380 was also Airbus’s answer to a problematic trend: More and more passengers meant more flights and increasingly congested tarmacs. Airbus figured that the future of air travel belonged to big planes flying between major hubs.

How Owensboro tobacco grew a possible miracle drug to treat Ebola

Europe’s Farmers Feel the Weight of Russian Ban

For Fromi Rungis, Russia accounted for 10 percent of its foreign sales.

The other driving schools have sued them, saying their innovations break the rules.

partly because getting a driver’s license here is so difficult and expensive that it has inspired books on the subject,

their struggle highlights how the myriad rules governing driving schools — and 36 other highly regulated professions — stifle competition and inflate prices in France.

Nobel economists say policy blunders pushing Europe into depression

Russia shuts four McDonald's restaurants in Moscow

To be sure, Russia has shut only four out of 435 McDonald's outlets across the country and said the move was temporary, pending further checks.

McDonald's in April closed its three restaurants in Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed a month earlier, citing "the suspension of necessary financial and banking services." Those restaurants remain closed. At the time, a Russian nationalist politician called for all McDonald's outlets to be closed and for demonstrations outside restaurants.

It is true German exports to Russia and eastern Europe have declined since the beginning of the year. But, given that they never accounted for more than 4 per cent of total exports, this does little to explain the country’s lacklustre performance.

The main problem is not weak export demand or the reluctance of consumers to spend money but the fact that companies are unwilling to invest in new productive assets. Investment now accounts for a smaller portion of output in Germany than in most other industrialised countries.

Germany’s public investment in transport infrastructure and education has long been among the lowest in Europe.

Martin Wolf’s ‘The Shifts and the Shocks’

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

Labor’s Digital Displacement