Italian president seeks way out of political stalemate … Italy's political stalemate and the prospect of months of uncertainty has created alarm across Europe just as the standoff over bank deposits in Cyprus reawakened fears that the euro zone debt crisis could flare up again … However, there has been no sign that an accord is possible with either former Prime Minister Silvio Berl...Read More
Internet sites targeted by MPs for first time 'in chilling threat to free speech'… but could bloggers also face huge damages in Press crackdown? … The internet will be targeted for the first time as the 'chilling' Royal Charter attempts to curb free speech on the majority of websites and blogs, experts warned today. The draft version of the document suggests that foreig...Read More
The long, slow decline of alt-weeklies … Alternative weekly colossus Boston Phoenix cracked and fell yesterday, ceasing publication after 47 years. According to a Phoenix executive quoted in the obituary in today's Boston Globe, the alternative weekly was losing more than $1 million a year, and a format switch last fall from newsprint to glossy had failed to attract the sort of national...Read More
Why the EU is right on Cyprus … Cyprus's population is about three times that of Iceland. But once the panic about their bank deposits subsides, Cypriots might take a closer look at what actually caused the crisis, just as the Icelanders have been doing. For the big question that Cypriots still need to ask themselves is why, despite attracting tens of billions of euros from Russians and...Read More
National planning Cyprus-style solution for New Zealand …The National Government are pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts, the Green Party said today. Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English's favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails...Read More
S&P warns of socially explosive situation in euro zone … Standard and Poor's sees a high risk that Spain, Italy, Portugal and France will not be able to carry through necessary reforms as the unemployed become less willing to put up with austerity, S&P's Germany head Torsten Hinrichs told a newspaper. "The high unemployment in Spain, Italy and France is socially explos...Read More
Why the EU is right on Cyprus … Cyprus's population is about three times that of Iceland. But once the panic about their bank deposits subsides, Cypriots might take a closer look at what actually caused the crisis, just as the Icelanders have been doing. For the big question that Cypriots still need to ask themselves is why, despite attracting tens of billions of euros from Russians and...Read More
National planning Cyprus-style solution for New Zealand …The National Government are pushing a Cyprus-style solution to bank failure in New Zealand which will see small depositors lose some of their savings to fund big bank bailouts, the Green Party said today. Open Bank Resolution (OBR) is Finance Minister Bill English's favoured option dealing with a major bank failure. If a bank fails...Read More
S&P warns of socially explosive situation in euro zone … Standard and Poor's sees a high risk that Spain, Italy, Portugal and France will not be able to carry through necessary reforms as the unemployed become less willing to put up with austerity, S&P's Germany head Torsten Hinrichs told a newspaper. "The high unemployment in Spain, Italy and France is socially explos...Read More
GOP: We've been lying all along … Boehner's admission that we don't really have a debt crisis reveals his party's ulterior, program-cutting motives … I never thought I'd write these words, but here goes: thank you, John Boehner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for finally admitting on national television that all the fiscal cliffs, sequestrations and budget battles you'...Read More
Has military Keynesianism come to an end? … The outcome of the sequester ultimatum appears to have taken everyone by surprise. Two long summers ago, when the president and House speaker John Boehner conjured a prospect so terrible that even spending on defense would be deeply cut, they both assumed Congress would buckle rather than approve such a blow to the nation's pride. According to...Read More
Welcome to the new model of retirement. No retirement. In 1983 over 60 percent of American workers had some kind of defined-benefit plan. Today less than 20 percent have access to a plan and the majority of retired Americans largely rely on Social Security as their de facto retirement plan. As many Americans enter into retirement they are realizing one unfortunate thing. The new retirement plan is...Read More
Analysis: Europe's social shock-absorbers show crisis strain … With more than 26 million unemployed in the 27-nation European Union, including nearly 6 million young people, the system is struggling, and in some places failing, to cope. Many of the jobless have exhausted their benefit entitlements. "In many countries, the poor are getting poorer," says Laszlo Andor, the EU'...Read More
Is the US holding back IMF reform? … The legislation would implement reforms agreed by the G20 in 2010, which were described by then IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn as 'the most important decision on the governance of the IMF since its creation in 1944.' He went on to say that 'what we did today puts an end to a discussion on legitimacy that had lasted for years, alm...Read More
GOP: We've been lying all along … Boehner's admission that we don't really have a debt crisis reveals his party's ulterior, program-cutting motives … I never thought I'd write these words, but here goes: thank you, John Boehner. Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for finally admitting on national television that all the fiscal cliffs, sequestrations and budget battles you'...Read More
Has military Keynesianism come to an end? … The outcome of the sequester ultimatum appears to have taken everyone by surprise. Two long summers ago, when the president and House speaker John Boehner conjured a prospect so terrible that even spending on defense would be deeply cut, they both assumed Congress would buckle rather than approve such a blow to the nation's pride. According to...Read More
Welcome to the new model of retirement. No retirement. In 1983 over 60 percent of American workers had some kind of defined-benefit plan. Today less than 20 percent have access to a plan and the majority of retired Americans largely rely on Social Security as their de facto retirement plan. As many Americans enter into retirement they are realizing one unfortunate thing. The new retirement plan is...Read More
Analysis: Europe's social shock-absorbers show crisis strain … With more than 26 million unemployed in the 27-nation European Union, including nearly 6 million young people, the system is struggling, and in some places failing, to cope. Many of the jobless have exhausted their benefit entitlements. "In many countries, the poor are getting poorer," says Laszlo Andor, the EU'...Read More
Is the US holding back IMF reform? … The legislation would implement reforms agreed by the G20 in 2010, which were described by then IMF Managing Director Dominique Strauss Kahn as 'the most important decision on the governance of the IMF since its creation in 1944.' He went on to say that 'what we did today puts an end to a discussion on legitimacy that had lasted for years, alm...Read More
QE for the People: Grillo's Populist Plan for Italy … Comedian Beppe Grillo was surprised himself when his Five Star Movement got 8.7 million votes in the Italian general election of Feb. 24-25. His movement is now the biggest single party in the chamber of deputies, says The Guardian, which makes him "a kingmaker in a hung parliament." Grillo's is the party of "no.&qu...Read More