Economy
Related: About this forumWeekend Economists Salute Ruin July 3-5, 2015
“Ruin, eldest daughter of Zeus, she blinds us all, that fatal madness—she with those delicate feet of hers, never touching the earth, gliding over the heads of men to trap us all. She entangles one man, now another.”
“…and they limp and halt, they’re all wrinkled, drawn, they squint to the side, can’t look you in the eyes, and always bent on duty, trudging after Ruin, maddening, blinding Ruin. But Ruin is strong and swift—She outstrips them all by far, stealing a march, leaping over the whole wide earth to bring mankind to grief.”
― Homer, The Iliad
“This financial crisis in Europe would have left Greece in Ruins, but it’s been that way for 2,000 years.”
― Jarod Kintz, Who Moved My Choose?: An Amazing Way to Deal With Change by Deciding to Let Indecision Into Your Life
On this auspicious day (July 4) the Greeks are voting the issue of independence for themselves, their nation, their patrimony, and their future.
The Greeks, who taught the world "democracy," are doing it all over again, because too many people have been corrupted by greed and power, and have forgotten the lessons of 3000 years.
I wish I could boast that America, grateful for the lessons from ancient Greek thinkers which formed our Founding Fathers and our Founding Documents, is 100% behind the Greek effort, lending support both moral and substantial...but that would be a lie. America is in a fever-dream of greed and power and corruption. It barely recognizes Greece's existence, let alone its right to exist.
We live in interesting times--that ancient Chinese curse. We see history in the making, those of us who aren't glued to some commercial product of escape and fantasy. Our intrepid little band in this group seeks to know who, what, where, when and why. And How--how do we make Change? How do we further the Progress of Humanity towards those Greek ideals formulated so long ago:
As we continue the search, let's reflect on history a bit: ancient history, recent history, history that might have been. Here's a first reflection to feed the thought:
― Christopher Hitchens, Prepared for the Worst: Selected Essays and Minority Reports
So mote it be, once again.
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Demeter
(85,373 posts)
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)A country that can not, or will not protect it's people is a failed state.
Noam Chomsky
"Failed States"
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Think of the expense and planning and technology that went into that!
And the NSA! Snooping doesn't come cheap, nor compiling dossiers.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)while we are deluded with USA, USA, USA!
Demeter
(85,373 posts)... if you define patriotism as simply as thinking America is the best country in the world, the news is not good this Fourth of July weekend. That kind of patriotism has been waning in recent years. In a new report on which are the most and least patriotic states, WalletHub reports that while 38 percent of Americans said the U.S. was the best country in the world in 2011, that number fell to 28 percent in 2014. Ouch!
Still, residents of some states feel better about the good ole U. S. of A. than others. WalletHub took the patriotic pulse of the 50 stars on the stars and stripes by “examining eight key metrics that collectively speak to issues such as military engagement, voting habits and civil education requirements.”
The winner, when all is measured and assessed:? Virginia!
The biggest loser? New York! (Low numbers for voting and military participation for the Empire State!)
Some other key and surprising stats:
· Red states are more patriotic, with an average ranking of 24.1, compared with 26.7 for blue states (1 = Best).
CHARTS AND INTERACTIVE MAP AT LINK....I SUPPOSE IT DEPENDS WHAT ONE MEANS BY PATRIOTISM. IT'S AN ABSTRACTION THAT HAS BEEN USED TO COVER A LOT OF SINS, IMO.
MattSh
(3,714 posts)President compares himself to Ronald Reagan as he strives for a 'transformational' presidency.
By EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE and SARAH WHEATON 7/1/15 6:40 PM EDT Updated 7/2/15 4:41 PM EDT
President Barack Obama says he thinks he’s led a new Reagan Revolution. So that would make Hillary Clinton, if she wins, his “Bush senior.”
“Much in the same way that the Reagan Revolution required Bush senior” to complete his transformation of American politics, Obama told alumni of his White House staff on a private conference call this week, “we’ve got to make sure that we’re laying the foundation” for the next Democrat elected.
The call, organized by top aides including chief of staff Denis McDonough and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett, was aimed at thanking staff members for their work in promoting Obama’s long-term presidential initiatives, a number of them reaching fruition over the past two weeks: Obamacare, trade, and strategic openings to Cuba and Iran, among others.
In many ways, the past two weeks have been the best of Obama’s presidency, and more was in the works. The Cuba agreement was done but no one on the call knew it yet. Obama, though, was already declaring victory in those battles and suggesting a Clinton presidency would win the war.
“It’s important for us to set the record properly and tell a story about what happened over the last 6 ½ years, less for our benefit and more to create the political climate going into the next election so the agenda that we’ve set continues,” Obama told them.
http://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/cuba-opening-ushers-in-era-of-mas-obama-119652.html
Definitely not sure about that "transformational" part.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Early-onset Alzheimers of the soul.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)…. Putting together things I’ve read and heard over the last week or so (links on request):
1) A court challenge in Greece (Friday) will challenge the referendum’s constitutionality. (Among other things, the Greek Constitution prohibits referendums on fiscal matters, but I believe other issues are raised.)
2) The Council of Europe says the referendum is not up to world standards because voters are not given two weeks to decide.
3) There will be no international election monitors (that I know of, including the Council of Europe).
4) The ballot is a dog’s breakfast.
5) Only 40% of voters are required to vote for the referendum to pass.
6) If voters must travel a significant distance to get to the polls, some percentage of voters with cash flow problems will be effectively disenfranchised. (Readers will correct me, but I think this means the referendum would be heavily biased toward Athens, and against the villages and the islands.)
7) The “gold standard” (ugh) for voting is paper ballots, hand counted, in public (BradBlog).
a) The Greek ballot is paper. Good!
b) I don’t know how the counting is done, or by whom, or whether there will be observers.
c) Even under “gold standard” conditions, the Parti Quebecois attempted to affect a referendum result, with “scrutineers” throwing out a disproportionately large number of ballots with a vote they did not favor.
8) I recall hearing — unsure of this! — that Syriza altered the referendum law just a few weeks ago; for what purpose, I do not know.
All of which leads me to two conclusions:
#1: If the vote is at all close, the losing side will have many reasons not to accept the result as legitimate.
#2: As with so much else in this crisis, sloganeering and pom pom waving obscure the detail and the reality. “Yay Democracy!” and apple pie too, but this is not an especially democratic referendum, IMNSHO. In fact, I think it’s an outrage. (Cue the cries of Everybody already knows the issues!” Well, if that’s how democracy works, why have referendums with ballots at all?)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The top administrative court of Greece declared on Friday that a referendum on a European bailout package is constitutional, allowing a potentially historic vote that could change the shape of Europe.
The ruling from the Council of State, which was expected, means the balloting can be held on Sunday as scheduled.
Earlier on Friday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras renewed his call for Greeks to reject the terms of the bailout offer from the country’s European creditors, warning voters against caving in to “blackmail.”
“I ask you to say no to ultimatums, blackmail and fear-mongering,” he said in a televised address. “No to divisions, no to those who want to spread panic.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/04/world/europe/alexis-tsipras-greece-debt-crisis-referendum.html
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Demeter
(85,373 posts)
LAMBERT STRETHER OF NAKED CAPITALISM NOTES:
So Greece has privatized ballot counting. And it looks like the ballots will not be hand-counted, and not in public. Granted, I’ve got nothing against Singular Logic, but the Greek referendum does not meet the “gold standard” for balloting.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)birthplace of democracy...not to mention their referendum...thanks for this...all eyes on Greece.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Oxi Day has totemic significance in Greece. It commemorates the defiant Greek “No” to Mussolini’s ultimatum in October 1940, and the heroic acceptance of war against a vastly bigger military machine.
It is the same word that will top the ballot sheet when Greeks vote in a snap referendum this Sunday on creditor demands, and prime minister Alexis Tsipras is not shy in evoking the same spirit of wartime resistance.
His speech to the nation on Wednesday night was peppered with talk of ultimata. He accused “extreme Right-wing circles” of forcing the closure of the Greek banks and the imposition of capital controls through liquidity asphyxiation.
He lashed out at “authoritarians” in charge of the IMF and EU institutions. He spoke of attempts to blackmail the Greek people. And he vowed to campaign against the creditor package - which, strictly speaking, is no longer on offer - deeming it the “destruction of Europe”.
Where this will take him, and take Greece, is anybody’s guess....
MORE ON THE GREEK SCENE AT LINK
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...We can already see that the EU itself has suffered a reputational catastrophe on several fronts. This is of far greater importance in the sweep of events than daily twists and turns in Athens.
It has brought about a state of affairs where a member of its own eurozone family has become the first developed country in history to default to the IMF.
Let us be clear what this means. The currency union itself is delinquent. The rich countries of northern Europe are refusing to pay African, Asian and Latin American states. Blaming it on Greece alone does not wash.
The eurozone has shown itself unable to manage its basic moral responsibilities. Russian president Vladimir Putin could hardly resist his own wicked dig, professing “great concern” over the EU’s vanishing credibility...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)... It was spring, 2012, and we were standing around at a squatted anarchist social center in a southern suburb of Athens, where I’d just given a talk on anarchism and Occupy Wall Street. A few days earlier, in Syntagma Square opposite the Greek parliament building, a local retired man had shot himself in the middle of morning traffic. The note he left detailed his refusal to be a burden on his children as Greece’s economy spiraled, and called for young people to string up those responsible for its collapse. It made for a downright chilling read, even in translation...Back home in the U.S., Greek anarchists were celebrated for their perceived tenacity and bravado. Like giddy adolescents sharing pornography, left social media circulated YouTube clips of low-scale street warfare. (These days, the shared content is more likely to be various expressions of global panic over Greece’s potential exit from the euro.) It seemed unlikely that my companion wanted to talk to me about community-supported agriculture, the veggies-in-a-box default practice of the boring, NPR-member mainstream liberal. And yet, he did.
This was before the ascendancy of Syriza, and before Syriza’s prospects for negotiating some economic relief disappeared. A default on IMF debt repayments now seems inevitable, and an exit from the Euro seems more likely by the day. Much faith has been put in Syriza as a sort of leftist foil to late European austerity—not just in Greece, but throughout the world—and Syriza’s ambitions would have been crushed rather swiftly, were the party not willing to play the country’s exit from the continental currency (and the ripple effect that would have for financial markets the world over) like a poker chip.
*************************************************************
In the wake of the 2008 uprising that swept the country following both the police shooting of a teenager in the central neighborhood of Exarchia and Greece’s economic free-fall, horizontal, community self-management became both a practice and a demand. Popular assemblies—like the one in Aghia Pereskevi—formed in roughly seventy neighborhoods throughout metropolitan Athens, some within occupied government buildings.
Earlier this year, The Guardian reported on how these structures are serving to “fill the gaps left by austerity.” A variety of what would’ve been called survival programs in the era of the Black Panther Party have been carried out through such assemblies across Athens: food and clothing distribution, supplementary education programs for children, basic health services, mental health support, eviction defense – all administered via face-to-face, direct democracy.
When a tax increase folded into electricity bills resulted in cutoffs for people unable to pay, lists were made and local electricians were dispatched to illegally restore services, with priority afforded to those most vulnerable (the elderly, new parents). A former military installation seized by residents and converted into a community park and cultural center boasted sizeable gardens, tended by locals of varying ages.
When I visited one of the city’s oldest popular assemblies in 2012, in the neighborhood of Petralona, residents had just opened a kitchen space on one street corner, with the intention of both providing affordable meals and educating young people about food cultivation, preparation, and health. Participation in all of it seemed pretty eclectic, to my outsider eye. Even local government officials joined in—acting as residents like any others, sometimes with their families in tow. Perhaps even more telling, assemblies were sharing resources between neighborhoods. They were confederating, demonstrating both an ability and an intention to scale up.
Taking all of this in, my anarchist acquaintance’s interest in community-supported agriculture that night in 2012 started to make sense. It makes even mores sense now. With the IMF and Troika twisting arms, threatening empty store shelves if its various austerity programs aren’t adopted, direct relations with local agricultural production offer a keenly radical possibility.
Channeling that possibility, a ten person collective opened a grocery and coffee bar on the edge of the central Athens neighborhood of Exarchia.
“There was a time when people didn’t have much of a relationship with the villages their families were from – specifically the land their families cultivated” a woman working in the collective explained to me (she asked to keep her name out of this piece; police and fascists are real threats in Greece). “With the crisis, you started seeing people opt to plant on land in their villages. [The grocery store] was a way of consolidating and making available what we were producing.”
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The deep economic crisis Greece faces as the recession enters its fourth year, as well as the new fuel taxes introduced by the government, have caused a sharp increase in the price of heating fuel.
The arrival of winter, coupled with record prices for fuel and the fact that household budgets have decreased, has forced tens of thousands of families across Greece to turn off their central heating.
As a result, the old wood-burning stoves and fireplaces have seen a revival, creating a lucrative market for legal importers and salesmen of firewood, but even more so for illegal loggers who collect and sell their product without a permit.
These illegal practices are causing serious damage to Greece’s forests. Deforestation has become a real problem – particularly since the start of December – due to illegal logging, the forest service of the Ministry for the Environment reports. The official figures suggest that thousands of hectares of forest have already suffered severe damage....
Demeter
(85,373 posts)When I was asked to write about Greek austerity and what my friends and I in Volos, a coastal city 200 miles north of Athens, have to go through to get by I thought the best comparison was life in 1970s Britain.
On a simple, domestic level when winter comes we can only afford to warm up one room. The rest of the house is freezing.
To stay afloat, I have children coming for English lessons a few times a week and, fortunately, the room is warm. But one mother asked if she could wait in the kitchen rather than come back to collect her child. I heated it up but I think I made a negative facial expression and she never asked again.
At the start of the economic crisis most people were terrified and quite a few of us built up stores of supplies and clothes. But this past month has seen me emptying our home of huge amounts of clothing and leaving it with a struggling local family. I don’t know if they know I gave the items but I see their children wearing them at my daughter’s school...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)...The most important thing has been the local exchange trading system, the TEM, a form of barter system introduced by Volos residents because so many people were struggling to afford items in euros.
In the three years since I have been trading in TEM, by offering English and guitar lessons, second-hand clothes and bric-a-brac, I have earned and spent 9,500 TEM.
One TEM is equivalent to one euro but scarcer goods and services within the TEM network become more important and then there is no price control so people can charge what they want. To get an idea of the costs and what’s available, I had a week’s holiday with my two children last summer on Mount Pelion, north-east of Volos, which cost 270 TEM and e30.
I had two years of shiatsu massage at 20 TEM a session. I also buy lots of our family’s clothes and shoes with TEM and regularly buy ready-meals with it.
Last winter I carpeted our home with rugs to insulate it and that cost me 250 TEM. Just yesterday I bought a pair of sunglasses for 15 TEM and earlier in the week I paid a woman to clean the balconies in our home. She stayed four hours and I paid her 24 TEM.
In two weeks we will be spending a weekend in a village on Pelion and attending a workshop on sustainable economics. I will pay approximately 150 TEM for my family to join me. In the afternoons we will go down to the Aegean and swim until evening and return to a delicious meal...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)With speculation swirling that Greece might be forced out of the euro and have to print its own money after a weekend referendum, its finance minister on Thursday said the country no longer had the presses to make drachmas.
“We don’t have the capacity,” Yanis Varoufakis told Australian public radio network ABC.
In 2000, the year before Greece joined the eurozone, “one of the things we had to do was get rid of all our printing presses” as part of the bloc’s assertion that “this monetary union is irreversible,” he said.
“We smashed the printing presses — we have no printing presses,” Varoufakis said...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)As if everything to do with money is not bad enough, Greeks no longer have access to their PayPal accounts, reports Quartz.
Announced by a PayPal spokesman today:
No Bank, No PayPal
That PayPal’s operations have become log-jammed under the prevailing conditions in Greece, emphasizes the extent to which it and other finance tech companies are dependent on the very banking complex they seek to compete with. Fact is, there is an old-style bank that underpins nearly every finance tech start-up that purports to threaten and disrupt the old guard. Examples are peer-to-peer lending platforms such as Prosper and Lending Club. Ironically, neither company holds the loans they award on their own balance sheets, but, instead, acquire the funds from WebBank, Salt Lake City, Utah.
snot
(10,518 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)The June Jobs Report is out today and Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer must be thrilled! Americans NOT in the Labor Force jumped by 640,000 to a whopping 93.6 million. Remember, according to Fischer, America is need full employment. So, Americans NOT in the labor force keeps rising as a percent of the potential labor force (NOT in labor force + labor force) and is above 37% at 37.35%.
Other jobs-related information is not very good either. While the U3 unemployment rate dropped to 5.3%, the broader U6 unemployment rate is still above 10% at 10.5%.
MORE GOOD NEWS AND GRAPHS AT LINK: https://confoundedinterest.wordpress.com/2015/07/02/americans-not-in-the-labor-force-jumps-by-640000-to-93-6-million-participation-rate-drops-to-1977-levels/
Demeter
(85,373 posts)the “establishment survey” sent out to businesses asking how many jobs they created last month, and the “household survey” that asks people about their employment status—are at odds with each other. How so?
While businesses reported creating 223,000 jobs in June, we saw a decrease of 56,000 in those considered officially employed. Why, you may wonder, aren’t we seeing more people “employed”?
MORE FROM MAKING SEN$E
The startling fact you, we and Paul Krugman didn't know about the jobs report
One hypothesis is that businesses created mostly part-time jobs, and/or that those who had already had part-time jobs took another. To be considered a full-time worker, one must work at least 35 hours a week. But the Bureau of Labor Statistics also counts part-time workers that have multiple jobs adding up to 35 hours as full-time employees.
This could also explain why the number of people working part time for economic reasons fell by almost 150,000.
Also of note, while the number of employed dropped by 56,000, the number of people that were classified as unemployed also decreased—by 375,000. OK, so how does that happen? You would assume that if the number of employed people grows, the number of unemployed would shrink.
Discouraged workers, people that are considered not in the labor force, but who would like a job, increased by some 20,000. (Remember, the Bureau of Labor Statistics only counts those people who have looked for a job in the past four weeks as unemployed.)
So let’s say of that 375,000, 56,000 became employed. Some 20,000 were then classified as discouraged workers, having not looked for a job in a month, but still very much wanting a job. How can we account for the remaining 300,000?
It’s possible that many simply left the workforce. Now this could mean that more and more baby boomers are retiring, but it could also mean that previously discouraged workers have now given up altogether...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)SOMEWHAT A "GET OFF MY LAWN" YELL...DOESN'T PLAY UP THE CLASS ASPECTS...
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Jim Clifton, the Chairman and CEO of Gallup, says that the percentage of Americans that are employed full-time has been hovering near record lows since the end of the last recession. But most Americans don’t realize this because the official unemployment numbers are extremely misleading. In fact, Clifton says that the official 5.6 percent unemployment rate is a “big lie”. Gallup regularly tracks the percentage of U.S. adults that are employed for 30 or more hours per week, and it is currently at 44.2 percent. It has been hovering between 42 percent and 45 percent since the end of 2009. This is extremely low. As I discussed the other day, there are 8.69 million Americans that are considered to be “officially unemployed” at this point. But there are another 92.90 million Americans that are considered to be “not in the labor force”. Millions upon millions of those Americans would work if they could. Overall, there are 101 million U.S. adults that do not have a job right now. But you won’t hear that number being discussed by the mainstream media, because it would make Barack Obama look really bad.
Most Americans just assume that the economic numbers that we are being given accurately reflect reality. That is why it is so refreshing to have men like Jim Clifton step forward and tell the truth. His recent article entitled “The Big Lie: 5.6% Unemployment” is making headlines all over America. The following is an extended excerpt from that article…
Yet another figure of importance that doesn’t get much press: those working part time but wanting full-time work. If you have a degree in chemistry or math and are working 10 hours part time because it is all you can find — in other words, you are severely underemployed — the government doesn’t count you in the 5.6%. Few Americans know this.
There’s no other way to say this. The official unemployment rate, which cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed as well as the depressingly underemployed, amounts to a Big Lie.
And it’s a lie that has consequences, because the great American dream is to have a good job, and in recent years, America has failed to deliver that dream more than it has at any time in recent memory. A good job is an individual’s primary identity, their very self-worth, their dignity — it establishes the relationship they have with their friends, community and country. When we fail to deliver a good job that fits a citizen’s talents, training and experience, we are failing the great American dream.
Gallup defines a good job as 30+ hours per week for an organization that provides a regular paycheck. Right now, the U.S. is delivering at a staggeringly low rate of 44%, which is the number of full-time jobs as a percent of the adult population, 18 years and older.
And Gallup is being extremely generous.
I certainly would not define a 30 hour a week job at minimum wage as a “good job”, but Gallup does.
So the truth is that the percentage of U.S. adults that do have “good jobs” is actually far lower than 44 percent....
Response to Demeter (Reply #57)
Demeter This message was self-deleted by its author.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)WELL, THEY CAN STOP WORRYING, CHINA'S STOCK MARKET CRASHED TODAY...
The World Bank has a timely warning for Chinese President Xi Jinping: Don't let all that money go to your head.
The global lender didn't refer directly to Shanghai's stock boom or the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (Beijing's attempt to develop a World Bank of its own). Nor did it have to. By urging Beijing to clamp down on wasteful investment, unsustainable debt, and a shadow banking industry run amok, it was delivering a clear enough warning that President Xi should stop fanning China's giant asset bubble. The World Bank was also implying China should get its own economic house in order before trying to change the global economy.
"China has reached a critical phase of its economic and social development path," the lender said in a new report released Wednesday. The economy "will need to be transformed to increase the efficiency of new investments and widen access to finance, enabling China to sustain solid growth and rebalance its economy."
The World Bank's admonishment was amplified by a fascinating milestone the Chinese economy reached this week -- one that presents Xi's government with a complicated image problem. China's 90 mainland stock traders now outnumber its 87.8 million Communist Party members. This changing of the guard, if you will, is taking place the same week the party celebrated its 94th anniversary -- hardly what Mao Zedong had in mind when he led the Communists to power in 1949.
In truth, China's fast-growing legions of stock traders are betting on a type of financial Communism. Everyone knows the Chinese economy is slowing and deflation is approaching, but markets have generally stayed aloft amid perceptions Xi will use the full power of the state to protect investments. Along with weekend interest-rate cuts, authorities have just made it easier to take on even more leverage. Brokerages now have leeway to boost lending by about $300 billion...
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-07-02/china-s-boom-has-world-bank-worried
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/03/us-china-markets-idUSKCN0PD03020150703?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews
Chinese stocks tumbled again on Friday, taking the week's losses to more than 10 percent, as the securities regulator said it was investigating suspected market manipulation and announced a slew of measures aimed at heading off a full-blown crash.
After a slump of nearly 30 percent in Chinese stocks since mid-June, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) has set up a team to look at "clues of illegal manipulation across markets".
After market close, a CSRC spokesman said China would cut initial public offerings and capital raisings and support long-term investors entering the market to help stabilize prices.
It also said China's official margin lender for brokerages, which makes loans available for stock market investment, would boost its capital base to 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) from 24 billion yuan to expand its business.
A flurry of policy moves over the past week, including an interest rate cut and a relaxation of margin lending rules, had failed to arrest the sell-off.
The People's Bank of China (PBOC) also rolled over 250 billion yuan of medium-term loans to banks late on Friday to ensure adequate liquidity in the system.
"The government must rescue the market, not with empty words, but with real silver and gold," said Fu Xuejun, strategist at Huarong Securities Co, before the CSRC and PBOC announcements, adding that a market crash would hurt banks, consumption, companies and even trigger social instability. "It's a disaster. If it's not, what is it?"
MORE
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)It’s depressing thinking about Greece these days, so let’s talk about something else, O.K.? Let’s talk, for starters, about Finland, which couldn’t be more different from that corrupt, irresponsible country to the south. Finland is a model European citizen; it has honest government, sound finances and a solid credit rating, which lets it borrow money at incredibly low interest rates.
It’s also in the eighth year of a slump that has cut real gross domestic product per capita by 10 percent and shows no sign of ending. In fact, if it weren’t for the nightmare in southern Europe, the troubles facing the Finnish economy might well be seen as an epic disaster. And Finland isn’t alone. It’s part of an arc of economic decline that extends across northern Europe through Denmark — which isn’t on the euro, but is managing its money as if it were — to the Netherlands. All of these countries are, by the way, doing much worse than France, whose economy gets terrible press from journalists who hate its strong social safety net, but it has actually held up better than almost every other European nation except Germany.
And what about southern Europe outside Greece? European officials have been hyping the recovery in Spain, which did everything it was supposed to do and whose economy has finally started to grow again and even to create jobs. But success, European-style, means an unemployment rate that is still almost 23 percent and real income per capita that is still down 7 percent from its pre-crisis level. Portugal has also obediently implemented harsh austerity — and is 6 percent poorer than it used to be.
Why are there so many economic disasters in Europe? Actually, what’s striking at this point is how much the origin stories of European crises differ. Yes, the Greek government borrowed too much. But the Spanish government didn’t — Spain’s story is all about private lending and a housing bubble. And Finland’s story doesn’t involve debt at all. It is, instead, about weak demand for forest products, still a major national export, and the stumbles of Finnish manufacturing, in particular of its erstwhile national champion Nokia.
What all of these economies have in common, however, is that by joining the eurozone they put themselves into an economic straitjacket. Finland had a very severe economic crisis at the end of the 1980s — much worse, at the beginning, than what it’s going through now. But it was able to engineer a fairly quick recovery in large part by sharply devaluing its currency, making its exports more competitive. This time, unfortunately, it had no currency to devalue. And the same goes for Europe’s other trouble spots.
Does this mean that creating the euro was a mistake? Well, yes. But that’s not the same as saying that it should be eliminated now that it exists. The urgent thing now is to loosen that straitjacket. This would involve action on multiple fronts, from a unified system of bank guarantees to a willingness to offer debt relief for countries where debt is the problem. It would also involve creating a more favorable overall environment for countries trying to adjust to bad luck by renouncing excessive austerity and doing everything possible to raise Europe’s underlying inflation rate — currently below 1 percent — at least back up to the official target of 2 percent.
But there are many European officials and politicians who are opposed to anything and everything that might make the euro workable, who still believe that all would be well if everyone exhibited sufficient discipline. And that’s why there is even more at stake in Sunday’s Greek referendum than most observers realize.
One of the great risks if the Greek public votes yes — that is, votes to accept the demands of the creditors, and hence repudiates the Greek government’s position and probably brings the government down — is that it will empower and encourage the architects of European failure. The creditors will have demonstrated their strength, their ability to humiliate anyone who challenges demands for austerity without end. And they will continue to claim that imposing mass unemployment is the only responsible course of action.
What if Greece votes no? This will lead to scary, unknown terrain. Greece might well leave the euro, which would be hugely disruptive in the short run. But it will also offer Greece itself a chance for real recovery. And it will serve as a salutary shock to the complacency of Europe’s elites. Or to put it a bit differently, it’s reasonable to fear the consequences of a “no” vote, because nobody knows what would come next. But you should be even more afraid of the consequences of a “yes,” because in that case we do know what comes next — more austerity, more disasters and eventually a crisis much worse than anything we’ve seen so far.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Vast amounts of German money are at stake if Greece goes bankrupt -- with liabilities as high as €84 billion. Even though that figure is a large one, it would be paid over years and dangers to the Berlin budget are limited. "So far, Germany hasn't had to spend a single euro from the federal budget on Greece." It's a line one has heard dozens of times on German talk shows in recent years. Soon, though, the claim may no longer hold true. A Greek insolvency is now within the realm of possibility and if the country does go bust, it could directly burden the German federal budget.
But how many billions of euros in German money are actually at stake? It may seem like a simple question, but there are no easy answers, because Germany's actual liability for Greek debt depends on a number of factors. For a simple answer, just scroll to the last graphic in this article, where you will find the maximum burden for the German budget in a worst case scenario. If you're looking for a more nuanced answer, then please continue reading.
In order to determine the maximum possible liability for Germany as of the end of June 2015, you have to consider several factors, including whether …
Or whether …
But how do these numbers fit together?
GO TO LINK FOR A FULL EXPOSITION...GERMANY IS AN ASS
Demeter
(85,373 posts)RECIPROCITY
The cornerstone of ancient Greek values was reciprocity, or mutual exchange between two or more people. In Homeric Greece, there was no "national", formal system of government or trade. Greek-speaking people relied on reciprocity, a simple system of transaction. For instance, if I offered you a jar of olive oil for your spear, and if you considered this a fair trade, then both of us would benefit from this reciprocal transaction. On the other hand, if I was not a very nice person, I could hit you over the head and take the spear. This kind of trade is called negative reciprocity. Negative reciprocity only works if the victim cannot retaliate. Negative reciprocity took place because there were no national or local laws (or police) to govern behavior. The raiding of cities became an acceptable, allowable behavior.
However, there may be times when I may want to give a gift, not expecting something in return immediately. Suppose that something terrible happens to my home like a fire, or someone has stolen all my belongings. I might come to you and ask for some provisions. Since I have nothing to repay you, there is no question of an exchange. A long-term loan is not really practical because there is no writing at this time. So you reason that if you give me some food, I may not repay you, but some day if something terrible happens to you, I could help you out as you did me. You do this because you would like to rely on the kindness of others at some future date, which is still an act of belief in reciprocity. You are simply not expecting reciprocity at the moment. This is known as deferred reciprocity. This sort was used extensively by travelers (especially in The Odyssey). Deferred reciprocity, indeed any form of positive reciprocity, relies on the honor and good will of all participants. Honor, or areté, became an essential value for the ancient Greeks.
ARETÉ
The idea of areté is perhaps the strongest and clearest value of Homeric Greek culture. Translated as "virtue", the word actually means something closer to "being the best you can be", or "reaching your highest human potential". From Homer’s time onwards, areté was applied to both men and women. Homer applies the term to both the Greek and Trojan heroes as well as the female figures such as Penelope, wife of Odysseus. In Homer’s poems, areté is often closely associated with bravery, but even more often with effectiveness. The man or woman of areté is a person of the highest effectiveness. They use all their faculties – strength, bravery, intelligence and deceptiveness – to achieve real results. In the Homeric world, areté involves all of the abilities and potential available to humans. The importance of areté implies that the Greeks saw their universe as one in which human actions are of extreme importance – that the world is a place of conflict and difficulty, and human value and meaning are measured against how effective each individual is in the world. In many ways, the Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey are celebrations of areté. In Homer, even non-human beings such as noble horses and powerful gods may possess areté.
Areté became the ideal of human excellence, and quickly became fused to the ideal of leadership. The Greeks believed that the qualities areté and leadership were inseparable. Unusual or exceptional strength, and bravery or wit were seen as natural manifestations of both areté and leadership. Odysseus’ clever escape from and defeat of Polyphemus are examples of his natural areté, the qualities that make him a leader.
Two other values became intertwined with those of areté and leadership. Those values are kleos, or glory, and aidos, the sense of duty. A noble’s areté, in Homer, is illustrated by his skill and strength as an soldier in war, and as an athlete in peace. War provided the opportunity for the display of areté and the winning of kleos. Achilles is probably the Greek hero most closely associated with kleos as an aspect of areté – though Achilles often displays characteristics that the modern person may consider negative, the ancient Greek would recognize him as clearly possessing areté. The second important aspect of areté is aidos. In his personal conduct as a leader or noble, a Homeric heroine such as Penelope displayed this sense of duty as evidence of areté. Penelope remains true to her absent husband and cleverly avoids her impatient suitors (the old weaving trick – more evidence of her areté!).
Ultimately, areté meant the union of intellectual and physical excellence – the realization of a person’s full potential. In Homer’s Iliad, Achilles is reminded by his tutor Phoenix to seek the aristocratic ideal of areté – he must be a speaker of words and a doer of deeds.
XENIA
Xenia means guest-friendship or hospitality. In Homeric Greece, Xenia was practiced with great enthusiasm. The idea of xenia is closely linked to the idea of aidos – it was one’s duty to be hospitable. Xenia is also a form of deferred reciprocity. Both guest and host were expected to act with respect and courtesy. It was expected that a guest would be treated to the finest a household had to offer. Poor treatment of a guest could bring down the wrath of Zeus, protector of travelers and guests. The Odyssey is filled with examples of bad hosts (Polyphemus) and bad guests (Penelope’s suitors). According to the traditions of xenia, a guest of any social class must be treated with extreme respect. As if to test this value, many Greek characters, human and divine, often travel in disguise.
Xenia evolved from the simple fact that if a lone traveler is turned away from a house, he or she could die from starvation or exposure. Xenia ensured that a traveler would not be turned away from any house. The poet Hesiod illustrates the importance of the guest-friend’s relationship to the host by placing the murder of a guest-friend on a level with the most heinous crimes he could think of:
Has there not abounded in them murder of brothers and fathers and guest-friends; matricide and incest and begetting of children by sons with their own mothers; feasting of a father on the flesh of his own sons, plotted by those nearest of kin; exposure of infants by parents, and drownings and blindings and other iniquities so many in number that no lack of material has ever been felt by those who are wont each year to present in the theatre the miseries which transpired in those days? (Hesiod, Works & Days)
ERGON
This society also valued ergon, or good hard work. Without it, no society can exist. The value of ergon became associated with areté, as Hesiod explains:
...work...so that Hunger may hate you, and venerable Demeter richly crowned may love you and full your barn with food...Both gods and men are angry with a man who lives idle, for in nature he is like the stingless drones who waste the labor of the bees, eating without working; but let it be your care to order your work properly, that in the right season your barns may be full of victual. Through work men grow rich in flocks and substance, and in working you will be much better loved both by gods and men; for they greatly dislike the idle.
Work is no disgrace: it is idleness which is a disgrace. But if you work, the idle will soon envy you as you grow rich, for fame and renown attend on wealth. And whatever be your lot, work is best for you, if you turn your misguided mind away from other men's property to your work and attend to your livelihood as I bid you. An evil shame is the needy man's companion, shame which both greatly harms men; shame is with poverty, but confidence with wealth. (Hesiod, Works & Days)
Even for a kings like Odysseus and Priam, manual labor was seen as a sign of virtue. Priam built the palace at Troy with his own hands; Odysseus is an accomplished carpenter (I couldn't build a bed around the trunk of an olive tree, could you?)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Europe was so busy with its religious turmoil, did it ever get to consider purely intellectual ideas?
Did Germans have anybody before Karl Marx?
Philosophers including Francis Bacon (1562–1626), René Descartes (1596–1650), John Locke (1632–1704), Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), Giambattista Vico (1668–1744), Voltaire (1694–1778), David Hume (1711–1776), Immanuel Kant (1724–1804), Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794), Francesco Mario Pagano (1748–1799) and Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727)[1] influenced society by publishing widely read works. Upon learning about enlightened views, some rulers met with intellectuals and tried to apply their reforms, such as allowing for toleration, or accepting multiple religions, in what became known as enlightened absolutism. Coinciding with the Age of Enlightenment was the Scientific revolution, spearheaded by Newton.
New ideas and beliefs spread around the continent and were fostered by an increase in literacy due to a departure from solely religious texts. Publications include Encyclopédie (1751–72) that was edited by Denis Diderot and (until 1759) Jean le Rond d'Alembert. Some 25,000 copies of the 35 volume encyclopedia were sold, half of them outside France. The Dictionnaire philosophique (Philosophical Dictionary, 1764) and Letters on the English (1733) written by Voltaire (1694–1778) were revolutionary texts that spread the ideals of the Enlightenment. Some of these ideals proved influential and decisive in the course of the French Revolution, which began in 1789. After the Revolution, the Enlightenment was followed by an opposing intellectual movement known as Romanticism...
...According to Bertrand Russell, however, the enlightenment was a phase in a progressive development, which began in antiquity, and that reason and challenges to the established order were constant ideals throughout that time.[9] Russell argues that the enlightenment was ultimately born out of the Protestant reaction against the Catholic counter-reformation, when the philosophical views of the past two centuries crystallized into a coherent world view. He argues that many of the philosophical views, such as affinity for democracy against monarchy, originated among Protestants in the early 16th century to justify their desire to break away from the Pope and the Catholic Church. Though many of these philosophical ideals were picked up by Catholics, Russell argues, by the 18th century the Enlightenment was the principal manifestation of the schism that began with Martin Luther.[9]
Chartier (1991) argues that the Enlightenment was only invented after the fact for a political goal. He claims the leaders of the French Revolution created an Enlightenment canon of basic text, by selecting certain authors and identifying them with the Enlightenment in order to legitimize their republican political agenda.[10]
Jonathan Israel rejects the attempts of postmodern and Marxian historians to understand the revolutionary ideas of the period purely as by-products of social and economic transformations.[11] He instead focuses on the history of ideas in the period from 1650 to the end of the 18th century, and claims that it was the ideas themselves that caused the change that eventually led to the revolutions of the latter half of the 18th century and the early 19th century.[12] Israel argues that until the 1650s Western civilization "was based on a largely shared core of faith, tradition and authority".[13]
Up until this date most intellectual debates revolved around "confessional" – that is, Catholic, Lutheran, Reformed (Calvinist), or Anglican issues, and the main aim of these debates was to establish which bloc of faith ought to have the "monopoly of truth and a God-given title to authority".[14] After this date everything thus previously rooted in tradition was questioned and often replaced by new concepts in the light of philosophical reason. After the second half of the 17th century and during the 18th century a "general process of rationalization and secularization set in which rapidly overthrew theology's age-old hegemony in the world of study", and thus confessional disputes were reduced to a secondary status in favor of the "escalating contest between faith and incredulity"....
...The Enlightenment took hold in most European countries, often with a specific local emphasis. For example, in France it became associated with anti-government and anti-Church radicalism while in Germany it reached deep into the middle classes and where it expressed a spiritualistic and nationalistic tone without threatening governments or established churches.[28]
Government responses varied widely. In France, the government was hostile, and the philosophes fought against its censorship, sometimes being imprisoned or hounded into exile. The British government for the most part ignored the Enlightenment's leaders in England and Scotland although it did give Isaac Newton a knighthood and a very lucrative government office...
...In several nations, powerful rulers – called "enlightened despots" by historians – welcomed leaders of the Enlightenment at court and asked them to help design laws and programs to reform the system, typically to build stronger national states.[29] The most prominent of those rulers were Frederick the Great of Prussia, Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796, Leopold II, who had ruled the Grand Duchy of Tuscany from 1765 to 1790, and Joseph II, Emperor of Austria from 1780 to 1790. Joseph was over-enthusiastic, announcing so many reforms that had so little support that revolts broke out and his regime became a comedy of errors and nearly all his programs were reversed.[30] Senior ministers Pombal in Portugal and Struensee in Denmark governed according to Enlightenment ideals....
Prussia and the German States
By the mid-18th century the German Enlightenment in music, philosophy, science and literature emerged as an intellectual force. Frederick the Great (1712–86), the king of Prussia 1740–1786, saw himself as a leader of the Enlightenment and patronized philosophers and scientists at his court in Berlin. He was an enthusiast for French classicism as he criticized German culture and was unaware of the remarkable advances it was undergoing. Voltaire, who had been imprisoned and maltreated by the French government, was eager to accept Frederick's invitation to live at his palace. Frederick explained, "My principal occupation is to combat ignorance and prejudice ... to enlighten minds, cultivate morality, and to make people as happy as it suits human nature, and as the means at my disposal permit."[70] Other rulers were supportive, such as Karl Friedrich, Grand Duke of Baden, who ruled Baden for 73 years (1738–1811).
Christian Wolff (1679–1754) was the pioneer as a writer who expounded the Enlightenment to German readers; he legitimized German as a philosophic language. Johann Gottfried von Herder (1744–1803) broke new ground in philosophy and poetry, specifically in the Sturm und Drang movement of proto-Romanticism. Weimar Classicism ("Weimarer Klassik"
was a cultural and literary movement based in Weimar that sought to establish a new humanism by synthesizing Romantic, classical and Enlightenment ideas. The movement, from 1772 until 1805, involved Herder as well as polymath Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) and Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805), a poet and historian. Herder argued that every folk had its own particular identity, which was expressed in its language and culture. This legitimized the promotion of German language and culture and helped shape the development of German nationalism. Schiller's plays expressed the restless spirit of his generation, depicting the hero's struggle against social pressures and the force of destiny.[73]
German music, sponsored by the upper classes, came of age under composers such as Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788), Joseph Haydn (1732–1809), and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791).
In remote Königsberg philosopher Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) tried to reconcile rationalism and religious belief, individual freedom and political authority. As well as map out a view of the public sphere through private and public reason. Kant's work contained basic tensions that would continue to shape German thought – and indeed all of European philosophy – well into the 20th century.
The German Enlightenment won the support of princes, aristocrats and the middle classes and permanently reshaped the culture.
PERHAPS THE GERMANS WERE SO BUSY TRYING TO ESTABLISH A NATION AND A CULTURE THAT THEY FORGOT TO DEVELOP A LOGIC...WHICH KARL MARX ATTEMPTED TO PROVIDE IN 1840'S....AND RELIGION NEVER GOT DEBUNKED.
IN WHICH CASE, GERMANY IS THE LAST PLACE TO TRY TO RUN A EUROZONE BASED ON DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES AND POWER-SHARING AMONG SOCIAL GROUPS AND ETHNICITIES...
FlatBaroque
(3,160 posts)This ia a very significant time in history that will portend what is to come.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)Every weekend Demeter posts a relative economic theme, and during the week, check out Tansy_Gold's daily Stock Market Watch threads. Excellent newsy topics!
mother earth
(6,002 posts)
hamerfan
(1,404 posts)America The Beautiful done by Ray Charles:
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The Hymn to Liberty (Greek: Ὕ???? ?ἰ? ?ὴ? Ἐ??????ί??, Ýmnos is tīn Eleftherian) is a poem written by Dionýsios Solomós in 1823 that consists of 158 stanzas and is the longest Hymn in the world, set to music by Nikolaos Mantzaros. In 1865, the first two stanzas officially became the national anthem of Greece and later also that of the Republic of Cyprus. According to the Constitution of the Quintuplet of Cyprus, the Greek national anthem is used in the presence of the Greek Cypriot president (or other Greek Cypriot), and the Turkish national anthem is used in the presence of the Turkish Cypriot vice-president. Cyprus stopped using the Turkish national anthem, however, when Turkish Cypriots broke away from the Government in 1963. Hymn to Liberty was also the Greek Royal Anthem (since 1864).
The hymn was set to music in 1865 by the Corfiot operatic composer Nikolaos Mantzaros, who composed two choral versions, a long one for the whole poem and a short one for the first two stanzas; the latter is the one adopted as the National Anthem of Greece.
English Translation: I know it's you from the edge of the sword, the terrible one I recognize you from the look which with hardness surveys the land drawn from the bones of the Greeks, the sacred ones and, valiant as first hail, o hail, Liberty!
MattSh
(3,714 posts)MOSCOW — At a glance, starting a company amid Russia's perfect economic storm of Western sanctions, bottoming oil prices, and a devalued ruble seems like a bad idea.
But that's what Sergei Sherstobitov did, launching Angara, a small Internet security company, in February. And he thinks the prospects for Russian IT firms such as his are quite good.
His optimism is not due to much-hyped but largely mythical government assistance to small business. Rather, he insists, things are looking up mainly because of a bad news cocktail that includes Western sanctions, a 30 percent devaluation of the ruble, the growth of anti-American sentiment, and burgeoning suspicion toward all foreign digital goods and services in the wake of the Edward Snowden revelations. That has made Russia's IT sector surprisingly fertile ground.
"Every coin has two sides, and it's true that this crisis has tightened the market, there's less money in people's pockets, and the competition has become really fierce," says Mr. Sherstobitov, sitting in his central Moscow office. About a dozen young employees are spread around the casual workplace, hunched over computers or seemingly staring out the windows.
"On the other hand, the market for IT services is really opening up, and people only want Russian goods and expertise – even if the quality isn't quite as good as the Western ones everybody had gotten used to. There are a lot of new niches appearing, and I aim to move in to some of them."
It's not an unusual story. The share of small business and self-employment in the Russian economy is astoundingly low – about 20 percent, compared to up to 70 percent in developed Western economies – but experts say there is a new wave of 30-something entrepreneurs coming up.
Complete story at - http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2015/0630/Anti-Americanism-provides-big-boost-to-Russia-s-small-IT-businesses
MattSh
(3,714 posts)In 2004, GMO products accounted for 12% of the Russian food industry. Today that number is 0.01%. But some producers send "clean" product for evaluation, but send to market cheaper GMO contaminated product. Current penalties are not enough to keep some from trying to evade the ban. Russian MPs want to update the law to fix that.
From RT
A number of Russian MPs have suggested altering the current legislation and introducing criminal responsibility for illegal trade in GMO products. The idea is to mete out prison terms of up to two years for repeated offenders.
The bill tightening the rules for selling genetically modified products has been prepared by lawmakers representing the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, known for its nationalist stance. The draft has already been forwarded to the government and Supreme Court for assessment, and it will then be submitted to parliament.
If passed the bill would amend the existing article of the criminal code that orders punishment for concealing any information about potential hazards for human life and health. It would include violation of the rules for marking goods containing GMO material. Those found guilty would face fines of up to 300,000 rubles (about $6000), or up to two years in prison or penal labor. The bill specifies that, depending on the crime’s circumstances, the punishment could be applied to the head of the company and the workers involved in the violations.
Currently, improper labeling of GMO products is punished by fines ranging between 20,000 and 50,000 rubles ($400 – $1,000) for individual entrepreneurs and between 100,000 and 500,000 rubles ($2,000 – $10,000) for companies. The law regulating the turnover of GMO was first introduced in Russia in 2007. It requires clearly visible indication on all goods containing 0.9 percent of genetically modified organisms by weight.
Well I say "more power to them." The quickest way to stop repeat offenses is to lock up the head of the company. Fines? Corporate bosses don't care about stinkin' fines. Jail? That's something they'll understand.
http://rt.com/politics/261985-russia-gmo-prison-law/
MattSh
(3,714 posts)This is something I've put together for another site I spend some time at.
To read the complete story, click on the individual links.
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http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/russian-tech-firm-yota-working-on-dual-screen-tablet/522845.html
Russian Tech Firm Yota Working on Dual-Screen Tablet
Russian electronics firm Yota Devices has created a new tablet device, Sergei Chemezov, the head of state technology holding Rostec, told newspaper Vedomosti in an interview published Monday.
"We are working on a tablet. I've already seen it," Chemezov said, adding that one of the Yota Tablet's novel features is the ability to charge a YotaPhone smartphone. Rostec, a massive state conglomerate heavily invested in the defense industry, owns a 25 percent stake in Yota.
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http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/06/17/no_smoking_please_russian_mobile_health_technologies_46979.html
No smoking, please: Russian mobile health technologies
Several anti-smoking mobile apps appeared in Russia in summer 2015, including the “Smoke Free Area” service. It can be used to report those that violate the ban on smoking in public places.
In June 2015 Russia launched the comprehensive project BrosayemKurit.rf (translation: Let's Quit Smoking). The country celebrated World No Tobacco Day on May 31 with the release of another mobile application, “Smoke Free Area.”
With the app a user can take a photo of an establishment where the ban on smoking in public places is violated and send it to the authorities. The idea of the service was initiated by Russia’s Ministry of Health.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/05/russia-china-to-equip-trucks-with-glonass-and-beidou/
Russia, China to equip trucks with Glonass and Beidou
Russia and China are currently working on a joint project to develop “a navigation device with Glonass/Beidou support” to equip commercial carriers crossing Russia’s border with China. These plans were aired last week by Alexander Bondarenko, Head of the Glonass International Projects Department, at a conference in Novosibirsk.
“The users will be provided with equal service in China and in Russia. A truck driver will be able to contact tech support, get help on the road, find the closest gas station and use other services supported by the satellite navigation systems,” Russian online portal Sputnik quoted Bondarenko as saying.
He added that truck drivers would not have different devices, and instead would be using the same apparatus.
Russia’s answer to GPS, the Glonass network currently consists of 28 satellites, 24 of which are operational, according to Sputnik. This configuration allows real-time positioning and speed data for surface, sea and airborne objects around the globe.
The announcement comes as no surprise as China and Russia are seeking to form a single navigational space in the coming years. Negotiations on the harmonization of equipment standards for Glonass and Beidou started in the summer of last year, as reported by East-West Digital News.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/08/alibaba-opens-russian-company/
Alibaba opens Russian company, teams up with Skolkovo
“Alibaba Group founded a new company in Russia in order to further expand our business and support our partners, and also to facilitate cooperation with the Russian authorities,” said Mark Zavadskiy.
Almost simultaneously Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, announced a partnership with Alibaba’s local branch to create the AliExpress Challenge for B2C microelectronics solutions. A memorandum of understanding is to be signed by the two parties at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum later this month.
The AliExpress challenge will allow Skolkovo resident firms to pitch their products to a panel, with the top startups winning access to acceleration programs and additional mentor support. The victors will also have the considerable backing of AliExpress to reach international markets.
The contest will be split into two categories – one for solutions that are still at the idea stage, the other for market-ready products.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/23/booking-com-confirms-commitment-to-important-russian-market-gets-prepared-to-comply-with-personal-data-storage-law/
Booking.com confirms commitment to “important Russian market,” gets prepared to comply with personal data storage law
Earlier this month, Booking.com announced that it will comply with Russia’s new law on personal data storage. The global online travel operator will soon transfer all data from the country’s users to a local data center, Russian business daily Kommersant reported.
“Russia is an important market for us,” the Booking.com press service told Kommersant. “We continue to watch developments related to the law. We understand this law will not affect our relations with business partners and customers in Russia. When the law comes into force, we will be ready to comply. We are now working on a solution that will allow us to operate accordingly.”
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Finance-Business/Volga/21315-Huawei-and-Russian-partner-develop-new-software-Kazans-%E2%80%98IT-city.html
Huawei and Russian partner to develop new software in Kazans ‘IT city
China’s Huawei and Russia’s iTeco are pooling efforts in the development of software for cloud services and virtualization. The project will be based in the new ‘IT city’ of Innopolis outside Kazan. A subsidiary will be set up to further the endeavor, Lenta.ru reported.
The subsidiary will reportedly be owned by iTeco, while Huawei is expected to bring into play its software and hardware platform, staff and other resources in an effort to market their joint Russian-made solutions across Russia and the four other BRICS countries (Brazil, China, India, and South Africa).
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/18/panasonic-opens-rd-center-in-skolkovo/
Panasonic opens R&D center in Skolkovo
Earlier this month Panasonic opened its R&D center in Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, following an agreement signed in December 2014.
Panasonic thus became the first Japanese company to sign up as a Skolkovo partner. The agreement commits Panasonic to deploying at least 30 workers from its Russian representative office at the R&D center by 2017 – an operation that will cost the company around 160 million rubles (approximately $3 million at the current exchange rate), according to the Skolkovo Foundation.
The center will focus its research on coming up with energy efficiency solutions for the Russian technology and energy sectors. Panasonic’s priority R&D areas are alternative energy sources, in particular solar panels, electricity storage systems and fuel cells.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/22/top-skolkovo-startups-to-showcase-their-projects-in-singapore-tech-show/
Top Skolkovo startups to showcase their projects in Singapore tech show
Just weeks after it announced a partnership with China’s Alibaba and inaugurated Panasonic’s R&D center on its premises, Skolkovo is announcing another move towards the Asian market with ten of its startups taking part in Singapore’s Echelon Asia Summit.
The Russian startups showcased by Skolkovo are the following:
3DiVi (motion and gesture controller);
Ivideon (video surveillance);
Logistics IT (solution for e-commerce deliver optimisation);
Nanosemantics (natural language dialogue system);
Flexbby (multiplatform business application: CRM, ERP, KPI, DocFlows etc.);
Bravo Motors (ultra-compact transformable electric vehicle);
Artquant (stock market analytics);
SPB TV (end-to-end OTT TV, IPTV and mobile TV solutions);
Board Maps (enterprise collaboration software);
Intelligent Social Systems (feedback generation and management for e-government and commercial use).
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Real-Estate/Central-regions/21293-Finns-build-advanced-biotech-park-Skolkovo-.html
Finns to build advanced biotech park at Skolkovo
The Skolkovo Foundation and Finland’s Turku Science Park have inked an agreement on the creation of a 200 million euro BioCity biotech technopark in the Skolkovo innovation hub, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported.
The design stage of the project will end next year, and by the end of 2018 the technopark is slated for completion, the source said. Turku Science Park is expected to act as the prime operator of the new project which has been designed by Lundån Architecture Oy, a Finnish architectural design bureau, and will be built by Finland’s Capital Development Group.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/03/graviton-wins-startup-village-2015-pitch-competition/
Winners of the Startup Village 2015 pitch competition
Home security firm Graviton has destroyed the field to win the 2015 Startup Village pitch competition, impressing the judges with its sensor-based system to win the 3 million ruble prize and an invitation to become a Skolkovo resident.
Graviton produces a sensor that is installed in doors and windows and alerts homeowners when breaches have been made.
Second place, meanwhile, and a check for 2 million rubles, went to biomed startup Tektum. The company produces a so-called haemostatic, antibacterial agent that heals cuts and wounds twice as fast as natural processes.
Third place went to another biomed firm, Roman Kholodenko’s promising cancer-fighting startups Real Target, which seeks to kill tumor cells through immunotherapy.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21301-Russia-claims-have-technology-that-uses-thoughts-control-machines.html
Russia claims to have technology that uses thoughts to control machines
Russian developers are said to have completed the creation of this country’s “brain-computer” interface to control machines by the power of thought, the Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Andrei Grigoryev, the head of Russia’s Advanced Research Fund (ARF).
“We have a “brain-computer” interface project which has been showcased repeatedly. The federal government is interested in know-how we developed to make it. According to our law, we will transfer to government agencies the related IP and the end product itself,” Mr. Grigoryev said.
The interface is designed to make use of the human brain’s electrical activity; the latter is reported to be registered using the electroencephalography approach, a methodology already widely utilized in medicine.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21290-Russia-makes-new-step-towards-quantum-computer.html
Russia makes new step towards quantum computer
Scientists representing leading Russian universities and research centers have managed to create this country’s first superconducting qubit—the next step towards developing a quantum computer, announced the press service of MISiS, one of Russia’s top technology universities based in Moscow, and a participant in the project.
Alongside MISiS, researchers from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) and the Institute of Solid-State Physics took part in the qubit effort.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Energy-Utilities/Siberia/21289-Siberian-students-offer-sunlight-control-system.html
Siberian students offer sunlight control system
Students at the Tomsk Polytechnic University (TPU) in Siberia are said to have developed a system that boosts solar panel efficiency by an estimated seven times, partners at TPU told Marchmont News.
The system is reported to be able to follow the movement of the Sun, turning a panel to it as it moves. The cost of production and maintenance for such a panel is believed to be up to 75% lower than that of analogs.
“The existing solar systems have two deficiencies: low solar energy to electricity conversion ratio and prohibitively expensive solar cells. We are suggesting our know-how to address the problem effectively and without extra costs; we use a solar tracker and acryl concentrator to control a solar panel. We have obtained a patent for the invention and are working to bring it to market,” the source said, citing Alexander Petrusev, a TPU Energy Institute student and the project leader.
The tracker is reported to be able to turn a solar panel towards the Sun as it moves during the day, and the panel thus ‘catches’ more light. According to the developer, its competitive advantages over analogs include a wider rotation angle (up to 200 degrees vs. 150 elsewhere), which enables a panel to generate more power at daytime. Frequent maintenance sessions are not required with the system—unlike the competition, the developer said.
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http://tass.ru/en/russia/798685
Anti-Ebola vaccine developed in Russia’s Novosibirsk to undergo clinical tests from August
NOVOSIBIRSK, June 4. /TASS/. Clinical tests of anti-Ebola vaccine developed by the Novosibirsk-based Vector state research centre of virology and biotechnology will begin in August, Valery Mikheyev, Vector’s acting director general, said on Thursday.
"We have several variants. Work is underway. Some of the variants are ready. We will soon submit them for clinical testing. One of the preparations is ready, two or three more will be ready soon," he told journalists on the sidelines of the 3rd international forum of technological development Technoprom-2015 being held in Novosibirsk on June 4-5.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21302-Moscow-scientists-develop-new-early-stage-diagnostics-for-cancer-HIV-and-more.html
Moscow scientists develop new early-stage diagnostics for cancer, HIV and more
Dmitry Fedyanin and Yuri Stebunov, two young scientists from the Nanophotonics and Plasmonics Lab at MIPT, a leading Russian university in Moscow, have developed what they call a nanomechanical sensor to identify chemical components of various substances, the MIPT website announced.
The device is said to be able to also pinpoint biological objects, such as the markers of viruses which appear as our immunity system responds to diseases like herpes, HIV, or all sorts of hepatitis. The new methodology is “much more refined and less costly than the diagnostics techniques that exist today,” the source claims.
The sensor is believed to be sensitive enough to also identify oncology markers that alert to the development of a malignant tumor in a patient. The developers say it can detect other most acute medical conditions at very early stages—before other techniques can identify them. This appears to be a very important move into the future of medical diagnostics.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Central-regions/21304-Moscow-and-Australian-scientists-improve-lives-with-ultra-resilience.html
Moscow and Australian scientists improve lives with ultra-resilience
A consortium of Prof. Sergei Prokoshkin led group of Russian scientists at MISiS, a leading Russian university based in Moscow, and experts from Endogene-Globetek, an Australian company, has tapped into the physical effect of shape-memory and ultra-resilience alloys to develop innovation technologies, the MISiS website announced.
The knowledge-intensive techniques, based on some metals’ fundamental property of returning to their original shape after extremely strong deformation, have led the collaborative researchers to the development of a range of unique medical instruments for neurology, cardiovascular surgery, paramedics, etc.
According to Dr. Prokoshkin, the shape-memory effect was discovered in the Soviet Union as far back as 1948.
The new instruments are said to be easy and intuitive for use and enable surgeons to do surgery fast, safely, and with minimum risk for patients. Using the innovative equipment is expected to dramatically reduce the cost of medical operations, as the approach associated with the instruments is noninvasive, and no general anesthesia is required.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Siberia/21307-Novosibirsk-host-Russo-Chinese-nuclear-physics-center.html
Novosibirsk to host Russo-Chinese nuclear physics center
Academgorodok, the famous science-packed borough of Novosibirsk, in Siberia, may expect to host a future Russo-Chinese scientific center with the focus on research in nuclear physics, the website of Russia’s Federal Agency for Scientific Organizations reported.
The center is viewed as the Agency’s first mega science project in this vast region. The initiative is reportedly aimed at expanding scientific collaboration within BRICS (the group of five developing economies, including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa).
“We need programs that will help us reposition Russian sciences in the world. The government is ready to allocate funds to support such projects. Today, all international projects in nuclear physics are based in the West. A balance is needed.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Finance-Business/Central-regions/21319-Russian-biotech-company-launches-exports-into-US.html
Russian biotech company launches exports into U.S.
Semiotic, a Russian biotech developer, will have at least five years for the distribution of its proprietary solution in the U.S. via its partner GlycoTech Corporation, a sizable supplier of reagents for glycobiological research in the United States. The product the partners will be marketing under their recent agreement is a carbohydrate microchip, or glycochip, enabling medical researchers to determine the quantity of glycan-binding proteins in a biosample under study, reported the website of RVC, Russia’s national fund of funds for innovation.
The Russian innovative solution “is unrivaled,” the source claims. The glycochip is said to contain the world’s largest carbohydrate glycans library that has been accumulated for 30 years. Already this version of the chip reportedly enables researchers to place on it up to 600 carbohydrate glycans and use those as a source of data on “a hundred of pathologies simultaneously.”
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/15/russia-and-iraq-to-develop-cooperation-in-the-fields-of-it-and-telecommunications/
Russia and Iraq to develop cooperation in the fields of IT and telecommunications
As a result of a meeting earlier this month between the Russian minister of telecommunications and mass media Nikolai Nikiforov and Iraqi ambassador Ismail Mukhsin, the two countries are willing to develop ties in the field of telecommunications, information technologies and postal services.
Government bodies, private companies, scientific and educational organizations are potentially concerned, according to Nikiforov, which believes that this cooperation “will last for many years to come.” While the security of information and telecom infrastructure will be an essential field of cooperation, Nikiforov also expressed Russia’s desire to see “all countries fully participate in the governance of the world wide web’s infrastructure” at the UN level.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/25/skolkovo-and-ibm-team-up-to-extend-the-healthy-productive-lives-of-patients-with-cancer-and-other-age-related-diseases/
Last week IBM signed a memorandum of understanding with Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, the First Oncology Research and Advisory Center (FORAC), a resident of Skolkovo’s biomedical cluster. The three partner will develop a personalized medical platform in Russia in a joint strategic, technology and commercial collaboration effort.
The platform will feature advanced solutions to support clinical decisions. Made available to oncology researchers, clinics and institutions, it will “help doctors narrow down all available cancer trials and quickly identify potential matches, offering promising new approaches and treatment options to extend the healthy productive lives of patients with cancer and other age-related diseases.”
The platform will be supported by IBM’s Watson Health and FORAC’s OncoFinder solution.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Siberia/21322-Siberian-programmers-help-rehabilitate-speech-cancer-patients-.html
Researchers at the Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radio Electronics (TUSUR) and the Tomsk Research Institute of Oncology, both in Siberia, are working to improve their noteworthy software solution enabling cancer patients after larynx or laryngopharynx ablation surgery to restore their normal voice much faster than it is possible today, Nanonewsnet.ru reported.
The alpha version of the software was first used at the Institute of Oncology as far back as 2004. It facilitated the development of voice rehabilitation methodology that was up-to-date enough at that time.
Voice rehab consists of several computer-aided stages, the developers say. The stage enabling the assessment of speech loudness and duration was successfully completed with the initial version of the software. What requires polishing and refining is the next more complex stage, which is the determination of a voice’s fundamental tone frequency on a real time basis.
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http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/06/29/russian_rockets_to_put_internet_payloads_into_orbit_in_globa_47307.html
In a billion dollar boost to Russia's national space agency, Roscosmos, Soyuz launch rockets will put hundreds of light-weight satellites into orbit over the next five years to help bring Internet access to people in ever corner of the planet.
The $1billion deal with OneWeb and launch service operator Arianespace will see 648 micro-satellites placed in near-Earth orbit by 2019. Russian Soyuz rockets will carry many of the small 150 kg modules.
The project - which also involves Airbus, Coca-Cola and Virgin Group - is driven by an urge to make the earth a global Internet village, with super fast broadband access available everywhere, from the most remote mountain communities to the vast steppes of Mongolia. Backers also include Indian group Bhari Enterprises.
In an intensely competitive race to connect the world, OneWeb has stolen the march on Google and Facebook, which both also said they would bring the Internet to developing countries.
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http://www.ewdn.com/2015/06/25/skolkovo-and-ibm-team-up-to-extend-the-healthy-productive-lives-of-patients-with-cancer-and-other-age-related-diseases/
Last week IBM signed a memorandum of understanding with Skolkovo, the international tech hub under completion on the outskirts of Moscow, the First Oncology Research and Advisory Center (FORAC), a resident of Skolkovo’s biomedical cluster. The three partner will develop a personalized medical platform in Russia in a joint strategic, technology and commercial collaboration effort.
The platform will feature advanced solutions to support clinical decisions. Made available to oncology researchers, clinics and institutions, it will “help doctors narrow down all available cancer trials and quickly identify potential matches, offering promising new approaches and treatment options to extend the healthy productive lives of patients with cancer and other age-related diseases.”
The platform will be supported by IBM’s Watson Health and FORAC’s OncoFinder solution.
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http://www.marchmontnews.com/Technology-Innovation/Siberia/21322-Siberian-programmers-help-rehabilitate-speech-cancer-patients-.html
Researchers at the Tomsk State University of Control Systems and Radio Electronics (TUSUR) and the Tomsk Research Institute of Oncology, both in Siberia, are working to improve their noteworthy software solution enabling cancer patients after larynx or laryngopharynx ablation surgery to restore their normal voice much faster than it is possible today, Nanonewsnet.ru reported.
The alpha version of the software was first used at the Institute of Oncology as far back as 2004. It facilitated the development of voice rehabilitation methodology that was up-to-date enough at that time.
Voice rehab consists of several computer-aided stages, the developers say. The stage enabling the assessment of speech loudness and duration was successfully completed with the initial version of the software. What requires polishing and refining is the next more complex stage, which is the determination of a voice’s fundamental tone frequency on a real time basis.
-----
http://rbth.com/science_and_tech/2015/06/29/russian_rockets_to_put_internet_payloads_into_orbit_in_globa_47307.html
In a billion dollar boost to Russia's national space agency, Roscosmos, Soyuz launch rockets will put hundreds of light-weight satellites into orbit over the next five years to help bring Internet access to people in ever corner of the planet.
The $1billion deal with OneWeb and launch service operator Arianespace will see 648 micro-satellites placed in near-Earth orbit by 2019. Russian Soyuz rockets will carry many of the small 150 kg modules.
The project - which also involves Airbus, Coca-Cola and Virgin Group - is driven by an urge to make the earth a global Internet village, with super fast broadband access available everywhere, from the most remote mountain communities to the vast steppes of Mongolia. Backers also include Indian group Bhari Enterprises.
In an intensely competitive race to connect the world, OneWeb has stolen the march on Google and Facebook, which both also said they would bring the Internet to developing countries.
-----
http://sk.ru/news/b/articles/archive/2015/05/06/_1820_keep-calm-and-make-robots_1920_.aspx
‘Keep Calm and Make Robots’ - Daria Kaftan and Skolkovo
In business, they say, failure is the first step on the ladder to success. If that’s true, Daria Kaftan is headed in the right direction.
The 24-year-old “programmer blonde,” as she calls herself on Twitter, has been rattling around the Skolkovo ecosystem since 2013 but is yet to find her feet – leaving two companies that went on to become residents and opening a third that is off to a spluttering start.
But Kaftan’s response to the latest setback - finishing outside the prizes during a pitch contest in Krasnogorsk – reveals the honesty and persistence that keep her on track.
“It’s a shame, but it’s logical,” she proclaims dismissively, recognizing the superiority of the competing projects at the Startup Tour in the small town near Moscow.
“Now we look straight to Startup Village. But before Startup Village, we must focus on our algorithms and perfecting our product,” she says, flashing a tired smile.
That Kaftan had any energy remaining at all seemed remarkable.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)government spends every nickel keeping sclerotic and obsese banks and their Obscenely Wealthy banksters on life support around the globe...
Pretty depressing, for a Space Age Boomer geek!
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The premise behind tech start-up Blocktech's Alexandria project is pretty simple: the Library of Alexandria wouldn't have been destroyed had there been a back-up unless the back-ups had been destroyed too. As many readers are surely aware, the Library of Alexandria was an Egyptian wonder that was destroyed during a war which Rome (who at the time ruled Egypt) was losing. Obviously there is no footage from the event, but historical accounts contend that it was Caesar himself who inadvertently started the fire by burning his own ships.
Mankind will never know how much we really lost from the Library of Alexandria, but with much of the world's communications and information going digital, and with national defense efforts by most countries pushing toward cyber warfare, Blocktech believes that it could happen again. Is it possible to completely eradicate anything from the Internet? While it technically is possible, it would take a massive effort and a lot of intelligence. The goal of a cyberwarfare effort in the direction of eradicating information and knowledge wouldn't be as much to succeed in full erasure, it would be more focused on disruption.
Disrupting Central Points of Failure
What Blocktech's Alexandria is offering is a way for companies and communities to prevent catastrophic data loss caused by ill-intentioned hackers. If everyone has a copy of something, then you have to take everyone down. Futuristic civilizations come to mind, with everyone carrying a small device that contains all of the knowledge the civilization has ever acquired. But it's much simpler than this, in terms of the technological solution Alexandria is selling. Alexandria is a system for publishing despite censorship or cyber attacks. An Alexandria implementation has three main components, but Bitcoin comes in to serve optional audience-to-publisher payments. For actual transmission of files, which can be various types of content, the peer-to-peer file-sharing software BitTorrent has been utilized. Florincoin made some advancements in block chain technology such that its block chain serves the purpose of tying all this together, creating a publishing ledger with a payment layer. It also makes use of IPFS, the revolutionary file sharing protocol that could replace the Internet as we know it.
What Bitcoin did for money, Alexandria will do for digital content publishing and distribution by removing central points of failure and financially incentivizing users around the world.
The way Alexandria works is similar to any other decentralized computing platform: numerous machines working together to serve files and ensure their legitimacy. A situation where all nodes can agree on the contents of the network is always preferable to one requiring constant verification. Alexandria is another in a long line of projects that are solving a problem rarely discussed on the Internet: censorship is real, and growing. In this reality, anti-censorship technology and secure methods of communication and education are going to be necessary. The Library of Alexandria will not be the last project to tackle this problem, but its approach has some of the important markers of success: clear vision and a strong team.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Metadata Doesn't Always Mean Metadata: New Snowden Revelations Reveal Government Spying Went Much Deeper
https://hacked.com/metadata-doesnt-always-mean-metadata-new-snowden-revelations-reveal-government-spying-went-much-deeper/
Many were not surprised when NSA-contracted analyst Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the government organization, revealing massive, likely illegal domestic spying programs.
As the details came out, the government went into full damage control, and one keyword that surfaced was "metadata." It was just metadata they were collecting without a warrant, they said, not the kind of data that would reveal anything personal about its owner. The word left the mouth of every government official who spoke on the subject, and the common belief became that it was not wiretapping going on, just mass surveillance.
Until now, when further revelations have come out of the Snowden leak, which amounted to gigabytes of unsorted evidence turned over to journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras. Although it's been a subject of close inspection by journalists and investigators since the original leak, the depth of one secret program, in particular, XKeyscore, was not known until more recently. XKeyscore is essentially a database for spies to sort through data that has been brought in from the massive nets the government has on all domestic and international communications it can tap. Before now, it was not believed to be overly advanced in the types of information that analysts could derive from it.
Also read: 42 Years Before Edward Snowden Leak Finishes
But according to the Intercept, the program can monitor a lot more than just the traffic of all the world's major networks. The program can store data from any stream for up to five days after it is initially transmitted. For forty-five days after that, metadata is stored and retrievable by the NSA for later use in investigations. To retain any of the data as evidence, a warrant will have to be obtained.
At least according to the program's creators, XKeyscore can monitor such things as Skype calls and webcam feeds, in real time, as they're happening, and the program does this by intercepting literally everything transmitted by fiber optics networks. It has been revealed that in Britain, the main connections going into the country have been forked to GCHQ for years, and a similar fork existing in the United States would probably come as no surprise.
Technology has a long history of enabling both the tyrant and the subject, the good guys and the bad. Along with unprecedented access to information and resources, Americans have met with an unprecedented environment where almost nothing they say or do will ultimately be private. Edward Snowden has taken a precarious role in history as the first to prove this was the case.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)As the Eurozone faces one of the biggest challenges in its sixteen-year history onSunday, big investors are holding steady, maintaining their positions in peripheral debt markets and even looking to add to them if prices drop.
While Greece is set to head into potentially uncharted territory with its referendum on Sunday, investors are betting that any extreme market volatility or financial instability stemming from the vote will be effectively squelched by the European Central Bank.
"For us as investors, we trust (ECB President Mario) Draghi will do whatever it takes to prevent a liquidity crisis from occurring," said Alain Zeitouni, head of Russell Investments France. "This 'Draghi-put' is, and remains, a major reason why we are still looking at current events from the perspective of a buying opportunity."
IT'S A GATHERING OF VULTURES, STILL
Demeter
(85,373 posts)
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)Published June 9th 2015
This month's employment report--in fact, the last few months' employment reports--should not lead us to change our minds about anything. What did you think three months ago? You should think the same thing now. Information about the changing destiny of the economy drips out only slowly. And so your view should change only slowly
What should you have thought three months ago? Eight things:
First, for the past 50 years the unemployment rate and other indicators of the health of the labor market--ease of getting a job, business willingness to build more to fill vacancies, employment the population adjusted for demographics and sociology--have all pointed in the same direction.
Not anymore.
Today the unemployment rate suggest that we have had a full recovery, while other labor market indicators suggest a very partial and very incomplete recovery. The Federal Reserve is still mostly looking at the unemployment rate. They are smart, and they know all the arguments, but when I look at all the evidence I cannot agree
Thus, second, it looks to me like we are still far short of anything that might be called a normal or neutral business-cycle level of employment. So it is not time to start cooling off the economy.
Third, it will not be time to start cooling off the economy until either we get different signals: Either from the employment share numbers. Or from the wage growth numbers.
Fourth we never recovered to the pre-2007 trend.
It was not that the pre-2007 trend was unsustainable.
In 2007 we were buying the wrong things: too many imports and too much housing.
But the economy as a whole was not overheated.
Why haven't we had a full recovery to the pre-2007 trend? Two reasons:
First, Republican economists have failed to properly brief Republican members of Congress that what is needed now are the policies that Milton Friedman's teachers, people like Jacob Viner, recommended for the 1930s--not austerity and not shrinking the Federal Reserve balance sheet shrinkage, but rather coordinated monetary and fiscal policy expansion.
Second, because in late 2009 Ben Bernanke overestimated the economy's self-generated recuperative powers, and so failed to understand the seriousness of the situation.
Third, to be fair, because Tim Geithner thought the same as Bernanke--that the economy was going to recover on its own--and Obama believed him.
Fifth, it is still not too late to turn the macroeconomic policy ship around:
Global investors are willing to lend the US government money at unbelievably low terms.
Every reasonable calculation I have seen tell us the benefits of borrowing up to $1 trillion a year more and spending it on infrastructure and education are huge.
It is definitely worth doing, unless and until interest rates return to normal levels.
Sixth, there are also important structural issues:
Growing inequality.
The rise of the robots.
Globalization, etc.
But these are roughly in the same state today that they were in 2007 or indeed 2000.
Changes since then or overwhelmingly due to short-run macroeconomic events and problems:
The housing bubble.
The Wall Street crash.
The deep depression.
The anemic half-recovery.
Seventh, Obama... Taking a broad view, under Obama the American economy has done worse than it has done under any Democratic president since the Civil War
Save perhaps Carter.
Of course, that also means the economy has done better than under any Republican president since Coolidge
Save Eisenhower.
But these days the Democrats are claiming Eisenhower as his. Certainly today's Republicans don't want that RINO.
In fact, these days Democrats are also posthumously baptizing Lincoln as a Democrat, kind of like the Mormons do, when you think about it...
Eighth, things could have been much better:
We would have had to switch out of housing and into exports and investment between 2006 and 2009.
We were well on the way--about halfway--through making that switch at full employment.
But then Wall Street mashed up and caused the crash.
We did not need a depression.
Especially not a depression this long.
What we needed--and could have had--was an expenditure switch. We still could have one--to education, to business investment, to infrastructure, to exports.
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)... though I've been mostly absent, this "intrepid little band" is the only real reason I sign in to this site.
mother earth
(6,002 posts)I'm all for pushing Bernie to talk more about downsizing the Pentagon to be an institution focused on actually defending the United States, as opposed to running around the world overthrowing other people's governments -- a Pentagon that "goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy," as President John Quincy Adams put it.
But we should also take advantage of the new opportunity that now presents itself; it's not only with bombs that U.S. foreign policy kills and injures innocent civilians.
We should recognize and publicize the fact that Bernie Sanders is the only presidential candidate who is talking about what the IMF is doing to Greece, the only presidential candidate who has a track record of opposing the IMF, the only presidential candidate who, if elected, is likely to do anything to end the economic violence of the IMF.
Read more:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-naiman/bernie-sanders-will-end-the-imfs-economic-violence-in-greece-and-africa_b_7723284.html
bread_and_roses
(6,335 posts)A Revolutionary Pope Calls For Rethinking the Outdated Thinking That Rules the World
Pope Francis’ revolutionary encyclical addresses not just climate change but the banking crisis.
By Ellen Brown / Web of Debt blog
Today, in view of the common good, there is urgent need for politics and economics to enter into a frank dialogue in the service of life, especially human life. Saving banks at any cost, making the public pay the price, forgoing a firm commitment to reviewing and reforming the entire system, only reaffirms the absolute power of a financial system, a power which has no future and will only give rise to new crises after a slow, costly and only apparent recovery. The financial crisis of 2007-08 provided an opportunity to develop a new economy, more attentive to ethical principles, and new ways of regulating speculative financial practices and virtual wealth. But the response to the crisis did not include rethinking the outdated criteria which continue to rule the world.
You go, Pope!
"The liberties of our country, the freedom of our civil Constitution, are worth defending at all hazards; and it is our duty to defend them against all attacks. We have received them as a fair inheritance from our worthy ancestors: they purchased them for us with toil and danger and expense of treasure and blood, and transmitted them to us with care and diligence. It will bring an everlasting mark of infamy on the present generation, enlightened as it is, if we should suffer them to be wrested from us by violence without a struggle, or to be cheated out of them by the artifices of false and designing men." -Samuel Adams
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Watch it before it gets blocked or deleted!
Fuddnik
(8,846 posts)Man mocks alligators, jumps in water and is killed in Texas
Tommie Woodward, 28, and an unidentified woman were swimming in a bayou and had been attacked by a large alligator.
http://wfla.com/2015/07/04/23002/
ORANGE COUNTY, TX (CNN) – A man who apparently mocked alligators, then jumped in the water — despite warning signs — is dead after being attacked in Texas.
Orange County Police were called to Burkart’s Marina near the Louisiana state line early Friday morning after reports that Tommie Woodward, 28, and an unidentified woman were swimming in a bayou and had been attacked by a large alligator.
Woodward’s body was found several hours later. The woman was not injured. Orange County Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told CNN affiliate KFDM that Woodward ignored verbal warnings and a posted “No Swimming Alligators” sign and seemed to mock the deadly creatures before going in the water.
SLIDESHOW: Alligator safety tips from FWC
“He removed his shirt, removed his billfold … someone shouted a warning and he said ‘blank the alligators’ and jumped in to the water and almost immediately yelled for help,” Price said.
(snip)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Demeter
(85,373 posts)http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11716318/Greeces-Yanis-Varoufakis-prepares-for-economic-siege-as-companies-issue-private-currencies.html
Greece has stockpiled enough reserves of fuel and pharmaceutical supplies to withstand a long siege, and has set aside emergency funding to cover all the country's vitally-needed food imports. Yanis Varoufakis, the Greek finance minister, said the left-Wing Syriza government is still working on the assumption that Europe's creditor powers will return to the negotiating table if the Greek people don't agree to their austerity demands in a referendum on Sunday, but it stands ready to fight unless it secures major debt relief.
"Luckily we have six months stocks of oil and four months stocks of pharmaceuticals," he told The Telegraph.
Mr Varoufakis said a special five-man committee from the Greek treasury, the Bank of Greece, the trade unions and the private banks is working feverishly in a "war room" near his office allocating precious reserves for top priorities. Food has been exempted from an import freeze since capital controls were introduced last weekend. Grains, meats, dairy products, and other foodstuffs should be able to enter the country freely, averting a potential disaster as the full tourist season kicks off.
The cash reserves of the banks are dwindling fast as citizens pull the maximum €60 a day allowed under the emergency directive - already €50 at many banks. "We can last through to the weekend and probably to Monday," Mr Varoufakis said. Despite assurances, the crisis is likely to escalate fast if there is no resolution early next week. Businesses in Thessaloniki and other parts of the country are already creating parallel private currencies to keep trade alive and alleviate an acute shortage of liquidity.
Vasilis Papadopoulos, owner of the Maxi paper mill in Katerini, said the situation was becoming desperate for his industry. "I have enough raw materials to last until July 14. If I don't get any more pulp, I will have to close the factory. It is a simple as that. I have 183 employees and I will have to start laying them off," he said. Mr Papadopoulis, who manufactures paper towels, napkins, and toilet paper - partially for export - said a consignment of 3,000 tonnes of pulp from Finland was stranded in the port of Salonica. "I can't pay the suppliers because the bank is blocked, so they won't release it," he said. His firm has reached an accord with regional supermarkets to accept coupons or private scrip money in lieu of payment as soon as next week. His workers will then be able to use this paper as a parallel currency at the supermarket to buy goods.
In the meantime, people are trying to offload their bank holdings as fast as possible. (Electronic bank transfers within the country are still allowed). "Everybody is afraid of a haircut. Our clients are trying to pay us as much as possible, and transfer their problems to us. We, in turn, are paying everything in advance: taxes, gas, anything we can."
"It is like musical chairs because nobody wants to be the last one left standing with money in their account when the music stops. Before all this happened we were about to invest €5m to build new warehouses and buy a new cutting machine from Italy. It is totally suspended," he said.
The Greek crisis is likely to come to a head one way or another soon after the referendum. The European Central Bank is expected to restore emergency liquidity for the Greek banking system almost immediately if there is a "yes", an outcome likely to trigger the downfall of the Syriza government and the creation of a national unity administration. The ECB has given strong hints that it will tighten the tourniquet yet further if there is a "no" vote - probably by raising collateral requirement - pushing Greek banks that it also regulates towards the abyss. This is a legal minefield since the ECB has a treaty duty to uphold financial stability. Syriza has said it will consider legal action at the European Court of Justice if this occurs.
Mr Varoufakis warned that the EU institutions are courting trouble if they respond to a democratic vote by the Greek people in such a way. "I find it hard to believe that Europe will continue to insist on an impasse because their own money will go up in smoke," he said. The eurozone has well over €300bn of exposure in one form or another. Apart from normal bail-out loans, the ECB itself has €27bn of Greek bonds and has extended roughly €120bn in liquidity support through ELA funding for the banks and Target2 payments support. "They are very vulnerable. Target2 becomes a real loss if a country leaves the euro," he said.
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Demeter
(85,373 posts)THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE OFFICIAL DENIAL WHICH CONFIRMS THE ACCUSATION...
http://www.cnbc.com/id/102809199
The Financial Times reported on Friday that Greek banks were preparing contingency plans for a possible "haircut" on deposits amid fears of financial collapse, a report the country's banking association said was "completely baseless". The report came two days ahead of a referendum in which Greeks will accept or reject the tough terms of an aid deal with international creditors, a vote with the potential to decide the country's future in the euro zone. Greek leaders have repeatedly dismissed the possibility they will have to "bail-in" depositors to prevent the collapse of the banking system. But citing bankers and businesspeople with knowledge of the measures, the Financial Times reported: "The plans, which call for a 'haircut' of at least 30 percent on deposits above 8,000 euros, sketch out an increasingly likely scenario for at least one bank."
The report quoted a source as saying: "It (the haircut) would take place in the context of an overall restructuring of the bank sector once Greece is back in a bailout programme."
The head of Greece's Bank Association dismissed the report as "completely baseless".
Louka Katseli, who also chairs the National Bank of Greece , told Skai TV that suggestions that authorities were planning a raid on deposits belonged "only in the sphere of fantasy."
"There are no such scenarios at any Greek bank, not even as an exercise on paper," Katseli said.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)The citizens of Greece face a referendum Sunday that could decide the survival of their elected government and the fate of the country in the Eurozone and Europe. Narrowly, they’re voting on whether to accept or reject the terms dictated by their creditors last week. But what's really at stake? The answers aren’t what you’d think. I have had a close view of the process, both from the US and Athens, after working for the past four years with Yanis Varoufakis, now the Greek finance minister. I've come to realize that there are many myths in circulation about this crisis; here are nine that Americans should see through.
1. The referendum is about the Euro. As soon as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras announced the referendum, François Hollande, David Cameron, Matteo Renzi, and the German Deputy Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told the Greeks that a “no” vote would amount to Greece leaving the Euro. Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Commission, went further: he said “no” means leaving the European Union. In fact the Greek government has stated many times that – yes or no – it is irrevocably committed to the Union and the Euro. And legally, according to the treaties, Greece cannot be expelled from either.
2. The IMF has been flexible. IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde claims that her institution has shown “flexibility” in negotiations with the Greeks. In fact, the IMF has conceded almost nothing over four months: not on taxes, pensions, wages, collective bargaining or the amount of Greece’s debt. Greek chief negotiator Euclid Tsakalatos circulated a briefing on the breakdown that gives details, and concludes: “So what does the Greek government think of the proposed flexibility of the Institutions? It would be a great idea.”
3. The creditors have been generous. Angela Merkel has called the terms offered by the creditors “very generous” to Greece. But in fact the creditors have continued to insist on a crushing austerity program, predicated on a target for a budget surplus that Greece cannot possibly meet, and on the continuation of draconian policies that have already cost the Greeks more than a quarter of their income and plunged the country into depression. Debt restructuring, which is obviously necessary, has also been refused.
4. The European Central Bank has protected Greek financial stability. A central bank is supposed to protect the financial stability of solvent banks. But from early February, the ECB cut off direct financing of Greek banks, instead drip-feeding them expensive liquidity on special “emergency” terms. This promoted a slow run on the banks and paralyzed economic activity. When the negotiations broke down, the ECB capped the assistance, prompting a fast bank run and giving them an excuse to impose capital controls and effectively shut them down.
5. The Greek government is imperiling its American alliance. This is a particular worry of some US conservatives, who see a leftist government in power and assume it is pro-Russian and anti-NATO. It is true that the Greek Left has historic complaints against the US, notably for CIA support of the military junta that ruled from 1967 to 1974. But in fact, attitudes on the Greek Left have changed, thanks partly to experience with the Germans. This government is pro-American and firmly a member of NATO. TOO BAD. MAYBE THAT WILL CHANGE SHORTLY
6. Alexis Tsipras called the IMF a “criminal” organization. That was, charitably, an overheated headline slapped by Bloomberg onto a very moderate parliamentary speech, which correctly pointed out that the IMF's economic and debt projections for Greece back when austerity was first imposed in 2010 were catastrophically optimistic. In fact, every letter from Tsipras to the creditors has been couched in formal and respectful language.
7. The Greek government is playing games. Because Finance Minister Varoufakis knows the economic field of game theory, lazy pundits have for months opined that he is playing “chicken” or “poker” or some other game. In Heraklion two weeks ago, Varoufakis denied this as he has done many times: “We're not bluffing. We're not even meta-bluffing.” Indeed there are no hidden cards. The Greek red lines – the points of principle on which this government refuses to budge – on labor rights, against cuts in poverty-level pensions and fire-sale privatizations – have been in plain view from day one.
8. A “Yes” vote will save Europe. “Yes” would mean more austerity and social destruction, and the government that implements it cannot last long. The one that follows will not be led by Alexis Tsipras and Yanis Varoufakis – the last leaders, perhaps anywhere in Europe, of an authentic pro-European left. If they fall, the anti-Europeans will come next, possibly including ultra-right elements such as the Greek Nazi party, Golden Dawn. And the anti-European fire will spread, to France, the UK and Spain, among other countries.
9. A “No” vote will destroy Europe. In fact, only the “No” can save Greece – and by saving Greece, save Europe. A “No” means that the Greek people will not bend, that their government will not fall, and that the creditors need, finally, to come to terms with the failures of European policy so far. Negotiations can then resume – or more correctly, proper negotiations can then start. This is vital, if Europe is to be saved. If there ever was a moment when the United States should speak for decency and democratic values – as well as our national interest – it is right now.
James K. Galbraith holds the Lloyd M. Bentsen Jr. Chair in Government/Business Relations at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, the University of Texas at Austin. He has followed the Greek drama in Greece, Brussels, Paris and Berlin since January. His most recent book is “The End of Normal: The Great Crisis and the Future of Growth.”
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Two vastly different economies
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...Germany has the biggest population of any country in Europe — eight times as large as Greece's — in part the result of West and East Germany reunifying in 1990, after the end of the cold war...
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I'M HAVING TROUBLE WITH THE LINKS...SEE THE ORIGIN
Demeter
(85,373 posts)Stanford Classics Professor Josiah Ober has long suspected that some of the long-held ideas scholars had about the ancient Greek world could be wrong. Thanks to his innovative digital research project, he now has the data to show it. Ober says there was previously a developing and crystallizing consensus among classical scholars that there was little to no economic growth in ancient Greece – as was the case in most societies of that time. But instead of portraying a static, poor Greek economy, Ober's new findings have shown that from about 1000 to 300 B.C., classical Greece had impressive rates of economic growth that were unparalleled by its contemporaries in antiquity.
Together with a team of other Stanford scholars and students, the professor of classics and of political science digitized huge amounts of archaeological, documentary and literary data. Using these new tools, the team created analyses and visualizations that map out aspects of Greek life, such as how money circulated and how many people lived in cities versus small farms. At a certain point, Ober explained, the team compiled "a critical amount of evidence and recognized that the old story couldn't be right."
So why was ancient Greece so prosperous compared to its contemporaries? In his new book, The Rise and Fall of Classical Greece, Ober links this unexpected prosperity to a relatively democratic, decentralized state system that allowed for innovation and cultural development.
"Basically the answer to that is politics," Ober argues. "The Greek world is distinctive in having this dispersed structure so that there are many, many independent states rather than a single empire – or rather than a few big and powerful states."
IN OTHER WORDS--DEMOCRACY
IT'S A FASCINATING STORY OF FORENSIC ACCOUNTING!
mother earth
(6,002 posts)this is much needed to fully understand what's at play.
DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)7/5/15 Greek voters angry at media & creditors, scare-mongering campaign seems to backfire
by KeepTalkingGreece blog
The family of a friend is dived: her husband and her two children, 20 and 21, will vote “NO” in Sunday’s referendum, while she – a left-wing voter all through her voting life – was still undecided on early Saturday afternoon. “Hm… I don’t know yet, I despise the old corrupt politicians but I’m scared about our economic future,” Eleni tells me. She was scared when she heard on Friday night about the Financial Times report claiming that a 30% ‘haircut’ on deposits of over €8,000 was possible. On Sunday morning, Eleni, 55, went to the polling station and crossed the NO. “Ah, WTF! I cannot be on the same line with all the corrupt politicians of the past, with the country’s lenders.”
Polling stations for Greece’s crucial referendum opened at 7 o’ clock in the morning and will be open until 7 in the afternoon. The first secure estimation of the result is expected by 9 p.m.
The first secure estimation will be based on the counting of 10% of the ballot boxes. It will be released, if NO-YES difference is above 4%-5%. Otherwise, it will be released later. via state ERT TV
There will be no exit polls, as pollsters said that they have not experience for referendum exit polls.
Also Vicky told me this morning that she voted in favor of NO, also despite the fact that she was scared to death by the FT report. “I overcome the shock. I had a talk with myself and decided to take the risk. If you think of who has been campaigning for the YES, then it makes it easy to decide…”
With exception of Communist KKE that decided to cast its own ballots and vote “invalid” and extreme-right Golden Dawn that will vote NO, all opposition parties campaigned for YES. They lined up together with Greece’s mainstream media and the country’s the creditors: European Union, International Monetary Fund, European Central Bank, even the European Parliament President and President of Council of Europe. Juncker, Dijsselbloem, Lagarde, Tusk, Schulz, Schaeuble, Merkel… the list of national and international YES-supporters is incredible and dangerously long.
Dangerously in the sense that the YES-propaganda got literally out of control in an unprecedented scare-mongering paranoia. I have never seen such a fear-mongering delirium in the last 5 years, since Greece sought the creditors’ bailout. One-sided and often misleading information, local and foreign politician’s statements of Referendum-Doomsday, scenarios of sheer economic horror and total collapse.
Although I have been covering, monitoring and reporting about Greece-creditors talks of the last 5 years and did the same during the elections of May and June 2012 and January 25th, the European Parliament elections 2014, this time I saw that Greeks were exposed to a 24/7 YES bombardment as never before.
more...
http://www.keeptalkinggreece.com/2015/07/05/referendum-greek-voters-angry-at-media-creditors-scare-mongering-campaign-seems-to-backfire/?
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DemReadingDU
(16,000 posts)
Demeter
(85,373 posts)U.S. President Barack Obama on Monday signed into law the fast track trade bill – known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) – that also contains landmark legislation combating the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement in Europe.
“We still have some tough negotiations that are going to be taking place,” Obama said at a signing ceremony. “The debate will not end with this bill signing.”
The Trade Promotion Authority legislation also contained the anti-BDS provisions, which will discourage European governments from participating in BDS activities by leveraging the incentive of free trade with the United States.
The amendment mentions specifically “politically motivated actions to boycott, divest from, or sanction Israel and to seek the elimination of politically motivated nontariff barriers on Israeli goods, services, or other commerce imposed on the State of Israel.” It also seeks “the elimination of state-sponsored unsanctioned foreign boycotts against Israel or compliance with the Arab League boycott of Israel by prospective trading partners.”
“This is an historic milestone in the fight against Israel’s enemies, as American opposition to insidious efforts to demonize and isolate the Jewish state is now the law of the land,” Rep. Peter Roskam, a co-sponsor of one of two anti-BDS provisions in the law, said when the bill was approved in Congress.
“This will force companies like telecom giant Orange, which is partially owned by the French government, to think twice before engaging in economic warfare against Israel. No longer will these companies be able to freely attack a key U.S. ally without consequence,” he said.
Demeter
(85,373 posts)At the moment, NO "Oxi" leads, but not by enough to make me feel comfortable....
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)05-07-2015 23:09
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Registered 7.289.394
Reporting 76,59 %
Voted 61,55 %
Invalid/Blank 5,77 %
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61,60 %
38,40 %
magical thyme
(14,881 posts)05-07-2015 23:33
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Registered 8.339.956
Reporting 86,16 %
Voted 61,92 %
Invalid/Blank 5,78 %
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61,53 %
38,47 %
