Our tour of things economic, political, and ecologic begins with some hopeful opposition from nsnbc international:
Congressmen Oppose Fast Track and Trans-Pacific Partnership – TPP
Last week, House Representative Tim Bishop met with union leaders, environmentalists and various activists to join forces against the fast track being debated in Congress concerning the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).
To the attendees, Bishop said: “I urge my colleagues in Congress to do something, to see to it that we help to create an economy that creates good, solid, middle-class jobs. This agreement takes us in the opposite direction.”
Bishop wrote a letter to President Obama stating that he and 150 other members of the House reject the fast track.
One point of the TPP is to ensure sovereignty among corporations, which is why they have been integral in the creation of the drafts while schmoozing those they deem having power to sway the final document as in their best interests.
Cheapskates from The Hill:
Hotel industry vows to fight back against ‘extreme’ minimum wage bills
The hotel industry says it plans to fight state-by-state this year to defeat “extreme” minimum wage legislation.
The American Hotel & Lodging Association (AH&LA), which includes hotel chains such as Best Western International, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels and Resorts and Marriott International, placed wage legislation near the top of its lobbying agenda for 2014.
The group plans to “lead the charge to beat back the growing emergence of extreme minimum and living wage initiatives that are proven job-killers and ultimately hurt those who are building successful careers from the entry level,” according to an advance copy of the agenda obtained by The Hill.
Insert lowest extremity into orifice yet again, from The Verge:
Kleiner Perkins founder apologizes for Nazi comments, goes on wild class warfare rant
Tom Perkins says his Richard Mille watch “could buy a six pack of Rolexes”
Appearing on Bloomberg West today, Perkins said that while he regretted his use of the word “Kristallnacht,” he stood by his original message. “I don’t regret the message at all,” he said. “The message is that any time the majority starts to demonize a minority, no matter what it is, it’s wrong, and dangerous. And no good ever comes from it.” He also said “the majority” should not attack the 1 percent. “It’s absurd to demonize the rich for being rich and for doing what the rich do, which is get richer by creating opportunity for others,” he said. But he also drew scorn for saying that his Richard Mille watch, estimated to be worth $379,000, “could buy a six pack of Rolexes.”
Kleiner Perkins responded to Perkins’ original letter with a tweet saying Perkins had not been involved with the firm for years. “We were shocked by his views expressed today in the WSJ and do not agree,” the firm said. “They chose to sort of throw me under the bus, and I didn’t like that,” Perkins said today.
The Associated Press has a fair deal:
Marijuana contests join county fair in Colorado
Colorado’s Denver County is adding cannabis-themed contests to its 2014 summer fair. It’s the first time pot plants will stand alongside tomato plants and homemade jam in competition for a blue ribbon.
There won’t actually be any marijuana at the fairgrounds. The judging will be done off-site, with photos showing the winning entries. And a live joint-rolling contest will be done with oregano, not pot.
But county fair organizers say the marijuana categories will add a fun twist on Denver’s already-quirky county fair, which includes a drag queen pageant and a contest for dioramas made with Peeps candies.
North of the border and a decline from CBC News:
Canadian dollar closes below 90 cents
The Canadian dollar slipped below 90 cents US Monday, its lowest point since July of 2009.
The loonie closed at 89.96 US after gaining ground earlier in the session, as concern over emerging market currencies snowballed.
The steep slide in stocks that began last week slowed on Monday in U.S. markets, but Toronto stocks continued their drop, hurt by falling gold prices and a dip in oil and natural gas prices.
A global warning from a man with something to sell you. From MercoPress:
Coca Cola CEO warns youth unemployment is a great risk for social peace
Unemployment among teens and young adults represents a huge global problem, says Muhtar Kent, CEO of Coca-Cola. In the United States, teenage unemployment totaled 20.2 percent in December and if the situation isn’t addressed, the results could be devastating, the social peace and fabric of the world is in danger.
“Seventy-five million [young] people [globally] are unemployed, do not have the opportunity to work at the moment,” Kent said in a talk at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “That’s bigger than France. It’s a terrible thing when people are coming into the workforce in their late teens and early 20s and don’t have opportunities to create value”. In May 2012, the global youth unemployment rate totaled 12.6%, compared to 4.5% for the adult unemployment rate, according to the International Labor Organization. “If we’re not successful in creating better
On to Europe and a shoulder shrug from Channel NewsAsia Singapore:
Euro chief says no contagion from emerging markets
The eurozone’s recovery will not be affected by contagion from growing fears over emerging economies, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday.
The eurozone’s recovery will not be affected by contagion from growing fears over emerging economies, Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem said on Monday.
The worries over markets such as Argentina and Turkey come as the euro is overcoming the worst of its debt crisis.
“I think they’re quite different, separate issues,” Dijsselbloem told reporters ahead of a meeting in Brussels of finance ministers from the 18 countries that use the euro.
Dismal numeration from New Europe:
31.2 million EU citizens are either looking for better jobs or given up
Bloomberg survey reveals serious labour and social crisis in Europe
Labour and social crisis in Europe is deepening as the labour underutilisation rate is increasing according to a Bloomberg survey published on 27 January.
The US financial news agency said that economists predicted that Eurozone unemployment in December will remain at an all-time record high of 12.1 per cent meaning that 19 million European citizens are out of work. However, the Bloomberg survey indicated that labour and social crisis in Europe is much worse, as in the third quarter of 2013, 31.2 million people of all ages in Europe are either frustrated from their current jobs or stopped the job hunt.
According to Bloomberg, the most recent labour underutilization rate in Italy, the third-biggest economy in the Eurozone, was at 24 per cent being more than double the official jobless rate. Di Gilio, who has a bachelor’s degree in electronic engineering and lives with his parents, stooped searching for a job and said Bloomberg journalists. “I don’t want to work myself to death to survive…My friends who do work still need their parents’ support and those who start working often don’t get paid.” Di Gillio stressed, that looking for employment would be worth it if he had the chance to improve his living standards by being able to buy a house and start a family.
Hard times intolerance and familiar targets from GlobalPost:
Roma face mounting discrimination across Europe
Three months after news about a girl alleged to have been abducted by Roma proved false, prejudice continues to grow.
Greece isn’t alone in mistreating Roma, says Eleni Tsetsekou, a consultant on Roma to the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
“There’s no difference in Roma lives in other European countries, or in how they’re confronted by the majority of people,” she said. “Negative stereotypes are always present and deeply rooted.”
Romanian and Spanish schools also remain segregated between Roma and non-Roma children despite the European court’s decision. In France, police have dismantled Roma shantytowns and deported even minors, violating laws allowing for the free movement of EU citizens.
In Hungary, local governments have turned off water supplies to Roma districts. In Slovakia, towns have erected concrete barriers to isolate Roma neighborhoods. In Bulgaria, the far-right political group Ataka openly blames Roma for the poverty-stricken Balkan country’s economic ills.
On to Britain and an upbeat take from the London Telegraph:
Economy growing at fastest pace since financial crisis
Official figures to show UK economy grew by 1.9 per cent last year – the fastest pace since the financial crisis struck seven years ago
The British economy is growing at the fastest pace since the financial crisis struck seven years ago, official figures will confirm on Tuesday.
The latest positive sign on the economy came as Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, said Britain is now experiencing “a real recovery” and business leaders spoke of “real upsurge”.
However, he also warned that there were significant risks to a sustained recovery, particularly the housing market.
BBC News covers the geography of class:
Centre for Cities says economic gap with London widening
The economic gap between London and the rest of the UK is widening because other cities are “punching below their weight”, according to research.
London has created 10 times more private sector jobs than any other city since 2010, analysis by the Centre for Cities found.
The think tank is calling for more power to be devolved to the regions.
From EurActiv, a neoliberal wet dream
David Cameron pledges to rip up green regulations
David Cameron will on Monday (27 January) boast of tearing up 80,000 pages of environmental protections and building guidelines as part of a new push to build more houses and cut costs for businesses of up to £850 million (€1 billion) per year.
In a speech to small firms, the prime minister will claim that he is leading the first government in decades to have slashed more needless regulation than it introduced.
Among the regulations to be watered down will be protections for hedgerows and rules about how businesses dispose of waste, despite Cameron’s claims to lead the greenest government ever.
PetaPixel eliminates a craft we’ve practiced:
UK Newspaper Chain Follows in Sun Times Footsteps, Shutters All Photographer Jobs
Britons tend to take their newspapers a bit more seriously than Yanks, but that hasn’t stopped a newspaper chain there from Chicago Sun-Timesing (yes, we verbed it!) its way to ignominy by firing its entire photography staff.
It’s unclear exactly how many photographers will hit the pavement as a result of the decision by Johnston Press, but the National Union of Journalists counts 24 at newspapers scattered across Scotland and the Midlands.
Faithfully following the script set by the Chicago Sun-Times last year, the axed professionals will be replaced by freelancers, reader-submitted photos and reporters with smartphones.
Norway shows the door, via TheLocal.no:
Record number of foreigners deported
A record number of foreign citizens were deported from Norway last year, after country’s police stepped up the use of deportation as a way of fighting crime.
Some 5,198 foreign citizens were expelled from the country in 2013, an increase of 31 percent since 2012, when 3,958 people were deported.
“It is the highest number we’ve had ever,” Frode Forfang, head of the Directorate of Immigration (UDI), told NRK. “We believe that one reason for the increase is that the police have become more conscious of using deportation as a tool to fight crime.”
Nigerian citizens topped the list of those expelled for committing crimes, with 232 citizens expelled as a punishment in 2013, followed by Afghan citizens with 136 expelled as a punishment, and 76 Moroccans expelled as a punishment.
Germany next, and lumpen-loopholes from TheLocal.de:
A third could miss out on minimum wage rise
More than a third of low-paid workers in Germany could miss out on the proposed nationwide minimum wage because of exceptions being put forward by employer organizations and Conservative politicians.
A nationwide minimum wage of €8.50 an hour is due to be introduced in Germany in 2015.
But research released on Monday by the Hans-Böckler Foundation, a centre-left think-tank, found around two million of the more than five million workers who would otherwise have their wages boosted, would miss out on wage rises under plans to exclude certain sectors and workers.
Head of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer said in December that seasonal workers and pensioners should be excluded. According to the report, such exceptions could turn the minimum wage into a “Swiss cheese” policy – full of holes – and pose a serious threat to the job market.
Keep Talking Greece takes it to the bank:
German Bundesbank: “Capital Levy” on citizens to avoid government bankruptcies
Germany’s Bundesbank said on Monday that countries about to go bankrupt should draw on the private wealth of their citizens through a one-off capital levy before asking other states for help.
“(A capital levy) corresponds to the principle of national responsibility, according to which tax payers are responsible for their government’s obligations before solidarity of other states is required,” the Bundesbank said in its monthly report.
It warned that such a levy carried significant risks and its implementation would not be easy, adding it should only be considered in absolute exceptional cases, for example to avert a looming sovereign insolvency.
On to France with the London Telegraph:
Rise in French jobless claims means Francois Hollande fails to keep his promise
French President Francois Hollande had repeatedly promised to get unemployment falling by the end of 2013
French jobless claims rose a further 10,200 in December to hit a new record, dashing President Francois Hollande’s hopes of keeping his pledge to start lowering unemployment by the end of 2013.
Labour Ministry data showed the number of people registered as out of work in mainland France reached 3,303,200 last month, the largest total since records have been kept. It represented an increase of 0.3pc over one month and 5.7pc over one year.
Mr Hollande has struggled to kick-start activity in the eurozone’s second-biggest economy and keep his oft-repeated promise to get unemployment falling by the end of last year.
On the edge with TheLocal.fr:
‘Millions of French workers’ close to burnout
The French are known for the 35-hour week, a guaranteed five weeks of vacation and as keepers of the sacred notion of a proper lunch break. Yet more than 3 million of the working population is on the brink of burning out, a new study revealed. And what about expats?
The French may have a reputation for working as much as they play, but that stereotype is countered by a growing body of evidence that suggests they are slogging away too far too hard.
About 3.2 million French workers, who put an excessive and even compulsive effort into their jobs, are on the verge of burning out, a new study says.
The study from Technologia, a French firm that looks at way to reduce risks to workers, found that farmers, at 23.5 percent, were most prone to excessive work, followed closely at 19.6 percent of business owners and managers.
The all-consuming nature of people’s jobs has left them feeling exhausted, emotionally empty and sometimes physically in pain, Technologia found.
Spain next and a bizarre justification from TheLocal.es:
‘Spain’s abortion law will boost economy’
The Spanish government has prepared a memo claiming that tough new abortion laws will have a “positive impact” on the country’s economy thanks to an increased birth rate, it emerged on Monday.
The claims were part of a draft “impact analysis” study into the effects of Spain’s new abortion reform, put together by the country’s justice ministry.
Spain’s conservative Popular Party hopes the planned legislation would boost the country’s birth rate rise as abortions would only be possible in cases of rape or when the mother’s life was seriously at risk during pregnancy.
The authors of the study do remark however that the new draft law’s “economic impact is difficult to quantify” and “should not be directly associated with its approval” as that is not its primary objective.
Lisbon next with a mixed result from the Portugal News:
Deficit met but no easing of austerity
Following confirmation by the General Directorate of the Budget that Portugal had met its troika deficit target, Luís Marques Guedes, Minister to the Presidency, added the government would not be easing on its austerity measures.
Marques Guedes said that the exact deficit for 2013 would only be definitively ascertained in March but that the value would be in the region of 5%, significantly short of the troika agreed target of 5.5%.
The Minister went on to dismiss any “illusions” as to scope for relaxing tax hikes and budget cuts and said there remained “a road of effort and of rigour ahead.”
This followed the report that the state had clocked up a provisional deficit of €7.15 billion in 2013 against a target set at €8.9 billion.
Italy next and the class divide from ANSAmed:
Almost half of Italy’s wealth owned by richest 10%
Family incomes eroded, poverty up in 2010-2012 says central bank
Between 2010 and 2012, low- and middle-income families in recession-battered Italy have seen their quality of life eroded along with their incomes while the richest have gotten richer, according to a biannual study on family finances released Monday by the Bank of Italy.
Poverty rose from 14% in 2010 to 16% in 2012 amid Italy’s worst postwar recession, with almost half of Italian families living on less than 2,000 euros a month, the central bank report said.
Also in 2012, the richest 10% owned 46.6% of the country’s total net worth, up from 45.7% in 2010 and equal to a 64% concentration of wealth, according to the report.
Only 50% of households have annual incomes higher than 24,590 euros, while 20% of them cope with annual incomes of less than 14,457 euros, or roughly 1,200 euros per month. Just 10% of families make more than 55,211 euros per year, the Bank of Italy said.
TheLocal.it exits:
More Italians flee while migration to Italy falls
The number of Italians leaving their recession-hit country to seek work elsewhere rose sharply in 2012, while incoming migration levels dropped, official figures showed on Monday.
The figures support reports that Italy – hit hard by the financial crisis and rocketing unemployment levels – is losing brain power and labour to other
countries and has also become less appealing a destination for foreigners.
The number of Italians leaving the country rose by 36.0 percent to 68,000 people, up from 50,000 in 2011. They headed primarily for Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and France, the national institute of statistics (ISTAT) said.
More than a quarter of over 24-year-olds emigrating had university degrees, it said. Conversely, the number of immigrants arriving dropped by close to 10 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, to 321,000 people.
After the jump, the Greek meltdown continues, a Ukrainian concession and dark undercurrents, Argentine outrage, a new port for Cuba, a Latin boundary dispute resolved, an Indian crash, Thai troubles, Vietnamese bank fraud, reduced expectations in China, Abenomics woes and an iconic downfall, environmental woes, and Fukushimapocalypse Now!. . .
From New Europe, our first Greek item, an admonition:
Eurogroup voices suspicion over Greece: “further work is needed”
Greece was again the main topic of the Eurogroup finance ministers, who met on Monday 27 January in Brussels before of a meeting of all 28 EU finance ministers on Tuesday.
“I am sorry to say”, said the Eurogroup chief Jeroen Dijsselbloem, “that the review is not yet concluded and further work is needed in Greece before the Troika can return to Athens. We called on Greece and the Troika to do their utmost to conclude the negotiations as soon as possible. And on basis of a positively concluded review and only on that basis we will then come to that once again in the Eurogroup meeting.”
On Tuesday, the EU’s finance ministers will continue discussing the crisis, led by the Greek Minister of Finances Yannis Stournaras, who faced hard questions by his colleagues. It is not the first time that a bankrupt country is holding the rotating EU presidency: before Greece, there was Cyprus in 2012. The special thing with Greece is the magnitude of its bankruptcy: with a debt of almost 200 billion Euros before it was forced to restructure it in 2012, Greece’s was after all the biggest government bankruptcy in history.
Kathimerini English puts it off:
No more aid expected for Greece before March, says Stournaras
Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said on Monday that further rescue funding is unlikely to be approved before March as European officials meeting in Brussels pressed Athens to intensify its reform efforts.
Stournaras was speaking at the conclusion of a summit of eurozone officials in Brussels where Greece was not officially on the agenda but was discussed on the sidelines. He said he hoped a deal could be reached with troika officials next month, paving the way for the release of aid in March, and suggested that a primary surplus for 2013, estimated at 830 million euros, would help plug a fiscal gap for 2014. “The matter has been solved in a way that cannot be disputed,” he said.
Capital.gr mandates:
Implementation of OECD-suggested reforms crucial for troika negotiations
The reforms suggested by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) will be the focal point in the negotiations with the troika, the country’s creditors underlined in a letter addressed to Development Minister Costis Hatzidakis, a senior ministry official confirmed on Friday after the ministerial committee meeting on red-tape reduction.
According to AMNA, the troika noted in its letter that the ongoing evaluation will not be completed unless the organization’s recommendations are implemented in a very convincing manner.
The course of the negotiations will depend heavily on the development ministry’s ability to implement reforms proposed by the OECD on market related matters such as milk expiration dates, bread market deregulation and over-the-counter drugs.
Walking out with Greek Reporter:
Continuous Strikes for Greek Power Corporation Employees
Trade unions of the Public Power Corporation S.A. Hellas (DEI) have announced their plans for continuous strikes starting on Monday at midnight.
On Wednesday, January 29, the unions will gather at Korai square and march towards Syntagma, the centre of Greece’s capital. As they announced, DEI’s employees plan to stay outside the Greek parliament until the Greek Parliament discusses ADMIE’s (Independent Power Transmission Operator) privatization bill.
Unions’ representatives stated that the duration and the intensity of the protests will depend on the employees’ participation. The unions were against the privatization of ADMIE regardless of the cost as they believe that this sector should remain under the Greek government’s control for strategic and national security reasons.
The unions stated that the privatization will lead to an increase in fees for the use of the electricity grid. At the same time, DEI’s trade unions believe that the privatization, in light of the health insurer, might lawfully be called into question.
ANSAmed measures austerian red ink:
Greek households lose 8% in disposable income in 2013
Greek household disposable income fell by 2.6 billion euros, or 8%, in the third quarter of 2013 compared to a year earlier, Kathimerini online reports quoting data published by the Hellenic Statistical Authority (Elstat) on Monday.
Elstat attributed the fall, which saw disposable income dropping to a total of 30.4 billion euros in Q3 last year, to a 9.9% year-on-year fall in employees’ compensation and 8.2% drop in social benefits.
Neos Kosmos declines:
Record drop in house prices in Greece
House prices in Greece have dropped on average by 32 per cent since the onset of the crisis.
The Greek housing market posted the second-worst performance among European Union (EU) countries in the third quarter of 2013, as according to Bank of Greece data prices fell at an annual rate of 9.2 per cent following five years of decline. Eurostat announced this week that Greece was only second to new EU member Croatia in terms of the drop in house prices.
At the same time a slowdown was observed in the rate of decline across the eurozone, with the average fall coming to just 1.3 per cent in Q3 compared to an annual slide of 2.4 per cent in the second quarter. Across the EU the drop amounted to no more than 0.5 per cent.
The Greek property market picture is unlikely to change in the next few months, even though the total price decrease has reached 32 per cent across the country since the start of the financial crisis.
MacroPolis charts reduction:
One in two Greek households rely on pensions to make ends meet
The main, and in many cases only, source of income for almost half of Greek households are pensions, whereas they rely on salaries most in just one in three cases, according to a new survey.
The poll, carried out for the Small Enterprises’ Institute of the Hellenic Confederation of Professionals, Craftsmen & Merchants (IME-GSEVEE), suggests that 48.6 percent of families are reliant on pensions, while for 35.9 percent income from salaried or freelance work is the mainstay. Just over 10 percent said that business profits are the households’ lifeblood.
The average basic pension in Greece is just under 700 euros per month (around 900 euros if auxiliary pensions are added).
To Vima notes the neoliberal desideratum:
Tsipras claims healthcare bill is a “present to private interests”
SYRIZA leader notes that the controversial bill will result in the collapse of the public healthcare system
The leader of SYRIZA Alexis Tsipras has demanded that the government withdraw its healthcare bill, which he dubbed a “present to private interests”, after meeting with the board of directors of the EOPYY doctor union.
Mr. Tsipras explained that the bill was a “time bomb” as thousands of people would be added to the current 3 million uninsured Greek people without access to healthcare, if EOPYY were to shut down. The opposition leader urged coalition government MPs to rebel against the bill.
A passive stance towards violent intolerance from To Vima:
Golden Dawn gang desecrates Fyssas memorial in Keratsini
About 80 Golden Dawn members marched through Keratsini unopposed by the police and assaulted nearby squat
On Saturday afternoon a Golden Dawn “assault squad” comprised of about 80 members marched to the scene of Pavlos Fyssas’ murder and ripped down a memorial banner, before assaulting the nearby Resalto squat. The neo-Nazi gang also dropped leaflets and spray painting nationalist slogans.
Video footage and eye witness report from the assault shows that police units maintained a passive stance and did not intervene in the attacks. After the attack against the squat was repelled, about 400 squatters, anarchists and local residents organized an anti-fascist demonstration in Amfiali.
To Vima postures:
Venizelos promises to “isolate neo-Nazi elements from society”
The Government Vice President addressed racism and anti-Semitism in Greece on the Holocaust Memorial Day
The Government Vice President Evangelos Venizelos expressed his conviction that “the neo-Nazi elements, which attack Democracy and the Rule of Law, will be isolated by Greek society” in his message for the Holocaust Memorial Day.
Mr. Venizelos stressed that “on the national day of remembrance of Greek Jewish heroes and victims of the Holocaust, the Greek people honor the memory of the thousands of compatriots, Greek Jews, who fell victim to Nazi atrocities”.
The Vice President warned that the Greek government will take exception to denial of the Holocaust and fully implement existing antiracist legislation.
From Kathimerini English, an embarrassment for a stalwart of the Greco-GOP:
Giakoumatos reacts after police arrest wife, brother for alleged tax offenses
The wife and brother of New Democracy MP Gerasimos Giakoumatos faced a prosecutor Monday on suspicion of tax offenses.
The pair are being questioned in connection to finances of the family business, a retirement home in the northern Athenian suburb of Neo Psychico. The lawmaker’s brother was the managing director, while his wife was the home’s president.
The MP himself is protected from prosecution by his parliamentary immunity.
Off the the Ukraine with a concession from EUbusiness:
Ukraine leader agrees to scrap anti-protest laws
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych on Monday agreed to scrap anti-protest laws but said jailed demonstrators would be released only if barricades are taken down — on the eve of a key EU-Russia summit in Brussels.
Opposition leader Arseniy Yatsenyuk also formally turned down the post of prime minister, held out by Yanukovych following a previous round of negotiations on Saturday, the presidency said in a statement on fresh talks with the opposition.
“There was a political decision to abolish the January 16 laws that have caused so much discussion,” read the statement, which comes on the eve of a special parliament session that is due to discuss possible measures aimed at ending the deadly two-month crisis.
“Yatsenyuk declined to lead the government of Ukraine,” it added.
Spiegel looks at the oft-overlooked:
‘Prepared to Die’: The Right Wing’s Role in Ukrainian Protests
Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovich appears bent on crushing the protest movement but the opposition won’t go quietly. A right-wing nationalist party is seeking to benefit from the growing violence and has begun warning of a civil war.
The Svoboda party also has excellent ties to Europe, but they are different from the ones that Klischko might prefer. It is allied with France’s right-wing Front National and with the Italian neo-fascist group Fiamma Tricolore. But when it comes to the oppression of homosexuality, representative Myroshnychenko is very close to Russian President Vladimir Putin, even if he does all he can to counter Moscow’s influence in his country.
Latin America next and a critique from the Buenos Aires Herald:
CFK criticises banks, financial ‘speculators’
President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner used her personal Twitter account to rail against figures in the banking and financial industries, which according to the head of state used speculative practices to send Argentina into default in 2001.
The president’s comments, just days after the peso experienced a sharp devaluation, are the first time she has referenced the economy since the exchange rate drop and a subsequent liberalisation of currency purchases.
“[Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff and myself] spoke in depth. The principal issue speculative pressures on the exchange rates of emerging countries,” CFK began, referencing a meeting held with the Brazil chief in Cuba.
BBC News casts off:
Brazil-funded port inaugurated in Cuba
Brazil and Cuba have inaugurated the first phase of a deepwater sea port, a rare large foreign investment project on the Caribbean island.
The $957m (£577m) overhaul of the port of Mariel, in the west of the capital, Havana, is being financed by Brazil.
It is in the heart of a special economic development zone to which Cuba hopes to lure foreign investment.
And the Los Angeles Times settles boundary issues:
Peru wins maritime border dispute with Chile over key fishing grounds
A territorial dispute between Chile and Peru ended Monday with an international court awarding Peru a triangle of Pacific Ocean territory covering thousands of square miles rich in fishing and other natural resources.
Peru filed the claim at the International Court of Justice in The Hague in 2008, alleging that marine boundaries had never formally been set by the two countries. Chile’s position was that the line had been defined in agreements signed in 1952 and 1954, which Peru argued were strictly fishing accords.
In a 15-1 vote, the court ordered that the common marine border be redrawn so that it will follow the current border for 80 miles from the coast but then will veer southwest for 120 miles, giving Peru the disputed “external triangle.”
India next, and an emerging market decline from the Financial Express:
Market crash: BSE Sensex, Indian rupee sink as sell-off in emerging markets deepens
A sell-off in emerging markets today hit India hard as the BSE Sensex plunged 426 points to end below the 21,000-mark while the Indian rupee plummeted 44 paise to slide past the 63-level versus US dollar.
However, gold rose for the third day by adding Rs 70 to Rs 30,570 per ten gram in the national capital.
The week began on a sour note for most investors in India as the equity benchmark BSE Sensex fell for the second day and ended at a three-week low of 20,707.45. The 426-point plunge was the worst singe-day drop in five months.
Thailand next and a warning from The Guardian:
Thai election postponement could tip country into permanent crisis
Democracy itself could be the casualty as electoral commission calls for poll to be delayed, while PM wants to press ahead
Proposals to postpone Thailand’s controversial general election for at least one month threaten to transform the current confrontation between government and opposition into a permanent state of crisis with potentially damaging region-wide ramifications.
Monday’s recommendation by Thailand’s election commission to delay the poll, due on 2 February, follows intensified violence at the weekend. One person was killed and 12 were injured when anti-government protesters blockaded advance polling stations, bringing the total death toll to 10 since the unrest began in November.
Further complicating an already dangerously confused situation, the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, and her Pheu Thai party are insisting the election must go ahead on time. They fear an escalation of violence, causing further collateral damage to the economy, foreign investment and tourism, plus the ever present possibility of military intervention.
On to Vietnam and a Bankster Behaving Badly from the Jakarta Globe:
Vietnam’s Ex-Banker Gets Life Over $230m Fraud Case
A Vietnamese court Monday sentenced a former banker to life in prison for a fraud involving more than $230 million, one of the communist country’s largest-ever such cases.
Huynh Thi Huyen Nhu, 37, was convicted alongside 22 other defendants who were given sentences of up to 20 years in prison after a three-week trial ended Monday, a clerk at the People’s Court in the southern metropolis of Ho Chi Minh City told AFP.
Nhu raised some $231 million in loans from individuals, companies and other banks when she worked for the state-run Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (Vietinbank). She claimed to be raising funds on the bank’s behalf, the Tuoi Tre newspaper reported.
On to Beijing, where China Daily takes delivery:
Brazilian iron ore imports at record
Quality inspection officials in Rizhao, Shandong province of China inspect iron ores imported from Brazil. China imported about 170 million metric tons of Brazilian iron ores last year and the demand from the world’s second-largest economy is expected to remain high. provided to China Daily
Brazil’s iron ore exports to China reached a record high of more than 170 million metric tons in 2013 and will continue to increase as the demand for resources by the world’s second-largest economy keeps rising alongside urbanization.
According to the Secretary of Foreign Trade of Brazil, the country exported 170.1 million tons of iron ore to China in 2013, up around 4 percent from the previous year.
“Brazil’s iron ore exports to China have been increasing in the past five years and the trend will continue this way in the future,” said Zhang Tieshan, a senior analyst with industrial information provider Mysteel.com.
Want China Times tracks corporate corruption:
CCTV exposes unlicensed and fake goods at Chinese Walmarts
China’s state-broadcaster CCTV has accused US retailer Walmart of bypassing quality and safety checks to fast-track products, some of which are unlicensed, to Chinese shelves.
The four-minute CCTV report aired on Jan. 23 featured around 200 alleged company documents from as far back as 2006 showing that company managers signed off on more than 600 products that lacked the requisite paperwork for distribution. The unlicensed products even included fake products, including counterfeit versions of the Feitian Moutai Chinese liquor made by Kweichow Moutai, the CCTV report said.
In response, Walmart, the world’s No. 1 retailer, explained that it uses its “special approvals process” only in specific circumstances.
Bloomberg News keeps a second set of books:
China Trade Puzzle Revived as Hong Kong Data Diverge
China’s trade numbers, distorted by fake exports last year, are set to come under renewed scrutiny after a discrepancy between Hong Kong and Chinese figures for bilateral trade widened to the largest in eight months.
Hong Kong’s December imports from China fell 1.9 percent from a year earlier to HK$176 billion ($22.7 billion), the city’s statistics department said yesterday. That compares with $38.5 billion in exports to Hong Kong reported earlier this month by China’s customs administration, up 2.3 percent, based on data compiled by Bloomberg.
Economists split on how to interpret the latest numbers, which follow reports earlier last year that invoices for fake exports were used to disguise capital inflows, inflating China’s trade data before regulators in May cracked down on the practice. Exaggerated overseas shipments would mean that global demand is weaker than China’s statistics indicate.
Global Times decelerates:
Banks see slower growth in assets
With growth in China’s banking sector assets having slowed to the lowest level in a decade, the risk from bad debts is expected to rise amid the country’s -efforts to tighten controls on credit -expansion, analysts said Monday.
Assets of the banking industry -totaled 148 trillion yuan ($24 trillion) by the end of 2013, up 12.8 percent from a year earlier, according to data released Sunday by the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC). The growth rate was the lowest since 2003, when the CBRC first started revealing such data.
Banking assets mainly refer to -financial institutions’ lending assets. Meanwhile, total liabilities reached 137.9 trillion yuan.
“The asset growth of the banking institutions is consistent with the slowdown in growth of overall money supply as the authorities guard against a credit bubble,” Jin Lin, a banking analyst at Orient Securities, told the Global Times Monday.
Nikkei Asian Review diagnoses:
Small, private Chinese businesses in a world of credit hurt
With China’s economic growth no longer red-hot, privately run companies are grappling with higher fund-raising costs.
President Xi Jinping and the Communist Party leadership are pushing ahead with structural reform, which is essential if China is to ensure mid- to long-term growth. In short term, however, the reform drive could trigger a wave of business failures and put banks under piles of nonperforming loans.
The preliminary HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index for January, released Thursday, dipped 0.9 of a percentage point, to 49.6, from a month earlier. It came in below the boom-bust threshold of 50 for the first time in six months. As the index covers small to midsize private companies and exporters, it can reflect even slight changes in business sentiment.
Global Times minimizes:
Governments lower 2014 targets for investment
Many local governments in China have set lower targets for fixed-assets investment in 2014, signaling their efforts to adjust the economic structure and curb debt growth, experts said Monday.
A total 28 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions on the Chinese mainland (except Anhui, Hainan and Hunan provinces) had published their government work reports as of Monday, among which only three raised this year’s growth target for fixed-assets investment.
South China’s Guangdong Province, No.1 in terms of GDP value among all provincial-level regions last year, set its growth target for fixed-assets investment at 18 percent in 2014, higher than the 15 percent it set for 2013. However, the export hub lowered its foreign trade growth target to 1 percent this year from 5 percent a year earlier.
Want China Times sells off the commons:
2013 land revenues reach record US$678bn in China
Boosted by rising property prices last year, China’s domestic government funds raised a total of 4.1 trillion yuan (US$678 billion) by selling land to developers. The figure blew by 2011′s record of 3.15 trillion yuan (US$521 billion), up 44.6% from year-on-year, reports Shanghai’s First Financial Daily.
The figures surpassed last year’s projections by the paper, the report said.
In 2013, the nation’s public revenues totaled 12.91 trillion yuan (US$2.3 trillion), up 10.1% from a year earlier but marking the slowest growth in seven years. Among them, the national government fund revenues rose 39.2% from a year earlier, including the revenue of domestic government funds, which grew more than 40%. The revenue of domestic government funds relies chiefly on selling land to developers.
The nation’s slowing public revenue growth has become a trend replacing the era of high growth, according to experts.
Enduring poverty from Global Times:
100 mln still in poverty
There are still nearly 100 million people in poverty in rural China, officials from the State Council said on Monday.
Wang Guoliang, deputy director of the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development, said at a press conference in Beijing that 250 million people have been alleviated from poverty since the government took action.
Wang pointed out the infrastructure and cultural establishment still lag behind in poor rural areas and the mechanism of the government’s poverty alleviation work needs further improvement. He also urged the public to participate in the alleviation work and said government should strengthen regulation of alleviation funds.
People’s Daily follows in LBJ’s footsteps:
China to wage war against poverty: Premier
China will wage a war against poverty with a stronger resolve and prevent it from afflicting future generations, Premier Li Keqiang has said.
High economic growth since China adopted reform and opening up more than 30 years ago has helped lift almost half the nation’s population out of poverty. This is due to market-oriented reforms and the government’s constant efforts in poverty relief, the premier said.
Despite the achievements, poverty is not fully rooted out, which has prompted the premier to make the vow in his tour to two deprived regions in the northwestern province of Shaanxi on Sunday.
Remaining poverty-stricken areas are mostly those beset with harsh natural conditions, the premier said.
On to Japan and a once-fabled icon loses luster. From the Japan Times:
Moody’s cuts Sony’s credit rating to junk
Moody’s cut its credit rating on Sony Corp. to junk on Monday, saying the electronics giant had more work to do in repairing its battered balance sheet.
The major international ratings agency lowered its view of the company to Ba1 from Baa3, meaning its debt is now seen as below investment grade, a move that threatens to push up Sony’s borrowing costs.
“While Sony has made progress in its restructuring and benefits from continued profitability in several of its business segments, it still faces challenges to improve and stabilize its overall profitability,” Moody’s said in a statement.
“Of primary concern are the challenges facing the company’s TV and PC businesses, both of which face intense global competition, rapid changes in technology, and product obsolescence.”
Jiji Press asks for more:
Japan Labor Leader Presses for Pay Scale Hikes
Japanese Trade Union Confederation (Rengo) President Nobuaki Koga, in a speech at a labor-management forum meeting on Monday, stressed the need for pay scale increases, not just hikes in bonuses, to stimulate consumption.
The labor leader’s call came at a time when companies appear increasingly inclined to reward employees with bonus hikes for improved earnings, instead of implementing pay scale hikes, which would be a permanent cost-increasing factor.
Temporary increases in wages will not lead to an expansion in consumption, he warned.
From JapanToday, left out:
Over 70% say they don’t feel any benefit from Abenomics: poll
Nearly three-quarters of Japanese people are feeling no effect from “Abenomics”, a new poll has shown, despite global acclaim for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic project.
A survey carried out over the weekend by Kyodo News showed 73% of respondents do not feel they are benefiting from the policy package that has sent the yen plunging and the stock market soaring.
Just 25% of respondents said they had noticed the effects of the program which involves stimulus spending and massive monetary easing designed to end more than 15 years of stagnation in the world’s third-largest economy.
Jiji Press declines still more:
Number of Workers in Japan Seen Falling by 8.21 M. in 2030
The number of people with jobs in Japan is projected to fall by 8.21 million from 2012 to 54.49 million in 2030, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said Monday.
The estimate, which assumes zero growth of the Japanese economy and no change in the proportions of female and elderly workers, was disclosed at a meeting of the ministry’s study group on medium- to long-term labor policies.
The group believes that a drop in the labor supply could dampen economic growth amid the country’s falling birthrate and its aging population.
Next, Fukushimapocalypse Now!
JapanToday covers a rejection:
Naraha mayor rejects gov’t plan to build nuclear waste storage facility
The mayor of a town in Fukushima Prefecture, which had been designated by the government as one site for an interim nuclear waste storage facility, on Monday rejected the proposal and asked the government to come up with another alternative.
Naraha Mayor Yukiei Matsumoto said local residents had rejected the plan, TBS reported.
In December, Environment Minister Nobuteru Ishiara and Reconstruction Minister Takumi Nemoto met with the mayors of Naraha, Futaba and Okuma, as well as Fukushima Gov Yueki Sato, to seek their support for the government’s plan to build storage facilities for thousands of tons of soil contaminated with radiation and other nuclear waste from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster.
NHK WORLD mulls the issue:
Council to study temporary nuclear waste storage
The Science Council of Japan has begun studying ways to store highly radioactive nuclear waste on a temporary basis. The country’s leading scientists resumed discussions on Monday for the first time since they made a proposal on the matter in September 2012.
Back then, they said the government’s policy of burying nuclear waste deep underground permanently had come to a dead end. The council says the government should brace itself for an overhaul of the current plan.
The council proposed to store waste from nuclear power stations in a retrievable way for up to several hundred years to give time to develop new technologies and form consensus among the public.
The Asahi Shimbun goes for the under-the-table gold:
Utilities secretly buy tickets for pro-nuclear minister’s fund-raisers
Using money paid by consumers, nuclear plant operators have secretly bought tickets worth several million yen a year for fund-raising parties of Akira Amari, a pro-nuclear Cabinet minister, since 2006, The Asahi Shimbun learned.
The utilities have kept each ticket purchase at 200,000 yen ($2,000) or less to prevent their names from appearing in the political fund reports of Amari, the minister in charge of economic revitalization, sources said.
It was already reported that directors of electric power companies have made individual donations to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, but the utilities were found for the first time to have bought fund-raising party tickets with electricity fees paid by consumers.
Amari, an LDP lawmaker with economic and industrial interests, exerts strong influence on energy policy and advocates reactivating idled nuclear reactors.
Other fuels, other problems from RT:
UK Fracking could be allowed under people’s homes without their consent
Government sources have admitted that they are considering overhauling UK trespass laws to make it easier to extract shale gas. Under the plans being considered by the government, fracking could take place under homes without owners’ permission.
The government sources say they are mulling over these amendments to the law to make it easier for companies to explore and extract shale gas, amid worries that landowners and other parties could hold up energy companies in costly and lengthy court proceedings, the Telegraph reports.
The plans are expected to be published in the coming months, and are likely to be the most controversial yet in Prime Minister David Cameron’s plans to push through fracking regardless of the environmental cost.
And for our final item a greenhouse gas disaster from Independent.ie:
Flatulent cows start fire at German dairy farm
Methane gas from 90 flatulent cows exploded in a German farm shed on Monday, damaging the roof and injuring one of the animals, police said.
High levels of the gas had built up in the structure in the central German town of Rasdorf, then “a static electric charge caused the gas to explode with flashes of flames,” the force said in a statement. One cow was treated for burns, a police spokesman added.
