Opening our compendium of headlines fromn the economic, political, and environmental developments, a Trans-Pacific Panic from Techdirt:
USTR Finally Realizing Its All Encompassing Secrecy May Be A Problem, Calls Frantic Meeting For All ‘Cleared’ Lobbyists
from the you’re-doing-it-wrong dept
It’s been funny for years watching the USTR continue to repeat the same laughable line about how they’ve had “unprecedented transparency” concerning the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) agreement — an agreement that is still completely secret, other than a couple chapters leaked to Wikileaks. Here’s a hint: if the text of the agreement is only available thanks to Wikileaks, you’re not being transparent, precedented or not. Even the NY Times slammed the USTR’s lack of transparency, and multiple members of Congress have been arguing that they’re not at all comfortable with the lack of transparency from the USTR. Because of this, it seems that the USTR’s desire for fast track authority, which would let it route around Congressional review, is on life support and close to dead.
Given that, it appears that the USTR is in panic mode, and has frantically called an all day meeting for all “cleared advisors” (i.e., the corporate representatives who actually do get to see the document) concerning the whole transparency issue.
From the New York Times, double trouble:
Payroll Data Shows a Lag in Wages, Not Just Hiring
For the more than 10 million Americans who are out of work, finding a job is hard. For the 145 million or so who are employed, getting a raise is even harder.
The government said on Friday that employers added 113,000 jobs in January, the second straight month of anemic growth, despite some signs of strength in the broader economy. The unemployment rate inched down in January to 6.6 percent, the lowest level since October 2008, from 6.7 percent in December.
But the report also made plain what many Americans feel in their bones: Wages are stuck, and barely rose at all in 2013. They were up 1.9 percent last year, or a mere 0.4 percent after accounting for inflation. Not only was that increase even smaller than the one recorded in 2012, it was half the normal rate of wage gains in the two decades before the last recession.
More from Deutsche Welle:
US employment figures fail to thrill analysts
Fresh figures from the US Labor Department have shown employers have hired far fewer workers in January than expected. Analysts viewed this as a loss of momentum in the national economy after an already weak December.
Meager job gains towards the end of last year were barely improved upon in January, the US Labor Department reported Friday.
The latest monthly figures showed nonfarm payrolls rose only by 113,000, with 185,000 penciled in by analysts.
With strong job increases in construction, cold weather was not a major factor for the slow pick-up, nurturing fears of a general loss of momentum of the national economy.
CNBC diversifies:
Wealthy avoiding stocks, buying art
Art often imitates stocks—at least when it comes to prices.
But so far this year, stock markets are down and art is up.
Sotheby’s two days of Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist sales racked up £215.8 million (more than $345 million), the highest ever for a sale series in London. All its lots sold. The top was Camille Pissarro’s 1897 painting “Boulevard Montmartre, Matinee de Printemps,” which went for £19.7 million, or about $32 million—nearly double its top presale estimate.
Christie’s had a good week, too, selling Juan Gris’ 1915 still life “The Checked Tablecloth” for $56.7 million. The previous record for a Gris was $28 million. The Impressionist and Modern evening sale totaled $288 million.
Collectible cars are also on a tear. A 1957 Ferrari Testarossa sold in Britain this week for $40 million. And a series of auctions in Paris set a spate of new records for certain cars. RM Auctions gaveled down on a 1955 Jaguar D-Type for about $5 million.
The Project On Government Oversight notes the exceptional:
Head of SEC Given Waiver to Oversee Past Client
Mary Jo White, the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), will be allowed to oversee her former client, Credit Suisse, according to a new ethics waiver the U.S. Office of Government Ethics posted to its website this week.
Before coming to the SEC, White, a former attorney at Debevoise & Plimpton, represented Wall Street giants such as UBS and JPMorgan. President Obama nominated her to head the SEC in January 2013.
Her waiver underscores the complications that can often arise when a former white-collar defense attorney becomes a top regulator overseeing an industry she used to represent.
According to the waiver, signed by the SEC’s ethics officer on Feb. 6, White had been prohibited from overseeing Credit Suisse since joining the agency because she provided legal services to the bank during her stint at Debevoise. In the two years prior to her SEC nomination, she “billed in total less than one hour (0.5 hours in January 2012 and 0.4 hours in February 2012) for work on Credit Suisse matters,” the waiver says.
Wrist-slappage from the Los Angeles Times:
Gov. Brown, Newsom to get warning letters from ethics agency
Gov. Jerry Brown and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom are among 40 officials receiving warning letters from the state ethics agency after their campaigns received improper contributions from a lobbying firm, representatives said Friday.
A firm headed by Kevin Sloat has reached a tentative agreement with the state Fair Political Practices Commission to pay more than $100,000 in fines involving violations of California’s campaign finance laws, according to sources familiar with the investigation who are not authorized to speak publicly.
The firm Sloat Higgins Jensen and Associates provided prohibited contributions, including expensive wine and cigars, at fundraisers held for elected officials at his Sacramento mansion.
Top-heaviness from The Wire:
Universities Are Cutting Tenured Faculty While They Load Up on ‘Non-Academic’ Administrators
As the cost of college remains exorbitant, recent trends indicate schools in the United States are trading tenured professors for non-academic administrative staff. It’s pretty clear where American colleges have their priorities, and it’s not in academics. Students are paying more to attend schools that are spending less to teach them, and instead spending that tuition money on administration.
According to a new report from the New England Center for Investigating Reporting, “the number of non-academic administrative and professional employees at U.S. colleges and universities has more than doubled in the last 25 years.” Meanwhile, full-time tenured faculty positions are at the lowest rate in 25 years, while the prevalence of adjunct professors – part-time, non-tenured professors – is at its highest. In fact, according to the American Association of University Professors, “more than three of every four (76 percent) of instructional staff positions are filled on a contingent basis,” meaning without tenure.
The reason that non-tenured professors are so much more popular than tenured faculty is simple: they’re cheaper. Adjunct professors, especially, make very little. Most are paid on a per-course basis, making somewhere between $2,000 and $5,000 for each course taught.
Bloomberg Businessweek bemoans:
Mamas, Don’t Let Your Babies Be Born at AOL
AOL Chief Executive Tim Armstrong ruffled more than a few of his employees’ feathers when he disclosed this week that two AOL workers’ “distressed” babies had whacked the company with $2 million in medical bills.
The costly children were cited—along with more than $7 million in costs from the Affordable Care Act—as the reason AOL (AOL) changed its 401(k) account match to an annual lump sum payment. Workers who aren’t on the payroll at year’s end will forfeit AOL’s 3 percent matching contribution to the accounts. IBM (IBM) made a similar change in 2012. If you plan to quit, management thinking goes, forget about collecting our share of your retirement savings.
Many employees didn’t react well to either bit of news, according to news reports. First, there’s the financial blow to workers, who will lose 401(k) funds if they leave AOL, as well as miss the opportunity to have the company’s match bolster their financial returns over a full year. There’s also the shock that accompanies hearing your boss tag a colleague’s difficult pregnancy and her newborn child as the reason your retirement plan was cut.
Stark realization from the Exchange:
Why Walmart is getting too expensive for the middle class
Walmart is struggling with weak sales and an underperforming stock price. The company recently cut its profit outlook, with analysts polled by S&P Capital IQ expecting just a 2.1% gain in sales when Walmart reports its quarterly earnings on February 20. That’s for a company that has consistently outcompeted nearly every other retailer except, perhaps, Amazon. Walmart’s stock has suffered, rising just 4% during the past year, while the S&P 500 index rose 17% during the same timeframe.
Walmart, though known as a discounter, may be too expensive for millions of shoppers finding themselves more pinched — not less — as the pace of the so-called recovery accelerates. “Their consumer is shifting downward,” says Joe Brusuelas, chief economist for financial-data firm Bloomberg LP. “The competition for Walmart is changing. It’s now dollar stores.”
Where some of their money went, via the Los Angeles Times:
Walton group funds more charter schools in L.A. than elsewhere
Los Angeles charter schools have been the largest recipients of funding from the foundation associated with the family that started Wal-Mart, according to figures released Wednesday.
Since 1997, the Arkansas-based Walton Family Foundation has distributed $35.9 million in start-up grants to 159 L.A.-area charters. By comparison, Walton has supported the creation of 125 charters in New York City.
Last year alone, the foundation made grants to 23 new L.A. schools, totaling more than $4.69 million, that were set to open in the near future. Both the annual and cumulative totals are higher than for any other region.
Charter schools are independently managed, free from some rules that govern traditional schools and outside the direct control of the local Board of Education. In California, local school boards are required by law to authorize and oversee all financially viable and academically sound charter school petitions. No school system has more charters than the L.A. Unified School District.
More from Slashdot:
25% of Charter Schools Owe Their Soul To the Walmart Store
Among the billionaires who helped Bill Gates pave the way for charter schools in WA was Walmart heiress Alice Walton. The Walton Family Foundation spent a whopping $158+ million in 2012 on what it calls ‘systemic K-12 education reform,’ which included $60,920,186 to ‘shape public policy’ and $652,209 on ‘research and evaluation.’
Confirming the LA Times’ speculation about its influence, the Walton Foundation issued a press release Wednesday boasting it’s the largest private funder of charter school ‘startups,’ adding that it has supported the opening of 1 in 4 charter schools in the U.S. since 1997 through its 1,500 ‘investments.’
In These Times fuels around:
Angering Environmentalists, AFL-CIO Pushes Fossil-Fuel Investment
Labor’s Richard Trumka has gone on record praising the Keystone pipeline and natural gas export terminals.
Trumka’s comments come at a sensitive time, as trade unions and leading environmental groups have sought to build political partnerships with each other in recent years.
The nation’s leading environmental groups are digging their heels in the sand by rejecting President Obama’s “all-of-the above” domestic energy strategy—which calls for pursuing renewable energy sources like wind and solar, but simultaneously expanding oil and gas production.
But it appears the AFL-CIO, the nation’s largest labor federation, won’t be taking environmentalists’ side in this fight, despite moves toward labor-environmentalist cooperation in recent years. On a recent conference call with reporters, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka endorsed two initiatives reviled by green groups: the Keystone XL pipeline and new natural gas export terminals.
“There’s no environmental reason that [the pipeline] can’t be done safely while at the same time creating jobs,” said Trumka.
In response to a question from In These Times, Trumka also spoke in favor of boosting exports of natural gas.
Bad news from the Associated Press:
Moody’s downgrades Puerto Rico credit rating
Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Puerto Rico’s credit rating to junk status.
The announcement Friday by the credit rating agency comes just days after Standard & Poor’s cut the U.S. territory’s debt to junk as well.
Moody’s says its decision was based in part of not seeing sufficient economic growth to help reverse negative financial trends.
News from north of the border via South China Morning Post:
Exclusive: Vancouver facing an influx of 45,000 more rich Chinese
Over 60pc seeking Canadian wealthy investor visa are from China and want to live in British Columbia’s main city, data shows
A South China Morning Post investigation into Canada’s immigration programme for millionaire investors has revealed the extraordinary extent to which it has become devoted to a single outcome: Helping rich mainland Chinese settle in Vancouver.
Immigration Department data obtained by the Post suggests there was a backlog of more than 45,000 rich Chinese waiting for approval of their applications to move to British Columbia as of January last year. They are estimated to have a minimum combined wealth of C$12.9 billion (HK$90 billion).
And a complication, also from South China Morning Post:
Canada floats new citizenship rules that could affect thousands of Chinese
Longer abode requirement and demand for tax returns may affect thousands of Hongkongers and mainlanders granted permanent residency
Canada has unveiled sweeping reforms that would require immigrants spend more time as permanent residents, file tax returns and sign an undertaking to continue living in the country if they want to become citizens.
The proposed redrawing of the Citizenship Act, unveiled on Thursday, would lengthen the period of residency required from three years to four years.
Language proficiency requirements would be extended to children as young as 14 and adults as old as 64, and penalties for fraudulent applications toughened.
China is the biggest single source of applications for Canadian permanent residency and among those who may be affected by the changes are the 110,813 mainland Chinese and 3,305 Hongkongers granted permanent residency between 2010 and the middle of last year.
And a global alarm from Spiegel:
Troubled Times: Developing Economies Hit a BRICS Wall
Until recently, investors viewed China, Brazil and India as a sure thing. Lately, though, their economies have shown signs of weakness and money has begun flowing back to the West. Worries are mounting the BRICS dream is fading.
It was 12 years ago that Jim O’Neill had his innovative idea. An investment banker with Goldman Sachs, he had become convinced following the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks that the United States and Europe were facing economic decline. He believed that developing countries such as China, India, Brazil and Russia could profit immensely from globalization and become the new locomotives of the global economy. O’Neill wanted to advise his clients to invest their money in the promising new players. But he needed a catchy name.
It proved to be a simple task. He simply took the first letter of each country in the quartet and came up with BRIC, an acronym which sounded like the foundation for a solid investment.
O’Neill, celebrated by Businessweek as a “rock star” in the industry, looked for years like a vastly successful prophet. From 2001 to 2013, the economic output of the four BRIC countries rose from some $3 billion a year to $15 billion. The quartet’s growth, later made a quintet with the inclusion of South Africa (BRICS), was instrumental in protecting Western prosperity as well. Investors made a mint and O’Neill’s club even emerged as a real political power. Now, the countries’ leaders meet regularly and, despite their many differences, have often managed to function as a counterweight to the West.
On to Europe and uber-bankster empowerment from Reuters:
ECB to gain far-reaching powers as euro zone banks’ supervisor
The European Central Bank will attain significant powers over the euro zone’s commercial banks once it becomes their supervisor later this year, including withdrawing bank licences and assessing acquisitions, it said on Friday.
From November, the ECB will supervise directly around 130 of the bloc’s largest lenders as part of a broader push towards closer integration of Europe’s banks that aims to create a more level regional playing field for the sector.
The region’s other 5,900 or so banks will remain under the brief of national supervisors, though the ECB will have powers to intervene if it deems necessary.
“(The ECB) will be exclusively competent to grant and withdraw authorizations for credit institutions and to assess acquisitions of qualifying holdings in all credit institutions,” it said in a draft document that laid out how the ECB and national supervisors will cooperate under the new Single Supervisory Mechanism (SSM).
Channel NewsAsia Singapore tosses in a monkey wrench:
Germany sends ECB’s crisis-killing action to EU court
Germany’s highest court expressed doubts on Friday about the European Central Bank’s bond-buying programme, credited with stopping the eurozone crisis, and sent the case to the European Court of Justice.
Some analysts suggested that the decision might turn out to be helpful to the central bank.
Back in September 2012, the Constitutional Court had rejected legal challenges by a group of eurosceptics to the two key eurozone crisis tools — the European Stability Mechanism (ESM) and the European fiscal pact.
As a result, German President Joachim Gauck was able to sign those two crisis tools into law.
But the eurosceptics also filed a last-minute challenge to the ECB’s OMT bond purchase programme, arguing that it amounted to monetisation of sovereign debt and overstepped the central bank’s mandate.
The London Telegraph-ic take:
German court parks tank on ECB lawn, kills OMT bond rescue
Doubtful whether ECB’s back-stop scheme for bonds can be implemented if Europe’s debt crisis blows up again
Germany’s top court has issued a blistering attack on the European Central Bank, arguing that its rescue plan for the euro violates EU treaty law and exceeds the bank’s policy mandate.
The tough language leaves it doubtful whether the ECB’s back-stop scheme for Spanish and Italian bonds can be implemented if Europe’s debt crisis blows up again, and greatly complicates any future recourse to quantitative easing if needed to head off Japanese-style deflation.
And an affirmation from EUbusiness:
ECB insists bond buying programme ‘within mandate’
The European Central Bank insisted on Friday that its contested OMT bond buying programme did not breach its rules, after Germany’s constitutional court expressed some scepticism.
“The ECB takes note of the announcement made today by the German constitutional court. The ECB reiterates that the OMT programme falls within its mandate,” the central bank said in a short statement.
On to Britain and a disappointment from Bloomberg:
U.K. Manufacturing Rises Less Than Forecast as Growth Eases
U.K. factories increased production by less than forecast in December, suggesting manufacturing is set for steady rather than runaway growth this year.
Output rose 0.3 percent from November, the Office for National Statistics said today in London. That compares with the 0.6 percent median of 26 estimates in a Bloomberg survey. Industrial production, which also includes utilities and mines, climbed 0.4 percent, also less than predicted.
While the U.K. economy expanded at the fastest rate since 2007 last year, industry surveys on services and manufacturing this week suggested the pace may have eased at the start of 2014. The Bank of England kept its key policy rate at a record-low 0.5 percent yesterday, while a report from the National Institute of Economic and Social Research today says consumer spending and a buoyant housing market will drive growth.
The Guardian has guilty knowledge:
Bank of England ‘knew about’ forex markets price fixing
Notes from 2012 meeting reportedly show key Bank officials were told of rival currency dealers’ sharing of customer orders
The Bank of England has been dragged into the mounting controversy over allegations of price fixing in the £3tn-a-day foreign exchange markets after it emerged that a group of traders had told the Bank they were exchanging information about their clients’ position.
The latest twist in the unfolding saga – already the subject of investigations by regulators around the world – puts the focus on a meeting between key officials at the central bank and leading foreign exchange dealers in April 2012, when they discussed the way they handled trades ahead of the crucial setting of a benchmark in the prices of major currencies. This benchmark is used to price a wide variety of financial products and is the subject of regulators’ attention amid allegations that traders at rival banks were sharing information about their orders from clients to manipulate the price.
New Europe complicates frack-tiosly:
Shale Gas Fear Leaves UK Vulnerable
Cuadrilla Resources, one of the energy firms hoping to exploit the UK’s shale gas resources, has announced two new exploration sites in Lancashire. But drilling for shale gas in Britain is going to be extremely controversial.
“There is potential but the level of public reaction to it is extremely negative at the moment and anybody trying to carry even testing at the moment is finding a lot of demonstrations,” Justin Urquhart Stewart, Director of Seven Investment Management in London, told New Europe on 7 February, adding that the government of British Prime Minister David Cameron is going to find it very difficult to actually get it through. “The potential is there but realistically I think they’re going to run into a lot of public concern unless it can be proven not to be dangerous to local communities,” Urquhart Stewart said. Unlike America, Britain is a crowded island and has a much bigger impact on a smaller area, he said.
From The Guardian, a land rush:
Fresh wave of super-rich looking to buy up London properties, says estate agent
Political and economic instability driving rise in inquiries from Brazil, Argentina, Ukraine and elsewhere, reckons Frank Knight
Political and financial upheaval in some of the world’s largest emerging economies is driving a wave of rich migrants to London to park their wealth in the city’s property market, according to data from a leading estate agency.
Knight Frank, a specialist in upmarket properties, said on Friday that online inquiries from Argentina, Ukraine and Turkey have soared during the past year.
“There is potentially a further wave of investment headed for the prime central London property market,” said Tom Bill of the firm’s residential research team.
The Observer covers austerian reality:
Changes to state pensions will hit the poorest, warns think tank
Inequalities set to grow as people in the most deprived parts of the country live healthy lives 20 years shorter than the average
Changes to the state pension age will only expand the already yawning gap between rich and poor in Britain, according to an academic study.
Inequalities are set to grow because of the failure to take into account differences in health and life expectancy across the country, says the report from independent think tank the International Longevity Centre – UK and backed by the charity Age UK.
While most people will live to state pension age and beyond, a large proportion are unlikely to get there in good health, especially in more disadvantaged parts of the UK – places like inner city Glasgow, where the healthy life expectancy is just 46.7 years – close to 20 years lower than the national average of 65.
BBC News embarrasses:
Immigration minister Mark Harper quits over cleaner’s visa
Immigration minister Mark Harper has resigned from the government after it emerged his cleaner did not have permission to work in the UK.
Mr Harper notified Prime Minister David Cameron, who accepted his resignation “with regret”, Number 10 said.
It added there was “no suggestion” the 43-year-old Conservative MP for the Forest of Dean had “knowingly employed an illegal immigrant”.
Fellow Tory James Brokenshire has been appointed the new immigration minister.
The Observer has frustrations:
Nick Clegg: Britain must join debate on new approach to war on drugs
Deputy PM angry at Tory refusal to debate alternatives and says: ‘If you are anti-drugs, you should be pro-reform’
Nick Clegg has dragged the case for reforming the drugs laws to the centre ground of British politics, saying that blanket prohibition has seen cocaine use triple in less than 20 years, a trend that has helped perpetuate conflict and violence in South America.
Writing in today’s Observer, after a week in which he visited Colombia to learn first-hand the devastating effects that Europe’s enthusiasm for cocaine has had on the country, Clegg said the UK needed to be at the heart of the debate about potential alternatives to blanket prohibition and that he wanted to see an end to “the tradition where politicians only talk about drugs reform when they have left office because they fear the political consequences”.
The deputy prime minister said such an approach “has stifled debate and inhibited a proper examination of our approach. Put simply, if you are anti-drugs, you should be pro-reform”.
On to the Emerald Isle and a neoliberal endorsement from the Irish Times:
Taoiseach defends corporate tax policy at OECD
Kenny shrugs off French anger at loss of internet companies and backs efforts to close tax loopholes
Taoiseach Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and the four Cabinet Ministers who flew on the government jet to Paris yesterday did not see a single member of the French socialist government.
Instead, they spent the day at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, that hotbed of liberal economics, at a sensitive time in Franco-Irish relations. The US internet giant Yahoo had just announced it is transferring financial operations from France to Ireland.
Asked about Yahoo’s defection, President François Hollande said “we must act” against “big companies who move to countries with low corporate tax”. He promised to raise the subject with President Barack Obama in Washington next week.
On to Germany and a case of bad heilth from Deutsche Welle:
German newspaper report highlights right-wing crime in Germany
More than 11,000 right-wing criminal offenses were committed last year, according to a report by a German newspaper. Of those cases, more than 500 were violent.
German police registered 11,761 criminal offenses motivated by right-wing extremism between January and December of 2013, Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper reported on Friday. Of the reported cases, 574 were violent offenses that resulted in injuries to 561 people, according to Tagesspiegel.
Of the 5,631 suspects in the offenses, 126 people were arrested. In 11 cases, warrants were issued. Some 788 cases were reported as being of an anti-Semitic nature, including 32 cases of assault and other violent crimes.
According to the newspaper, the figures come from monthly inquiries by the Bundestag’s Vice President Petra Pau and her Left Party parliamentary faction. With the release of the December figures, a complete look at the last year is now available.
Tagesspiegel said, however, the actual number of right-wing criminal offenses for 2013 is expected to climb, as many incidents are registered after the fact. In 2012, the total number was initially listed as 11,660, but late registrations ended up driving the total up to 17,134.
TheLocal.de boosts the books:
German trade surplus hits record level
Germany’s trade surplus soared to a new record high in 2013, although export momentum tailed off at the end of the year, official data showed on Friday.
Europe’s biggest economy notched up a trade surplus of €198.9 billion in 2013, the highest since foreign trade data have been compiled.
In 2012, the surplus had stood at 1€89.8 billion.
Germany has come under fire for its booming trade surplus, with critics arguing that its economic prowess comes at the expense of the eurozone’s weaker members.
On to France and the rural right from France 24:
France’s National Front courts the rural vote
As municipal and European elections approach, France’s far-right party the National Front is poised for another strong showing. Rural areas are key to the party’s strategy: economic decline and feelings of neglect in the countryside have been fuelling the National Front’s renaissance.
Our assignment was to understand why the far-right is making strides in rural areas. So we headed out for the “Meuse”, a department in the east of France where the party traditionally does well.
To our initial surprise, villagers readily expressed their support for the National Front, even on camera. “We’re 100 percent for Marine Le Pen around here”, smiled one supporter as we approached. “I’m not afraid to say so, and I always will!”
Reuters turns the coat:
Special Report: Francois Hollande puts on a new political face
As Hollande heads without a First Lady to the United States on Monday, he is projecting a more business-friendly persona than the “regular guy” left-winger France chose in May 2012 to replace conservative ex-President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Several people who know Hollande say that, deep down, he has always been more of a centrist, who had calculated that he should present himself as a man of the left to win election.
“This is not so much a U-turn as a self-revelation. He has finally outed himself,” said Serge Raffy, author of the 2011 Hollande biography “Itineraire secret” (Secret Route).
Switzerland next and a defining vote from Deutsche Welle:
Referendum to keep foreigners out of Switzerland?
On Sunday, the Swiss vote on whether to restrict immigration to their country. The ramifications of a yes vote, experts say, could be huge. To their shock, the referendum has a decent shot at passing.
When Germans hear Switzerland, they first think of the children’s book “Heidi”, snow-covered mountains and secure bank accounts. Their neighbor to the south is a popular vacation destination, but more and more Germans also come to Switzerland to work. They can do so because the small, neutral state entered a freedom of movement agreement with the European Union in 1999. Even though Switzerland isn’t a member of the union, EU citizens have been allowed to immigrate to Switzerland with hardly any restrictions since then.
That might change soon. In a nationwide referendum, the Swiss are voting on an “initiative against mass-immigration” this Sunday (09.02.2014). The initiative was put forward by the nationalist-populist Swiss People’s Party (SVP). The party wants to restrict the number of immigrants and allocate a limited number of slots to certain national or occupational groups.
Roughly 80,000 immigrants enter Switzerland every year – and this in a country of 8.1 Million. According to the German weekly “Die Zeit”, this is the largest population growth the country has experienced since the 1960s.
On to Iberia and austerian woes from thinkSPAIN:
More firms and individuals in Spain declared insolvent last year than ever before in history
A RECORD number of companies and sole traders went into receivership or were declared bankrupt last year – a total of 9,660, which is the highest ever seen since bankruptcy became legally-recognised 10 years ago.
This represents a rise of 6.5 per cent on the figure for 2012, and never before have this many insolvencies been declared in the space of a year in Spain, according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE).
In the first three years after the Insolvency Law was passed in 2004, up to and including 2007 there were between 968 and 1,147 firms going bankrupt or into receivership each year, but this shot up to 3,298 with the start of the financial crisis.
This again nearly doubled in 2009 when the recession and mass unemployment began to truly bite in Spain, reaching 6,197 that year, dropping slightly to 5,962 in 2010 but then soaring again in 2011 to 6,863. However, the last two calendar years have seen a sharp increase, with insolvencies shooting up by over 50 per cent.
The Associated Press takes a turnabout:
Spain to restore nationality to Sephardic Jews
Spain has announced new measures to speed up the naturalization of Jews of Sephardic descent whose ancestors fled the Iberian peninsula five centuries ago when they were told to convert to Catholicism or go into exile.
The Cabinet approved a bill amending previous legislation that granted nationality by naturalization to Sephardic Jews who chose to apply for it. The reform will allow dual nationality, enabling people who can prove Sephardic ancestry to also retain their previous citizenships.
Justice Minister Alberto Ruiz-Gallardon said Friday the measure smooths the bureaucracy involved in obtaining Spanish nationality.
Italy next, and corruption with a flair from TheLocal.it:
Space boss quits over tango dancer scandal
The head of Italy’s space agency submitted his resignation on Friday after a scandal over dubious expenses including hiring as a consultant a former tango dancer with no apparent aerospace credentials.
Enrico Saggese in a statement denied the accusations and said that he wanted to step down “so as to better defend my integrity, honour and prestige”.
Prosecutors opened an investigation on Thursday into corruption, including Saggese’s use of a credit card provided by an agency subcontractor.
They are also looking into consultancy fees paid to the wife of an employee to provide “psychological assistance” and expense-paid trips to the United States for several managers of the space agency.
After the jump, the latest Greek disasters, Ukrainian turmoil, class war in Brazil, Argentine anger, a Latin American plague, Pakistani stalemate, the latest Thai violence, Vietnamese letdown, Chinese uncertainty, an Abenomics fail, environmental woes, and the latest Fukushimapocalypse Now!. . .
For our first Greek headline, another loss from To Vima:
ELSTAT documents a 0.2% drop in total value of exports for 2013
According to the Greek Statistics Authority the total value of imports also dropped by 5% in the same year
The Greek Statistics Authority ELSTAT announced that between January 2013 and December 2013, the total value of Greek exports marginally dropped by 0.2%, compared to the same 12-month period in 2012. Additionally, ELSTAT revealed that the total value of imports in 2013 also dropped by 5% compared to 2012.
Selling off the commons with To Vima:
TAIPED finalizes plans for the sale of 67% share in Port of Piraeus
The state privatization fund will submit a copy of its revised plans to Parliament for consideration
The state privatization fund TAIPED convened yesterday and finalized its plans regarding the sale of a 67% stake in the Port Authority of Piraeus (OLP).
After finalizing the plans, TAIPED will send a copy of the terms of the sale to Parliament for consideration. A few weeks ago the Ministry of Shipping decided to include a clause stipulating that the investments of perspective bidders must be taken into consideration.
Kathimerini English lays down the law:
Judges deem 2011 property tax to be unconstitutional
Just days after the Council of State ruled that the government was wrong to cut the wages of army officers and policemen last year, the coalition is facing another legal complication as Supreme Court judges have ruled that the emergency property tax, introduced in 2011 and levied through electricity bills, was unconstitutional.
The decision, which was taken by the court’s fourth section after three judges voted for and two against, is not final. The Supreme Court’s plenary will have to convene to pass final judgment. This could take as long as three months.
The justices rejected an appeal by the Finance Ministry against a 2012 first instance court ruling that deemed the tax illegal.
ANA-MPA upgrades:
Moody’s upgrades City of Athens rating to Caa3
Moody’s Investors Service announced on Friday it has upgraded the rating of the City of Athens to Caa3 from C. The rating was assigned a stable outlook in line with the outlook on Greece’s sovereign rating.
The credit ratings house attributed the upgrade to the fact that Athens has cured a default on its debt obligations.
According to Moody’s, the upgrade is primarily driven by Athens’ December 2013 payment of the remaining 675,000 euro interest on arrears requested by ATEbank’s liquidation commission in order to fully settle the 29.5 million euro loan it incurred in 2003.
To Vima exudes confidence:
Provopoulos is confident that “growth is returning to Greece”
The Governor of the Bank of Greece gave a lecture on the Greek financial crisis at OMFIF in London
The Governor of the Bank of Greece Giorgos Provopoulos gave a lecture on the Greek financial crisis at the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum based in London.
According to Mr. Provopoulos, the sacrifices of the Greek people are starting to “pay off” and that Greece is about to return to growth. The central banker focused on the extensive reforms in the banking sector and measures that the Central Bank took to ensure stability.
ANSAmed Greeces the skids:
Crisis: Greece; recession below 4% in 2013, minister says
Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras confirmed that the final figures for 2013 will show Greece’s economy contracted below the 4% target and that the primary surplus came in far above the anticipated 812 million euros, as daily Kathimerini reports. In a speech delivered in Frankfurt on Thursday, he also explained the country’s new economic model and invited Germans to invest in Greece.
Addressing over 100 German entrepreneurs at the “Frankfurter Gesellschaft fur Handel, Industrie und Wissenschaft” business union, Stournaras presented “the new Greece” and called on his audience to invest in sectors such as renewable energy and waste management. The minister made it clear that the new Greece bears no resemblance to what it had become in previous years, and, besides his GDP and primary surplus estimates, stated that the current account balance will also present a surplus for the first time after a number of decades, amounting to 1% of gross domestic product.
To Vima engages in an austerian confrontation:
Protesters clash with police at POE-OTA rally outside State Council
The local government union is protesting the government’s controversial dismissal and suspension scheme
Protesters from the local government employee union POE-OTA have clashed with the riot police outside the Council of State in down town Athens, where a critical vote regarding the government’s dismissal and suspension scheme is taking place.
The police decided to intervene when the protesters attempted to block off the main road outside the building. The POE-OTA union has announced that a walk-out is in effect between 8am and noon, so that employees and supporters can attend the 9am rally outside the State Council building.
Meanwhile, the school wardens have arranged a new march from Thessaloniki to Athens, in protest of the suspensions, privatizations, changes to welfare and the presence of the troika. Convoys of cars from all over Greece will also head to Athens on the 14th of February.
To Vima lacks conviction:
Farmers unions are not convinced by the government’s measures
Government convened and announced a number of tax breaks in favor of farmers, who remain skeptical
With the farmer unions appearing determined to continue their struggle, the Prime Minister Antonis Samaras held a meeting on Thursday afternoon with the Minister of Agricultural Development Athanasios Tsaftaris, the Deputy Minister of Finances Giorgos Mavraganis and the General Secretary of Public Revenue Haris Theoharis to reexamine the taxation of farmers.
After the meeting concluded, it was decided that farmers will only be obliged to keep books for income above 15,000 and even then, they will only have to include cumulative invoices. Additionally they will be excluded from a trade tax for five years (including farmers 3 years before retirement).
ANA-MPA takes to the streets:
Farmers determined to carry on protests, roadblocks
Farmers who gathered in Nikaia, Larissa, Central Greece on Saturday to consider further protest action at the government’s new tax measures, called on farmers throughout Greece to join in demonstrations and road blockades, as part of efforts to put more pressure to the government.
Representatives from 23 road blockades organised by farmers across the country, who met at Nikaia’s Cultural Centre, decided to escalate their struggle and strengthen road blockades until their demands are met.
On Sunday, farmers will gather at Nikaia’s road blockade, while on Monday a group of their representatives will try to meet with political party leaders, as they await a reply to a request to meet with Finance minister Yannis Stournaras.
Cashing in with the New York Times:
Greek official bribed ‘more times than he can remember’
When Antonis Kantas, a deputy in the Defense Ministry here, spoke up against the purchase of expensive German-made tanks in 2001, a representative of the tank’s manufacturer stopped by his office to leave a satchel on his sofa. It contained 600,000 euros ($814,000).
Other arms manufacturers eager to make deals came by, too, some guiding him through the ins and outs of international banking and then paying him off with deposits to his overseas accounts.
At the time, Mr. Kantas, a wiry former military officer, did not actually have the authority to decide much of anything on his own. But corruption was so rampant inside the Greek equivalent of the Pentagon that even a man of his relatively modest rank, he testified recently, was able to amass nearly $19 million in just five years on the job.
Greek Reporter shifts the political landscape:
FT: New Democracy-Golden Dawn Battle for 2nd Place in Elections
International analysts of the British newspaper “Financial Times” see a head-to-head battle between the conservative New Democracy and the ultranationalist Golden Dawn for securing the second place in the upcoming EU elections, following the sure victory of the leftists SYRIZA.
“Some analysts foresee now that Golden Dawn could get 15% to 20% in the May EU elections and threaten the second place of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’ party,” reveals the FT article.
The article makes extensive reference to the possibility of outlawing the neo-Nazi party because of illegal activities and goes into the creation of the new “National Dawn” party, while also hosting statements by Ilias Kasidiaris, Golden Dawn MP and candidate mayor for the city of Athens.
Greek Reporter hits the hustings:
Tsipras: If I Get Elected…
In an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica, the leader of the Greek major opposition party Alexis Tsipras revealed his future plans in the case that he is elected Greek prime minister.
“I would be reviewing the current bankrupt bailout package imposed on Greece and also the entire European policy on responding to the crisis,” he said, while underlining that the solution to the crisis would not be found with Greece exiting the eurozone.
The Greek politician also mentioned that he would seek help in Italy if he was to become head of the government in Greece, so as to combat Angela Merkel’s politics together with the other southern EU countries.
“What has happened since 2008 will be taught in business schools, so as to be prevented in the future. The crisis is the product of a monetary asymmetry. The European political establishment, which was backed by people’s parties and socialists, worsened the situation. But why did they do this? In order to save the banks which held state bonds belonging to countries with large debts,” said the SYRIZA leader, upon being asked about the European financial crisis.
Tsipras also talked about the need of a European “New Deal” and a new EU convention on debt modeled on the one of 1953, which wrote off a big chunk of Germany’s debt enabling the country to grow, and added, “The European Central Bank should act as a true central bank, like the Fed in the U.S., which lends money to states and not to banks.”
Keep Talking Greece issues a threat:
Greek Health Minister: If SYRIZA wins, the banks will close
How do you know that elections are right outside your door – even though not officially declared? When fear mongering revives… Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis dug deep in his brain archive and pulled out a scared-to-death and quickly running rabbit. The threat of banks collapse, should main opposition party, left wing SYRIZA wins the (undeclared) elections.
Adonis Georgiadis said in his simplistic logic that: if SYRIZA wins, it will tear apart the loan agreements and the banks will collapse because the European Central Bank will not give money to already bankrupt Greece.
“If SYRIZA is elected it will tear the memorandum, the ECB will stop giving us money and the banks will be closed, Adonis Georgiadis told Skai radio on Friday.
This fear mongering tactic to influence voters was the flag slogan of coalition government parties Nea Dimokratia and PASOK during the elections in May and June 2012. Of ourse, Samaras and Venizelos had added some other spicy ‘threats’ back then: that we will not have heating oil, medicine and other essential goods.
Kathimerini English diminishes democracy:
Non-Greeks and diaspora lose out on voting rights
Non-Greek citizens legally living in the country and Greeks living abroad can no longer vote and stand as candidates in local and regional elections, according to a legislative amendment submitted in Parliament by Interior Minister Yiannis Michelakis.
The amendment, passed just a few months before municipal and regional authority elections in May, effectively revokes certain provisions of the so-called Ragousis law, named after Interior Minister Yiannis Ragousis who drew it up in 2010, which extended voting rights to second-generation immigrants living in the country, and ethnic Greeks based abroad. Citizens of countries in the European Free Trade Area – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – who are legal residents in Greece are also revoked of their right to vote and to stand as a candidate in elections, according to the new legislation.
Off to Eastern Europe with Deutsche Welle:
Presidency building under fire as Bosnia protests continue
Protests have escalated in Bosnia, as demonstrators set fire to the country’s presidency building in Sarajevo. Crowds of demonstrators are swelling as the protests continue in other cities.
News agency Reuters said police used water cannon to disperse the protesters, while two cars and a police guard’s cabin outside the presidency building had also been set alight. The fire was quickly extinguished. Earlier on Friday, police had fired rubber bullets at protestors who set fire to the building in Sarajevo belonging to the canton government.
In Tuzla, where the protests began on Wednesday, newspaper Dnevni Avaz reported online that a crowd of demonstrators numbering around 6,000 hurled rocks at the seat of the regional authority. Reuters said the building was then set alight. Local media reported another government building, in the central town of Zenica, had also been burned.
Authorities said at least 90 people were injured in the protests – 80 in Sarajevo and 10 in Zenica.
The protests began in Tuzla when workers from several factories took to the streets demanding back pay, and an end to job losses and corruption. When the demonstrations turned violent, around 130 were injured, mainly from tear gas. An industrial city in the country’s north, Tuzla has had four privatized formerly state-owned companies collapse, with one in four people in the city unemployed.
Off to the Ukraine and a sweetened pot from RT:
US will give money to Ukraine if Kiev makes necessary reforms – Nuland
The United States is ready to provide financial support to Ukraine if the country implements the necessary political reforms, senior US diplomat Victoria Nuland said.
“We have had extensive discussions at all meetings concerning support from the international community, including the United States,” Nuland, the Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs said at a press conference in Kiev on Friday.
“[The United States] is ready to support Ukraine if the will quickly move towards the path of protecting human rights, dignity, a de-escalation of the conflict, and political reforms.”
Nuland’s offer of support follows the leak of an apparently bugged phone conversation in which the senior US diplomat had choice words for the EU’s mediation efforts in Ukraine.
The Guardian downgrades:
Fitch downgrades Ukraine’s credit rating as currency controls are imposed
Ratings agency fears steep and uncontrolled depreciation of the currency as central bank limits private transfers abroad of around $5,700 a month
Ukraine’s economic woes deepened on Friday after Fitch downgraded its credit rating and the central bank imposed new capital controls to bolster the hryvnia. The ratings agency cited the ongong political instability and fears over its debt repayment schedule as it downgraded the country from “B-“ to “CCC”. Fitch added that “political uncertainty has contributed to a weakening in confidence in the Ukrainian hryvnia and in the exchange rate policy”.
Ukraine is struggling to prop up its currency amid a political crisis that has seen anti-government demonstrators take to the streets to protest against a move closer to Moscow’s economic orbit, and a debt crisis that has left it on the verge of bankruptcy.
Russia suspended a $15bn (£9.18bn) bailout last week after President Viktor Yanukovich, in a concession to protesters, sacked the pro-Russian prime minister.
And EUbusiness clouds the future:
Ukraine leader faces fresh protests after Putin talks
Anti-government protestors in Ukraine readied for fresh mass demonstrations Sunday after embattled President Viktor Yanukovych jetted back to protest-hit Kiev following private talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
The late Friday tete-a-tete on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympic Games in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi came amid intensifying pressure from the opposition on Yanukovych to cede some of his broad powers and appoint a new pro-Western government.
Neither Russian nor Ukrainian officials disclosed the details of the two leaders’ conversation except to say that it was brief and held at Sochi’s Fisht stadium where the Games’ opening ceremony was held.
Off to Latin America and troubles from The Guardian:
Brazil’s government has set the favelas and middle classes against each other
A year of frustrated protest against an intransigent government has released a wave of pent-up inter-community violence
In Brazil there is a saying: “A good thief is a dead thief.” These words have never been more relevant in today’s Brazilian class-ridden landscape, where prejudice, violence and racism run free.
The last week has been full of violent acts in Rio de Janeiro. Once again, police and protesters clashed during a protest in the centre of the city. A few days earlier a teenage boy was beaten, stripped naked and tied to a lamp po