The European Union is urging the International Monetary Fund to pursue a global tax on financial transactions, known as a Tobin tax. Speaking after a two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said: "The conclusion ... is to propose a global financial transaction levy. It wouldn't be fair that some impose very heavy burdens and others don't. I think it makes sense that a sector that created such a problem for our economies, our taxpayers ... also makes a contribution to the overall economy." The proposal comes at a time when the International Monetary Fund is trying to develop ways to limit risk in the financial sector. "The European Council emphasizes the importance of renewing the economic and social contract between financial institutions and the society they serve," the EU wrote in the summit's closing statement.Ever since the financial crisis plunged the world into an economic downturn, the European Union has been keen to find a way to avoid a repeat. But it is unlikely that the Tobin tax, named after American economist James Tobin, will gain much traction. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed such a tax at November's G-20 summit of developed and emerging nations, arguing that the proceeds could be used to fund future financial bailouts. But the proposal faced immediate opposition from both US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The European Union is urging the International Monetary Fund to pursue a global tax on financial transactions, known as a Tobin tax. Speaking after a two-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels, Jose Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission, said: "The conclusion ... is to propose a global financial transaction levy. It wouldn't be fair that some impose very heavy burdens and others don't. I think it makes sense that a sector that created such a problem for our economies, our taxpayers ... also makes a contribution to the overall economy."
The proposal comes at a time when the International Monetary Fund is trying to develop ways to limit risk in the financial sector. "The European Council emphasizes the importance of renewing the economic and social contract between financial institutions and the society they serve," the EU wrote in the summit's closing statement.
Ever since the financial crisis plunged the world into an economic downturn, the European Union has been keen to find a way to avoid a repeat. But it is unlikely that the Tobin tax, named after American economist James Tobin, will gain much traction. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown proposed such a tax at November's G-20 summit of developed and emerging nations, arguing that the proceeds could be used to fund future financial bailouts. But the proposal faced immediate opposition from both US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and International Monetary Fund head Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
But they don't want to upset daddy so they won't do it. keep to the Fen Causeway
Part of a list of 3,000 alleged French tax evaders being used by the French authorities to put pressure on Switzerland was stolen from HSBC Private Bank by a former employee, a French newspaper has reported. Le Parisien reported on Wednesday that an employee working in the IT department at the Geneva branch of HSBC Private Bank stole the information in 2008 before fleeing to France.
Part of a list of 3,000 alleged French tax evaders being used by the French authorities to put pressure on Switzerland was stolen from HSBC Private Bank by a former employee, a French newspaper has reported.
Le Parisien reported on Wednesday that an employee working in the IT department at the Geneva branch of HSBC Private Bank stole the information in 2008 before fleeing to France.
The era in which all Britons aspire to own their own home may be coming to an end, according to the Housing minister, John Healey. In a controversial speech, he suggested that Britain may be moving towards a European model, with renting on a roughly equal footing with buying. He said home ownership had fallen from 71 per cent of households in 2003 to 68 per cent today, noting that this trend began in 2005, well before the recession. "I'm not sure that's such a bad thing," he said.
(I repeat my view: Britain is part of Europe, even if usually in denial.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
...it was Quentin Davies, the defence minister, who was facing the most searching questions following the disclosure that he put in an invoice for £20,700 for repairs to his constituency home in Lincolnshire. The work was evenly divided between shoring up its decorative belltower and replacing gutters on the main roof of the house. Mr Davies, who defected to Labour from the Tories in 2007, sent the bill to the Commons fees office in a bundle of receipts in February....Other senior Tories also faced embarrassment over the latest expenses revelations. Andrew Lansley, the shadow Health Secretary, submitted a £3,500 claim for the cost of insuring a medal and a painting. James Arbuthnot, the Tory chairman of Commons Defence Committee, submitted perhaps the most bizarre claim - for the cost of three garlic peelers, bought for £43 from the QVC Shopping channel.
The work was evenly divided between shoring up its decorative belltower and replacing gutters on the main roof of the house. Mr Davies, who defected to Labour from the Tories in 2007, sent the bill to the Commons fees office in a bundle of receipts in February.
...Other senior Tories also faced embarrassment over the latest expenses revelations. Andrew Lansley, the shadow Health Secretary, submitted a £3,500 claim for the cost of insuring a medal and a painting. James Arbuthnot, the Tory chairman of Commons Defence Committee, submitted perhaps the most bizarre claim - for the cost of three garlic peelers, bought for £43 from the QVC Shopping channel.
I admit there are issues that most of the demand is in areas where there is genuinely a shortage of land, but the actual shortage is nothing like as bad as it appears to be.
also the refusal of government to build council housing to reduce the demand on housing over the last 30 years is cowardly and short sighted. Given the constraints, rented housing doesn't work in the UK because it's more expensive than purchased property. keep to the Fen Causeway
For the 4 years I lived in London I could not have afforded the monthly payments on a mortgage on the properties I could afford to rent. Of course that was at the peak of the housing bubble, but still the conventional wisdom was that owning was cheaper... En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
In practice, the main advantage of buying used to be that it represented a form of forced saving, allowing you to build up your patrimony. But with interest-only, 2/28, resettable and other fancy loans where you paid almost exclusively interest, the borrowers did not accumulate any equity unless there was a price increase... but they were on the hook for asset value losses. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
However, what you're demonstrating is that the artificail shortage of property in london was forcing rental into ridiculous areas as well. There are believed to be over a million empty properties within the M25. If they came on the market they'd trash current property and rental prices. keep to the Fen Causeway
AFP - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday ruled out going cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund as a way out of his country's 300-billion-euro debt morass. The bealeaguered premier said it was "out of the question to resort to the IMF" after earlier stating in Brussels at a European Union summit that Greece was "not about to default on its debts." Greece's sovereign debt was downgraded this week by the international ratings agency Fitch, prompting fears of dangerous divergence in the 16 countries which use the euro. Analysts had interpreted eurozone and EU political reaction as a precursor to the sort of bail-out assistance offered last year to Hungary, Latvia and Romania, especially with mounting deficit worries also extending to Ireland and Spain.
AFP - Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Friday ruled out going cap in hand to the International Monetary Fund as a way out of his country's 300-billion-euro debt morass.
The bealeaguered premier said it was "out of the question to resort to the IMF" after earlier stating in Brussels at a European Union summit that Greece was "not about to default on its debts."
Greece's sovereign debt was downgraded this week by the international ratings agency Fitch, prompting fears of dangerous divergence in the 16 countries which use the euro.
Analysts had interpreted eurozone and EU political reaction as a precursor to the sort of bail-out assistance offered last year to Hungary, Latvia and Romania, especially with mounting deficit worries also extending to Ireland and Spain.
AFP - Iraq reached agreement with energy giants Shell and Petronas Friday for a massive southern oil field, part of a two-day auction that seeks to dramatically boost the country's crude output. The successful bid from the Anglo-Dutch and Malaysian consortium kicked off the bid round, which aims to catapult Iraq towards the top of the list of the world's oil producers and bring in much-needed revenues to rebuild the country. "The price that the consortium offered is a little bit less than the price offered by the oil ministry," Shahristani said. "It gets 100 points, so we can announce that Shell wins the bidding for Majnoon." The two companies requested fees of 1.39 dollars per barrel of oil extracted from the field, and projected that they would produce 1.8 million barrels per day. The project will be split 60 percent for Shell and 40 percent for Petronas.
The successful bid from the Anglo-Dutch and Malaysian consortium kicked off the bid round, which aims to catapult Iraq towards the top of the list of the world's oil producers and bring in much-needed revenues to rebuild the country.
"The price that the consortium offered is a little bit less than the price offered by the oil ministry," Shahristani said.
"It gets 100 points, so we can announce that Shell wins the bidding for Majnoon."
The two companies requested fees of 1.39 dollars per barrel of oil extracted from the field, and projected that they would produce 1.8 million barrels per day.
The project will be split 60 percent for Shell and 40 percent for Petronas.
The good news is that the Airbus military transport plane A400M can fly. The plane took off for its maiden flight on Friday in Seville, Spain. But the project is now €5 billion over budget and EADS would like European governments to help cover the shortfall.
As for a comment, I was not at all enthusiastic about the mixing of military and civilian airspace in EADS, not to mention in Airbus itself. *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Wiki gives this explanation. You can't be me, I'm taken
A further consideration is the number and the shape of the blades used. Increasing the aspect ratio of the blades reduces drag but the amount of thrust produced depends on blade area, so using high aspect blades can lead to the need for a propeller diameter which is unusable. A further balance is that using a smaller number of blades reduces interference effects between the blades, but to have sufficient blade area to transmit the available power within a set diameter means a compromise is needed. Increasing the number of blades also decreases the amount of work each blade is required to perform, limiting the local Mach number - a significant performance limit on propellers.
ITALY: Celebrations were held in Milano on December 5 to mark the completion of the final sections of the north-south high speed rail corridor, which opens for revenue service with the timetable change on December 13. Completion of the Novara - Milano, Bologna - Firenze and Napoli - Salerno links brings the total length of Italy's Alta Velocità network to more than 1 000 route-km, stretching from Torino to Salerno. Describing the occasion as `an Italian miracle', FS Group Chief Executive Mauro Moretti said the high speed line would act as a `vertical spine' for the country, linking most of the major cities and serving around 65% of the country's population.
ITALY: Celebrations were held in Milano on December 5 to mark the completion of the final sections of the north-south high speed rail corridor, which opens for revenue service with the timetable change on December 13.
Completion of the Novara - Milano, Bologna - Firenze and Napoli - Salerno links brings the total length of Italy's Alta Velocità network to more than 1 000 route-km, stretching from Torino to Salerno. Describing the occasion as `an Italian miracle', FS Group Chief Executive Mauro Moretti said the high speed line would act as a `vertical spine' for the country, linking most of the major cities and serving around 65% of the country's population.
(Shameless self-promotion: I'll post a 2009 high-speed review on Sunday.) *Lunatic*, n. One whose delusions are out of fashion.
Berlusconi: "L'Italia ha ora una ferrovia numero 1 nel mondo"
EUOBSERVER / INTERVIEW - Even in a season of surprising EU appointments, the person who has been nominated as Hungary's next commissioner is something of an outlier. An economics professor and member of the board of directors of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, but also an author of 11 books in English and Hungarian and the editor-in-chief of Hungary's main left-wing academic journal, Laszlo Andor is more the donnish intellectual than the seasoned political operative....Mr Andor is an ardent Keynesian, a school of economics which advocates government intervention in the economy, or "post-Keynesian" (the term he prefers) and a strong critic of those he calls the "Market Maoists" or "market fundamentalists" of eastern Europe since 1989.He was an opponent of the Iraq war and regularly rubs shoulders with the "galacticos" of the left-liberal universe. His quarterly journal, Eszmelet (Consciousness) - essentially a Hungarian Le Monde Diplomatique - publishes texts by the likes of Ignacio Ramonet, Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek and Arundhati Roy. He believes the Maastricht criteria are misguided, that Europe suffers from a democratic deficit and blames the financial crisis on the "anglo-American" economic model.
...Mr Andor is an ardent Keynesian, a school of economics which advocates government intervention in the economy, or "post-Keynesian" (the term he prefers) and a strong critic of those he calls the "Market Maoists" or "market fundamentalists" of eastern Europe since 1989.
He was an opponent of the Iraq war and regularly rubs shoulders with the "galacticos" of the left-liberal universe. His quarterly journal, Eszmelet (Consciousness) - essentially a Hungarian Le Monde Diplomatique - publishes texts by the likes of Ignacio Ramonet, Noam Chomsky, Slavoj Zizek and Arundhati Roy. He believes the Maastricht criteria are misguided, that Europe suffers from a democratic deficit and blames the financial crisis on the "anglo-American" economic model.
WASHINGTON -- The House on Friday approved a Democratic plan to significantly tighten federal regulation of Wall Street and the financial sector, advancing a far-reaching Congressional response to the financial crisis still reverberating through the economy. After three days of floor debate, the House voted 223 to 202 to approve the measure, which did not get a single Republican vote. It creates a new agency to oversee consumer lending, establishes new rules for transactions that contributed to the meltdown, and seeks to reduce the threat that one or two huge companies on the verge of collapse could bring down the economy. "As we have seen over the past year, our financial system is broken and we can no longer afford to maintain the status quo," said Representative Ed Perlmutter, a Colorado Democrat and member of the Financial Services Committee, which spent months assembling the measure. The Senate has made less headway in drafting a companion bill. The vote is the most significant legislative act to confront the financial crisis that exploded last year since the vast and costly bailout that was rammed through Congress at the peak of the emergency. It was an effort to address comprehensively what many of the bill's supporters have called the underlying causes of the collapse -- reckless risk-taking unrestrained by regulation. The bill's principal provisions establish a process for dismantling large, failing financial institutions; set up a council to identify and regulate firms that are so big, interconnected or risky that they need heightened supervision to keep them from bringing down the whole financial system; create a new consumer financial-protection agency to squelch unfair and abusive practices; and for the first time, regulate over-the-counter derivatives markets. The bill also contains provisions on executive pay, investor protection, credit ratings, hedge funds and insurance.
After three days of floor debate, the House voted 223 to 202 to approve the measure, which did not get a single Republican vote. It creates a new agency to oversee consumer lending, establishes new rules for transactions that contributed to the meltdown, and seeks to reduce the threat that one or two huge companies on the verge of collapse could bring down the economy.
"As we have seen over the past year, our financial system is broken and we can no longer afford to maintain the status quo," said Representative Ed Perlmutter, a Colorado Democrat and member of the Financial Services Committee, which spent months assembling the measure. The Senate has made less headway in drafting a companion bill.
The vote is the most significant legislative act to confront the financial crisis that exploded last year since the vast and costly bailout that was rammed through Congress at the peak of the emergency. It was an effort to address comprehensively what many of the bill's supporters have called the underlying causes of the collapse -- reckless risk-taking unrestrained by regulation.
The bill's principal provisions establish a process for dismantling large, failing financial institutions; set up a council to identify and regulate firms that are so big, interconnected or risky that they need heightened supervision to keep them from bringing down the whole financial system; create a new consumer financial-protection agency to squelch unfair and abusive practices; and for the first time, regulate over-the-counter derivatives markets. The bill also contains provisions on executive pay, investor protection, credit ratings, hedge funds and insurance.
We've won round 1! I have just received confirmation from a very credible Congressional source that the bill to audit the Federal Reserve is included in the House financial reform legislation which passed today. My source says: The Fed audit provision which passed the Financial Services Committee a few weeks ago is part of the bill. This is a real milestone, as it means that the full House of Representatives has passed a bill that mandates a complete audit of the Fed. The effort to audit the Fed - supported by 79% of the American people - is gaining traction.
I have just received confirmation from a very credible Congressional source that the bill to audit the Federal Reserve is included in the House financial reform legislation which passed today. My source says:
The Fed audit provision which passed the Financial Services Committee a few weeks ago is part of the bill. This is a real milestone, as it means that the full House of Representatives has passed a bill that mandates a complete audit of the Fed.
The effort to audit the Fed - supported by 79% of the American people - is gaining traction.
Is any bill getting any republican votes in either house these days? En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
Congressman Kucinich has announced that even after his proposed amendment to HR 4173 to tax TARP recipients was shot down, he "will be introducing legislation based on the amendment that [he] offered, that will pave the way for a more fair and just tax treatment of absurd bonuses in the financial industry." It will be useful to see if the vote goes once again along party lines, in which case the banana republic nature of America will truly shine, as republicans and democrats finally confirm they have terminally flip-flopped on all issues pertaining to Wall Street, even as Main Street anger over banker compensation continues rising. If this proposal gets voted on, Democrats, who will likely once again vote it down, stand to reap the full fury of over 300 million Americans, who will realize that the Democratic party now holds banker remuneration and bonus concerns closer to its heart than those of small and medium-sized businesses (let along Joe Sixpack). And in that case, watch out come mid-term election time. Now if only Bernanke's reappointment can be stalled for another year, there just may be a little hope for capitalism yet. From Kucinich' website: Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement in response to news reports that Goldman Sachs has decided to alter its bonus payments: "Today, Goldman Sachs bowed to public pressure and promised to suspend bonus payments to its top executives. It's important to understand this in perspective. Goldman did this only in the face of deafening public criticism over bonus payments to bankers. "Once the uproar subsides, executives throughout the financial services industry will return to the same practice of showering themselves with outrageous compensation packages and bonuses. "We need to reform fundamentally our tax code so that we don't have to rely on extraordinary public outcry to curb such excessive behavior. "I offered a commonsense amendment to HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, that would have taxed the bonuses of executives at TARP recipients, as well as the profits reported by these institutions. My amendment simply acknowledged that without the extraordinary actions of the federal government, many of these institutions would have collapsed a long time ago, and it would have held to account those individuals that made the decisions and that led to the crisis. "Unfortunately my amendment was not accepted by the Rules Committee. Soon I will be introducing legislation based on the amendment that I offered, that will pave the way for a more fair and just tax treatment of absurd bonuses in the financial industry. "Leaders in Great Britain and France have recently announced proposals to tax the bonuses of financial executives--if the United States remains silent on the issue, we will in effect be leading the world in a `race to the bottom' of international efforts to regulate the financial services industry.
It will be useful to see if the vote goes once again along party lines, in which case the banana republic nature of America will truly shine, as republicans and democrats finally confirm they have terminally flip-flopped on all issues pertaining to Wall Street, even as Main Street anger over banker compensation continues rising. If this proposal gets voted on, Democrats, who will likely once again vote it down, stand to reap the full fury of over 300 million Americans, who will realize that the Democratic party now holds banker remuneration and bonus concerns closer to its heart than those of small and medium-sized businesses (let along Joe Sixpack). And in that case, watch out come mid-term election time. Now if only Bernanke's reappointment can be stalled for another year, there just may be a little hope for capitalism yet.
From Kucinich' website:
Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today released the following statement in response to news reports that Goldman Sachs has decided to alter its bonus payments: "Today, Goldman Sachs bowed to public pressure and promised to suspend bonus payments to its top executives. It's important to understand this in perspective. Goldman did this only in the face of deafening public criticism over bonus payments to bankers. "Once the uproar subsides, executives throughout the financial services industry will return to the same practice of showering themselves with outrageous compensation packages and bonuses. "We need to reform fundamentally our tax code so that we don't have to rely on extraordinary public outcry to curb such excessive behavior. "I offered a commonsense amendment to HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, that would have taxed the bonuses of executives at TARP recipients, as well as the profits reported by these institutions. My amendment simply acknowledged that without the extraordinary actions of the federal government, many of these institutions would have collapsed a long time ago, and it would have held to account those individuals that made the decisions and that led to the crisis. "Unfortunately my amendment was not accepted by the Rules Committee. Soon I will be introducing legislation based on the amendment that I offered, that will pave the way for a more fair and just tax treatment of absurd bonuses in the financial industry. "Leaders in Great Britain and France have recently announced proposals to tax the bonuses of financial executives--if the United States remains silent on the issue, we will in effect be leading the world in a `race to the bottom' of international efforts to regulate the financial services industry.
"Today, Goldman Sachs bowed to public pressure and promised to suspend bonus payments to its top executives. It's important to understand this in perspective. Goldman did this only in the face of deafening public criticism over bonus payments to bankers.
"Once the uproar subsides, executives throughout the financial services industry will return to the same practice of showering themselves with outrageous compensation packages and bonuses.
"We need to reform fundamentally our tax code so that we don't have to rely on extraordinary public outcry to curb such excessive behavior.
"I offered a commonsense amendment to HR 4173, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, that would have taxed the bonuses of executives at TARP recipients, as well as the profits reported by these institutions. My amendment simply acknowledged that without the extraordinary actions of the federal government, many of these institutions would have collapsed a long time ago, and it would have held to account those individuals that made the decisions and that led to the crisis.
"Unfortunately my amendment was not accepted by the Rules Committee. Soon I will be introducing legislation based on the amendment that I offered, that will pave the way for a more fair and just tax treatment of absurd bonuses in the financial industry.
"Leaders in Great Britain and France have recently announced proposals to tax the bonuses of financial executives--if the United States remains silent on the issue, we will in effect be leading the world in a `race to the bottom' of international efforts to regulate the financial services industry.
