EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A European Commission proposal on greater economic co-ordination and member state surveillance is set to explore the sensitive topics of greater tax and budgetary co-ordination. Speaking on the basis of anonymity, an EU official with an understanding of next month's communication told EUobserver the document's aim was to "stimulate debate" and to "correct the imbalance of what was not agreed at Maastricht."
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A European Commission proposal on greater economic co-ordination and member state surveillance is set to explore the sensitive topics of greater tax and budgetary co-ordination.
Speaking on the basis of anonymity, an EU official with an understanding of next month's communication told EUobserver the document's aim was to "stimulate debate" and to "correct the imbalance of what was not agreed at Maastricht."
French leader Sarkozy in a meeting with UK opposition leader Cameron on Friday will warn that if the Tories get into power, they risk losing French co-operation on energy, defence and the economy unless they adopt a more pro-European stance, The Guardian reports.
AFP - The idea of a European-style International Monetary Fund to help debt-stricken eurozone members should be examined "rapidly," French Prime Minister Francois Fillon said on Wednesday. "We think this is an idea that should be looked at by experts rapidly in order to create the means with which the eurozone and its members can have at their disposal to respond to financial tensions that threaten monetary stability," Fillon said in a speech at Berlin's Humboldt University. "But this form of support is only acceptable if the states confronted by financial difficulties make in parallel all necessary efforts to fix their structural problems and balance their books."
Quatremer says Sarkozy is supposed to be not really against the idea, except that it wasn't his.
When Sarko tried that with the Mediterranean whatnot it didn't fool anyone, Germany in particular.
LONDON (Reuters) - Big domestic banks need to raise as much as 750 billion pounds in the next three years to support balance sheets and liquidity as the government prepares to wind down support for the sector, analysts said. The banks have shown they can stand on their own feet in the bond markets over the past year, raising billions of euros without any government backing.
LONDON (Reuters) - Big domestic banks need to raise as much as 750 billion pounds in the next three years to support balance sheets and liquidity as the government prepares to wind down support for the sector, analysts said.
The banks have shown they can stand on their own feet in the bond markets over the past year, raising billions of euros without any government backing.
Reforming the expensive German health-care system is a key objective for the German government. One of Health Minister Philipp Roesler's proposals is to tackle the relationship between the pharmaceuticals industry and Germany's numerous health insurers. At present, drugs firms can set their own prices for new and potentially crucial, patented medication, which the insurers can either take or leave. The system is unique in Europe, making the German market particularly lucrative for the industry. Roesler now wants to introduce compulsory price negotiations between industry and health insurers.
Reforming the expensive German health-care system is a key objective for the German government. One of Health Minister Philipp Roesler's proposals is to tackle the relationship between the pharmaceuticals industry and Germany's numerous health insurers.
At present, drugs firms can set their own prices for new and potentially crucial, patented medication, which the insurers can either take or leave. The system is unique in Europe, making the German market particularly lucrative for the industry.
Roesler now wants to introduce compulsory price negotiations between industry and health insurers.
An FDP man is not going to do anything that will really hurt business. The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman
A trip back to the financial world this week has crystallised a feeling that's been nagging at me for a few days: the Conservatives are in trouble on the economy. After Gordon Brown's appearance at Reuters' Canary Wharf base on Thursday, I spoke to a City type who also attended a similar event last week with George Osborne, David Cameron and Kenneth Clarke last week. For all the undoubted anxieties in the City about Labour's (lack of) fiscal plans and all the doubts about Mr Brown's own agenda, my financial friend was clear about which presentation he found more credible. "Whatever you think of it, Brown looks like he's offering a clear message. I can't say that for the Conservatives," he said. It was not an unusual view in such company. Rewind to last autumn. Mr Osborne was on top form, effectively setting the economic agenda, just has he did in 2007 on inheritance tax. His public sector pay freeze plan, outlined at the Conservative conference, was a calculated gamble, but one that paid off. The pay freezes for senior public servants confirmed by the Government week are a result of Mr Osborne's October gambit.
A trip back to the financial world this week has crystallised a feeling that's been nagging at me for a few days: the Conservatives are in trouble on the economy.
After Gordon Brown's appearance at Reuters' Canary Wharf base on Thursday, I spoke to a City type who also attended a similar event last week with George Osborne, David Cameron and Kenneth Clarke last week. For all the undoubted anxieties in the City about Labour's (lack of) fiscal plans and all the doubts about Mr Brown's own agenda, my financial friend was clear about which presentation he found more credible.
"Whatever you think of it, Brown looks like he's offering a clear message. I can't say that for the Conservatives," he said. It was not an unusual view in such company.
Rewind to last autumn. Mr Osborne was on top form, effectively setting the economic agenda, just has he did in 2007 on inheritance tax. His public sector pay freeze plan, outlined at the Conservative conference, was a calculated gamble, but one that paid off. The pay freezes for senior public servants confirmed by the Government week are a result of Mr Osborne's October gambit.
More than a year ago I coined a phrase that seems to have made its way into the econolexicon; writing about how cutbacks at the state and local level would tend to undermine fiscal stimulus at the federal level, I said that we had fifty Herbert Hoovers. But I was wrong. Via Mark Thoma, we have at least fifty-one -- because we have to add David Broder to the list. Before I get there, let's note that fears about fiscal drag at the state and local level have, in fact, proved justified. Aizenman and Pasricha have a fairly definitive analysis; you can get the quick and dirty version just by looking at government purchases of goods and services:
More than a year ago I coined a phrase that seems to have made its way into the econolexicon; writing about how cutbacks at the state and local level would tend to undermine fiscal stimulus at the federal level, I said that we had fifty Herbert Hoovers.
But I was wrong. Via Mark Thoma, we have at least fifty-one -- because we have to add David Broder to the list.
Before I get there, let's note that fears about fiscal drag at the state and local level have, in fact, proved justified. Aizenman and Pasricha have a fairly definitive analysis; you can get the quick and dirty version just by looking at government purchases of goods and services:
Larry Summers and I are tight. I mean we're tighter than a fox butt-fucking a gnat. Not that I know the guy; never seen him and wouldn't know it if we passed on the street. What I mean is that he and I have an ideological lip lock that can't be broken. Somewhere in an alternate universe our brains merged and became one thrombulating organ oozing the black bile of creative thought. The only difference between the two of us is that he gets paid for shoveling his bullshit and I don't. Here is an example of Larry's poetry, written when he was with the World Bank:Just between you and me, shouldn't the World Bank be encouraging MORE migration of the dirty industries to the LDCs [Less Developed Countries}?" This is Larry at this best. His reasoning is impeccable. The way he sees it, poor people value economic harm less than rich people. Look at it this way: a dust mote on a dung heap is barely noticed; a dust mote on the highly-polished lens of a telescope screams for attention. Why should a poor country with its open sewage ditches, filthy streets, rampant diseases, garbage rotting beneath the tropical sun and factories relocated to escape the environmental regulations and labor costs of the developed countries care about another dollop of pollution? Gated communities keep the riff-raff out, and it's no different with rich countries. Turds don't rise, they drop. Larry's brilliance is his ability to quantify misery and in doing so sanitize it and make it acceptable to polite society. In Europe it costs a corporation $1,000 a ton to dump its crap. In Somalia, the same ton of shit costs $2.50 to dump. Do the math.The nice thing about numbers is they never bleed, never get sick and never die. They look so sweet as they dance across a screen or arrange themselves in neat columns on a spreadsheet. (Spreadsheets are always printed on thick paper so the blood of the victims can't soak through.)But, let me tell you the real reason I love Larry. The man is a with-it anachronism, a relic of an age passing into oblivion. He is the product of an era so awash in a sea of funny money that it was possible to float any ideology, no matter how absurd, such as the divinity of "The Invisible Hand." Well, the sea is drained and no more, but Larry is still rowing away on the seabed to a cadence called by his coxswain Tim.
