A few pics of last Sunday's meeting of the "Front de Gauche" party.
This is a very left-wing party (I'm talking American here). It is believed to get something like 10% of votes in the next presidential election. Objective (unsaid): weigh on the Socialist party (whose candidate is the favourite, but whose policies are general center-left, unlike the party's name) to get it to have a pro-left policy.

Enough said, and move on to the pictures.

A constitutional-cyclo: that guy has written text on a new constitution and advertises for it on his bike.

Continued below the fold

I've been reading the new with astonishment yersterday, after being deprived of that pleasure for a (long) holiday weekend in Bruxelles.
So it was new for me to learn that the ECB was lending roughly 500MM€ at 1% to banks in order to get them lending this amount at 3% to France, Spain or Italy.

And I though: my savings get a 2% reward at the bank. I don't have a use for them. Me too, I'd like to get rich, so why not write a letter to the BCE, asking to participate to the plan (Could they refuse under free competency rules?) and get rich too. It would even be patriotic...

So I started to write a letter which follow below, and I was wondering, what about if every EU citizen was sending its savings to the ECB and ask for the right to pillage public goods too?

Please, help me to get the letter right, and I'll send it...

Dear Mr Draghi,

I'm writing this letter in English, because, even if french is supposed to be an official language of the Uropean Institutions, it is clear for years that the Union is now of anglosaxon inspiration.

I am very conscious, as a citizen of the European Union, of your efforts as ECB chairman to solve the debt crisis in our continent.
Your efforts are valued, and I was wondering whether I could give you a hand in the processus.
These efforts have lead you to decide last week that the best way to help solve the European crisis was to give the European banks the possibility to borrow from your institution at the very low rate of 1% and lend this money to the troubled states on the continent at a higher rate, provided these banks would deposit some collateral at your institution.

I myself have saved some money and I propose to do the same, in order to reinforce your action.  I understand that banks may lend 10 times the amount of their assets. I also understand that Member states governmental bonds constitute such assets. I therefore propose to you to deposit my savings at the European Central Bank and lend again the money the ECB would lend me to member states, too. This would allow me to provide some hundreds of thousands euro to member states, and maybe more, as I understand that I may recycle government bonds as collateral to get new fresh money from your institution.

This would be a proof you could communicate about that all right minded European citizens have the same access to the European Institutions, without discrimination on nationality or wealth, and that all people could get insanely rich easily without any risks by lending public money to public institutions.

This would be a right step in the path of the Lisbon Process, a true proof that liberalization and non rigged competency are embraced by the European Institution your represent, and not, as some populists might say,  used to deprive the average citizen of its rights while transferring riches to the wealthy.

While waiting impatiently to your answer to my proposal, I wish you a merry Christmas,
Cordially.

Recently, I was reading the newspaper Le Monde on line when my attention was attracted by this article. At the time, the chat was ongoing so I though of asking some questions to the interviewed, Yves Verilhac, who is a prominent figure of the anti-wind party in France. These questions were not selected by the newspaper crew who were filtering them, so I sent them directly to the guy afterwards, who was kind enough to answer. I think this exchange might be of interest so here it is below the fold...

Caution: g00gle translation ahead!

A friend of mine is a researcher in pollution by metals components such the ones you can find in mine wastes.

He's just started to write a few texts to explain how you really have to study these phenomenae, the need for complex methods, and some traps to avoid when interpreting data.
I think the part on interpreting data is particularly interesting, because we usually have a lot of data in medias on hot issues, you can find information on the exact values, but the meaning of these is almost never challenged.

So, if you care to read further, I'll try to extract the best parts, to illustrate how complex it may be to study a physical phenomenon before being able to decide about it.

promoted by whataboutbob