The Closer
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ROUND-UP Spanish ten-year bond yields surpassed the euro-era high that was previously reached in November of last year. And although short-term borrowing costs remain lower than...
Welcome!
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When looking at Europe we tend to focus in the role of member states, European policy making processes or European institutions. Although issues such as ‘regionalism’, ‘localism’ and ‘subsidiarity’ are important is...
Putin's Russia: the fear meter | Editorial
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Vladimir Putin does not want public protest during his second presidency, now he has moved to stamp it outVladimir Putin does not like demonstrators and dissidents. He thinks of them as irresponsible and spoiled citizens at best, as tools of western...
It Won’t Just be About the Football
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I must apologise to my Swedish friends, but sentimentalism won me over and I found myself cheering enthusiastically for Ukraine last night. The home team; the underdog predicted by many to finish last in their group (including myself, though my wretc...
Minutes: GreenYourope Meeting,12 June 2012
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GreenYourope skype meeting, 12 June 2012. Present: Yoav, Michael, Joline. 21h-21h45 Strategy and activity of GreenYourope Shortly before the meeting Yoav proposed by mail that the ISN should organise an event during the next plenary session of the Eu...
It Won’t Just be About the Football
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I must apologise to my Swedish friends, but sentimentalism won me over and I found myself cheering enthusiastically for Ukraine last night. The home team; the underdog predicted by many to finish last in their group (including myself, though my Conti...
Treating the EU & G20 leaders like naughty schoolchildren
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Excellent teacherly putdown in this post from thinktank Bruegel’s blog: “Europe has already expressed its intention to focus [the upcoming G20 summit] on growth and jobs; the deliverable should foreseeably be yet another ‘plan’...
Free fall…. Mehdi Hasan writes the story of free speech being lost in Turkey…
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TweetShare via emailIn Turkey the right to free speech is being lost | Mehdi Hasan by Mehdi Hasan Erdogan is using a series of alleged plots to justify a crackdown on dissent that threatens basic freedoms Which country in the world currently imp...
The US Dollar Trades Lower As Gold Breaks Out … A Euro German Empire Is Rising In The Euro Zone … A Global Eurasia War Centered in Syria, Iran,Turkey And Israel Is Imminent
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Financial market report for June 12, 2012 The chart of the US Dollar, $USD, UUP, now shows a downtrend; this as the chart of the gold ETF, GLD, shows a breakout. Jack Chan of JC’s Buy and Sell Signals, gave his buy signal to gold on June 1, 2012; t...
Tsipras in the pink pages
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And the Syriza leader is talking tax, ahead of Greece’s weekend election.The people of Greece want to replace the failed old memorandum of understanding (as signed in March...
The eurozone as monetary crisis
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The charts come from David Beckworth:We stole Beckworth’s charts, so we won’t also steal his commentary. Instead we’ll just send you to the post.Related links:...
Elinor Ostrom: "Green from the Grassroots"
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“Inaction in Rio would be disastrous, but a single international agreement would be a grave mistake. We cannot rely on singular global policies to solve the problem of managing our common resources: the oceans, atmosphere, forests, waterways, and r...
An American view of Europe the UK would be sensible to note
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Once again, no one knows what’s going to happen – yet everyone knows it’s going to be bad. This from The Atlantic makes some good points amidst the “eurogeddon” worst-case scenario act – but this time from an Ameri...
Belgrade’s Roma minority: pop them in a metal container
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Ignored yet maligned, numerous but powerless, the Roma minority live on the edge of society, making their living from other people’s waste. The ghosts of the Serbian capital have been moved from the banks of the Sava river, not far from the luxury...
Seniority in Spain — *good news* for bondholders?
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As we all wait for an actual Spanish bailout loan doc, and what it might say about that ESM seniority…Here’s some seriously intriguing, counter-intuitive food for...
Czech Roma Children Need Action Now to End School Segregation
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With Europe on the brink of economic meltdown, it’s easy to forget that some people never saw the good times. The 10 to 12 million strong Roma minority—often disparaged as “Gypsies”—have lived in Europe for centuries, but have been consider...
When productivity normalises
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As you’ll find in an economics textbook, labour productivity growth is driven by some combination of:1) improvements in human capital, such as a more-educated or more-experienced workforce,...
SW MEP unsurprisingly lands new role as Conservative spokesperson on agriculture
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South West MEP Julie Girling has been appointed the new UK Conservative MEP spokesperson for agricultural issues, in a move that is remarkably unsurprising and politically sensible.Mrs Girling became a full member of the European Parliament's Agricul...
Does this Justin Bieber transaction pass the smell test?
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Little more than a year has passed since Justin Bieber, the internationally renowned two-time Grammy nominated star and undisputed king of social media, announced his first fragrance....
Steen Jakobsen, Chief Economist Saxo Bank is buying in our arguments
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Steen Jakobsen sees 25% percent chance that the floor breaks and if it does it breaks to parity. Last week Thomas Jordan removed any hopes on a hike of the EUR/CHF and invited smart money and hedge funds to a no-risk, high return game on the Swiss fr...
The Toulouse Killer's Childhood: One Time, Mohamed Merah Spent the Night Beating His Mother
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As the AFP reports that Mohamed Merah felt betrayed by his best friend, a fellow Jihadist who turned out to be "working for the French secret services" ("Go to Hell, you traitor!" the Islamist assassin says in a videotape, "I will never forgive you!
Generation 1992: European Single Market Creative Competition
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DG MARKT is inviting all twenty-year-old Europeans to get creative and voice their views on the single market through a competition entitles ‘Generation 1992′, running from April to September 2012. So this EC blog post looks at a creative...
Youth Opportunities Initiative
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Young people have been hit hardest by the economic crisis, with more than five million 15-24 year-olds currently looking for a job. An animated clip on the EU's Europe-wide Youth Opportunities Initiative (YOI) highlights the programmes and resour...
How to survive a spam attack – alphabet for Facebook page admins
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In recent months we learned how to live with spam attacks. We are often a target of Syrian pro-regime spammers. Recently – just last month. Here's some tips and facts for surviving a spam attack: A like “Assad” – Bashar al...
