Dismantle the Euro, Says Nobel-winning Economist Who Once Backed Currency Union

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A leading economist who once argued for the creation of the euro now claims the single currency should be abandoned as it is fuelling unemployment and dividing Europe.

A Nobel prize-winning economist will on Thursday withdraw his support for the euro saying it has created a “lost generation” unemployed youngsters and should be broken up.

Sir Christopher Pissarides was once a key proponent of a single currency but will on Thursday accuse the euro of “dividing Europe” and say action is needed to “restore the euro’s credibility in international markets” and the “trust that Europe’s nations once had in each other”, according to the Daily Mail.

Speaking at the London School of Economics, where he teaches, Professor Pissarides will say: “The euro should either be dismantled in an orderly way or the leading members should do the necessary as fast as possible to make it growth and employment-friendly.

“We will get nowhere plodding along with the current line of ad hoc decision-making and inconsistent debt-relief policies. » | Miranda Prynne, New Reporter | Thursday, December 12, 2013

Osborne Wants to Take Us Back to 1948. Time to Look Forward Instead

George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer

THE OBSERVER: Plans in the Treasury's autumn statement to return state spending to 1948 levels will do permanent damage to Britain

It is an incidental sentence, but it brought me up short. By 2018, general government consumption will be proportionally no larger than it was in 1948. So declared the Office for Budget Responsibility in its report accompanying the autumn statement. The work of three generations in building the sinews of a state that support systems of health, transport, education, environment, policing, science and the rest is to be summarily withdrawn over the next five years. It is a landmark moment in our national life.

Next year the coalition – deputy prime minister Nick Clegg supporting Cameron and Osborne – is aiming to legislate that the reduction of the deficit on this scale and speed should be a statutory obligation. Stunningly – apart from some allegedly effective new measures against tax avoidance, and asking non-residents to pay capital-gains tax on the sale of their homes – all of the work is to be done by cutting spending, by a cumulative £75bn in ways yet to be specified.

The IMF, after assessing the experience of 107 countries between 1980 and 2012, recommends that, after a credit-crunch deficit, there should be a balance between tax increases and spending reductions. In Osborne-land over the next five years more than 95% is to come from spending cuts – a global first in self-harm. » | Will Hutton | Sunday, December 08, 2013

Cuban Entrepreneurs Slowly Adapting to Free Market under Economic Reforms

Raúl Castro, President of Cuba

CTV NEWS: HAVANA, Cuba -- It's not dog-eat-dog. Not just yet.

But as more and more islanders go into business for themselves under President Raul Castro's economic reforms, the ethos of capitalism is increasingly seeping into Cuban daily life, often in stark conflict with fundamental tenets of the Cuban Revolution.

These days it seems there's a mom-and-pop snack shop or pirate DVD stand on every other block in parts of Havana. The chants of cart-pushing vendors echo through residential streets. Farmers line up before dawn at an open-air market to jockey for the best spot to sell their produce. After decades of being urged to report any black market activity in their neighbourhoods, some Cubans now find themselves looking at their neighbours' legal businesses and worrying that they're falling behind.

The free market is still limited in Cuba, but already it is altering lives and reshaping attitudes in palpable ways. Some fear -- and others hope -- that values anathema to a half-century of Communist rule are taking root more with each passing day: It's OK to make money, within limits; workers can reap the benefits of their own labour directly, instead of seeing it redistributed; individual enterprise is rewarded. » | Andrea Rodriguez, The Associated Press | Saturday, December 07, 2013

Pinch of Poverty: Millions in EU Forced to Live Close to Breadline

Over 20 per cent of Europe's population is at risk of poverty. Bulgaria is one of the EU's most impoverished countries, with nearly half its population living close to the bread line. Romania is not far behind, where four out of ten find it hard to make ends meet. In bailed-out Greece, slightly over 30 per cent of the population struggle to meet financial demands. And, about the same percentage of people in Spain and Italy are under pressure from harsh austerity measures. RT's Egor Piskunov went to a food bank in Rome where essential provisions are handed out to the city's poorest.

Living Standards to Be Lower in 2015 Than in 2010, IFS Warns

George Osborne, Chancellor of the Exchequer

THE GUARDIAN: Delivering its judgment on George Osborne's autumn statement, Institute for Fiscal Studies backs claims by Ed Balls that family budgets are being squeezed hard

Britain's leading experts on tax and spending have said that living standards would be lower at the end of the current parliament than at the start as they backed claims by the shadow chancellor Ed Balls that family budgets were being squeezed hard under the coalition.

Delivering its judgment on George Osborne's autumn statement, the Institute for Fiscal Studies took issue with the way Labour had calculated its estimate of a £1,600 loss to the average family in the three years since the coalition came to power in 2010 but said it was "pretty consistent" with survey data showing a big drop in household incomes between 2009-10 and 2011-12.

Paul Johnson, the IFS's director, said there was a lack of reliable figures for the current year, but added: "We do know from household surveys that income fell sharply in 2010 and 2011. It is almost certainly significantly lower now than it was in 2010.

"And while it should start to grow it will surely still be below its 2010 level by the time we get to the election in 2015." » | Larry Elliot and Philip Inman | Friday, December 06, 2013

World from Berlin: 'Germany No Longer a Role Model for Europe'

SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: Germany's next government is expected to shower the country with goodies including a minimum wage and an earlier retirement age. Editorialists warn the extra spending sends the wrong message and will be costly for the next generation.

Germany's conservatives and left-leaning Social Democrats reached an agreement this week to create the next federal government after weeks of negotiations following the Sept. 22 election. With Chancellor Angela Merkel of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) at its helm, the coalition government has agreed to a number of joint policy initiatives that will see the establishment of Germany's first-ever legally mandated minimum wage and generous changes to the country's pension system, including the option of retirement at 63. At the same time, the CDU, its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU) and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) are pledging to deliver these gifts without raising taxes. » | Spiegel Online Staff | Thursday, November 28, 2013

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing all my visitors Stateside, followers, and Twitter followers a VERY HAPPPY AND BLESSED THANKSGIVING
Experiencing American Thanksgiving » | Jelena | Saturday, December 17, 2011

Swiss Voters Reject High-Pay Initiative

Referendum to Limit Executive Pay Overwhelmingly Rejected
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: ZURICH—Switzerland stepped back from a movement to control corporate pay levels, overwhelmingly rejecting an initiative that would have restricted executive salaries to 12 times that of the lowest paid employee.

Roughly 66% of Swiss voters Sunday opposed the 1:12 Initiative for Fair Pay, according to results from 25 of the country's 26 cantons reported by Swiss television. Another 34% supported the referendum item, which was named for the organizers' belief no one in a Swiss company should earn more in a month than someone else makes in a year.

The rejection of the 1:12 initiative marks a move away from Swiss efforts to more tightly govern how companies compensate their employees that has been driven by a growing wealth gap between the country's executive class and everyday workers. » | Neil MacLucas | Sunday, November 24, 2014

Related »

Living Debt: Rising Costs in UK Force Millions to Borrow

In the UK new figures have revealed the country's total personal debt has reached an all-time high. The rising costs of energy and other household bills are pushing people over the edge, with many even facing the risk of losing their homes. RT's Laura Smith investigates.