Bogs : 23rd October

Listen to this man! Richard, EUReferendum (en)

Outside looking in. by P O Neill, A Fistful of Euros (en)
" ... Today, the President is inviting the leaders of the Group of 20 countries to a summit in the Washington ...
... This will be a strange event. All polling trends indicate that it will be President-elect Obama by then, yet with 2 months of George Bush still go. Even stranger, the G20 does not feature most of the countries currently in the news (or Edward’s posts) as current or likely candidates for needing national bailouts: Spain, Hungary, Iceland, Baltics, Pakistan. What they have is a 1990s sense of where a crisis might be, which is not to say that Argentina, Turkey, and South Africa don’t have their problems now ..."

Strengthen climate/energy policies to avoid the Great Depression. Willy De Backer, Blogactiv.eu(en)
" ... Spending on “green infrastructure” will be the key to avoiding a severe recession according to a new study published by Deutsche Bank’s Asset Management division. The report will scare the climate sceptics who are still hoping that the financial crisis will kill the world’s climate efforts and the EU’s climate/energy package ...
... Governments now have an historic opportunity to define long-term regulatory frameworks to encourage private investment in climate change initiatives. Additional opportunity exists for governments to boost their economies by funding infrastructure projects that will serve to foster energy independence and climate-proof their economies.” ..."

Nothing Changes On Wall Street. financialguy, Blogactiv.eu (en)
" ... To speak out against madness may be to ruin those who have succumbed to it. So the wise men in Wall Street are nearly always silent. The foolish thus have the field to themsleves ..."

Stunned again, Austria wonders about the real Haider. Certain Ideas of Europe (en)
" ... AUSTRIA is reeling from the revelation by the late Jörg Haider's successor as head of the far-right Alliance for the Future that the two men had a "special relationship" before Mr Haider's recent death in a car crash. The disclosure by Stefan Petzner, a 27-year-old who recently stepped up to head the party, has stunned this socially conservative country on multiple levels, not least because it is much less open about homosexuality than other parts of Europe ...

Moving toward a thaw? Certain Ideas of Europe (en)
" ... This report quotes Olli Rehn, the EU's commissioner for enlargement, saying that Iceland is "a democratic European country" that has "already negotiated perhaps two-thirds" of criteria necessary to join the group. Iceland is already part of the European Economic Area, which means it follows many of the rules on a single regional market.
Fishing, the foundation of Iceland's economy long before its banks took off, has been the sticking point to date. EU membership would require the country to follow rather strict fishing rules. But recently even the Icelandic minister responsible for fishing was recently quoted as saying it might be time to reconsider ..."

Les eurodéputés souhaitent un gouvernement économique européen. Jean Quatremer, Les Coulisses de Bruxelles (en)
" ... Le Parlement européen soutient, à une écrasante majorité, la création d’un véritable « gouvernement économique » de la zone euro. Dans une résolution (non contraignante) adoptée aujourd'hui par 499 contre 130 voix (communistes, verts et souverainistes de droite) et 67 absentions (notamment les conservateurs britanniques) ...
... C’était le souhait exprimé la veille, devant le Parlement européen réuni en session plénière à Strasbourg, par le chef de l’État français qui préside le Conseil européen jusqu’à la fin de l’année : « le vrai gouvernement économique de l’Eurogroupe, c’est un Eurogroupe qui se réunit au niveau des chefs d’État et de gouvernement » ...
... En réalité, ce que souhaite l’Elysée, c'est créer un simple « point de contact » qui serait chargé de convoquer, si cela est nécessaire, un Eurosommet au cas où la présidence semestrielle tournante de l’Union échoirait à un pays n’appartenant pas à la zone euro. Ce qui sera précisément le cas en 2009, la République tchèque et la Suède se succédant à la tête de l’Union. « Cela évitera une paralysie de la zone euro, vu l’enthousiasme de Prague pour la gouvernance économique », explique-t-on à l’Elysée ..."

Factoid alert. Richard, EUReferendum (en)
" ... According to Bloomberg, Britons waste £900 million ($1.5 billion) a year by leaving lights, televisions and other electrical appliances switched on when they're not needed. This gem came to them via the UK Energy Saving Trust.Let's see now: 60 million people and 365 days a year. For each of us, that works out at about £15 each per annum or 4p a day, if my arithmetic is correct. This, I believe, is not going to break the bank ..."

Pound's plunge points to higher interest rates! Ironies Too (en)
" ... The fact that Britain has been heading towards bankruptcy for years has been one of the main and constant themes of this blog and its forerunner "Ironies" since 2003 ...
... Meantime the 3 per cent interest rate rise in Hungary ... is an obvious ominous portent for the UK, particularly following the dire warning speech by the culpable and complacent Governor of the Bank of England the evening before last ... "

Carbon price hits eight month low. Open Europe blog (en)
" ... According to Point Carbon, carbon prices for permits traded within the EU Emissions Trading Scheme (EUAs) have "crashed", and are now priced at less than €20/tonne ...