Libertad, Igualdad, y Pluralidad. News / Press / Notícies / Noticias / GLOBAL SYSTEMIC CRISIS 07/01/2013

UK - A voluntary quarantine for the sick man of Europe.   Strangely, the United Kingdom exhibits the same symptoms as Israel and the United States. As is the case with Israel, Cameron must do the splits between his public opinion, long nurtured in Euroskepticism, and the realities of the exercise of power in England, which is wholly dependent on Europe. It therefore seeks to avoid at all costs the 2015 referendum on the country’s EU membership, while providing Euroskeptic guarantees to its population (particular the right wing of Cameron’s party). But it is too late to change the English mind. Thus Cameron must appear inflexible in negotiations while in fact releasing ballast so as not to become entirely isolate, as seen in the EU budget negotiations. In some way, the UK can be seen as having opted to quarantine itself from Europe, nevertheless hoping to keep on weighing on EU decisions in a remote manner. From the standpoint of our team, the resulting blocking of the EU in fact increasingly emancipates Euroland, as we will see.  LEAP/E2020 - Excerpt GEAB N°70 (Dec. 2012)

Brazil Proposes WTO Candidate for 2013 . With recent WTO chiefs hailing from either Europe or Asia, a candidate from Latin America or Africa is widely tipped for the prestigious trade position next year. Several other people are jostling to take over from France’s Lamy however, including candidates from Costa Rica, Ghana, Indonesia, Jordan, Mexico, New Zealand and South Korea...   Rio Times

Madoff Aside, Financial Fraud Defies Policing .  Amid hundreds of legitimate transactions, a dubious trade was also hard to spot. In one instance, Mr. Horn bought 1,000 shares of an exchange-traded fund for $77.93 apiece on Feb. 15, 2011, according to Mr. Brown’s bank statements. A month later, Mr. Horn canceled the trade. By then, the price had surged to $86. But the transaction was buried within more than 50 double-sided pages. It appeared as a canceled trade, which by itself was not alarming...   New York Times

Vers l'abolition du «goulag chinois».  Les sinistres camps de travail chinois pourraient disparaître dès cette année. C'est le plus haut responsable chinois en matière de sécurité, Meng Jianzhu, qui l'a annoncé ce lundi, en révélant que le projet de suppression du système de «rééducation par le travail» avait été soumis aux commissions compétentes du Parlement chinois... Le Figaro

NHS being 'atomised' by expansion of private sector's role, say doctors.

More than 100 private firms will be paid by the NHS to treat patients as a result of the coalition's first major expansion of the private sector's role in the health service. Department of Health figures show that 105 healthcare firms have been granted "any qualified provider" (AQP) status, which allows them to provide basic NHS services including physiotherapy, dermatology, hearing aids, MRI scanning and psychological therapy.  The Guardian

Why Companies Still Aren't Likely to Invest—or Hire.   Stocks are sharply higher for the very young 2013, but uncertainty abounds as Congress faces critical deadlines in the months ahead that could yet lead to a government shutdown, not to mention steep cuts in defense and domestic spending and an inability for the U.S. to keep funding its massive deficit spending.  CNBC

Japan's Growing Sovereign Debt Time Bomb. The eyes of the financial world are on Greece and other heavily indebted euro-zone countries. But Japan is in even worse shape. The country's debt load is immense and growing, to the point that a quarter of its budget goes to servicing it. The government in Tokyo has done little to change things...    Der Spiegel

Turkey stops publishing details of oil imports from Iran.   Turkey’s refiner Tupras has urged the country's statistics agency to stop divulging details of its oil imports from Iran amid US sanctions on Tehran’s oil sector over its nuclear energy program...  Press TV 

China: A New Economic Ground Plan.  Policymakers wrapped up the Central Economic Work Conference on December 16, pledging to take both short- and long-term measures to ensure stable growth in the future. They also reiterated a pledge to continue socialist market reforms with an approach that will demand even greater political courage and wisdom. Importantly, the leadership promised – for the first time – clearly-stated plans and a road map for each area of reform. Caixin

White House sees promise in revisiting elements of ‘grand bargain’ on taxes, spending.  The White House is eyeing a return to elements of a “grand bargain” it tried to reach late last year with House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) as perhaps the best hope of defusing a fresh threat to the U.S. economy in just two months, according to people familiar with the discussions.  Washington Post

Emprunts étudiants: la nouvelle bulle qui menace les États-Unis. 1 000 milliards de dollars! C'est le montant des emprunts contractés par les Américains pour leurs études. Un fardeau de plus en plus insupportable... et une "bulle" qui pourrait exploser. Sur les réseaux de type Copains d'avant, qui pullulent sur Internet, il n'est pas rare de voir des "amis" grisonnants célébrer, à plus de 50 ans, la dernière mensualité de leurs cours de sociologie...  L'Express

Why the next U.S. downgrade will really matter.  RBC Capital Markets is calling it: the U.S. is going to lose its triple-A rating from another rating agency. And this one may matter more because it would affect how investors have to look at the government’s debt. “In the absence of a grand bargain in the next two months, it is likely that the U.S. is downgraded,” analysts led by Tom Porcelli, RBC’s chief U.S. economist, wrote in a note Thursday...  Market Watch

Signs of hope for euro zone, but new worry for U.K. - PMIs  . entative signs the euro zone may have passed the worst of its downturn emerged in December but business surveys also suggested Britain’s economy tipped back into contraction in the final months of 2012. Friday’s purchasing managers indexes, which measure the activity of thousands of companies worldwide, brought mixed news from Europe...

The Globe and Mail

Abbas sees Palestinian unity as Fatah rallies in Gaza. President Mahmoud Abbas predicted the end of a five-year split between the two big Palestinian factions as his Fatah movement staged its first mass rally in Gaza with the blessing of Hamas Islamists who rule the enclave.

Reuters

Euro doomsayers adjust predictions after 2012 apocalypse averted.

Back in May, as the euro zone veered deeper into crisis, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman penned one of his gloomiest columns about the single currency, a piece in the New York Times entitled "Apocalypse Fairly Soon".  Reuters

Congress’s feeble finish to the ‘fiscal cliff’ fiasco . The United States will have to wait longer yet for its inevitable budget reckoning. Lawmakers are girding for battle over raising the debt limit, and sequestration’s spending cuts will continue to threaten vital government operations, including at the Pentagon. That means more brinkmanship in the next couple months. Then Congress and President Obama will have to tackle future annual budgets... Washington Post 

U.S. mentally ill and their families face barriers to care.  Lori, a 39-year-old mother in New Jersey, would like to save for the usual things: college, retirement, vacations. But those goals are far down her wish list. For now, she and her husband are putting aside money for a home alarm system. They're not worried about keeping burglars out. They need to keep their son in...  Reuters

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