industryterm:finance

Varoufakis révèle les raisons de sa démission
▻http://www.liberation.fr/economie/2015/07/13/varoufakis-revele-les-raisons-de-sa-demission_1347506

Behind Germany’s refusal to grant Greece debt relief – Op-Ed in The Guardian | Yanis Varoufakis
▻http://yanisvaroufakis.eu/2015/07/11/behind-germanys-refusal-to-grant-greece-debt-relief-op-ed-in-the-gua

Tomorrow’s EU Summit will seal Greece’s fate in the Eurozone. As these lines are being written, Euclid Tsakalotos, my great friend, comrade and successor as Greece’s Finance Ministry is heading for a Eurogroup meeting that will determine whether a last ditch agreement between Greece and our creditors is reached and whether this agreement contains the degree of debt relief that could render the Greek economy viable within the Euro Area. Euclid is taking with him a moderate, well-thought out debt restructuring plan that is undoubtedly in the interests both of Greece and its creditors. (Details of it I intend to publish here on Monday, once the dust has settled.) If these modest debt restructuring proposals are turned down, as the German finance minister has foreshadowed, Sunday’s EU Summit will be deciding between kicking Greece out of the Eurozone now or keeping it in for a little while longer, in a state of deepening destitution, until it leaves some time in the future. The question is: Why is the German finance Minister, Dr Wolfgang Schäuble, resisting a sensible, mild, mutually beneficial debt restructure? The following op-ed just published in today’s The Guardian offers my answer. [Please note that the Guardian’s title was not of my choosing. Mine read, as above: Behind Germany’s refusal to grant Greece debt relief ). Click here for the op-ed or…

Greece debt crisis: Athens accepts harsh austerity as bailout deal nears | Business | The Guardian | Thursday 9 July 2015 19.39 BST
▻http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/09/greece-debt-crisis-athens-accepts-harsh-austerity-as-bailout-deal-nears

The Greek government capitulated on Thursday to demands from its creditors for severe austerity measures in return for a modest debt write-off, raising hopes that a rescue deal could be signed at an emergency meeting of EU leaders on Sunday.

Athens is understood to have put forward a package of reforms and public spending cuts worth €13bn (£9.3bn) to secure a third bailout from creditors that could raise $50bn and allow it to stay inside the currency union.

A cabinet meeting signed off the reform package after ministers agreed that the dire state of the economy and the debilitating closure of the country’s banks meant it had no option but to agree to almost all the creditors terms.

Parliament is expected to endorse the package after a frantic few days of negotiation that followed a landmark referendum last Sunday in which Greek voters backed the radical leftist Syriza government’s call for debt relief.

Syriza, which is in coalition with the rightwing populist Independent party, is expected to meet huge opposition from within its own ranks and from trade unions and youth groups that viewed the referendum as a vote against any austerity.(...)

We need to know: Did Saudis help fund #9/11 attacks? Column
▻http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2015/07/06/declassification-28-pages-911-saudis-column/28926283

Do Americans have the right to learn whether a foreign government helped finance the 9/11 attacks? A growing number of congressmen and senators are demanding that a 28-page portion of a 2002 congressional report finally be declassified. The Obama administration appears to be resisting, and the stakes are huge. What is contained in those pages could radically change Americans’ perspective of the War on Terror.

#Arabie_Saoudite

Defiant Greeks reject EU demands as Syriza readies IOU currency - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11719688/Defiant-Greeks-reject-EU-demands-as-Syriza-readies-IOU-currency.html

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03365/greece-oxi-vote_3365437k.jpg

“If necessary, we will issue parallel liquidity and California-style IOU’s, in an electronic form. We should have done it a week ago,” said Yanis Varoufakis, the finance minister.

Greek debt crisis is the Iraq War of finance - Telegraph
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11687229/Greek-debt-crisis-is-the-Iraq-War-of-finance.html

We all know the argument. The EU is worried about political “moral hazard”, about what Podemos might achieve in Spain, or the eurosceptics in Italy, or the Front National in France, if Syriza is seen to buck the system and get away with it.

But do the proponents of this establishment view – and one hears it a lot – really think that Podemos can be defeated by crushing Syriza, or that they can discourage Marine Le Pen by violating the sovereignty and sensibilities of a nation?

Do they think that the EU’s ever-declining hold on the loyalty of Europe’s youth can be reversed by creating a martyr state on the Left? Do they not realize that this is their own Guatemala, the radical experiment of Jacobo Arbenz that was extinguished by the CIA in 1954, only to set off the Cuban revolution and thirty years of guerrilla warfare across Latin America? Don’t these lawyers – and yes they are almost all lawyers - ever look beyond their noses?

The Versailles victors assumed reflexively that they had the full weight of moral authority on their side when they imposed their Carthiginian settlement on a defeated Germany in 1919 and demanded the payment of debts that they themselves invented. History judged otherwise.

#Coup_d'état #dette #euro #Syriza #Grèce #BCE

EU investors, land grabs and deforestation: case-studies
▻http://farmlandgrab.org/post/view/25025

European banks and investors are a major source of finance for large-scale destructive agriculture; forestry; and pulp and paper projects. These often lead to forest loss, impoverishment and violations of the rights of local communities. NGOs continue to be inundated with examples of agriculture and forestry deals that kick communities off their land and cause environmental devastation. This briefing outlines five examples that illustrate how EU financiers are involved in “land grabs”. It is small sample, from a very long list.

▻http://www.fern.org/sites/fern.org/files/Land%20grabs%20and%20deforestation_FINAL.pdf
#ouganda #laos #cambodge #indonésie #malaisie #liberia #forêt #déforestation #agriculture #terres

Global finance must face up to climate challenge - Climate News Network

▻http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/global-finance-must-face-up-to-climate-challenge

By Kieran Cooke

http://www.climatenewsnetwork.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/CROP-china-wind-power.jpg

Trillions of dollars need to be redirected into building low-carbon economies to avoid serious climate change, the UN warns.

LONDON, 27 May, 2015 − The world’s financial system must undergo comprehensive change by 2035 if humanity is to make the transition needed to reduce the threat of dangerous climate change, according to a new report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The report, on an inquiry into aligning the financial system with sustainable development, says finance must be focused on moving investments into low-carbon projects.

#finance #climat #banque

Trapped at a Party Where No One Likes You
▻https://cominsitu.wordpress.com/2015/05/21/trapped-at-a-party-where-no-one-likes-you

These conditions outline the phenomenal contours of the present crisis of capital accumulation, which is at the same time a crisis of the reproduction of the capital-labor relation. Since the economic restructuring of the 1970s, deregulation has expanded the flexibility of labor markets and fundamentally reoriented the conditions of the class relation. While unemployment remained relatively abated during the postwar period – alongside the assurances of the welfare state – developments in capital accumulation since then have witnessed an unprecedented ascendance, in terms of duration and concentration, of both unemployment and underemployment. Since the early 1970s and through the dismantling of the Keynesian wage-productivity deal of the postwar period, the capitalist mode of production has been stumbling to combat the anguish of diminishing returns. Its recourse of economic restructuring consisted in the expansion of finance capital and increasing the rate of exploitation in an attempt to stabilize and defer its own inherent propensity to undermine the process of self-valorization. The 21st century thereby opened with a reign of labor-power devaluation that has only intensified its duress, which, alongside fiscal and sovereign debt crises expressed in austerity, continues to wield unrelenting immiseration.

#théorie

#Ukraine debt talks reach boiling point - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0ad2796a-f8d8-11e4-8e16-00144feab7de.html

Ukraine’s $23bn debt restructuring negotiations appeared to reach boiling point late on Tuesday after the government issued a sharply worded statement that questioned the #transparency, responsiveness and #good_faith of a creditors’ committee.
With positions hardening weeks before a planned June deadline to avoid default, the finance ministry of war-torn and recession-battered Ukraine in the statement said it was “concerned about the approach taken by the creditors’ committee representing the country’s external debt holders and their lack of willingness to engage in negotiations.”

Claiming that the creditor committee refused “despite numerous requests” to reveal its membership, the finance ministry stressed that it and debtholders needed by June “to agree on a sustainable debt level and debt service objectives meeting the targets” of an International Monetary Fund programme granted earlier this year.
“The ministry is committed to transparency, responsiveness and good faith negotiations and expects the creditors’ committee to do the same,” Kiev added.
The tough words come amid increasing market expectations that the restructuring talks are likely to stretch on through the summer as Ukraine continues — in the face of creditor disapproval — to demand a #haircut, cuts to the coupon and maturity extensions to free up $15bn over the next four years.
[…]
The committee of creditors declined to comment on the finance ministry statement.
International holders of Ukrainian debt, which include US investor Franklin Templeton, say there is little point in setting final terms for a debt restructuring while the country is fighting a war and its economic situation is in a state of flux. They disagree with Kiev’s insistence that the only way for Ukrainian debt to become sustainable is through a haircut for investors.
Bondholders are promoting an alternative solution that would involve granting an extension to upcoming debt payments.

Financing Coal: High Carbon Arithmetic of Turkey
▻http://www.onderalgedik.com

New Report shows Turkey is developing mechanism for coal finance.

Global climate change negotiations are on the way of finalizing post-2020 roadmap, Turkey has been developing privileges in order to release the domestic and global coal reserves to the market according to new report “ Financing Coal” preperad by Önder Algedik. The report studies high carbon arithmetic of Turkey’s policies and analysis coal power plant and finance mechanism. According to report, Turkey will emit more greenhouse gas from electricity sector by completing coal power plant on the pipeline.

FinancingCoal

The report shows that Turkey’s increasing energy demand is connected to fossil fuel consumption. Fossil fuel usage increased 152%, despite %128 total primary energy increase between 1990-2012. Turkey’s high carbon policies increased share of fossil fuel from %81.5 in 1990 to %89.9 in 2012.

Coal consumption especially in power plants increased drastically which boosts GHG emissions from electricity sector. Electricity and heat production sector emission from coal combustion increased 219% between 1990 and 2012 compared to countries 133,4% emission increase in total. As of 2014, Turkey has 55 coal power plants with a 14.447 MW installed capacity. There are 43 coal power plant projects, which are licensed or in formal application process, on the pipeline. After completion of 43 projects with 20 GW of installed capacity, total installed coal power capacity will be around 34,5 GW and it is expected to triple CO2 emissions from coal power plant. In other words, after completion of coal power plant investments, coal in electricity sector carbon dioxide emissions will be higher that country total emissions in 1990.

Thanks to privileges provided to coal investment, Turkey is developing new coal finance mechanism which credits coal power plant beside emission increase. Up to now, national banks provided 4,3 Billon dollar credit to 4.7 GW of coal power plants by securing investment and supporting policies. These credits will be increased by realization of 20 GW of coal power plant.

Coal Carbon Leakage!

Recent scientific studies show that more than 80 percent of the world’s known coal reserves need to stay in the ground to avoid dangerous climate change. However, Turkey’s high carbon policies secure the extraction of domestic and some global coal reserves. Between 1990 and 2012, Turkey’s domestic coal consumption doubled the five fold imported coal consumption. In the future, Every 3 MW of 4 MW new capacities will burn imported coal. In addition to usage of domestic coal reserves, Turkey is address of carbon leakage from South Africa, Australia, USA, China and Canada, and mainly Russia by importing their coal

#Charbon #Electricité #Energie #CO2 #Turquie

100 days of solitude: #Syriza struggles as Greeks once again stare into the abyss
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/03/100-days-of-solitude-syriza-struggles-as-greeks-once-again-stare-into-t

“This is an historic moment,” says Anna Asimakopoulou, a shadow finance minister for New Democracy. “If the wrong choice is made it will change the course of history for Greece and for several generations the Greeks might be living in a different reality to the one they know.”

In recent weeks the rhetoric has reached boiling point in parliament. “It’s at gutter level,” said the straight-talking MP, a Greek American raised in New York. “Tsipras is going to have to take a good look in the mirror and decide who he is. Either he leaves behind his entire left, pro-drachma people or we leave the euro.”

Analysts are in no doubt that the choice will be as definitive for the self-styled leader of Europe’s anti-austerity movement, as the destiny of Greece itself. And perhaps because of this he has raised the spectre of putting any deal that might be reached before the Greek people for approval. The prospect – one that would bring the crisis full circle three years after George Papandreou also proposed holding a referendum – has been quick to send tremors through Europe. Sensing further instability, the vast majority of Greeks – led by the business sector – have urged the government to compromise, according to polls.

#Grèce via @latrive

La finance expliquée - Joseph P. Kennedy : l’escroc, le père de JFK, et le régulateur
▻http://alternatives-economiques.fr/blogs/fabienhassan/2013/09/25/joseph-p-kennedy-l%E2%80%99escroc-le-pere-de-jfk-et-le-regu

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6d/Joseph_P._Kennedy%2C_Sr._1938.jpg

http://www.conservapedia.com/images/4/43/Kennedys.jpg

Un épisode moins connu de l’histoire de Joseph Kennedy se situe entre juillet 1934 et septembre 1935. Le Président Roosevelt le fait alors élire à la tête de la toute nouvelle Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), l’agence fédérale américaine chargée de réguler les marchés financiers, qui existe encore aujourd’hui. Kennedy, qui espérait un ministère, accepte, mais annonce qu’il démissionnera une fois les bases de l’institution posées.

Le choix de Kennedy déclenche un scandale qui donne à Roosevelt l’occasion de répondre par l’une de ses plus célèbres répliques. Quand on lui demande pourquoi nommer un tel escroc, Roosevelt répond : « Takes one to catch one » (il en faut un pour en attraper un).

The bootleg politician : He could have anything he wanted, except the thing he wanted most. So Joe Kennedy used his money and the vast influence it bought to promote the next generation. But how had he made the fortune that bought the presidency ?
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/the-bootleg-politician-he-could-have-anything-he-wanted-except-the-th

In the Twenties, rumour had it that Kennedy was a bootlegger, importing and selling illicit liquor. Doris Kearns, the only historian to have access to Kennedy’s papers, found scant evidence there to support the claims made by, among others, the gangsters Frank Costello and Meyer Lansky of large underworld deals. But Kennedy went into the Prohibition era with large stocks of liquor from his father’s stores, and on the day it ended he had three lucrative franchises for British whisky and gin, a company to important them, and a network of retailers already in place. It was the work of a man who knew well where the subterranean rivers of illicit booze had run during Prohibition, but kept the knowledge close. His papers guard it still.

Après avoir trouvé cette information l’opinion suivante me semble peu crédible. Elle correspond bizarrement bien á ce que raconte Wikipedia (en).

Was Joseph P. Kennedy a bootlegger ?
▻http://www.quora.com/Was-Joseph-P-Kennedy-a-bootlegger

http://www.beliefnet.com/columnists/moviemom/files/2013/12/Wolf-of-Wallstreet-585x370.jpg

Think “The Wolf of Wall Street” rather than “The Godfather”.

Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr.
▻http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_P._Kennedy,_Sr.

A recurring story about Kennedy is that he made money in bootlegging, the illegal importation and distribution of alcohol during Prohibition. Although there is no hard evidence of this, Kennedy did have extensive investments in the legal importation of spirits. The “bootlegging” story itself may be traceable to Canadian distiller Samuel Bronfman and to New England bootlegger Danny Walsh and his crime syndicate, which did in fact smuggle spirits across the Canadian–American border during this period. Post-Prohibition, Bronfman had a bitter rivalry with Kennedy in acquiring North American liquor distribution rights.[29]

At the start of the Franklin Roosevelt administration, Kennedy and Congressman James Roosevelt II founded Somerset Importers, an entity that acted as the exclusive American agent for Haig & Haig Scotch, Gordon’s Dry Gin and Dewar’s Scotch. It is rumored that they had assembled a large inventory of stock, which they supposedly sold for a profit of millions of dollars when Prohibition was repealed. Actually, it was not until long after Prohibition ended that Kennedy sold his company Somerset.

La source suivante est mons crédible qu’un journal professionnel, mais elle ajoute quelques éléments plausibles à l’histoire du bootlegging .

How the Kennedy Empire was Built
▻http://www.cwporter.com/ytedkempire.htm

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Raid_at_elk_lake.jpg

On January 29, 1919, the Eighteenth Amendment was ratified. It prohibited the manufacture, sale, transportation, or importation of “intoxicating liquors” for “beverage purposes.” For Joe, the law represented an opportunity to make huge profits.
– He formed alliances with crime bosses in major markets, among them Boston, New York, Chicago, and New Orleans. These would come in handy years later when his son was running for national office. Among his mob associates was Frank Costello, former boss of the Luciano crime family, who bragged, “I helped Joe Kennedy get rich.” Sam Giancana, who would later figure prominently in Jack’s presidency, called Joe “one of the biggest crooks who ever lived.”
– Joe bought liquor from overseas distillers and supplied it to organized crime syndicates that picked up the liquor on the shore. Frank Costello would later confirm that Joe had approached him for help in smuggling liquor. Joe would have the liquor dumped at a so-called Rum Row - a transshipment point where police were paid to look the other way - and Costello and other mobsters would then take over. They distributed the liquor, fixed the prices, established quotas, and paid off law enforcement and politicians. They enforced their own law with machine guns, usually calling on experts who did bloody hits on contract.
–Columnist John Miller wrote, “The way Costello talked about Joe, you had the sense that they were very close during Prohibition.”
– By the mid-1920s, Fortune estimated Joe’s wealth at $2 million. Yet since Joe had left Hayden, Stone in 1922, he had had no visible job. While he made hundreds of thousands of dollars manipulating the market, only bootlegging on a sizable scale would account for such sudden and fabulous wealth.
– Joe used the profits from his bootlegging operations to fuel his continued stock market speculating, and finance his efforts in the film industry.

Le site sur Jacky Kennedy confirme une chose : la fortune de Joe Kennedy connaissait une croissance énorme pendant la prohibition, mais il n’y a pas de sources fiables pour confirmer son engagement dans des affaires précises. On sait aussi qu’il n’a pas occupé une position ou mené des affaires justifiant un tel succès financier pendant cette période. L’impression qu’il y a eu quelque chose se concrétise.

Joe’s Smuggling Past - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis
▻http://www.netplaces.com/jacqueline-kennedy-onassis/the-kennedys/joes-smuggling-past.htm

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5b/Frank_Costello_-_Kefauver_Committee.jpg

On January 29, 1919, Congress approved the Eighteenth Amendment, and the era of Prohibition began. For Joe Kennedy, it was an opportunity to make a financial windfall. There was no shortage of private citizens and speakeasies willing to pay top dollar for smuggled liquor. To facilitate his new business, Joe formed alliances with mob figures in Boston, Chicago, New York, and New Orleans. Among his associates were Frank Costello, former head of the Luciano crime family, and Diamond Joe Esposito, an extortionist and bootlegger who belonged to Chicago’s notorious Black Hand. Joe would buy liquor — mostly scotch — from foreign distillers, who would deliver it at specific safe spots — areas where local police and politicians had been paid to look the other way. From there, organized crime would pick up the shipments and distribute it to their clients.
Onward and Upward

Smuggling was extremely profitable, and by the mid-1920s Joe’s personal fortune was in excess of $2 million — the equivalent of more than $15 million in today’s money.

Finalement Time nous apprend comment Joe Kennedy a corrompu Winston Churchill dans le but d’obtenir des contrats lucratifs. C’était bien avant qu’il devienne ambassadeur des USA en Grand Bretagne.

The Secret Boozy Deals of a Kennedy, a Churchill, and a Roosevelt
▻http://time.com/3529756/kennedy-churchill-roosevelt-investment-deal

https://timedotcom.files.wordpress.com/2014/10/churchill-kennedy2.jpg

Another set of finances surrounding this trip involved Winston Churchill. In September 1933, as the Kennedy group prepared to leave for London, Winston began a series of stock investments in two seemingly obscure American firms tied directly to Joe Kennedy: Brooklyn Manhattan Transit and National Distillers Products Corp. These Churchill stock investments were clustered around the Kennedy trip—executed both shortly before the Chartwell visit and in the months afterward—and were known only to a few, perhaps not even to Randolph. Where Winston got the money for such investments is not clear from available documents. On their face, however, these transactions seemed remarkably risky for a man who had lost much of his fortune in bad investments, who feared he might lose his beloved home, debt-ridden Chartwell Manor, and who had previously relied on friends to bail him out financially.

Winston’s involvement with the American liquor industry emerged shortly after Kennedy began selling British whiskey, archival records show. In March 1934, Churchill was able to invest $5,850 (approximately $101,000 in today’s currency) in National Distillers Products Corp. – the same American company that awarded its New England franchise to Joe Kennedy. Later that year, Winston managed to buy some more of the same stock for $4,375 (about $76,000 in today’s currency).

Soon after both purchases, Winston sold his National Distillers stock, earning a neat little profit, records show. The paperwork for these transactions was handled by the Vickers da Costa brokerage firm, which included Churchill’s brother, Jack, as a stock broker and partner.

Winston’s stake in BMT—the private New York City subway line associated with Kennedy, Baruch, and others in their speculative investment “pool”—was even greater and proved more complex. In the two weeks before Kennedy left for England, September 11–26, 1933, Winston repeatedly bought BMT in batches of 100 shares for a total purchase of $21,725 (approximately $380,000 in today’s currency). Records show no other BMT exchanges for Churchill for another ten days, not until after the visit of the Kennedy entourage to Chartwell. The following day, however, Winston started cashing out. He quickly sold about two-thirds of this stock by October 11, 1933, making a substantial 10 percent profit within just a month of his investment.

The idea for Winston’s BMT stock transaction apparently came from Kennedy’s friend and business associate Bernard Baruch. “I bought seven hundred Brooklyn Manhattan T around 30, sold four hundred around 35, and am sitting on three hundred,” Winston wrote to Baruch on October 15, 1933, shortly after entertaining his American visitors at Chartwell. “Many thanks for the fruitful suggestion.”

Les associés américains avaient prévu de se faire de l’argent une fois que l’achat d’une ligne de métro New Yorkais par la mairie allait se savoir et faire monter leurs actions. Ils invitaient Churchill à prendre part á cette opération pour le convaincre de les soutenir à obtenir un contrat favorable avec les producteurs de whiskey.

Le site americanmafia.com sait que la famille kennedy touche toujours d l’argent grâce à ce contrat.

The Rise & Fall of Organized Crime in America
▻http://www.americanmafia.com/Feature_Articles_418.html

Those who had arranged to import alcohol from overseas became legal distributors after Prohibition ended. The Kennedy Family still gets royalties on every imported bottle of Scotch brought into the United States because of a deal their bootlegger patriarch, Joseph P. Kennedy arranged well before the end of Prohibition.

Alors quelle est la base historique de la fortune des Kennedys ? Il y a la vente de drogues légales, le délit d’initiés, des affaires obscures avec la mafia des années 1920 et d’autres transactions au dépens des autres. Plutôt « The Wolf of Wall Street » que « The Godfather » ? J’ai des doutes.
▻https://www.flickr.com/photos/decoplanet/5244153704

Les vraies affaires restent dans l’ombre des archives secrètes.

#prohibition #USA #mafia

How We Live : A Journey Towards a Just Transition
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/how-we-live-a-journey-towards-a-just-transition

Modern production is based on extraction from the planet, and modern finance is based on extraction from the many for the benefit of the very few. What would a new economy look like and how can we...

Hedge-Fund Magnate Robert Mercer Emerges as a Generous Backer of Cruz - NYTimes.com
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/11/us/politics/hedge-fund-magnaterobert-mercer-emerges-as-a-generous-backer-of-ted-cruz.ht

The emergence of rich and relatively low-profile donors like Mr. Mercer could single-handedly jump-start a presidential campaign, said Trevor Potter, a campaign finance lawyer who served as a Republican member of the Federal Election Commission.

“It just takes a random billionaire to change a race and maybe change the country,” Mr. Potter said. “That’s what’s so radically different now.”

#Etats-Unis #démocratie #leadership

La société française Safege (Suez Environnement) se retire du projet de « cable car » à Jérusalem, après l’intervention des ministres des Finances et des Affaires étrangères français, et suite aux plaintes de Saeb Erekat.

French firm pulls out of controversial Jerusalem cable car project - Diplomacy and Defense - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.648797

Safege of France, which was slated to play a key planning role in the Jerusalem cable car project, has canceled its participation after being warned against it by the French finance and foreign ministries, a Wednesday media report said.

To “avoid giving any political interpretation,” Suez Environnement “has decided not to continue,” Le Figaro on Wednesday quoted a spokesman for Safege’s parent as saying.

Another French company that was mentioned in connection with the Jerusalem cable car has also declined to get involved.

The project, described in detail in Haaretz three weeks ago, is expected to encounter much opposition for its political as well as environmental and urban-planning implications. Many observers are skeptical that the plan will ever come to fruition.

Erekat’s initiative

Le Figaro reported that on March 10, Saeb Erekat, the Palestinians’ chief negotiator, contacted French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius to complain about the French company’s willingness to take part in building the cable car in East Jerusalem.

“The plan will lead to the illegal expropriation of private property, some of which belongs to the Waqf,” Erekat wrote to Fabius. The Waqf controls the major Islamic sites around the Old City, including the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Subsequently, the French administration secretly called a meeting with Safege’s directors. On March 12, the French Finance Ministry warned Safege’s board about the legal risks the project entailed, and the company says it sought a legal opinion on the matter.

Another French company that had expressed interest in the project, Puma, has since declined to get involved, too. On March 10, Puma, a prominent company in cable transportation, said it “did not sign any contract and did not conduct preliminary feasibility inspection for the construction project in Jerusalem,” according to Le Figaro.

Goal: reducing traffic

The Jerusalem plan envisions a cable car system that would substitute for other transport modes to the Western Wall area and other sites in Jerusalem’s historic basin.

A presentation prepared by the planners, and seen by Haaretz, shows four planned cable car stations: at the First Train Station at the end of Emek Refaim Street; next to Dung Gate by the Western Wall; next to the Seven Arches Hotel on the Mount of Olives; and near Gethsemane.

The cost is estimated at NIS 125 million ($31.7 million). Supporters of the project expect the new system to significantly reduce vehicle traffic around the Old City.

The project has yet to be submitted to the planning committees for approval, but it is being energetically promoted by the municipality and the Jerusalem Development Authority (a part-government, part-municipal body).

The right-wing organization Elad, which operates the City of David National Park, is also promoting the project.

Budget items

Documents from the JDA’s tenders committee show that in the past year, a budget of more than 1 million shekels was allotted to promote the project. Correspondence with Safege, at a cost of 87,400 euros, was done to advance the detailed planning of the project.

The JDA also approved correspondence with nine Israeli companies, including a management company, building consultants, electrical engineers, land consultants, accessibility consultants, architects and more.

Some 55,000 shekels was allotted for consultations with Seter Security Consulting about securing the cable car machinery, and 412,000 shekels was allotted to the project’s planners, the firm of Rosenfeld Arens.

At the meetings of the tenders committee, some who were present sought to reduce the costs, since if the planning committees do not approve the plans, this money will have been wasted.

Il est très probable que Kahlon rejoigne la coalition droite-extrême droite qui arrive au pouvoir en Israël. Son ralliement donnerait une majorité écrasante au nouveau gouvernement qui pourra mettre en œuvre tous ses projets diaboliques (une guerre à Gaza, au Liban et qui sait encore quoi…)

Kahlon, Israel’s likely future finance minister, expected to focus on housing, bank reform - Business - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/business/.premium-1.647712

In the aftermath of Tuesday’s election, the leader of the Kulanu party, Moshe Kahlon, appears to be the leading candidate, if not a shoo-in, for the job of finance minister. Even before Election Day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered him the post, while Kahlon demurred until the results of the balloting were in. Now, however, the accepted wisdom is that he will take the job, and he is likely to make changes in the banking and real estate sector top priorities.

His party’s political platform speaks of narrowing socioeconomic disparities, and during the campaign itself he said his priorities were improving the lot of people earning no more than 10,000 shekels ($2,500) gross per month and the reduction of poverty. His political roots are in Netanyahu’s own Likud party. He garnered tremendous political credit as communications minister - before quitting government and forming his own party - for injecting competition in the cellular telephone service sector, which in turn drove prices down by huge margins.

Smothered by a Boom in Banking
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/01/business/economy/smothered-by-a-boom-in-banking.html

Attendees at last week’s JPMorgan Chase annual investor day once again asked the question that no big bank executive wants to hear. Wouldn’t shareholders be better off if the company were smaller or broken up?

No, no and no, JPMorgan replied. “Scale has always defined the winner in banking,” said Marianne Lake, the company’s chief financial officer.

It is to be expected that all big bank executives believe in big #finance. They benefit from being giant, after all.

For the rest of us, though, it’s worth noting that the effects of a dominant financial industry are far less beneficial.

Certainly, as we learned in 2008, when megabanks get into trouble, they line up for bailouts. This imperils taxpayers.

But even during good times the impact of big finance can be negative for the world at large. According to a compelling new paper published two weeks ago by the Bank for International Settlements, high-growth financial sectors actually hurt the broader economy by dragging down overall growth and curbing productivity.

The paper’s co-authors are Stephen G. Cecchetti, economics professor at Brandeis International Business School, and Enisse Kharroubi, senior economist at the B.I.S. Their findings are a great addition to the debate about how much is too much when it comes to the role finance should play in our economy.

(...)

I spoke with Professor Cecchetti last week about the paper. “When I was in college long ago, all my friends wanted to figure out how to cure cancer,” he said. “But by the 1990s, everyone wanted to become hedge fund managers. Do we want to have more hedge fund managers or more people trying to figure out how to solve our energy and environmental problems or otherwise improving our lives? That’s the way I think about the problem.”

#Interêt_général #économie #banksters

Will the change in Greece mean a boon to ties with Israel? -
The focus for now is finance, but the new leftist government might opt to provide a real counterweight to Turkey.
By Zvi Bar’el | Feb. 24, 2015 Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.643857

Despite the rain, snow and bitter cold, thousands of Athenians converged on Syntagma Square, across from the impressive national parliament, to show their support for the new government. Men, women and children marched quietly through the streets as demonstrators poured out of Metro stations and areas were closed to traffic.

“We believe in this government, but not in Europe,” one participant told Haaretz. “The rich countries choked us. They caused the enormous tax burden. They turned us into paupers. Now we have a new government that isn’t afraid.”

Greece’s new finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, is the hero of the day. His gritty appearance and tough talking have earned him the nickname Bruce Willis.

“The cabinet is filled with hot guys,” said a Greek female journalist. Hot or not, the question is whether Varoufakis can bend Europe’s Iron Lady, German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

As another journalist put it, “I’m skeptical. Europe is fed up. You have to admit that we greatly contributed to our situation, and I can see why Germany isn’t willing to pay more for our laziness.”

Janis, the manager of a clothing store, agreed. “Look at us, the store owners,” he said. “Three times a week we close at 3:30 P.M. Why? It’s how it’s always been. We like to rest.”

So will things be different now? “They promised to lower taxes, but we didn’t promise to work more,” he said.

The new decision makers don’t just have the economy on their minds. Shortly after the historic election, the winds of protest against Europe’s “foreign oppression” are still blowing. Political and foreign-policy issues may have taken a backseat, but they’re still feeding the sense of hopelessness against alleged “hostile moves” by Turkey.

“I don’t understand why Turkish planes have to carry out sorties” in Greek airspace, said a senior air-force officer. “Why do they provoke us?”

“Why does Turkey continue to arm itself to the teeth if they have no intention of harming Greece?” a Greek diplomat wondered, while a member of the country’s diplomatic corps added: “We have no doubt: Turkey is our enemy.”

The speakers were among 80 top officers who recently gathered at the military college in Athens to hear an Israeli journalist lecture on the Middle East. During the question-and-answer session, one colonel inquired whether Greece could replace Turkey as Israel’s closest friend.

Another senior officer asked whether the new military cooperation between Greece and Israel was “genuine or a temporary substitute until relations between Israel and Turkey are revived.” Another wanted to know how Greece could get involved in the peace process.

Air-force cooperation

It’s not hard to understand their doubts. Greece has never been viewed in Israel as a strategic partner, while in Greece, Israel has been seen as an occupying power, and even worse, as a friend of Turkey. The new government in Athens is suspected of “insufficient fondness” for Israel and “over-fondness” for the Palestinians.

But political and diplomatic contingencies can create new opportunities, and when Israel asked for permission to use Greek airspace for military training, Greece agreed – it hosts many of the joint exercises. Still, it seems Greece and Israel haven’t yet defined the nature of their relationship; they’re still getting acquainted.

“We’re waiting for decisions,” a senior official in Greece’s Foreign Ministry said. “In the meantime, we’re following the previous protocol.”

In other words, despite reconciliation talks, Turkey is still considered Greece’s main enemy, and the Turks view Greece as the obstacle to Ankara’s joining the European Union. “We aren’t hindering anything. I’m willing to declare now that all subjects concerning Turkey’s accession to the EU should be opened,” the official said.

The “subjects” include Turkey’s economy and approach to human rights. Conditions for EU membership are divided into policy fields, or chapters, such as economic and monetary policy and freedom of movement for workers.

Certain chapters must be closed before others are opened for evaluation. The senior Foreign Ministry official is willing to have all chapters evaluated at the same time because “in any event, the Turks won’t meet the criteria.”

Would Greece take on Turkey’s role in the Middle East? “The truth is, we neglected the Mideast,” the official said. “We didn’t even try to compete with Turkey. But maybe now there will be a new policy.”

“Maybe” and “it seems” are the watchwords, whether the issue is an economic agreement with Europe or foreign-policy matters. But the uncertainty also represents a window of opportunity for Greece and Israel. Their relationship doesn’t have to remain somnolent.

Greece doesn’t have to be taken out only as a last option because we lost Turkey. It doesn’t have to be Turkey on one side and Greece on the other. Better would be a relationship that stands on its own.

Germany refuses Greece an honourable surrender over austerity | Business | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/business/economics-blog/2015/feb/19/greece-runs-up-the-austerity-white-flag-in-brussels

http://media.guim.co.uk/fc137c9af409e8cbd5f429e30bac6a928379c349/0_0_4928_2956/2000.jpg

Wolfgang Schaeuble, Germany’s finance minister, immediately slapped Tsipras down. What Greece was proposing was unacceptable, Schaeuble said. Unless the Germans are bluffing, and there’s nothing to suggest that they are, it leaves Greece with a binary choice: abject surrender or going nuclear.

[...]

“Tsipras has two big weaknesses. Firstly, Greece is suffering from capital flight and is dependent on emergency support from the ECB for its banks. The ECB has just increased its funding, but not by as much as Greece would have liked. The life support could be cut off at any time.

Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, Greece has failed to deploy its most potent weapon – a threat to leave the euro. For all the talk in Brussels and Berlin that the single currency could withstand a Greek departure, the threat of withdrawal would have put the frighteners on. Would the euro group really want to risk chaos, given the shaky state of the economy? No. Would Angela Merkel want to go down in history as the German chancellor responsible for rolling back more than half a century of European integration? Again, no.

So Tsipras should tough it out. He should reject the cosmetic concessions that will be offered and say that the deal on offer is not acceptable to the Greek people. Politically, this does not look much of a risk. If he accepts a Carthaginian peace he is finished.”

Yanis Varoufakis: How I became an erratic Marxist
▻http://www.theguardian.com/news/2015/feb/18/yanis-varoufakis-how-i-became-an-erratic-marxist?CMP=share_btn_tw

The long read: Before he entered politics, Yanis Varoufakis, the iconoclastic Greek finance minister at the centre of the latest eurozone standoff wrote this searing account of European capitalism and how the left can learn from Marx’s mistakes Source: The Guardian

Bill Black: The #BBC Dismisses a Real Greek Economist as a Sexy “#Ideologue”
▻http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/02/bill-black-bbc-dismisses-real-greek-economist-sexy-ideologue.html

In its web version, the BBC “News” has you click on a tease titled “Yanis Varoufakis, charismatic ideologue” to access a story dated February 13, 2015 entitled “Profile: Yanis #Varoufakis, Greek bailout foe.” ▻http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-31452402
Neither the tease nor the title make any sense. Varoufakis is the Greek finance minister. Except, of course, we’re reading this in the BBC, so the description actually reads “Greece’s left-wing Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis.” Funny, the BBC never describes the head of the ECB as “the ultra-right-wing” economist Mario Draghi or Jeroen Dijsselloem, the Dutch Finance Minister and troika hit man as the “ultra-ultra-right-wing” non-economist.

The BBC “profile” is not unremittingly hostile to Varoufakis – it simply refuses to take him seriously. Varoufakis is a highly competent academic economist. His policy views have proven correct, as even the BBC (back-handedly) concedes by calling him Greece’s “Cassandra.” So why does the BBC treat Varoufakis as a sexy leftist and Dijsselboem as the respected spokesperson for the troika even though Dijsselboem is a fanatic ideologue who has caused massive human misery because of the intersection of his inflexible ideology and economic incompetence?

Varoufakis’ views on the self-destructive nature of austerity as a response to the Great Recession are mainstream economic views. He certainly is a leftist, but his policy views arise from different ideological traditions most people would find antagonistic. That makes him a non-ideologue as the term is defined. The troika, by contrast, is led entirely by ideologues. The primary difference is that they are exceptionally bad economists and exceptionally indifferent to the human misery they inflict on the workers of the periphery that they despise and ridicule. The BBC, the New York Times, and the Wall Street Journal will never write a “profile” of the troika’s leadership that makes any of these points. The BBC profile is another example of what I call “revealed biases.” “Journalists” and media organs routinely reveal and betray their biases – biases that they hotly deny but rarely escape.

Greek bailout talks fail to make progress – as it happened | Business | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2015/feb/11/eurozone-ministers-braced-for-crunch-talks-with-greece-live-updates?CMP

And finally, over to Ian Traynor, our Europe Editor, for a summary of the situation:

The new Greek government’s confrontation with its Eurozone creditors over its campaign to relieve its staggering debt burden while also relaxing the terms of five years of austerity resulted in stalemate late on Wednesday.

The first proper negotiations between Greece and eurozone finance ministers failed to make any progress or result in a joint statement. While no immediate agreement had been expected, the emergency meeting had been tipped to produce a framework for talks to be finessed over the next few days before a further meeting next Monday.

Jeroen Dijsselbloem, the Dutch finance minister who chaired the Brussels meeting, announced that this aim was not met. It appeared that the new leftwing government in Athens was isolated in seeking to extract better terms from Europe.

It appeared that Alexis Tsipras, the new Greek prime minister, ordered his finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, to stand firm against the pressure to make any concessions. Tsipras is due in Brussels on Thursday for his debut on the European stage at an EU summit

Following 10 days of touring Europe in a failed attempt to woo Berlin, Frankfurt and other key capitals to shift the terms of trade between Athens and the eurozone, Varoufakis, went into negotiations with the other finance ministers at a specially convened session in Brussels. Entering and leaving the meeting, he was uncharacteristically taciturn.

The stalemate could see Greece running out of cash next month, unilaterally defaulting on the bailout programme with the European Central Bank, the European Commission, and the International Monetary Fund, and being forced to leave the single currency....

As Greece gives its marching orders to the Troika - five reactions | Paul Mason
▻http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/greece-european-troika-yanis-varoufakis-jeroen-dijsselbloem-syriza/3169

As Greece gives its marching orders to the Troika – five reactions

Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis told the head of the Eurogroup’s finance ministers, Jeroen Dijsselbloem, that Greece would no longer deal with the so-called Troika grouping as a single entity – that is, it would now deal separately as a sovereign government with its constituent parts: the EU, the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

After the brusque press conference, Mr Dijsselbloem reportedly told the Greek finance minister: “you have just killed the Troika”. Here are my thoughts.

29 varoufakis r w As Greece gives its marching orders to the Troika five reactions

1. Marxists, and the left in general, have a good knowledge of military strategy. Mr Varoufakis is not a Marxist: he is a left Keynesian, but comes from a political tradition where power is understood very well. His own father was dragged from the family home, its door broken before the young Mr Varoufakis’ eyes, during the Greek military coup of 1967 – and imprisoned for several months.

Even moderate leftists in the Euro-communist tradition — which includes Syriza – have grown up studying the dynamics of power. The Italian Marxist Antonio Gramsci, after whom numerous streets are named in left-controlled cities of his home country, said the modern communist party should be the “modern Machiavelli”: able to wield power, subterfuge and tactics adeptly and leverage, above all, its social support.

2. By killing the Troika, on day five of the Syriza government, Mr Varoufakis was demonstrating a clear understanding of the power dynamic. All over Europe, people whose world view is normally never challenged are having to react to Syriza, but are confident that they control the timetable.

31 greece2 r w As Greece gives its marching orders to the Troika five reactions

The timetable is supposed to be: if Greece does not meet Troika bailout conditions on 28 February, when the current bailout extension runs out, then the ECB is free to stage the collapse of Greece’s banks. It probably won’t but is still thinking about it.

By making clear on 29 January that Greece will refuse even to speak to the Troika, and seek no extension, Mr Varoufakis demonstrated an acute understanding of the principle of momentum. Otherwise known as “go ahead punk – make my day”.

What happened – even though it was only a press conference – was that Syriza took control of the timetable. The Eurogroup and ECB will be forced to react at Syriza’s pace, not the other way around.

3. However, in military theory, there is not just momentum – there is mass. Greece has very little mass in the coming clash. It owes its creditors 320bn euros and about 15bn euros come due in the back half of the year. Greece probably has a bit of liquidity arising from the cash the Troika forced it to hold, but only Mr Varoufakis and central bank governor Yanis Stournaras really know. So it does not need to go bust as a state in March-April.

4. So Friday’s shenanegans were actually what they call in military academies “demonstrations”: I can do this if I want to, and here’s how it looks.

5. I’m covering this crisis on a “what’s just happened basis”, not “what does it all mean”. But we don’t know certain things have happened except in hindsight. We don’t know how much money has left the Greek banks until the ECB tells us, a month in arrears. But the banks do.

My biggest fear is that the Greek crisis reaches a critical denouement because the two key players — ECB boss Mario Draghi and Mr Varoufakis — are not only reading from different playbooks, but two different rulebooks: one written by Robert Schuman , the 1940s architect of European integration, and the other by military theorist Carl Philipp Gottfried von Clausewitz.

Germans in shock as new Greek leader starts with a bang | Reuters
▻http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/28/us-greece-politics-germany-idUSKBN0L121R20150128
▻http://s4.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20150128&t=2&i=1020615792&w=130&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=LYNXMPEB0

(Reuters) - In his first act as prime minister on Monday, Alexis Tsipras visited the war memorial in Kaisariani where 200 Greek resistance fighters were slaughtered by the Nazis in 1944.

The move did not go unnoticed in Berlin. Nor did Tsipras’s decision hours later to receive the Russian ambassador before meeting any other foreign official.

Then came the announcement that radical academic Yanis Varoufakis, who once likened German austerity policies to “fiscal waterboarding”, would be taking over as Greek finance minister. A short while later, Tsipras delivered another blow, criticising an EU statement that warned Moscow of new sanctions.

The assumption in German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s entourage before Sunday’s Greek election was that Tsipras, the charismatic leader of the far-left Syriza party, would eke out a narrow victory, struggle to form a coalition, and if he managed to do so, shift quickly from confrontation to compromise mode.

Instead, after cruising to victory and clinching a fast-track coalition deal with the right-wing Independent Greeks party, he has signalled in his first days in office that he has no intention of backing down, unsettling officials in Berlin, some of whom admit to shock at the 40-year-old’s fiery start.

“No doubt about it, we were surprised by the size of the Syriza victory and the speed with which Tsipras clinched a coalition,” said one senior German official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Another said Tsipras’s choice of coalition partner and finance minister were “not good signs”, while a third admitted to being “stunned” by the Greek leader’s first days in office.

Officials close to Merkel say they still believe Tsipras will ultimately change course, dropping his more radical election pledges and signing up to the economic reforms that Berlin and its European partners have insisted on as a condition for handing over more aid that Athens desperately needs by next month to service its debt.

But the past days have sown doubts about this hypothesis.

RADICAL CHANGE

Even as Greek stocks plunged and bond yields soared on Wednesday, Tsipras continued to promise “radical” change.

Over the past 24 hours, his government has put two big privatisations, of Piraeus port and Greece’s biggest utility, on ice, and his ministers have pledged to raise pensions and rehire fired public sector workers.

In response, German economy minister and deputy chancellor Sigmar Gabriel criticised Athens on Wednesday in unusually stark terms for halting the privatisations without consulting, and he issued a warning to Tsipras that the euro zone could survive without Greece.

“We no longer have to worry like we did back then,” Gabriel said, when asked about contagion if Greece were to exit the single currency bloc.

Marcel Fratzscher, head of the DIW economic institute in Berlin and a former official at the European Central Bank, said Tsipras was playing a “very dangerous game” by coming out with all guns blazing.

“If people start to believe that he is really serious, you could have massive capital flight and a bank run,” Fratzscher said. “You are quickly at a point where a euro exit becomes more possible.”

Officials point to a Brussels summit of European Union leaders on Feb. 12-13 as a first key test of Tsipras.

RUSSIA THREAT

The other major area of concern for Germany is a new Greek government’s stance on Russia.

Tsipras’s meeting on Monday with the Russian ambassador, who handed over a personal letter of congratulations from Vladimir Putin, and the new Greek leader’s howls of protest at the EU statement on Ukraine, have raised questions about whether the bloc’s fragile consensus towards Moscow can hold.

Even before Tsipras took power, officials in Berlin were worried about keeping countries like Italy on board for Russia sanctions, which must be renewed in mid-2015.

Now the fear is that Tsipras, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and sceptical eastern European countries like Slovakia and Hungary, could band together against an extension, and a ratcheting up of sanctions in response to a new advance by pro-Russian rebels on the strategic Ukrainian port of Mariupol.

Prying Tsipras away from his European partners on the Ukraine issue would be a coup for Putin. Some officials fear the Russian president could go so far as to offer Greece the financial support it needs to meet its debt obligations as a carrot.

One senior German official described Tsipras as part of a brash new generation of European leaders, including Italy’s Renzi, who weren’t afraid to stand up to Merkel and challenge the assumptions that have shaped policy in the euro zone and Ukraine crises in recent years.

“He doesn’t come from the establishment, he’s unvarnished, confident and capable of rallying the public behind his course,” the official said. “It clearly not going to be easy with him.”

No one can say the signs weren’t there in the run-up to the election.

Only days before the vote, Tsipras told thousands of people at a campaign rally in Athens: “On Monday, our national humiliation will be over. We will finish with orders from abroad.”

In the background loudspeakers blared lyrics from the Leonard Cohen song “First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin”.

(Corrects Tsipras quote in penultimate paragraph)