Germany wants a European Fund

March 9, 2010 - 12:38 pm Comments Off

Queen of fiscal orthodoxy, Germany wants the EU to acquire a European Monetary Fund, modeled on the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Such a body in the euro area would cope with crisis situations, such as it is currently because of Greece.

"For the stability of the euro area, we need an institution that has the experience of the IMF and similar powers to intervene," said Sunday Wolfgang Schauble, Minister of Economy in the newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

The European Commission said in the wake it supported such a proposal. "We are working closely on this issue with Germany, France and other member states of the EU," said European Commissioner for Economic Affairs Olli Rehn in the Financial Times Deutschland published Monday.

A "FME" (European Monetary Fund) would most Europeans treat their own problems. The Germans, like other member countries of the euro area, in fact, reject the idea of an IMF intervention in favor of Greece. "The euro area tends to be able to solve its problems alone. Accept financial aid from the IMF would, in my opinion an admission that the countries of the euro can not solve all their problems alone, "said Wolfgang Schauble argued in the German Sunday newspaper.

Above all, Berlin, traditionally hostile to an integrated European fiscal policy, said a WEF would finally impose its partners more lax fiscal discipline any Germanic."According to the German conception of the thing, the plan [to reform European economic policy, Ed] could include significant penalties for countries in the eurozone would fail to discipline their public finances," writes the Financial Times, which is based on statements by senior European officials.

"Effective sanctions'

Alexander Dobrindt, general secretary of the CSU, the Bavarian wing of the German Conservative Party, says the same thing. "We must now consider how we are going to better control the future state of the eurozone as Greece and to make sanctions effective," he said in the Bild am Sonntag, dated Sunday.

Other proposals for European economic government move. Belgium proposes the creation of a European agency debt.This institution could issue and manage debt of member countries, giving rise ultimately "a single European market for government debt," wrote Prime Minister Yves Leterme in an article published in Le Monde and the Financial Times Deutschland. Luxembourg offers his hand to the establishment of a European rating agency.

Total: 500,000 tonnes of oil trapped in Dunkirk

March 6, 2010 - 5:31 pm Comments Off

Employees of the Total refinery at Dunkirk, under threat of closure, blocked Friday tanks containing 500,000 tons of crude oil, by removing the pumping mechanisms, three days of a meeting to decide their future.

"We want to refine. We do not want this (oil) crude go away from here, "said Philippe Wullens, Steward South (majority site), evoking a" war chest ". He said Total has made a profit of 200 million euros from the time of purchase of this oil in the fall and today, due to the increase in prices. The employees also say they have learned that the management of Total planned to ensure that oil can be loaded on ships to other refineries."This oil should not leave the tank so that things do not stop," he said, estimating that 400 million euros worth of stock.

Several dozen employees from the site of Flanders, in the case since September, traveled Friday to dawn on the storage area of crude oil located at Gravelines, and disassembled electronic components essential to the operation of pumps used to extract the contents of the tanks. Some components will be given to state services, another in the region and a third in the urban community of Dunkirk, knowing that all equipment is necessary to restart the pumps, said Marcel Croquefer, secretary of the cluster Chemistry CGT Dunkirk cheap payday advance .

A radicalization of the movement evoked

Employees are then symbolically held a lock port of Dunkirk.They wanted to question management port, 18% of turnover depends on the refinery. "This refinery can and must restart now", even if a mutation of the site must be decided for the future, said Croquefer, suggesting a possible "radicalization" of the movement.

If farmers spread manure or milk to express their discontent, "in the refinery there are petroleum products," he warned.

Proposals for the future of the Flanders refinery, which employs 380 employees and 400 people from sub-contractors, should be announced Monday at a central works council (CEC). Employees are expected to travel to many in La Défense on Monday to be heard.

The threat of closure had resulted in late February several days of strikes in all French refineries group.Unions had set an end after the guarantees provided by Total on the future of refining activity in France. Since then, employees of Dunkirk only continue their strike began January 12.

Google swallows software photo editing Picnik online

March 5, 2010 - 12:38 am Comments Off

One more step. Google never stops its forward and offered Picnik. This software photo editing online is particularly accessible from sites like Picasa, Facebook, Photobucket, but mostly from Flickr, owned by Yahoo, Google's biggest rival. It is therefore a step in the war between the two servers, since, after all, Google has just taken control of a particular tool proposed by his opponent.

Picnik is a software for photo editing, but a sort Photoshop online (and therefore less sophisticated), which allows among others to remove red-eye or resizing a photo. For users, Picnik provides on its website that this purchase will not cause any change: the toolkit will remain the same, and no Google account creation is required (even if it is advised).The company employs twenty people, believes that Google is "the best house she could find and welcomes the exposure should give this new situation fast cash without a hassle . For employees of Picnik, no change either, except that they now work from Google Local to Seattle.

Google appears clearly in a new phase of development. In early February, he had acquired Aardvark, a sort of super social search engine, then remail, emailing an application for mobile phones. If the leading Internet search engines did not elaborate on how the redemption of Picnik, it is very possible that seeks to develop Picnik to include new features. How to add his personal touch, good memories of his competitors.

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The executive employment remains at half mast

February 11, 2010 - 7:00 pm Comments Off

130 000 138 000: the number of managers who should be recruited this year, according to the annual survey of the Association for the use of frameworks (APEC). A decrease between 10% and 4% compared to 2009, the year already with a disastrous 28% decline in recruitment.

For if France was recovering from recession, the economic outlook remains uncertain. So, most leaders, including major groups, which at the height of the crisis have tightened the bolts in terms of wages than new hires, no plans, for now at least, change policy.

In this gloomy climate, the most affected will be like last year's graduates (bac + 4 and above). "Their situation will be the worst ever," said Jacky Chatelain, director general of APEC. The figures speak for themselves.Post engineering schools, business schools or university, they will be 120 000 to enter the labor market. But according to Pierre Lamblin, Director of Studies and Research of APEC, 21 000 to 23 000 only, 000 against 29 last year and nearly 45 000 in 2008, will be recruited with the status under this year, the lowest figure since … 1993. In addition, at the time, the number of graduates was much lower.

This further deterioration due to several factors. First, the longer the duration of the contribution of assets born after 1948 to receive a full pension, which mitigates the effects of "aging population".Second, firms prefer hiring young professionals and executives confirmed mostly (five years minimum experience) that represent more than half of the hires in 2010.

Improvement from 2011

By sector, after a sharp decline in 2009 (- 34%), recruitment in the industry are still in decline (between – 14% – 23%). The construction and trade are also strongly affected. In contrast, services (banking, insurance, specialized distribution, engineering …) will be resistance and could stabilize the level of recruitment.

Finally, little sign of optimism, though short-term horizon of the job market for executives is quite stuffy in the medium term it is expected. Forecasts of APEC, recruitment would increase steadily from 2011 to regain a high level in 2012.And in 2014, companies would hire more than 240 frames 000, which constitutes a record.

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Opel confirms the abolition of 8,300 jobs in Europe

February 10, 2010 - 4:04 pm Comments Off

The boss of German carmaker Opel, Nick Reilly, said today at a press conference in Frankfurt, it will remove 8 300 jobs from 50 000 in Europe through the restructuring of the German mark. This figure confirms the already announced before. The subsidiary of U.S. manufacturer General Motors (GM) has also confirmed the closure of its Belgian plant in Antwerp and therefore the removal of its 2 377 jobs. The job cuts will be in number 3 911 in Germany, 900 in Spain and 519 in the United Kingdom. The rest of the administration and sales.

Nick Reilly said that "the plan was officially submitted" to the German government payday loan lenders .Opel asked credits or credit guarantees given that restructuring GM sales to 3.3 billion euros in hoping to get 2.7 billion euros state aid.

Also according to the owner of Opel, the group hopes a return to balance in 2011 and "a reasonable profit in 2012. By 2014, it wants to invest 11 billion euros including renewing the range.

Initially, GM had hoped to disengage from Opel before turning back.

However, things do not seem yet settled because some details are under discussion with unions including Nick Reilly said "respect the difficult role.

The G7 will maintain recovery plans

February 8, 2010 - 11:36 pm Comments Off

Meeting Friday and Saturday in the Canadian North, while financial markets were concerned, particularly in Europe, the drift of their deficits, major fundraisers of the G7 (U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy and United Kingdom) maintain the cap. They pledge to continue their respective recovery plans. For its part, Europe will address itself the Greek case without recourse to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Furthermore, a tentative agreement in sight to introduce taxation of international banks.

These are the three conclusions of the meeting of the G7 major fundraisers – Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors – Iqaluit. A place almost inaccessible, forcing many ministers to use private jets.The Government of Canada wanted to reaffirm its sovereignty over the Arctic region.

An international taxation

As the host, Jim Flaherty, Canadian Finance Minister, was particularly prescriptive. The problem of Greece should be "managed by the European Union, not by the G7," he insisted to reporters while their European colleagues were reluctant to speak. As chairman of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker has formally denied the idea that Greece might need money from the International Monetary Fund. As for Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, he again expressed his confidence in Greece "to take all actions necessary" in order to reduce its deficit to 3% in 2012 payday loan . Consumers roll than before, and prefer diesel to petrol. Furthermore, the refining overcapacity and inflation of the multiple requirements of ecology and safety is increasing pressure on margins. In this context, the French oil industry does not want to hear about carbon tax."If, in this very difficult situation, we add a layer, it will be worse here," warns Jean-Louis Schilansky.

Total is far from the only group to suffer in oil refining. The U.S. Exxon announced last week a loss of 189 million dollars in this activity in the fourth quarter of 2009. BP just to break even on this trade. Shell yesterday announced an annual loss of $ 1.76 billion in its refining division. This is the "worst crisis" for this activity for twenty-five years, and it does not end in 2010, warned Peter Voser, Shell's CEO. The British giant is planning to sell or close 15% of its portfolio in refining.

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Wall Street started the meeting recessed

February 4, 2010 - 6:52 pm Comments Off

Wall Street started badly the meeting this Thursday. On opening the Dow Jones lost 0.75% at 10,194 points and the Nasdaq fell by 0.87% to 2172 points. The Exchange NEWYORKAISES is affected by the disappointing numbers of jobs. The U.S. Department of Labor lists because 480,000 new applications for unemployment benefits from January 24 to 30, or 1.7% over the previous week. The indicator has thus regained its level of December 12. It's much more than was expected by analysts, who figures the department would have to show a decline in new listings to 455,000 files.

Moreover, markets can not rely on the monthly sales featureless published by major U.S. retailers.

On the values front, Cisco will be monitored closely.The action of the number one global internet network equipment gained 4% in hours trading Wednesday after the publication of quarterly results, above expectations and with comments upbeat on the prospects for recovery in 2010.

Monster Worldwide also should be surrounded. The Action Group on Internet recruitment gained 2.3% in hours trading Wednesday after the quarterly earnings release and the announcement of the acquisition of HotJobs to Yahoo for $ 225 million in cash.

Brussels approves the austerity of Greece

February 3, 2010 - 3:24 pm Comments Off

Athens finally got the good report from Brussels. The European Commission ruled Wednesday that the savings plan acceptable Greek. "The Commission shares the ambitious deficit reduction that the Greek government has set, and the fiscal and structural reforms announced in the stability program," she said in a statement.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, had presented new budget measures, including freezing the salaries of all officials at the last moment on Tuesday evening. The Commission appreciated the welcoming approach.

The approval of Brussels is not a blank check Payday Loan for Bad Credit .The Commission "calls on Greece to explain the tax measures announced and the timetable for their implementation in the coming weeks" and ", more detailed measures to be implemented in 2011 and 2012.

Athens will be placed under surveillance and will be an infringement procedure for lack of reliability of its statistics.

After the announcement of the Commission, the Greek bond yields back down to 6.516% against 6.742% on Wednesday morning around 8:30.

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The CAC 40 limit its losses

February 2, 2010 - 2:04 pm Comments Off

The Paris Bourse opened the week and the month of February, down from 0.48% to 3721.66 points in the wake of the decline on Wall Street Friday. The same applies to the Frankfurt Stock Exchange decline of 0.38% at 5587.5 points, and that of London which yields 0.38% to 5168.64 points. After a week punctuated by a sharp increase from 1.37% to 3.739.46 points, investors should be preparing to take their profits.

Markets were awaiting major publications in the United States. Around 12 o'clock, the President of the United States, Barack Obama has proposed a 2011 budget of 3.834 billion dollars. The White House said Monday that the draft budget for next fiscal year (October 2010-September 2011) showed a deficit of 1.267 billion dollars, down 19% due to higher expected revenue.In the afternoon, indicators follow overseas spending and household income for the month of January (1430), construction costs for the month of December (16 hours), the ISM index of manufacturing activity January (16 hours) payday loan . On Friday, the U.S. GDP figures for the fourth quarter, came out up 5.7%.

The results season of American companies continues its course on Monday with those of Exxon Mobil, the world's oil.

In France, prices for production in French industry decreased by 2.9% in 2009, a decline limited to 1.3% for foreign markets, according to figures released Monday by the INSEE. In all markets (French and exports), the producer prices are down 2.4% a year, says the National Institute of Statistics.In December 2008, prices remained stable (0%) in the industry for the French market.

Sales of new vehicles surged 14% in January by the Committee of French manufacturers (CCFA).

Side currencies and commodities, oil off again on the rise (+0.22% to 73.21 dollars), while the euro strengthens against the dollar (+0.25% to 1.3899 dollars).

The detailed values to follow