Posts Tagged ‘assistant’

Pensions: the Government is preparing the battle

July 23, 2010 - 8:16 am Comments Off

Place the masons and painters! Members of the Committee on Social Affairs of the National Assembly completed late Thursday afternoon, discussing the draft law on pensions, with a few hours ahead of schedule. Members will now leave the Palais Bourbon completely delivered to artisans who have already begun the usual summer work. Return scheduled Tuesday, Sept. 7, even on Monday night at 6 for a special session will begin by examining the same text, but this time in the Chamber.

"It is in times of transition, summarized perhaps one at the Elysee. The real battle will take place from September. "The for Sarkozy are well aware that this first parliamentary stage was a formality. Not surprisingly, the debates have been looped smoothly."The Socialists have just wanted to make a coup by breaking the lock-in twitter discussions with their phone," is a counselor. What the left willingly admits. For now, she preferred surf the weakening of Labour Minister Caught in the case Bettencourt. Godsend for the Socialists, who are careful not to request his resignation.

Paradoxically, the majority seemed more worried by the progress of the case and its component Bettencourt Woerth that by the turn of the debate on pensions. "The left is going clubbing Woerth in September. He held up? "Wonders already a minister. The Elysee hopes that the summer break will reduce the pressure. Nicolas Sarkozy and François Fillon reiterated that Eric Woerth defend indeed the text on Sept. 7. In other words, he will not be driven to resign by then."It is quiet because we know there is nothing in the record," says the Prime Minister.

"Everything will be decided in September. We are ready for battle. But it also depends on the mobilization in the streets, "says one seat in the PS. Clearly, the left hopes to build on part of the public. Even if the opponents and proponents of reform are divided into two shares more or less equal faxless cash advance.

Unions united

Unions, too, prepare to maturity. For September 7 will also be a new day of strikes and protests against the reform that SF has, once again, on Thursday asked the "withdrawal". In reality, most organizations do not believe and do not even dream to win concessions on key points, beginning with the postponement of the age to 62 years.However, they have not conceded the changes on other aspects of the text during the parliamentary debate.

They rely for that on the "pressure" of the street. Will they exceed the threshold of two million demonstrators, after 1.9 million announced on the evening of the last day of action – successful – last June 24? Not easy to mobilize massively, just days after school starts. Therefore plants have continued their campaign all summer, touring the beaches to the CFDT distributed a booklet "educational" on reform and its "alternative" possible, the CGT.

The unions will have an advantage: their unity restored. Having refused to sign for months, FOR has joined its competitors, and the CFE-CGC has done the same.It is the only organization to accept the decline of legal age, but she believes that the conditions there pose – including a strong financial closure of the reform – are not met.

Faced with this united front, the government has chosen to keep the ballast drop. He has done at this stage, no specific proposals on issues which he is willing to develop: difficulty, and long careers polypensionnés.

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Day crucial for banking reform

July 15, 2010 - 9:20 am Comments Off

The regulation of the financial world is big today. In the U.S., the proposed revised financial regulations would be voted on today in the Senate after the House of Representatives has given its go-ahead in July. Some measures have been abandoned over the debate, as the proposed tax credit, but the final text is still the biggest overhaul of financial regulation since the 1930s.

Meanwhile, a meeting is being held in Switzerland and covers the establishment of new prudential standards proposed by the committee of "Basel III". The objective of these measures is to raise the level of capital requirements at banks to limit to reduce the risk of bankruptcy of these establishments, and limit the risk of traders in the market, including products derivatives.But even the regulators and central bankers seem to make concessions against their original objectives, under pressure from banking lobby. They are afraid that a new credit crisis since experts believe that these new rules would force banks to raise more than 1.000 billion in new capital. The final text must be presented at the G20 summit in Seoul in South Korea, 11 and 12 November.

Reform in Europe delayed

And in Europe, the Twenty-seven have found common ground on how to conduct stress tests that will be published July 23. However, the reform of financial supervision has been delayed over disagreements between the Parliament and the Council of Europe. It should not come into effect before September, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Tankers have a point against Obama

July 10, 2010 - 1:56 am Comments Off

Eighty days after the explosion of the platform Deepwater Horizon BP, while 35,000 to 60,000 barrels of crude continue to flee each day in the Gulf of Mexico, the Administration faces Obama in the oil industry courtrooms.

Latest twist, a Louisiana appellate court has imposed a setback Thursday at the White House. On 22 June a judge in New Orleans overturned the six-month moratorium on new offshore drilling more than 150 meters deep, decreed by the Obama Administration. The magistrate ruled the gel arbitrary, decided by him without consideration for its regional economic impact. The executive has therefore appealed and lost again on Thursday.

Thirty drilling platforms in the Gulf these are now hostage to this legal battle.The cost of leasing a drilling platform is estimated at 1 million per day. As a result of thirty platforms in the Gulf, the bill accumulated over three months would amount to 2.7 billion dollars for companies exploring the deposits of the Gulf. The extension of the moratorium could put 50,000 employees out of work in Louisiana and the neighboring oil states.

Go drill "elsewhere"

Along with judges, elected Republicans deposit burst of bills or amendments to overturn the moratorium. For its part, the British government also said to be opposed to a freeze of all offshore drilling and focuses on a case by case basis. "We will not allow drilling until we have no assurance that the plans for all wells (…) represent what can be done better," says the UK Department of Energy.

Already, several U.S. companies threaten to go elsewhere to drill. "If the moratorium is maintained, we will have to redirect our resources to other parts of the world we are authorized to work," says one at Exxon Mobil, the first American company. In the U.S., the oil sector is characterized by the presence of a multitude of small companies, which bore alongside the majors. Thus, Swift Energy, based in Houston, told AFP that she was going to drill more in Texas, on land, at the expense of its operations off the coast of Louisiana.

In California, oil companies had rejoiced the green light to drill offshore, given by Barack Obama just days before the spill.The disaster has brought back the White House on this concession to the oil lobby for support of allied Republicans in Congress on the draft energy law discussed step by step for over a year. The company Venoco, which had projects off California, will focus on its land drilling. Problem: the volumes available in the ground are much lower than those buried under the ocean floor.

The U.S. employment and the euro are falling markets

June 4, 2010 - 11:40 pm Comments Off

The Paris Bourse, which sailed around the equilibrium in the morning suddenly stalled in mid-session, disappointed by U.S. employment figures and worried by the fall of the euro.

At the finish the CAC 40 plunged 2.86% to end the session very much below the threshold of 3,500 points to 3,455.61 points exactly. On the whole week in Paris index shows a decline of 1.7% bringing its losses since the beginning of the year to more than 12%.

Reflecting investor nervousness, activity was sustained, with almost 5 billion euros traded on the great values of the Paris stock exchange. Other stock markets in unison dévissaient London lost 1.63% and 1.91% Frankfurt, Milan and Madrid 3.79% 3.80%.The Euro Stoxx 50 index dropped 3.20%.

Investors skeptical of increasing the strength of economic recovery plans for fear that strict hindering growth, obviously await any excuse to sell. They took advantage Friday of a disappointment on the job market in the United States to pass the act.

The euro under $ 1.20

In the U.S., unemployment fell in May to 9.7%, but the net new jobs (431 no teletrack payday loan.000) were significantly worse than expected. The NYSE has also reacted badly to this statistic, always closely watched by the markets. Wall Street was changing rapidly decline with the approach of the close of European stock exchanges. The Dow Jones lost 2.16% and the Nasdaq 1.80%.

In Europe, a new front in the crisis began in Hungary.The local currency, the forint, the Budapest Stock Exchange, and covers the failure of Hungarian debt (CDS, credit default swap) tumbled after the alarmist statements about the economic situation on the part of politicians, from the majority place.

Those fears pushed investors to the traditional safe havens like the dollar or Swiss franc. And for the first time since March 2006, the euro fell below $ 1.20. In Paris, financial stocks were once again the front line. Societe Generale lost 7.5%, BNP Paribas and Crédit Agricole over 5%.

Lagard?re: ideas of Wyser-Pratte rejected

April 9, 2010 - 4:08 pm Comments Off

The words are direct and hard. The supervisory board of Lagard?re did not take tweezers to reject a block all proposals made by the Franco-American investor Guy Wyser-Pratte, whose investment fund has the same name by 0.53% Capital Group since March 25 last. "The Council, meeting April 8, 2010, reviewed these projects and has unanimously decided to issue a negative opinion," said a statement released Friday.

The first application Guy Wyser-Pratte was on its entry to the supervisory board. The Council's primary duty "to express some surprise at the fact that Mr. Wyser-Pratte may wish to participate in one of the organs of governance that it considers anti-democratic and medieval."He then explained that the current composition of the board, whose members are "selected for their competence, experience and moral value" is fully operational and that therefore "the candidacy of Mr. Guy Wyser-Pratte would not add anything more to the smooth functioning "of the latter.

The sponsorship will

Another sore point was the will of Guy Wyser-Pratte to "soften" the operation of the Partnership. The supervisory board initially denounced the contradiction of what the investor who, in the press, does not evoke a simple reduction of the sponsorship but the transformation of the existing company limited by shares (SCA) Lagard?re limited company (SA) No teletrack payday loans.According to counsel, Guy Wyser-Pratte has clearly added: "It is imperative that the sponsorship disappear."

The withdrawal of the prior decision of the general partners would in any way harmful consequences on the management of the group, according to the latter. "It follows that the sponsors might have to look at a general meeting of the draft resolutions without knowing the views of partners and therefore potentially unaware of the outcome."This was rejected, then.

The release of the Supervisory Board ends with a piquant reminder of the "success" under its current operating Lagard?re: "Need I remind you that these initiatives that your group is now leading positions are his worldwide in each of its four branches? ", appeals to the Council.

In exchange, investors do not react to this new episode of Lagard?re / Wyser-Pratte. Around 12:45 pm, the Lagard?re shares are 0.61% to 31.21 euros in a market up 1.14%.

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Ten years after bubble burst, the net economic triumph

March 11, 2010 - 11:06 am Comments Off

Marc Simoncini has enriched the right time. He managed to sell its Internet portal iFrance Vivendi before the Internet bubble broke. "I sold it very cheap, 182 million, but nearly half in Vivendi shares, says he. And the course is spent in a few weeks from 100 to 8 euros. I lost enough money to tell me that I could not stop working. So I founded Meetic. "

Ten years ago, world capitalism was attending the breakup of one of the most famous bubbles. That of. Com (dot com in English), these values of the "net economy" that even baptized "new economy". At the time, only 350 million people are connected to the Internet in the world against more than a billion and a half now. But in early 2000, analysts and fund venture capital are already there. They overestimate the ability of start-ups to become profitable and give them carte blanche.Just then an idea, a business plan presented on Powerpoint to convince venture capitalists to invest tens of millions even before he won any customer.

No matter, since a tsunami will occur: the bank branches will close in favor of online banking, consumers will no longer do their shopping in supermarkets and choose the sites of e-commerce …

At that time, Philip Collombel is responsible for web development at Carrefour. "A few months before the bubble burst, the group's leaders had planned to invest hundreds of millions of euros in this area," he recalls. Finally, all the ambitious ideas have been put in closets. "We threw the baby out with the bathwater," Regrets Philippe Collombel.Ten years and two owners later, Carrefour has announced its intention to buy a player in online commerce to catch up on the subject. Ooshop.com The site, launched at the time – now renamed Crossroads – sells little more than a large supermarket.

But the food is one of the few sectors where e-commerce has not taken a prominent place. The use of the Internet has indeed developed a massive scale, even if it took longer than expected.With their billions of dollars in profitable sales, Amazon, Yahoo, eBay are still there, joined by thousands of businesses, net of pure players or converted traditional players.

SNCF leading e-commerce

Who would have thought that the station would become the leading French online business? "Many of the ideas of 1999-2000, when they arrived too early, have proven today in the field of e-commerce, social networks, games, e-book, said Jean-Bernard Schmidt, the capital firm Sofinnova Venture Partners. The innovations were ready, the public has taken longer than expected to join. "

A French start-up, Cytale, then had the idea of the eBook, then disappeared after failing to make the model profitable. Posthumous revenge, last Christmas, is that Amazon said it had sold more than Kindle, its electronic reader that works paper.The email service Caramail, founded by the French pasionaria Web, Orianne Garcia and his associates, had established itself as number one in France, before disappearing off the face of Hotmail, now in the fold Microsoft. Meanwhile, Garcia and his partner Alexander Ross became pioneers in the distribution of contact lenses on the Internet.

The online business has not emptied the stores as had been predicted a decade ago, but he does not know the crisis, due to annual growth of 25% for two years in France. One in three adults regularly purchases on the Internet. Against all odds, clothing and footwear join books, high-tech and travel head of the most purchased. The Swedish site Boo.com, one of the most resounding failures of the bubble, was not entirely wrong. Today, sales, and other privees.com Showroomprive.com Rise in fashion D?griff?e.Zebank sank body and soul but Boursorama Bank, now a subsidiary of Societe Generale, prosperous and all banks now offer a one stop online.

Other pre-bubble phenomenon: lastminute.com has seen its share soar 40% on the day of its IPO in spring 2000 before we lose it again quickly and half to be sold to the U.S. in 2005 Saber.

This crisis has served as a "rite of passage, forming a large number of leaders," said Philippe Collombel who now heads the fund Partech International Partners. For Marc Simoncini, now head of his own investment fund, Jains Capital, the bursting of the bubble has had one virtue: "enhance the experience of failure."

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 D?fense 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.

Record sales for 'Call of Duty "

November 23, 2009 - 6:39 pm Comments Off

Unparalleled success is won parActivision Blizzard, the world's largest video game publishing, controlled by Vivendi. The title Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sixth episode of the series, marketed since November 10, has generated "revenues of 550 million dollars worldwide in the first five days of launch." In France also, the sales are amazing with 376 000 units and revenue of 25.5 million euros in one week, according to research firm GfK. In the world and the Hexagon, this is a record for the entertainment industry, all activities.

The war game, very realistic images worthy of Hollywood movies, has pushed revenues to film Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince Half ($ 394 million) or those of the DVD Welcome to the Chti's in France (17, 1 million euros) over a comparable period.The latest version of Call of Duty has surpassed the previous record of video game racing cars GTA IV (24.1 million euros in France, 500 million dollars in the world with 6 million copies), marketed in 2008. In units, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 has already been sold 8 million copies.

The breakthrough is not over. "Sales could exceed 15 million units sold by the end of 2009," said Jean-Bernard Levy, Chief Executive Officer of Vivendi, at the Forum d'Avignon which was named the Gotha Culture and Media. Starting this year, Call of Duty could achieve a turnover of one billion dollars.The margin would be considerable investment for the game is estimated at 200 million dollars.

No under 18 years

To meet this challenge, Bobby Kotick, Activision's boss, and Mike Griffith, head of publishing, do not skimp on resources. The game uses tested recipes: very realistic images, the voices of characters in the game played by celebrities such as actor Bill Murray and singer of the rap group 50 Cents, a story very close, developed by the best writers of the time as one of those in the television series NCIS. Finally, to reach a wide audience, the game is designed for game consoles Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC versions. Main downside: the title, very violent, is banned at least 18 years.

The model Vivendi proves his strength to face the crisis