EU Economy: "Hanky-Panky" capitalism certainly is not an example that should be followed within the EU - by RM

Smart long term thinking when it comes to privatization unfortunately is not one of the US's strong points.

It has been proven over and over that without government regulations, greed usually takes over immediately when corporations start running privatized companies.

We don't need to make any bones about it, but today the direct result of this in America has been that 1% of the US population now controls just about all the private wealth there. At the same time corporate cartels regulate and control most of the pricing for goods and services: re the Financial Industry, Banking Industry, Food Industry, Pharmaceutical Industry, Medical Industry, Chemical Industry, Farming Industry, Communications Industry, Airline Industry, Weapons Industry, etc,, etc., This sad state of affairs in turn is supported by a corporate controlled press and worst of all corporate subsidized politicians.

While "privatization" is the magic word for many of these mainly conservative politicians, they tend to speak out of two sides of their mouth when it comes to subsidies.

On the one hand they advocate privatization of government or non-profit run corporations, while on the other hand they support subsidies to their favorite industries.

In the United States, credible estimates of annual fossil fuel subsidies range from $10 billion to 52 billion annually. Yet these figures don’t even include costs borne by taxpayers related to the climate, local environmental, and health impacts of the fossil fuel industry.

As of July 2014, Oil Change International estimates U.S. fossil fuel subsidies at $37.5 billion annually, including $21 billion in production and exploration subsidies.

Looking at the picture globally, another shocking revelation finds that the $5.3 trillion global fossil fuel subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.

This can only be qualified as "hanky-panky" capitalism and certainly is not an example that should be followed by the EU.


EU-Digest 

Pollution - Energy Sector: Fossil fuels subsidized by € 8.97 m a minute, says IMF - by Damian Carrington

Fossil fuel companies are benefiting from global subsidies of $5.3tn ( € 4.7 tn) a year, equivalent to € 8.97m a minute every day, according to a startling new estimate by the International Monetary Fund.

The IMF calls the revelation “shocking” and says the figure is an “extremely robust” estimate of the true cost of fossil fuels. The $5.3tn subsidy estimated for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments.

The vast sum is largely due to polluters not paying the costs imposed on governments by the burning of coal, oil and gas. These include the harm caused to local populations by air pollution as well as to people across the globe affected by the floods, droughts and storms being driven by climate change.

This ‘Shocking’ IMF revelation also finds $5.3tn ( € 4.7 tn) subsidy estimate for 2015 is greater than the total health spending of all the world’s governments 

Read more: Fossil fuels subsidised by $10m a minute, says IMF | Environment | The Guardian

European Insurance Industry: Low Interest Rates Pressuring European Insurers - by Juliet Samuel

Low interest rates are taking their toll on some European insurers as they prepare to implement more stringent capital regulations being introduced by the European Union.

Results from three of the continent’s largest insurance companies Wednesday showed how low or negative yields are having an uneven effect, forcing some companies to change their strategies.

Tidjane Thiam, the outgoing chief executive of Prudential PLC, who is leaving to run Credit Suisse Group AG, warned about the “headwinds” of low long-term rates and said that his priority since 2008 has been to reduce the company’s reliance on rates for its earnings.

“It was my deeply held belief that if we wanted to control our destiny we needed to reduce the [interest rate] income in our earnings,” the chief executive said. “We’ve done that successfully.”

Prudential on Wednesday said total new business profits fell 6% from a year earlier in the first quarter, to £496 million. Total annual premium equivalent, a common measure of sales for U.K. insurers—reached £1.25 billion, up 7% compared with the first quarter of last year.

Prudential’s shares fell 1% on Wednesday in London.

Insurers are particularly sensitive to low rates. One of the main ways they make money is by collecting payments made by policyholders and investing them in the market for higher returns, mostly in bonds because they are seen as lower risk than equities. When interest rates fall, insurers’ margins get squeezed.

Low market yields also force insurers to put aside more cash because they can’t rely on high market returns to generate enough cash to fulfill their obligations to policyholders.

“There is a lot of jiggery-pokery they can do to manage these numbers to at least show a good number,” said James Shuck, an analyst at UBS AG.

Read more: Low Interest Rates Pressuring European Insurers - WSJ

Britain's EU referendum could lead to Brexit in 2016 - by Lianna Brinded

Bye Bye Britain

Britain could leave the European Union as early as next year as Prime Minister David Cameron is said to be already putting plans in motion to bring forward an in/out referendum by a year.

If Britons vote to leave the EU, this means the country could technically start severing its ties by the end of 2016.

The Conservatives won Thursday's General Election with a 12-seat majority. The Tories will have to deliver a referendum by 2017 over whether Britain will stay part of the EU, as it was a linchpin pledge during the campaign.

According to The Guardian, which cited unnamed government sources, Cameron is keen to move the referendum forward to capitalise on Tory support and to avoid being caught up in the French and German elections in 2017.

"The mood now is definitely to accelerate the process and give us the option of holding the referendum in 2016," one of The Guardian's sources said. "We had always said that 2017 was a deadline rather than a fixed date."

Read more: Britain's EU referendum could lead to Brexit in 2016 - Business Insider

Turkey: Economy Depressed - Nearly 14,000 companies close in 4 months says TOBB

A total of 13,926 commercial enterprises closed down between January and April of this year, according to a statement released by the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB) on Friday.

TOBB also cited a decline in the number of new enterprises founded in April compared to the previous month. The number of firms closing down in April of this year increased 6.43 percent compared to April of last year.

During this period 24,094 firms and cooperatives were founded in Turkey. A total of 1,557 enterprises were founded by foreign nationals, with more than a quarter of these being Syrian citizens.

This week it was reported that major clothing chain Seven Hill was declared officially bankrupt, while the Elgin Group, a prominent citrus exporter, went under after accumulating TL 300 million in debt.

A number of high-profile firms have gone bankrupt this year, particularly those holding debt in foreign currency that has rapidly expanded as the lira weakened during the first four months of the year.

Read more: TOBB: Nearly 14,000 companies close in 4 months

Islam and Liberals: Maher to Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Why Do Liberals ‘Blame the Victim’ When It Comes to Islam?

Bill Maher spoke with Ayaan Hirsi Ali last night about a recurring topic of his, radical Islam, and spent quite a lot talking about liberal reactions to it.

Maher brought up how liberals have targeted Hirsi Ali and may have also had the Muhammad cartoon contest on the brain when he asked why so many liberals, who normally “hate blaming the victim,” do so when it comes to radical Islam.Hirsi Ali said she’s not sure why liberals do that, and Maher argued that liberals also try to justify so much in a culture that’s decidedly illiberal.

Maher alluded to liberals he “used to respect” who keep arguing with him on this issue, rebutting the suggestion that there are other Muslim nations which are basically “bastions of freedom and democracy.”

He told Hirsi Ali that liberals just don’t understand that the position the two of them are taking is the liberal one. Hirsi Ali agreed that what radical Muslims do is an “assault on liberalism.”

Read more and view the TV interview : Maher to Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Why Do Liberals ‘Blame the Victim’ When It Comes to Islam? | Mediaite

Casino Capitalism: Outsourcing: Shaping The Great Digital Transformation- by Marc Saxer

A deep crisis is paralyzing the societies of the West. The outsourcing of low skilled manufacturing to emerging economies has created a ‘precariat’ excluded from economic, social and political life. The middle classes, already under pressure from stagnating real wages, are afraid of suffering the same fate in the digital economy. More and more people are asking if democracy in its current form still gives them any say, or is in fact one of the drivers of disenfranchisement.

Little has been done to rein in casino capitalism. Under the pressure of financial markets, the seminal project of European unification is about to collapse because of an economic policy driven by European institutions that narrowly focuses on austerity measures in already weak economies. They have undermined that European project’s social contract. And, still, the disciples of market radicalism continue to sing the gospel of supply side economics, willfully ignoring the fact that it is the very lack of aggregate demand that lies at the root of the crisis. Our fears and obsessions seem to contradict the rational Homo Oeconomicus of economic textbooks. 

Did we build the pillars of the modern order – the state, the market and democracy – upon unrealistic assumptions about our very nature? The old certainties start to crumble.

Digitalization, robotization, and Artificial Intelligence will change the way we work and live. Genetic engineering and nano technology are changing what it means to be a human being. The revolution of information technologies has shown how quickly disruptive innovations can turn over entire industries. 

The next industrial revolution will once again come from the garage. Digital tools like 3D printers allow us to manufacture everything from a cup of coffee to vital organs with the click of a mouse. The household of tomorrow will be a micro factory and a micro power plant the same way social media turned it into a micro broadcaster. The developers and makers, sellers and buyers are now connected worldwide through the Internet of Things.

Read more: Shaping The Great Digital Transformation