Middle East: US to accept extra 30,000 refugees over two years, says John Kerry - by Jon Swaine

The US will accept an extra 30,000 refugees from around the world over the next two years, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday, as the Obama administration came under further pressure to take in more victims of the Syrian civil war.

Speaking as his predecessor Hillary Clinton urged America to “lead the world” in responding to the Syrian emergency, Kerry said the total number of refugees taken by the US yearly would rise from 70,000 to 85,000 next year and to 100,000 in 2017, Reuters reported.

“The need is enormous, but we are determined to answer the call,” Kerry said, during remarks in Berlin. Kerry reportedly did not say whether any of the additional refugees would be from Syria.

Earlier on Sunday, Clinton said the US should take in more than six times the 10,000 Syrian refugees that has been proposed by President Barack Obama.

“We’re facing the worst refugee crisis since the end of world war two, and I think the United States has to do more,” Clinton said on CBS. “And I would like to see us move from what is a good start with 10,000 to 65,000.”

Read more: US to accept extra 30,000 refugees over two years, says John Kerry | US news | The Guardian

Welfare US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations - by Robert Rector

The U.S. Census Bureau has released its annual poverty report. Conventional wisdom holds that the U.S. has a small social welfare system and far more poverty compared with other affluent nations.

But noted liberal scholars Irwin Garfinkel, Lee Rainwater, and Timothy Smeeding challenge such simplistic ideas in their book “Wealth and Welfare States: Is America a Laggard or Leader?”

Garfinkel and his colleagues examine social welfare spending and poverty in rich nations. They define social welfare as having five components: health care spending, education spending, cash retirement benefits, other government cash transfers such as unemployment insurance and the earned-income tax credit (EITC), and non-cash aid such as food stamps and public housing.

The authors find that in the U.S., social welfare spending differs from that in other affluent countries because it draws heavily on both public and private resources. By contrast, in Europe, government controls most of the resources and benefits. For example, in the U.S., government health care spending is targeted to elderly and low-income persons; the American middle and working classes rely primarily on employer-provided health insurance.

The U.S. government health care system is, therefore, more redistributive than the systems of most other developed nations.

Elderly middle-class Americans are also more likely to have private pensions than are Europeans. Middle-class parents in the U.S. pay for much of the cost of their children’s post-secondary education; in Europe, the government pays. Overall, in Europe, the upper middle class is heavily dependent on government benefits; in the U.S., it relies much more on its own resources.

But even setting aside the private sector, the U.S. still has a very large social welfare system. In fact, among affluent nations, the U.S. has the third highest level of per capita government social welfare spending. This is striking, given that government spending in the U.S.  is more tightly targeted to benefit the poor and elderly.

When private-sector contributions to retirement, health care, and education are added to the count, social welfare spending in the U.S. dwarfs that of other nations. In fact, social welfare spending per capita in the U.S. rises to nearly twice the European average. As Garfinkel, et al. conclude:

For those who believe the absolute size of the US welfare state is small, the data presented … [in the book] are shocking and constitute a wake up call. Once health and education benefits are counted, real per capita social welfare in the United States is larger than in almost all other countries!

Only one nation (Norway) spends more per person than the U.S. spends.

How much of this spending reaches the poor? The left often claims that the U.S has a far higher poverty rate than other developed nations have. These claims are based on a “relative poverty” standard, in which being “poor” is defined as having an income below 50 percent of the national median. Since the median income in the United States is substantially higher than the median income in most European countries, these comparisons establish a higher hurdle for escaping from “poverty” in the U.S. than is found elsewhere.

Read more: US Spends Far More on Social Welfare Than Most European Nations

Microsoft: Windows 10 Downloads = Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space - by Mke Brown

Microsoft has confirmed that it downloads Windows 10 files to computers just in case users decide to upgrade. The company wants to make the migration to Win10 as efficient as possible, but the files take up somewhere between 3.5 to 6GB of disk space.

The situation was first reported by an anonymous reader at The Inquirer, who found the "~BT" folder used for storing copies of Windows 10 had appeared on his system, despite the user not expressing any interest in upgrading.

"I know of two instances where people on metered connections went over their data cap for August because of this unwanted download," he said. "My own Internet (slow DSL) was crawling for a week or so until I discovered this problem."

Microsoft confirmed the problem in a statement to the publication. "For individuals who have chosen to receive automatic updates through Windows Update, we help upgradable devices get ready for Windows 10 by downloading the files they’ll need if they decide to upgrade," the statement read.

Read more: Windows 10 Downloads Secretly Onto PCs: Microsoft Update Silently Steals Gigabytes Of Storage Space

Germany: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent

Deutsche Bank is considering shedding almost a quarter of its global workforce as it looks to honour pledges to cut costs and streamline its operations.

Some 8,000 jobs could be cut, while the bank has already announced plans to hive off its consumer division PostBank which employs another 15,000 people.

It’s thought that the cuts would mostly affect administrative and technology posts.

Preliminary details of the plan were presented to supervisory board members at the weekend by CEO John Cryan, who took control of Germany’s biggest bank in July promising to tackle what he described as Deutsche Bank’s “swollen” cost base.

Read more: Deutsche Bank could cut workforce by 25 percent | euronews, economy

Europe 'Disgraced Itself' Over Refugee Quota Failure: German Vice Chancellor - by Jack Moore

German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel has condemned European Union member states for failing to agree on mandatory quotas to spread the burden of the refugee crisis, saying on Tuesday that the economic bloc had "disgraced itself."

"Europe once again disgraced itself yesterday," Gabriel said, the day after EU ministers failed to reach an agreement in Brussels over a proposal to absorb 120,000 refugees around the union's member states.

Germany has been the EU member to accept the most refugees, with more than 800,000 people moving into the country this year alone. Other EU member states has been more hesitant on the issue, with countries such as Hungary and Slovakia resisting calls for a mandatory refugee quota.

Read more: Europe 'Disgraced Itself' Over Refugee Quota Failure: German Vice Chancellor

Netherlands Judiciary: Poorly regulated debt collection agencies in the Netherlands are out of control

Dutch consumers who find themselves in a debt collection process are harassed  by the debt collectors, who are poorly regulated by the Dutch judicial system, and usually end up deeper in debt.

This shocking finding has become evident from an analysis made by the Dutch Consumer Association ( Nederlandse Consumentenbond) of complaints they received at their "Debt Complain Center hotline" which was opened in the spring of this year

On this Hotline more than 200 personal, often deeply disturbing and emotional stories, have disclosed how inhumane people are treated .

The Consumers Association says the situation is totally out of control and Bart Combée, Director of the Dutch consumer association says: “the human dimension in this process is completely lost.

If consumers want to contact the collection agency, they often get no answer or the door slammed in their face. If the collection train runs once, he can not stop it, otherwise, than by paying”.

The most common complaints about the Dutch debt collection processes are rapidly increasing and not clearly specified costs. Threatening letters about wage garnishment, foreclosure sales or lawsuits. Even if the debt collection agencies are not empowered to do so, or when it only concerns a debt of a few euro's.

The Consumer Association wants the Judiciary to establish clear and precise regulations concerning the procedures to be followed by Dutch collection agencies and want the Judiciary to firmly intervene when collection agencies violate these rules. It also recommends that companies, collection agencies and bailiffs should be more accessible and willing to offer more customization to the process.

It also wants to see that the intimidating behavior of the collection agencies be addressed immediately..

Bart Combée, Director of the Consumer association says: 'The human dimension is lost. If consumers want to contact the collection agency, they often get no answer or the door slammed in their face.

Once the collection train starts running, it wont stop, otherwise than by paying, usually a lot more than you expected. Even if you dispute a claim. "

Some claims are even based on debts made by deceased  parents of the people who received the claim under one of the many archaic and outdated laws still on the books in the Netherlands including those labelled under hereditary responsibilities. 

 

The Dutch Consumer Agency also wants the Netherlands parliament to intervene in this matter.

Almere-Digest

INSURE-DIGEST joins the Europe House Digest family of publications

A recent survey showed that in the EU, where there are some 40 different languages and dialects spoken, 51% of the population now mainly communicate in the English language. This number is expected to increase every year.

This not only is happening in Europe, but all over the world, as it turns into a global market place with people, traveling more frequently, English is certainly becoming the “Lingua Franca”.

Europe House which saw this trend coming already many years ago decided to capitalize on it by using English in all it's promotional communications and informative publications.

In this context,  Europe House initially created three electronic publications in blog format.

These publications focus on specific issues, based on collected news items, surveys and reports, which are not always available in the corporate controlled traditional press, and sometimes even withheld from the public.

The publications are the one you are reading now, EU-Digest, launched in 2004 -The other

Turkish-Digest, with news about the political, economic and social scene in Turkey, launched in 2005, and in 2014 Almere-Digest was published to meet the demand of a large number of English speaking residents in Almere - which is considered one of Europe's most modern and ethnically divers cities.

This month the Europe House “Digest family” was again expanded with the launching of INSURE -DIGEST, mainly to comply with the request expressed by a large number of executives from foreign corporations establishing subsidiaries or headquarters in Europe and other countries around the world. Specifically, for better information and guidance, when selecting a new corporate subsidiary location. With the focus on potential pitfalls or advantages re: political stability, local taxes, insurance, health-care and schooling.

For advertising rates in any of our four publications go to the rate-insert in these publications.

EU-Digest