European Capital Markets: London, Berlin, Amsterdam: Capitals of the Next Economy -by Hannah Furlong

Whether the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package is ambitious enough is still under debate, but at least it leaves some flexibility for potential partnerships, industry-led and local government-led initiatives to shape the next economy.

Some cities are already seizing related opportunities: Berlin and London are sharing economy leaders, and the City of Amsterdam is conducting cutting-edge research for its transition to a circular economy.

Gordon Innes, the CEO of London’s official promotional and economic development company, London & Partners, recently wrote on why London has the opportunity to become the sharing economy capital of the world.

“As Europe’s largest technology hub with unrivalled access to talent, growth capital and international markets, we have an ideal environment for sharing economy businesses to scale and grow,” he wrote in Tech City News.

Innes explains that these businesses can benefit from national and local initiatives, including Sharing Economy UK, a trade group, and the Smart London plan, which in part aims to ensure that London “makes the most of new technologies and use its creative strengths” so the city can adequately adapt to its growing population. It is expected that London will be home to 10 million people by 2030.

He also claims that London has more sharing economy businesses than any other city in Europe. Examples of these include accommodation services One Fine Stay and Love Home Swap, peer-to-peer money lending company Zopa, car-sharing services BlaBlaCar and Liftshare, and driveway renting platform Justpark.

“This notion of making the best use of under-utilised assets such as spare rooms and driveways is another benefit of the sharing economy model and has the potential to turn London into a city of micro-entrepreneurs,” writes Innes.



Read more: London, Berlin, Amsterdam: Capitals of the Next Economy | Sustainable Brands

The Netherlands - burial: Graves in the Netherlands are rented - Elena Holodny

If you want your grave to literally be your final resting place, we might not recommend getting buried in the Netherlands.

"[G]raves in the Netherlands are typically rented for 10 or 20 years, with remains being cleared out once the lease expires," as RBC Capital analysts recently noted in a report.

Interestingly, this has nothing to do with burial rituals. Rather, it's because there isn't enough cemetery space in the country.

Poor soil conditions and high ground water tables that slow down the "skeletonisation process" of the bodies preclude the Dutch from building up enough cemeteries, Paul J. M. Van Steen and Piet H. Pellenbarg of the University of Groningen noted in a 2004 research report on burials in the Netherlands.

And while it's possible to fix (or at least mitigate) these two geographic issues by artificial means, the authors note that it's expensive for cemeteries to do so.

Read more: Graves in the Netherlands are rented - Business Insider

Political Mismanagement : 10 Economic, Political and Social Global Forecasts Indicate Troubled Times Ahead In 2016 - by RM

The legacy of a totally failed Middle East Policy

As a wise man once said "Without Freedom Of Speech There Are Only Official Lies"

Below links to 10 reports which indicate that the overall state of our globe in 2016 does not look very rosy.  Click on the headline to get the report.

 

European economies face harsh headwinds from China

Is the EU imploding?The Europe Question In 2016

Toward Global Disaster: Chaos and Intervention in the Middle East

Global Economy: Soros: It's the 2008 crisis all over again

Middle East: Where Will this War Frenzy Lead?

EU Presidency: ′Turbulent times′ as Netherlands takes over EU presidency

USA: To understand Donald Trump, look to Europe

Global Economy Catching China's Cold

China: Don't blame the economy for China's latest market meltdown

US Economy: Could the American economy tank in 2016?

Change however lies in the hands of the people, and if politicians have made life worse rather than better for you - get rid of them. Don't sit on the sidelines staring at your navel or pointing your finger at others.   

After all : "The health of a democratic society may be measured by the quality of functions performed by its private citizens" - Alexis de Tocqueville

EU-Digest

Weapons Industry: U.S. is the Mecca of Weapons and Killing Machine Exports.

There was a time when America’s greatest exports were high-quality consumer goods, such as automobiles and textiles. Today, most American manufacturing has been outsourced to Chinese and Latin American sweatshops. However, there’s still one thing that the U.S. does extremely well: design, manufacture and export the finest killing machines and equipment of any nation on the planet. Furthermore, our nation’s defense industry sells more of them than anyone else in the world.

This windfall for fine corporations such as Lockheed-Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing and others is due largely to recent contracts with their three biggest customers: South Korea, Qatar and our reliable Middle Eastern “ally”, Saudi Arabia. Despite the fact that global weapons sales have leveled off and more companies are jumping into the industry in order to get their piece of the pie, U.S. weapons sales rose from $26.7 billion to $36.2 billion in 2014 – representing an increase of 35%.

While the U.S. is leading the parade of death and destruction, it’s not marching alone. In second place is Russia, having sold $10.2 billion worth of weaponry (a slight drop from the previous year), followed by Sweden, France and China.

The Congressional study in which these figures were presented finds that a weakened global economy has led to much slower sales. In fact, despite a slight increase in global weapons purchases (approximately .03%), the study found that “the international arms market is not likely growing at all.”

This state of affairs has in turn increased competition among weapons manufacturers.

And the U.S. is coming out on top. While the country is crumbling from within, those with connection to the weapons industry are swimming in pools of champagne, nibbling on truffles and fine caviar while riding aboard their private jets and luxury yachts, financed by blood-soaked dollars. It’s not likely to change, either.

Weapons manufacturers are offering great deals, such as flexible financing (making certain their customers remain debt slaves for decades), co-production agreements, and counter-trade agreements (essentially, a form of in-kind payment or barter).

Read more: U.S. is the Mecca of Weapons and Killing Machine Exports. Doesn't That Make You So Proud? - The Ring of Fire Network

Holland's Ukraine vote - by Andrew Stuttaford

A majority of Dutch voters is opposed to the Netherlands’ ratification of the European Union’s association agreement with Ukraine, a new poll ahead of an April 6 referendum on the issue showed Saturday.

The poll, conducted by the Dutch public broadcaster’s program EenVandaag, is the first barometer on the April 6 vote. It found that over 50 percent of voters “are certain” to reject the Ukraine agreement, while another quarter of respondents said they’ll “likely” reject the deal. Over half of respondents also said they will certainly cast a ballot, while another 17 percent said they’d “most likely” vote.

The threshold for the referendum to be taken into account is a turnout of 30 percent. The organisors of the referendum are the eurosceptic think-tank Forum for Democracy, the eurosceptic news website Geenstijl.nl (which gained notoriety for exposing the practice of MEPs signing in to claim their daily allowance before sodding off) and Burgercomité EU, the campaign for a full referendum on EU membership.

Geert Wilders, the leader of the populist anti-EU and anti-immigration PVV party which is currently leading in the opinion polls has been an enthusiastic supporter of the campaign, although the organisers have done their best to keep their distance from him and party politics in general.

The VVD, the main party in the Dutch coalition, has dubbed the organisers of the initiative as “friends of Putin”, a sensitive accusation in the wake of the shooting down of flight MH17 last year.

The question of the EU’s relations with both Russia and Ukraine has been a factor in the campaign; the Association Agreement is unpopular some quarters as there are fears Ukraine will benefit from greater financial support from Dutch taxpayers and that the move to remove visa requirements for Ukrainians will lead to greater immigration from that country.

There are also concerns that the deal effectively commits the Netherlands to side with Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. However, that said, this should first and foremost be seen as a proxy for many Dutch citizens’ desire for a broader debate about the EU and the direction it is heading in. Given that a full on referendum about EU membership is explicitly excluded in the [Dutch] legislation establishing the referendum mechanism, campaigners latched onto the EU-Ukrainian Association Agreement as the best option for forcing the debate.

They needed a piece of EU legislation which was yet to come into force and upon which they could hang their broader concerns, this agreement seemed to fit the bill. Thierry Baudet, an author and academic who launched the Forum for Democracy has said that “We will put the question of the EU on the agenda with a broad focus on all aspects of the EU.” More generally, it is also reflective of the wider anti-establishment mood that is sweeping across much of Europe. Read more at: http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/429509/hollands-ukraine-vote

Read more click here

FIFA: Football - Instant Replay: Dutch FA hopes to trial video technology during matches

The Netherlands may become one of the first countries to trial video help for football referees after a recommendation from the game's rule-making body, the Dutch football federation said Friday.

If the move is approved by the International Football Association Board (IFAB), then the Dutch FA (KNVB) hopes to put it to the test in 25 matches during the Dutch Cup during the 2016-2017 season.

Football moved closer to giving match officials video assistance on Thursday when the IFAB announced it has strongly recommended beginning trials.

The proposal will now go to the IFAB's general meeting in Cardiff on March 4-6 for approval.

"If it is approved in March, then we are going to experiment with it in the Netherlands during the Cup," KNVB told AFP in an email.

"We would hope to try out video assistance in about 25 Cup matches."

Such video help would not replace the traditional ref, but could be consulted for decisions that might change the match outcome such as contentious goals or penalties and red cards.   

Read more: Flash - Dutch FA hopes to trial video technology during matches - France 24

Britain: Cameron's Annus Horribilis - by Denis MacShane

Will 2016 be the annus mirablis or the annus horriblis for David Cameron? Rarely has a British prime minister confronted his destiny quite so directly as Cameron, who celebrates his 50th birthday in 2016.

 In January 2013, he announced that Britain would hold a referendum on staying in or leaving the European Union. In the three years since, he has won a second term of office and also announced that he would stand down as prime minister before the next election in 2020.

Unlike Margaret Thatcher, who celebrated her tenth anniversary as British prime minister in 1989 by saying that she intended “to go on and on and on” (and found herself ousted a year later), Mr. Cameron is not insisting he must stay in power as Britain’s leader forever.

In 2005, Cameron and I discussed his bid to be leader of the Conservatives. I said to him if he did become leader, he stood a good chance of being Prime Minister. But I also urged him to reduce the temperature of the obsessive euroscepticism that had completely infected his Tory Party.

He smiled and said “I am much more eurosceptic than you imagine, Denis.”He was telling the truth. Cameron is a member of a generation that entered political life in the 1990s, as their goddess, Margaret Thatcher, turned against Europe. She denounced Jacques Delors and European integration in the House of Commons.

After her dismissal as prime minister in 1990, Mrs. Thatcher became the patron of political euroscepticism which quickly infected the entire right-wing landscape in Britain.

Read more: Cameron's Annus Horribilis - The Globalist