Germans still prefer cash over Credit Cards

For the complete report go to : http://m.dw.com/en/times-change-but-german-obsession-with-cash-endures/a-43718626

Global disorder: Trump's Dangerous Neo-Isolationism - by Richard North Patterson

A leader ignorant of history misapprehends its tragedies. A president steeped in grandiosity risks repeating them. Such is Donald Trump. In modern history’s cardinal disaster, virulent nationalism combined with failed diplomacy and great power competition to ignite two catastrophic world wars within 25 years, in turn precipitating a nuclear arms race between America and the Soviet Union. In response, we encouraged democratic partners in Europe and Asia to join us in alliances like NATO, and global institutions like the United Nations and WTO.

This model promoted democracy, free trade and shared strategic and economic interests rather than unconstrained nationalism – and, while imperfect, gave us seven decades of relative stability.

Now the global order is under attack
.

Authoritarians squelch democracy. Populists scorn free trade. Resurgent nationalism and tribalism hamstring international cooperation. These threats come from all sides – including America’s president.

Read more: Trump's Dangerous Neo-Isolationism | HuffPost

EU And US: A Relationship Of Concern - by George Handlery

Note Almere-Digest: One of the few Conservative European Newspapers, the Brussels Journal, certainly grabs "the steer by its horns",  in this Op-Ed on EU - US relations.  

It probably should be required reading material for the members of the EU Commission and the EU parliament, as it touches on many of the "sore-spots", when it comes to the relationship between the EU and the US, and also many of the weaknesses within the EU and US political structure. 

Much to their detriment, Americans like to ignore the world. Accordingly, they do not appreciate reminders that, like it or not, the rest of the world is out there. Worse, some of its “leading leaders” have rabies and “bite”. Aware of the provocation, Duly Noted has often indulged in its own version of “globalism”. In doing so, the European Union had received much attention.

If by your unearned luck you are an American reader, you wonder why the EU should be of concern to you. The evolvement of the Union will determine the quality of that entity and thereby its worth as a major ally. A federation might emerge that will, in a future crisis, be “neutral against the USA”. If some of this is true, the way Europe’s content will develop is of geopolitical significance.

Be reminded that Europe is a major world player. However, by its choice, it punches well under its weight class. With 500 million inhabitants and members rated as leading economies and with three of them listed among the great powers –England, France and Germany- Europe matters. It also counts as it had generated the forces that made the modern world. The Renaissance, the Reformation, the Industrial Revolution, modern science, from rocketry to cybernetics is, besides some key components of democracy, Europe’s contribution to the present. At the same time, two world wars and some of destructive systems of mass murder - Fascism, National Socialism and Communism- are also European products. 

Viewed globally, Europe’s achievements - rounded out by the contribution of her overseas extensions- have made it a culture of reference. However, the caveats of that evaluation counsel to caution.

By the 20th century, the highs achieved in the arts, science, medicine, economics, have been unmatched by the Continent’s political performance. Staging the world wars expresses that. Europe’s efforts to protect past achievements and to project these into the future have been less than satisfactory. This holds especially true in the post WW2 period when the independence of Western Europe had to be maintained –even after the post-war recovery- by an extra-European power.

Europe’s weakness is caused by an amalgam. Its components are failing vision, misjudged threats, unfounded assumptions about security, and an unwillingness to sacrifice to protect values declared non-negotiable.

An adjunct is to be added. Politicians are inclined to underrate threats, so they promise to voters that should know better that there are no enemies, and that the proclaimed intentions of these are not meant seriously. The notion of “security for free” is a drug. Its lulling consumption is difficult to cut when illusions dissipate and resistance is called for.

Disturbing trends emerge once the Union’s development is examined. To begin: the analogy of the United States of America and the United States of Europe is misleading. America’s union project –even if there might have been an emerging Southern nation- has not encountered functioning, historical and conscious national entities. The Civil War has determined that America would not continue to develop as a confederation. Given “federalism’s” practice, the components of an expanding USA could live with that result.

East or West, Europe is peacefully and consensually not unifiable the way “United” in “United States” suggests. To create a unitary state here, one needs to weld together what does not wish to fit together. Europe’s states are not administrative conveniences but the products of diverging traditions and languages. Since Europe is an entity without a matching people, any plan to unite it administratively while also upholding liberty and identities, implies a commitment to contradictory concepts. This testifies to ignorance, to the pursuit of a hidden agenda –or both.

The foregoing should not be taken to indicate that some sort of a European Union must be a threat to the collective personality of its member nations. Decisive is the nature of the federation that can be had, while the values of democracy and the goal of prosperity are preserved.

Therefore, the question is what kind of a union is achievable that does not make the resulting entity into a “jailhouse of nations” as was the Russian Empire, the empire of the Habsburgs, Hitler’s Reich and Stalin’s uncompleted project.

By such standards, disturbing problems emerge. The original concept of an EU had been to guarantee the independence of sovereign states that were committed to defend shared values. These were “democracy”, limited self-government to cultivate localism, and a free market. The collective pursuit of shared objectives assumed freely extended cooperation among like-minded states. This is the juncture where the original principle departs from contemporary practice.

Operating a federation demands patience and the modesty of its managers. Europe’s tradition of centralism, enhanced by the natural craving for power, has resulted in a construction that defies its original purpose.

As the tasks of the EU grew, their implementation was assigned to bureaucratic agencies. As these duties widened the administrators saw their power expand. Bureaucracies upgrade their importance by extending their sway and by usurping power that is reserved for legislatives. In the case of the supranational Eurocrats, this grab has been facilitated because there is no European people and so, there can be no controlling national government. The supervising Commissioners are themselves bureaucratic creatures whose loyalty is more to administrative organs than to a non-existing people. The result is turf extension –and to create jobs for the like minded. The result is a system that is not governed by a responsible cabinet-like institution but by an interlocking system of regulations and officials.

Eurocracy is involved in a discernible campaign. Stealthily it seeks to expand its power to become a supranational equivalent of a national government. Lenin and Stalin wished to have totalitarian power to create the New Socialist Man that, as they had to admit, history failed to create. The faceless in charge of EU institutions wish to use their might to create the yet missing people to match the structure they operate.

That project finds that national identity and its institutions block the way to unity. This redefines independences as a hindrance and not a status to be preserved.

The creeping expansion makes the EU increasingly authoritarian. For that reason, the union has accepted underdeveloped states that were unqualified for membership. Being unripe, such countries incline to submit to tutelage in exchange for funding that feeds, if not the people, then the elites. An adjunct to admission against the statutes is the negative view of those that dare to refuse membership. Peripheral Norway gives money to buy its independence. Eight million Swiss send a billion to Brussels, ostensibly, to finance the upgrading of the underdeveloped members of a federation of which it is not a member. A steep price paid to be left alone, you might say. (Switzerland is a non-member because its system of direct democracy let her people to vote down the project to join.) Even so, the pressure on the recalcitrant is considerable. Conforming in some areas –border controls and immigration- to EU norms is not a question of persuasion but of pressure. In disputes regarding cooperation, the EU even demands that EU courts adjudicate the case. At the same time, members that show signs of wanting to “take their country back”, are exposed to serious threats. In case that a British exit materializes, London will face threats it has not seen since Hitler.

We are left with the impression that liberty in the EU is reduced to the right to agree with its central organs. This makes the personnel that run Europe into left-of-center collectivists. Binding more tightly than the inclination of the parts of an artificial construction allows, absorbs much energy. Shoring up the internal power base leaves little to counter outside threats -IS, Iran, Putin’s Russia - and, as noted by EU-Digest - "Trump's USA ".
 
Consequently, if the EU’s current course continues, its value as a member of the Atlantic Alliance will not improve. The implications of that are easily guessed.

Almere-Digest

EU Economy: Spring 2018 Economic Forecast: Expansion to continue amid new risks

Growth rates for the EU and the euro area beat expectations in 2017 to reach a 10-year high at 2.4%. Growth is set to remain strong in 2018 and ease only slightly in 2019, with growth of 2.3% and 2.0% respectively in both the EU and the euro area.

Private consumption remains strong, while exports and investment have increased. Unemployment continues to fall and is now around pre-crisis levels. However, the economy is more exposed to external risk factors, which have strengthened and become more negative.

Robust growth is facilitating a further reduction in government deficit and debt levels and an improvement in labour market conditions. The aggregate deficit for the euro area is now less than 1% of GDP and is forecast to fall under 3% in all euro area Member States this year.

Read more: European Commission - PRESS RELEASES - Press release - Spring 2018 Economic Forecast: Expansion to continue amid new risks

The Netherlands - Retirement Provisions: The Dutch Patient - by Bernard M. S. van Praag

All over the world the Dutch retirement system is considered one of the best but at home it has come under fire. Serious questions are being raised about the stability and sustainability of the pension scheme. Are the concerns justified?

The Dutch pension system consists of three pillars: a basic state old–age pension on a pay-as-you-go basis for all citizens, a mandatory funded occupational pension for employed workers and voluntary pension insurance, mainly used by self-employed.

The main components are the first two mandatory systems, each providing about 45 percent of the pensions, with private insurance covering about 10 percent. Together the state pension and the occupational pension provide about 70 percent of average lifetime earnings (subject to differences in earnings and duration of employment over life).

Read more: The Dutch Patient

Heads of State Pay scale: Who are some of the best paid country leaders in Europe?

The leaders of Germany, Switzerland and Belgium are among the best paid in Europe, a new study has revealed.

Swiss President Alain Berset earns nearly €400,000 a year, while German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel take home an annual basic salary of around €300,000.

Their wages were revealed in a study of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which was conducted by UK-based financial services company

Read  more: Who are some of the best paid country leaders in Europe? | Euronews

May Day rallies celebrate workers arlound the world and in Germany

Traditional rallies for May 1, also known as International Workers' Day, have taken place in Germany. Revelers, laborers and dissidents took to the streets around the world.

May 1 Labour Day . Celebrated around the world except for a few countries. I

n the US it is celebrated on the first Monday in September.

Unfortunately, today in our Capitalist society, as a result of corporate dominance over the political system, only one in five workers now belong to a labour Union. The result has been stagnant minimum wages and declining social benefits for the poor.

Bottom line, the disparity between rich and pooronly getting larger by the day.

Read more: May Day rallies celebrate workers in Germany and abroad | News | DW | 01.05.2018