Europe

Draghi Says ECB Ready For Negative Interest Rates If Needed

"European Central Bank President Mario Draghi said policy makers are ready to cut interest rates again if needed after reducing them to a record low last week. The euro fell half a cent on the comment to $1.3057 and European stocks pared losses. The Frankfurt-based ECB on May 2 cut its benchmark rate by a quarter point to 0.5 percent, and Draghi said then that officials have an 'open mind' about taking the deposit rate, currently at zero, into negative territory." Continue reading →

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Starting an online store in Greece is no easy business

"It took 10 months, a fat bundle of paperwork, countless certificates, long hours of haggling with bureaucrats and overcoming myriad other inconceivable obstacles for one group of young entrepreneurs to open an online store. Antonopoulos and his partners spent hours collecting papers from tax offices, the Athens Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the municipal service where the company is based, the health inspector’s office, the fire department and banks. At the health department, they were told that all the shareholders of the company would have to provide chest X-rays, and, in the most surreal demand of all, stool samples." Continue reading →

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The Startup Yahoo Won’t Be Buying

"Stamped, On The Air, SnipIt, Jybe, Alike and Summly: Yahoo's six acquisitions in recent months under Marissa Mayer's new leadership. The French video-sharing platform Dailymotion was to have been the seventh. Over 20 million videos, 112 million monthly unique visitors, a valuation around $300 million: a crown jewel for Mayer's content strategy and an inspiring success story for French tech entrepreneurs. But it won't be. Yahoo backed out of its deal to buy 75% of the company from main owner Orange/France Telecom after French Industry Minister Arnaud Montebourg intervened to stop the sale." Continue reading →

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Gold to play major role in Italy economic recovery

"According to a WGC survey, only 4% of citizens and business leaders would support the sale of Italy's gold reserves, while 52% of citizens and 61% of business leaders would endorse using, but not selling, national gold reserves. The study revealed that Italian business leaders (92%) and citizens (85%) overwhelmingly agree that the nation's gold reserves have an important and positive role to play in the country's economic recovery." Continue reading →

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Globalist Euro Disaster: Euro Founder Endorses Bust-Up

"Lafontaine like other Eurocrats knew full well what he was doing when he helped inflict this monstrous mess. The result has been of late bloodshed, massive unemployment, the ruin of whole families, the disruption of the hopes and dreams of literally hundreds of millions. Europe lies in ruins with no near-term hope of recovery and European cultures and prosperity are being flattened by this damnable Euro dreadnaught. Only one thing is 'up' in Europe these days it sometimes seems. And that is suicides. And Lafontaine is sorry. And he has changed his mind." Continue reading →

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Amsterdam forced Jews to pay rent while in WWII concentration camps

"Amsterdam council has vowed to probe revelations that it forced Jews returning from World War II concentration camps to pay rent arrears, even if their homes had been destroyed or occupied by Nazis. The scandal, involving an unknown number of Jews and non-Jews living in city-owned properties, was uncovered by a young art history student in Amsterdam’s archives. Less than a quarter of Amsterdam’s Jewish population survived the war, with the Netherlands occupied by the Nazis from 1940 to 1945. The council even issued fines for late rent payments for homes that were confiscated and occupied by Nazi forces or members of the Dutch collaborationist NSB movement." Continue reading →

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Danes Rethink a Welfare State Ample to a Fault

"While much of southern Europe has been racked by strikes and protests as its creditors force austerity measures, Denmark still has a coveted AAA bond rating. But Denmark’s long-term outlook is troubling. The population is aging, and in many regions of the country people without jobs now outnumber those with them. Some of that is a result of a depressed economy. But many experts say a more basic problem is the proportion of Danes who are not participating in the work force at all — be they dawdling university students, young pensioners or welfare recipients like Carina who lean on hefty government support." Continue reading →

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Spain: This Is What A Permanent Underclass Looks Like

"Spain is in a great depression, and it is one of the most terrifying things I have ever seen. Five years after its housing boom turned to bust, Spanish unemployment hit a record high of 27.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013. It's almost too horrible to comprehend, but 19.5 percent of the total workforce has not had a job in the past six months; 15.3 percent have not in the past year; and 9.2 percent have not in the past two years. You can see this 1930s-style catastrophe in the chart below from the National Statistics Institute." Continue reading →

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The Cyprus Depositor Haircut

"The manager told him not to worry, saying the deposit insurance was per account, not per person. She added: ‘We just put your name on the account so your wife wouldn’t take money out without your consent.’ Remembering that in the 1980s his British building society had played down the risks of taking out an endowment mortgage, Demetriou asked if they were 100 per cent sure. He was told they were. The advice was 100 per cent wrong. The deposit insurance is per person, not per account. Soon afterwards, the banks closed for more than a week, and when they reopened, he’d been stripped of 44 per cent of his savings." Continue reading →

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