GREECE'S lenders said after Monday's Eurogroup that they are expecting the government to pass another set of prior actions through Parliament in the ...
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How the world sees Greece
Monday, December 7, 2015
At Eurogroup, GREECE reminded it has days to pass measures
GREECE working to improve security of identity cards
It is thought that the pressure on GREECE to change its ID cards has been stepped up after the terrorist attacks in Paris as they are deemed to be to easy ...
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Eurogroup Urges Greece to Swiftly Implement Bailout Prior Actions
Eurozone officials addressed the progress of the Greek bailout and its future, following a Eurogroup meeting in Brussels on Monday. Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsslebloem noted that the design of the second stage of the bailout package had been agreed on in November by the Euro Working Group. “We called on the Greek authorities to implement
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Greek ability to implement hotspots at stake
EU lawmakers debated on Monday (December 7) on the state of play concerning the implementation of hotspots in Greece. These talks followed tense days during which a possible suspension of the Schengen free-travel area was brought up. MEP Claude Moraes said that hotspots are still the priority to deal with the crisis. The Civil Liberties […]
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Greece’s budget crisis isn’t gone, just forgotten (for now)
… Greece in the coming weeks. 1 . Non-performing loans The percentage of Greek … verge of completion. George Chouliarakis, Greece’s alternate minister of finance … Greek minister even says that the International Monetary Fund is doing Greece …
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Why Paris Won't Happen in Melbourne
I have been thinking like many of us about Paris and wondering how I might begin a Letter on ethnicity, racism and opportunity in Australia, the U.S. and France. So let me start with a scene outside the South Yarra Primary School which faces Fawkner Park less than a 10 minute walk from my house. South Yarra School is one of the oldest public/state primary schools in Melbourne opened in 1854. It is also one of the highest performing elementary schools in the State of Victoria. I had decided to take a stroll on a beautiful late spring day in Melbourne. One must grab the nice weather because just like the nasty stuff - cold, hot, rainy, windy - the good stuff tends to last only a few hours because weather changes so quickly in Melbourne. I noticed mums with their strollers on Punt Road heading towards the South Yarra School. As I crossed with them into the Park I saw a crowd of parents with a gaggle of younger than school age children waiting for the bell to ring at 3:30 when the students of South Yarra would be finished for the day. I was curious about the ethnic mixture of parents/children. The strollers and play equipment was of high quality. Indeed a child of about six was driving a fully electric play car on the dirt in the playground outside the school. When I was a boy of about that age I remember a miniature electric ice cream truck being promoted on the Howdy Doody Show. I dreamt of owning and driving such a vehicle. To have such control at a young age seemed impossibly unobtainable, as did the price. I still don't think such toys are cheap and this boy's motorized wheels suggest the neighborhood's wealth. Indeed the parents waiting for their children looked like they could have been from New York's Upper East Side or from my area of the East Bay, Piedmont. But I was particularly interested in the overt ethnic makeup of the students. As they poured out the schoolyard into the Park, the kids looked overwhelmingly white Australian. I estimated about 10% were Asian and another 10% sub-continent Indian/Pakistani. I later struck up a conversation with a mother of two children who attended the school and she said actually 20% of the students came from India. I know there are schools in the Bay Area now that are majority Asian (primarily Chinese and Indian). These are some of the highest performing, "toughest" public schools around. Children from ethnically "white" families who attend these schools often struggle to keep up with their very hardworking co-students. Whether or not the high performance the children of these ethnic groups achieve is all-good, is debatable. But their educational success follows generations of previous immigrant ethnic groups that preceded them. Whether in America or Australia, the availability of a good public education allows children of immigrants to get to a solid middle class standing within a generation. Besides adding to the productivity and richness of these societies, this filial advancement acts as a tonic to the challenges and frustrations of the newly arrived immigrants to either country. Contrast this history of immigrant advancement to the long-term stagnation of other ethnic groups in America, Australia and France. The States and Down Under share a common tragic responsibility for the virtual genocide of their indigenous peoples, the American Indians and the Australian Aborigines. These two groups have been decimated, first by diseases and wars, and then by cultural/economic extermination. Overall the two groups represent a very small part of their respective country's populations and are virtually invisible in the more populated cities. While individuals have risen above the cycles of poverty, alienation and substance abuse (and certain American tribes have fared better than others) the indigenous peoples of both continents remain marginalized at best. But U.S. society labors under another historical insult. America continues to struggle with the legacy of 200 years of slavery and 100 years of Jim Crow. The African-American underclass, especially within urban centers. remains outside the economic mainstream in America. African-Americans have watched each subsequent immigrant group, who unlike them came voluntarily and could maintain intact family and cultural ties, pass them educationally and economically. The last fifty years have offered new opportunities to American blacks to participate in education and business. Many have taken advantage and are solidly middle class and higher. However, the problems of economically deprived, educationally poor African-Americans strike me as enormous and intractable - unsolvable within a democratic society where individual rights are valued. Such perpetual inequality generates ill will. In 1969, I remember sitting in a movie theater at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts where I was attending college, with a mixed group of white and black students (the University had vigorously pursued admitting blacks beginning my freshman year). We were watching the now classic war film, The Battle of Algiers, which came out in 1966, and is a faux documentary on the Algerian War of Independence against the French. I never met anyone who has seen the film who wasn't emotionally affected. I do not want to go into much detail about the film but at one point a terrorist bomb goes off at an Algerian racetrack that was patronized primarily by French colonists. The scene is one of mayhem and screams as the dead and wounded are attended to by the survivors. At one point the crowd catches a glimpse of a small, frightened Algerian boy selling peanuts at the track. The crowd turns on the boy and begins to physically beat him. The scene is quite believable and excruciating. From the college audience someone yelled, "White racist pigs!" After a moment's delay another voice yelled out, "Black racist pigs!" and I thought in the middle of this very liberal, hippy-dippy school in the late 1960's a racial battle was about to begin. I don't recall exactly how the tension in the audience defused. Probably the movie was so compelling that we all just moved on. Obviously I've never forgotten that moment. I've always felt while the white students might have been discomforted by the movie, it meant something very different to the blacks in the audience. I felt that the African American students were far more willing to become and act radicalized than the white students, not withstanding the short-term effects of the Vietnam War on all the students. There have been multiple riots since 1969 but none of them as widespread as after the death of Martin Luther King. I'm actually surprised that there hasn't been more civil unrest and organized resistance along the line of the Black Panthers since the 1970s. I offer this American example as a way to appreciate the analogous position of the Muslim people in France (called Maghrebins in France according to recent New Yorker article I read) who have come from the Middle East. France considered Algeria a "department" of France, not a colony. Technically, its inhabitants were citizens of France. Arab Algerian education was French. They were taught to speak French in schools. Their history classes were of French history. But white French men and women always considered their Algerian compatriots second-class citizens whether in Algeria or in France where many Algerians emigrated for better economic opportunities. The French society never welcomed them nor integrated them into their mainstream. I'm sure there are many examples of French Muslims who have achieved middle class status and higher. But there remains a large Arab extraction underclass where educational and economic opportunity to reach the middle class appears unattainable. The banlieu high-rises surrounding Paris are not unlike the American inner city old public housing projects - centers of desperation and hopelessness which breed anger and extremism. Western leadership and most of the public recognize that a military solution to the American or French "war on terror" is not winnable. One must attempt to address the root causes that lead young men (and women) to acts of anonymous terror. Yet I am generally fairly pessimistic that the problems for underclass African-Americans of the U.S. and Arab Muslims of France can be effectively addressed, not that attempts shouldn't be made. Australia has been "lucky" if that's the word one wants to use for the combinations of geography, racism (which kept many non-white, even white ethnic groups out of the country until after WWII), and a now relatively open market based society offering opportunities to new immigrants with intact families. Many Americans (and probably some French) must overcome their initial uneasiness at walking past or through the high-rise housing projects for low-income Australians in Melbourne. The architecture of these high rises is similarly depressing to their American counterparts, but that's where the similarities end. Even the grounds and gardens have a different feeling than those of the American projects of a similar stature. Yes, there is some increased crime and a lot of graffiti but one doesn't get the feeling of desperation and fear surrounding these buildings and neighborhoods as one would in America. My impressions are based upon a relatively short experience of months (and two previous trips to Oz) but are confirmed by my Australian based friends. The Australian low-income housing projects have been stepping stones for wave after wave of immigrant groups (beginning with the Italians and Greeks, later Vietnamese) to move into the Australian middle class and higher. Sudanese immigrants are only the latest group to start this journey. Recent history affords examples of intractable political and social problems resolving without penultimate catastrophe. The implosion of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War. Nelson Mandela's release and subsequent negotiation with the white apartheid government transited South Africa to black majority rule without a bloodbath. Northern Ireland's "Troubles" haven't entirely disappeared but rampant terrorism there is no longer. But then the Balkan Wars have gone on for a hundred years and appear temporarily better only with "ethnic cleansing." The Israeli-Palestinian problem is nearly 70 years old. I don't have the answers to resolving the American post-slavery tragedy, ISIS or Islamic extremist terrorism. Australia appears quite attractive in having avoided some of the worst problems of human societies. But I'm not planning to live here permanently - unless my sons, who live in Los Angeles -- plan to move here as well. And now for our bimonthly Australian vocabulary lesson (all words have been printed in the Age, Melbourne's non-Murdoch daily paper) - hoyden: a boisterous, bold, and carefree girl; a tomboy (1585-95 perhaps Middle Dutch). schoolie: school teacher or student (Australian informal). bodgie: a juvenile delinquent; youthful troublemaker (1950-55 perhaps dialect Yorkshire). whinge: to complain; whine (British and Australian informal). I think I've seen "whinge" in American print somewhere. I love the word - a combination of whine and cringe I would think. But the best Australianism I heard over the last two weeks came at the end of an intense hour plus, close tennis set where after winning it, 7-6, my opponent announced, "I think I've won me a sheep's station!" When I inquired (in a very friendly manner) as to what the hell he meant by that expression, he explained that out in the outback a "sheeps' station" is where all the sheep get collected. So having a sheeps' station meant you had a lot of sheep (and wealth). Therefore, as expected "winning a sheeps station" is something good like winning a close set over your friend. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Soup kitchen refugees dream of Europe
Idomeni,Greece (CNN)A barbed wire fence runs through the fields and hills that mark the border between Greece and Macedonia. Just outside the Greek village ...
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Tarpon Springs offering GREEK cooking class
TARPON SPRINGS – The city of Tarpon Springs will present a cooking class Saturday, Dec. 12, noon to 2 p.m., at the historic Safford House, ...
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GREECE will not follow EU labels on Israeli products from Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias informed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that GREECE will not follow recently implemented ...
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New GREECE Historic Marker Unveiled
"It just shows not only the spirit of patriotism, shows the entrepreneurial spirit, but it just shows the American way. We will figure out a way to get the job ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT wxxinews.org |
Chapman GREEK life gives back
The Panther contacted each GREEK chapter at Chapman to ask for details regarding their philanthropic endeavors, then used the data provided to ...
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GREEK players announce strike action
GREEK football players announced on Monday that they will go on strike indefinitely starting next week. The announcement from the GREEK Professional ...
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Glenview GREEK church hosts holiday fair
The Ladies of the Philoptochos Society of Saints Peter & Paul GREEK Orthodox Church in Glenview hosted the annual "Jolly Old St. Nicholas Holiday ...
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Egypt-GREECE business council to hold third meeting in Athens
The third session of the Egypt-GREECE joint business council will be hosted in Athens, GREECE, and chaired by Hany Birzy, head of the Egyptian side of ...
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Eurogroup gives GREECE a week to pass second set of milestones
Another week, another Greek bailout deadline. GREECE needs to get a move on with passing reforms, the group of Eurozone finance ministers told the ...
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Greek Researcher: '1 in 10 Mobile Apps Leak Personal ...
One out of ten mobile phone and tablet apps are actually leaking information used on other websites, which may endanger the safety and privacy of users ...
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The GREEK Letter for 'Sour Grapes'
There is, however, one piece of GREEK-lettered financial jargon that the off-Wall Street crowd may want to acquaint themselves with: It's called "deposit ...
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Eurogroup to Greece: pass 2. set of prior actions by mid-Dec, pensions by begin of Jan
You thought that just because the Greek government passes creditors’ prior actions through the Parliament, the issue is over? Of course, not. The so-called reforms need to be implemented and furthermore more prior actions need to pass through the Parliament, so that Greece can receive the 1 billion euro bailout […]
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German Government Responds to Die Wielt Story
The German government sought to distance itself from German newspaper Die Welt’s article on the Greek government. Die Welt published an article over the weekend that described Greece as a ship without a captain, arguing that the Greek government is delaying the application of the bailout prescription. The article prompted the Greek government to issue a response that spoke
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Equity Investment Forum Taking Place in Athens
Representatives of the industry told a two-day Equity Investment Forum which began on Monday in Athens.Venture capital has significantly contributed to supporting and developing Greek enterprises since the start of the specific market in Greece, The forum is organized by the Athens Stock Exchange, Enterprise Greece, Hellenic Venture Capital Association (HVCA), New Economy Development Fund
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Volunteers Set Up ‘No Border Restaurant’ at Greece-FYROM Border
Several volunteer groups from all over the world have set up makeshift kitchens to serve free food to hungry migrants stranded along the border between Greece and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Thousands of migrants who want to cross through FYROM to wealthier western Europe are denied entry to FYROM because they don’t
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Six Months On, Greece to Ease Capital Control Restrictions
… 07.12.2015Get short URL Greece's securities regulator Charalampos … some restrictions for people with Greek securities investments. "If domestic … has been relative calm in Greece since parliament in Athens approved …
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'Chi-Raq' Uses GREEK Satire To Explore Chicago Violence
This photo provided by Roadside Attractions and Amazon Studios shows Teyonah Parris as Lysistrata in Spike Lee's film, “Chi-Raq.” The movie ...
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GREEK model and beauty industry expert becomes liberation war hero in Zimbabwe
... a leading member of Harare's GREEK community, struck up a friendship with Robert Mugabe, the Zimbabwean president, after independence in 1980 ...
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Talk to Preview WTC GREEK Orthodox Church
Rendering of the St. Nicholas National Shrine, now under construction on the eastern end of what will be Liberty Park, overlooking the Sept.
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GREEK Deputy Finance Minister Lays Out 2016 Taxation Plan
tryfon-alexiadis GREEK Deputy Finance Minister Tryfon Alexiadis announced on Monday the 10 steps that the GREEK government will take in hopes of ...
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Tax on gasoline brings… pizza in the menu
Athens, December 7, 2015/Independent Balkan News Agency By Olga Mavrou The plans for imposing new tax on gasoline provoked many reactions in Greece – mainly from the gas stations (petrol stations). According to governmental sources, the aim is to reduce the tax on cars and roll it essentially to gasoline consumption. So, the owner of the car will pay less for […]
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Vodafone GREECE starts e-safety awareness campaign
Vodafone GREECE launched a campaign whose aim is to teach users of mobile devices about online safety. The campaign is based on a clever ...
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Eurogroup President: We Spent A lot of Time on GREECE
jeroen Eurogroup President Jeroen Dijsselbloem addressed the Eurozone's performance in 2015, identifying the amount of time dedicated to GREECE ...
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Violent clashes erupt in GREEK capital on anniversary of anarchist's killing by police
Athens' streets were engulfed in smoke and tear gas on Sunday after violent clashes erupted between anarchists and riot police on the seventh ...
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Egyptian, GREEK military forces start joint exercise in Greece
Egyptian navy and air forces have left for Greece to participate in the joint Egyptian-GREEK air military exercise Meidoza 2015, which will last for several ...
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Record audience in Athens for GREEK Shipping Awards
Over 1,100 GREEK and international shipping community members attended the 12th annual Lloyd's List GREEK Shipping Awards.
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Europe Without Myth? GREEK Antiquity and the Avant-Garde
Written by a leading authority in the anthropology of the ancient GREEK world, a scholar who can move with impressive brilliance and outstanding ...
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Tourists in Lesbos find themselves next to refugees fleeing for their lives
Guardian appeal 2015: Ben Webster of the Red Cross has just returned from the Greek island. His eyewitness report is below Join our drive: donate here Lesbos, the Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea off the coast of Turkey, has received tens of thousands of refugees who have crossed perilous waters. The Red Cross, one of the humanitarian charities that the Guardian is supporting through the appeal this year, has deployed a mobile rescue team to rescue people from the water, distribute survival blankets and provide first aid. Continue reading...
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Stranded at the border in GREECE and needing health care
Thousands of migrants have become stranded in Idomeni in northern GREECE due to new regulations which permit only Syrians, Afghanis and Iraqis to ...
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EU pledges to overcome GREEK Cyprus veto for opening chapters
A top EU executive has promised Turkey as part of its accession talks to start in the first quarter of 2016 the process required to open the five chapters ...
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17th century GREEK Catholic icon from Poland to mark Holy Year of Mercy at the Vatican
Monsignor Eugeniusz Stepan said Monday that the “Gate of Mercy” GREEK Catholic icon left the southeastern town of Przemysl for Rome Saturday, ...
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT neurope.eu |
Capital Controls On Athens Stock Exchange to be Lifted
After four months of operating under restrictions, the Athens Stock Exchange will soon be functioning without limitations for Greek investors. Charalampos Gkotsis, the president of the Hellenic Capital Market Commission (HCMC), announced on Monday that Greek Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos has signed off on the lifting of capital control restrictions in financial markets transactions and that the
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National Bank of GREECE: Austerity on the Rise
Bailout talks between GREECE and international creditors are set to resume tomorrow, with substantial advances having been made over the weekend.
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Olympiacos v Arsenal: Campbell ready for 'cup final' in GREECE
Arsenal need goals in GREECE as they look to reach the knockout stages of the Champions League for ta 16th successive season. Joel Campbell ...
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Why Finland Would Be Better Off Without the Euro
What is wrong with the economy of Finland? Several renowned international bloggers and journalists, including Jason Karaian, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard and Simon Nixon, have recently pondered on this issue. A citizens' petition, motivated by the economic woes of Finland, demanding referendum on the euro membership has also put Finland _en route_ of becoming the first country of the Eurozone to test the will for further European integration. But, why is the economy of Finland struggling? The answer lies in the historical legacy of strong labor unions and in the narrow industrial base, which make Finland an uncanny member of the European single currency. The rise and fall of the Nokia Ltd. was just a blimp in the "big picture", but it happened to occur during the creation of the euro, which biased the ability of Finland to prosper as a part of the monetary union. HISTORICAL LEGACY: THE DEVALUATION CYCLE The industrial production of Finland has been based on four broad categories since the beginning of the 19th century: forestry, metals, machine works and refining products. Textile industry had a big role in the industrialization of Finland in the latter part of the 19th century, but it has then almost vanished. After establishing her own currency, the markka, in 1860, Finland, a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire, quickly fixed the external value of its currency to gold. This did not pose a problem for the economy, because Finland followed a liberal economic doctrine. This meant that wages and prices fell in recessions and rose in upturns stabilizing the demand and supply of labor. However, this changed drastically after labor unions were formed at the beginning of the 20th century. Wages and prices became rigid, which meant that recessions led to considerably higher levels of unemployment than before. After the independence (in 1917) and a Civil War that ensued, Finland re-joined the gold standard in 1923. However, Finland was forced to break off from it in 1931 because its main export partner, the UK, suspended the convertibility to Gold earlier that year which led to a depreciation of the English pound of around 30 % against the US dollar. After the Second World War, Finland established a growth model where monetary and fiscal policies were used to channel resources towards industrialization. The instruments of choice to accomplish this were comprehensive income policy settlements through a centralized wage negotiation system and repeated devaluations. The model led to a classical boom-and-bust devaluation cycle. Economic booms were followed by inflation and claims by labor unions for higher wages, but the wages did not come down in downturns forcing monetary authorities to devalue the currency to maintain the competitiveness of the export sector. Between 1957 and 1991 Finland devalued the markka six times. FINLAND'S GREAT DEPRESSION AND THE ICT-BOOM During the depression of 1990 - 1994, which was caused by an over-investment boom and the fall of the Soviet Union, Finland was forced first to devalue the markka and then let it float against other currencies. The period of the floating markka was described by monetary calm and very fast economic growth. During this period, Finland also made a qualitative leap from resource-based economy to knowledge-based one with the ICT as the leading sector. The peak of this transformation coincided with the beginning of the euro membership in 1999. The fast growth of productivity during the late years of the ICT boom (around 2000-2005) masked the decline of competitiveness and profitability of the manufacturing industry (see Figure 1). Figure 1. Source: Kajanoja (2015). Paljonko kustannuskilpailukyvyn pitäisi parantua? The Finnish Econonomic Journal, 3: 361-372. Competitiveness eroded because unit labor costs in the manufacturing and in the intermediate product sectors rose sharply following the rapidly increased wages of the ICT sector. The deterioration of the profitability was exacerbated by the mediocre development in the value of the production of the manufacturing industry in the global markets. After a brief recovery period between 2006 and 2008, the competitiveness of the manufacturing sector basically "fell of the cliff" (see Figure 1). The same happened to overall productivity (see Figure 2). Figure 2. Total factor productivity growth in four EU-countries. Source: Conference Board, Total Economy Database So, when Finland decided to join the euro, its economy was in the middle of a massive ICT boom which fostered growth in productivity and in the GDP per capita. Because of the centralized wage negotiation system and strong unions, high productivity growth in the ICT sector led to high wage increases also in other sectors where productivity growth was not so high. WHY FINLAND SHOULD BE OUTSIDE THE EURO All historical facts point to the same conclusion: Finland should never have joined the euro. If Finland would have its own (floating) currency, it would depreciate against other currencies when there would be fall in global demand, the exchange rate of her main export partners would depreciate or when there would be an increase in the domestic production costs (e.g., wages). When Finland joined the euro, it gave up this instrument. The industrial production of Finland has become too expensive for the depressed global demand and the currency of one of her main export partners, Russia, has depreciated heavily against the euro due to the economic recession. Taking into account the economic woes Finland is currently experiencing, Finns should seriously consider of leaving the bloc. In the history, monetary unions have always broken down (either partially or completely) without a functional federal structure. EuroThinkTank found in their report published last year that euro will eventually follow this path. That is, it will either develop into a full federal union or break-up. Eurozone currently has a serious deficit on democracy. Parliaments in Greece, Portugal and Italy have been reformed to follow the economic and political doctrines of European creditor nations. It may be naive to think that the European leaders would return to the founding principles of Europe, _equality, fraternity and liberty_, but one can always hope. On this, Finland could become a pioneer. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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The World's Most Influential Voices of 2015
The 2015 Global Thought Leaders Index, a "collective intelligence" analysis that maps the global conversation on the Internet and ranks its most influential voices, has just been released by _The WorldPost_ and the Zurich-based Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute. For the first time, the annual index measures not only the globally-dominant English language infosphere, but also the other main language infospheres of Spanish and Chinese, as well as German. Altogether we rank the nearly 400 people who are most often mentioned and discussed online, ranging in the global index from Pope Francis, who ranks #1, to Turkish novelist Orhan Pamuk at #4, Edward Snowden at #5 and cellist Yo-Yo Ma at #9. Other top influencers of note include former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis at #78, Chinese novelist Mo Yan at #83, Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez at #99 and Indian novelist Chetan Bhagat at #136. In Spanish, Fidel Castro and Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa top the list, with Mexican poet Homero Arijidis at #11, Venezuelan conductor Gustavo Dudamel at #13 and Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodóvar at #48. Edward Snowden leads the German list with philosophers Jurgen Habermas at #53 and Peter Sloterdijk at #83. China's "outside" rankings mirror the global list since those living in Hong Kong or Taiwan almost exclusively use Wikipedia, Twitter or Google. However, the "inside" China rankings, which are most accurately measured by the Baidu Index, put Chinese President Xi Jinping and Alibaba chief Jack Ma in the top spots, with Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami at a curious #8 and Communist Party theorist Wang Huning at #10. Baidu is China's largest search engine, akin to Google. _A graphic showing the world's most influential thought leaders of 2015. GDI/WorldPost 2015 Global Thought Leaders Index._ THE MAP AND THE TERRITORY The map of the global conversation is as interesting as the intellectual territory it covers. YouTube is by far the global giant when it comes to platforms that spread ideas. Thoughts are far more widely cast through Twitter than through the more closed, narrowly cast "friend" connections of Facebook. _The WorldPost/Huffington Post_, including the 15 international _HuffPost_ editions, also emerges as a top platform for the global circulation of ideas, along with the _New York Times _and the _Guardian_. _The WorldPost_, a 2-year-old partnership with the Berggruen Institute, serves as the _HuffPost_'s global portal. The Spanish daily newspaper, _El Pais_, ranks as the major platform in the Spanish-speaking world. Here are the links to the findings of _THE WORLDPOST_/GDI 2015 GLOBAL THOUGHT LEADERS INDEX in English and German. _This is what influence looks like in the English-speaking blogosphere. GDI/WorldPost 2015 Global Thought Leaders Index._ HOW THE ANALYSIS WAS DONE Nominations for the most influential thought leaders of 2015 were solicited from _The WorldPost _editorial board and contributing editors, from the editors of _El Pais_, the editors of _Univision/Fusion_ and the Shanghai-based online current affairs website, _Guancha_ (Observer). The top results from GDI's 2014 survey were included as a baseline and German-language nominations were reviewed by Alexander Gorlach, founding editor of the Berlin-based _The European_ magazine. In future years, other language areas, starting with Arabic, will be included. Nominations were then processed through a "collective intelligence" analysis by Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Peter Gloor, who correlated those nominations with their mentions -- or "betweenness centrality" score (being spoken with and/ or about) -- on Wikipedia, tweets and blogs (and their equivalent in China) to determine an influence ranking. The methodology is explained in more detail in the index. _This is what influence looks like in the Spanish-speaking blogosphere. GDI/WorldPost 2015 Global Thought Leaders Index._ OBSERVATIONS In the German and Spanish language areas, a layer of common global voices dominates at the top of the list, overlapping with the English-language global rankings, while voices not generally known beyond language borders concentrate in the bottom half of the rankings. This reflects the more or less free flow of ideas across the Internet. One interesting note is the sparse use of Twitter in the German area, apparently due to privacy preferences. The Chinese analysis indicates a situation in which there is "one language, two infospheres." Rankings for the Chinese language "outside" the mainland in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the diaspora indicate an influence pattern similar to the top "global layer" in the other language spheres. But "inside" China, using the Baidu Index of the more than 740 million web pages to which the search engine has access, the rankings are markedly different, with few non-Chinese voices. As Zheng Weiwei, a former interpreter for Deng Xiaoping who collaborated on this project, puts it: > The Chinese Internet world is already a universe in itself, given > the size and scale of China's Internet population and IT industries. > It is in many ways on par with the English Internet universe. > China's Alibaba is already larger than eBay and Amazon combined. China's "internet sovereignty" policy, firewalls and censorship also certainly shape the results on any "inside" search. Taking these considerations into account, our analysis of the most influential Chinese voices shows how different rankings result from different search and analysis methodologies. _Baidu is China's largest search engine, akin to Google._ THE INTERNET AS A 'GLOBAL THINKING CIRCUIT' The aim of _The WorldPost_ is to establish a global platform for the cross-pollination of ideas beyond borders, a place where the whole world meets. Partnering with the highly regarded Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute in Zurich to chart the currents and map the virtual territory of the infosphere is a key step in making the Internet a truly "global thinking circuit" instead of just a worldwide series of dots that don't connect. The message can catch up with the medium if we put our minds to it. -- This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.
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Greeks move on in “cash elimination” for transactions
Athens, December 7, 2015/Independent Balkan News Agency By Olga Mavrou The Ministry of Economy plans two new laws in order to avoid tax evasion and one of them promotes (almost in an obligatory way) the use of cards instead of cash money. Specifically, till now Creeks had a discount in their taxes if they kept […]
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Possession will be key in Greece, says Arsenal's Bellerin ...
Controlling possession will be key in Arsenal's do-or-die Champions League clash against Olympiakos Piraeus on Wednesday, right back Hector Bellerin has ...
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1940: U.S. Pledges Support to Greece
From the International Herald Tribune archives: President Roosevelt promises aid to Greece in 1940.
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| READ THE ORIGINAL POST AT iht-retrospective.blogs.nytimes.com |
Alternate FM Xydakis meets with Ukrainian Ambassador VolodymyrShkurov (Foreign Ministry, 7 ...
The Alternate Foreign Minister for European Affairs, Nikos Xydakis, met at the Foreign Ministry today with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Greece, Volodymyr Shkurov.The discussion, which took place in a friendly atmosphere, focused on issues of bilateral cooperation as well as on international issues, such as the implementation of the Minsk agreements. Moreover, Mr. Xydakis was briefed on the educational and cultural activities of the Ukrainian Embassy in Greece vis-Ã -vis Ukrainian citizens.
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Soccer-Possession will be key in Greece, says Arsenal's ...
Dec 7 (Reuters) - Controlling possession will be key in Arsenal's do-or-die Champions League clash against Olympiakos Piraeus on Wednesday, right back Hector Bellerin ...
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The Latest: Austria starts building fence on Slovenia border
Refugees and migrants approach the GREEK island of Lesbos on a dinghy after crossing the Aegean sea from the Turkish coast, on Monday, Dec.
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GREEK Fashion Guru Kiki Divaris Passes Away
kiki-divaris GREEK fashion designer Kiki Divaris passed away on Saturday, December 5, at the age of 90. Divaris was being hospitalized in a private ...
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Five ticking time-bombs keep Grexit on the radar
Remember the GREEK crisis? Last time we checked in, a newly mandated GREEK government reached an agreement with creditors and the country was ...
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