Thursday, May 31, 2012


The threat of German amnesia

Joschka Fischer
About the Author
BERLIN – Europe’s situation is serious – very serious. Who would have thought that British Prime Minister David Cameron would call on eurozone governments to muster the courage to create a fiscal union (with a common budget and tax policy and jointly guaranteed public debt)? And Cameron also argues that deeper political integration is the only way to stop the breakup of the euro.
A conservative British prime minister! The European house is ablaze, and Downing Street is calling for a rational and resolute response by the fire brigade.
Unfortunately, the fire brigade is being led by Germany, and its chief is Chancellor Angela Merkel. As a result, Europe continues to try to quench the fire with gasoline – German-enforced austerity – with the consequence that, in a mere three years, the eurozone’s financial crisis has become a European existential crisis.
Let’s not delude ourselves: if the euro falls apart, so will the European Union (the world’s largest economy), triggering a global economic crisis on a scale that most people alive today have never experienced. Europe is on the edge of an abyss, and will surely tumble into it unless Germany – and France – alters course.
The recent elections in France and Greece, together with local elections in Italy and continuing unrest in Spain and Ireland, have shown that the public has lost faith in the strict austerity forced upon them by Germany. Merkel’s kill-to-cure remedy has run up against reality – and democracy.
We are once again learning the hard way that this kind of austerity, when applied in the teeth of a major financial crisis, leads only to depression. This insight should have been common knowledge; it was, after all, a major lesson of the austerity policies of President Herbert Hoover in the United States and Chancellor Heinrich Brüning in Weimar Germany in the early 1930’s. Unfortunately, Germany, of all countries, seems to have forgotten it.
As a consequence, chaos looms in Greece, as does the prospect of subsequent bank runs in Spain, Italy, and France – and thus a financial avalanche that would bury Europe. And then? Should we write off what more than two generations of Europeans have created – a massive investment in institution-building that has led to the longest period of peace and prosperity in the history of the continent?
One thing is certain: a breakup of the euro and the EU would entail Europe’s exit from the world stage. Germany’s current policy is all the more absurd in view of the bitter political and economic consequences that it would face.
It is up to Germany and France, Merkel and President François Hollande, to decide the future of our continent. Europe’s salvation now depends on a fundamental change in Germany’s economic-policy stance, and in France’s position on political integration and structural reforms.
France will have to say yes to a political union: a common government with common parliamentary control for the eurozone. The eurozone’s national governments already are acting in unison as a de facto government to address the crisis. What is becoming increasingly true in practice should be carried forward and formalized.
Germany, for its part, will have to opt for a fiscal union. Ultimately, that means guaranteeing the eurozone’s survival with Germany’s economic might and assets: unlimited acquisition of the crisis countries’ government bonds by the European Central Bank, Europeanization of national debts via Eurobonds, and growth programs to avoid a eurozone depression and boost recovery.
One can easily imagine the ranting in Germany about this kind of program: still more debt! Loss of control over our assets! Inflation! It just doesn’t work!
But it does work: Germany’s export-led growth is based on just such programs in the emerging countries and the US. If China and America had not pumped partly debt-financed money into their economies beginning in 2009, the German economy would have taken a serious hit. Germans must now ask themselves whether they, who have profited the most from European integration, are willing to pay the price for it or would prefer to let it fail.
Beyond political and fiscal unification and short-term growth policies, Europeans urgently need structural reforms aimed at restoring Europe’s competitiveness. Each of these pillars is needed if Europe is to overcome its existential crisis.
Do we Germans understand our pan-European responsibility? It certainly does not look that way. Indeed, rarely has Germany been as isolated as it is now. Hardly anyone understands our dogmatic austerity policy, which goes against all experience, and we are considered largely off-course, if not heading into oncoming traffic. It is still not too late to change direction, but now we have only days and weeks, perhaps months, rather than years.
Germany destroyed itself – and the European order – twice in the twentieth century, and then convinced the West that it had drawn the right conclusions. Only in this manner – reflected most vividly in its embrace of the European project – did Germany win consent for its reunification. It would be both tragic and ironic if a restored Germany, by peaceful means and with the best of intentions, brought about the ruin of the European order a third time.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012


New York Times: Η τρόικα δανείζει την Ελλάδα για να πληρώνει τον εαυτό της
«Τα δανεικά εξυπηρετούν μόνο τους τόκους ενώ η οικονομία πασχίζει»
New York Times: Η τρόικα δανείζει την Ελλάδα για να πληρώνει τον εαυτό της
Στους δανειστές επιστρέφουν τα χρήματα του ελληνικού δανείου, επισημαίνουν οι New York Times. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis
52
εκτύπωση  

ΝΕΑ ΥΟΡΚΗ. Το πώς τα χρήματα του ελληνικού δανείου επιστρέφουν στους δανειστές της Ελλάδας, αφήνοντας ελάχιστα για την εξυπηρέτηση των εσωτερικών αναγκών της χώρας, εξηγεί σε άρθρο της η αμερικανική εφημερίδα New York Times.

«Τη στιγμή που η συμμετοχή της στην ευρωπαϊκή νομισματική ένωση είναι αβέβαιη, η Ελλάδα συνεχίζει να λαμβάνει δισεκατομμύρια ευρώ ως έκτακτη βοήθεια από μία αποκαλούμενη τρόικα δανειστών που επιβλέπει τη διάσωσή της. Αλλά σχεδόν καθόλου από αυτά τα χρήματα δεν πηγαίνουν στην ελληνική κυβέρνηση προκειμένου να πληρώσει για ζωτικές δημόσιες υπηρεσίες. Αντίθετα, διοχετεύονται κατευθείαν πίσω στη τσέπη της τρόικα» αναφέρει το άρθρο.

Oπως επισημαίνει η αμερικανική εφημερίδα, καταρρίπτοντας τον μύθο που θέλει την Ελλάδα να αδυνατεί να πληρώσει μισθούς και συντάξεις επειδή οι δανειστές θα διακόψουν την παροχή βοήθειας προς αυτή, «το ευρωπαϊκό πακέτο διάσωσης των 130 δισ. ευρώ που υποτίθεται θα αγόραζε χρόνο για την Ελλάδα, εξυπηρετεί κατά κύριο λόγο μόνο τους τόκους του χρέους της χώρας - ενώ η ελληνική οικονομία εξακολουθεί να πασχίζει».

«Καθώς πληρώνουν τους εαυτούς τους, τα μέλη της τρόικα παρακρατούν παράλληλα άλλα κεφάλαια, τα οποία θα διατηρούσαν το ελληνικό κράτος σε λειτουργία» γράφει χαρακτηριστικά το δημοσίευμα. Όπως εξηγεί στους New York Times ο Τόμας Μάγιερ, σύμβουλος της Deutsche Bank στη Φρανκφούρτη «η Ελλάδα δεν θα κηρύξει στάση πληρωμών απέναντι στη τρόικα, αφού η τρόικα πληρώνει τον εαυτό της».

Η αμερικανική εφημερίδα επικαλείται έναν σύμβουλο της ελληνικής κυβέρνησης, ο οποίος μιλώντας υπό το καθεστώς της ανωνυμίας, είπε σχετικά με τη τρόικα: «Διασφάλισαν το ποσό για τις εσωτερικές δαπάνες να είναι τόσο μικρό, ώστε η Ελλάδα να υποχρεωθεί να αυξήσει δραματικά τα δικά της έσοδα».

Πώς γίνεται αυτό; Μέσω της συνεχούς συσσώρευσης φορολογικών εσόδων σε μία διαλυμένη οικονομία. «Η κατάσταση μοιάζει παράλογη. Οι ευρωπαϊκές Αρχές δανείζουν χρήματα στην Ελλάδα ώστε η Ελλάδα να ξεπληρώνει τα λεφτά που δανείζεται από εκείνους» συνεχίζει το δημοσίευμα. «Στέλνεις τα χρήματα το αποκαλείς "δάνειο" - τα παίρνεις πίσω το αποκαλείς "τόκο"» σχολίασε ο Στέφαν Ντίο της UBS.

«Γι' αυτό ακριβώς τον λόγο οι κυβερνήσεις δεν χρεοκοπούν όπως οι επιχειρήσεις. Οι δανειστές δεν μπορούν να τις διαλύσουν, να πουλήσουν τα περιουσιακά τους στοιχεία και να πάρουν πίσω κάποια από τα χρήματά τους. Έτσι οι δανειστές έχουν κίνητρο να διασφαλίσουν ότι οι κυβερνήσεις θα συνεχίσουν να αποπληρώνουν τα χρέη τους, ακόμη και αν αυτό σημαίνει ότι τους δανείζουν τα χρήματα» προσθέτει το δημοσίευμα και καταλήγει: «Μία λαϊκίστικη κυβέρνηση μπορεί να δελεαστεί να διακόψει την αποπληρωμή του χρέους, εκτός ευρωζώνης και χωρίς το βάρος των τόκων. Προκειμένου να βοηθήσει τους ηγέτες της Ελλάδας να αντισταθούν σε αυτό τον πειρασμό, η λογική της τρόικα, είναι να τους βοηθήσει να εξυπηρετήσουν το χρέος άμεσα».


Luka Rocco Magnotta video allegedly shows body parts suspect dismembering victim

  May 30, 2012 – 6:04 PM ET Last Updated: May 30, 2012 6:36 PM ET
luka-magnotta.com
luka-magnotta.com
Suspect: Luka Rocco Magnotta features on a number of lurid Internet sites.
WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT
A video that purportedly shows a suspect wanted in connection with the Ottawa–Montreal body parts case brutally killing and sexually assaulting a naked man appears on a Canadian-operated website.
Police are now studying the gruesome video, which was believed to have been taken by the suspect, identified today by police as Luka Rocco Magnotta.
Magnotta is wanted in connection with the discovery of a man’s torso stuffed in a locked suitcase in Montreal — whose hand and foot were mailed to Ottawa.
A man by the same name as Magnotta — who is featured on a number of lurid websites — is a low-budget gay porn star suspected of appearing in a number of kitten-killing videos.
In the past, Magnotta was rumoured to have been romantically linked to Karla Homolka, ex-wife of notorious killer Paul Bernardo, who served 12 years in prison for her role in the murders of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
Magnotta, however, vigorously denied those allegations, telling the Toronto Sun in 2007 he had never even met Homolka.
Montreal police said other body parts were found in the apartment where the homicide took place, but wouldn’t say which ones.
Best Gore
A video which purportedly shows Luka Rocco Magnotta brutally killing and sexually assaulting a naked man appears on a Canadian-operated website called Best Gore.
They aren’t ruling out other body parts being sent in the mail.
Magnotta, 29, uses the pseudonyms Eric Clinton Newman and Vladmir Romanov and is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant.
He’s white, weighs 61 kilograms, and has black hair and blue eyes.
Magnotta is believed to originally be from Toronto and was renting an apartment in a Montreal building that is now at the epicentre of the body-parts investigation.
Lafrenière said the crime scene, inside an apartment unit, was one of the worst his force has seen.
“[It was] a very difficult scene, officers haven’t seen that kind of scene in many years, he said.
A janitor discovered the torso, which belongs to a man, in Montreal on Tuesday at about 10 a.m. in the city’s Snowdon neighbourhood and quickly called police.
A Conservative staffer in Ottawa called authorities at about 11:30 a.m. to report the arrival of a suspicious, blood-stained package at the party’s headquarters, just blocks away from Parliament Hill.
After police confirmed there was a severed foot inside, they announced another body part — a hand, this time — had been found inside a package at the Ottawa Postal Terminal.
It is believed the hand was bound for the office of the Liberal party.
Police are also in possession of the video of the dismemberment, which was believed to have been taken by the suspect.
Best Gore, the website showing the alleged Montreal attack, describes itself as a “reality news website” that posts real videos to show people the “uncensored truth.”
“They are as real as they get and I believe people have the right to know the truth,” the website reads.
The nearly 11-minute video purports to show Mr. Magnotta attacking a naked man, who is tied to a bed frame, with both an ice pick and a kitchen knife, according to the description. The victim is stabbed, has his throat slashed and is later decapitated and dismembered.
The video, filmed in a dimly lit room, also shows the killer playing with his victim’s limbs and using one of them to masturbate. The attacker later performs a sex act on the dismembered, decapitated corpse. He also uses a knife and fork to slice a piece of fatty flesh from the victim’s rear, and then brings in a dog to eat the purported corpse.
The video was posted on Best Gore May 25, but it is unclear when, or where, it was filmed, although police have confirmed Magnotta’s Montreal apartment was a crime scene.
“1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick is without a doubt the sickest thing you will have ever seen in your entire life,” Best Gore writes.
“It is a sad reminder that things far worse than any of us would ever imagine really take place in our neighborhoods.”
At the end of the video, a photo is shown of a person dressed in a purple hooded jacket or sweater, leaning over while holding what appears to be an ice pick. His or her face is mostly obscured – the only details that can be made out are that the individual has light skin and brown, cheekbone-length hair.
The person is standing in front of a poster of the movie Casablanca.
“Thorough investigation by the Best Gore community [led] to an assumption that the 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick perpetrator could be a renowned cat killer and internet attention whore Luka Magnotta,” the website reads.
Luka-magnotta.com, which describes it as the man’s official website, offers little detail about him aside from some model-style photographs, and his musings on law and media.
But a profile attributed to “Luka Rocco Magnotta” on ohinternet.com describes Mr. Magnotta as a “Canadian model and bisexual pornstar” who allegedly suffocated two kittens, filmed it, and posted it to YouTube.
But also on luka-magnotta.com, under a section called “Cyber Stalking,” Mr. Magnotta says false information is being posted about him online. He writes there is no “substance or fact in their statements or claims,” but does not specify which claims.
“If the readers of these posts can look behind the storyline that has been created, they will see that there is no reference to a concrete transaction or event that has taken place with any specific person in which I have committed any illegal activity,” the website reads.
“Instead the posts are a series of ‘he said she said’ rumours that are completely fabricated and circulated by specifically the person(s) who made these posts. Individuals with their own agenda who have way too much time on their hands, who feel the need to bad mouth others under the cloak of anonymity on the internet.”
Body Parts Mystery Timeline
Tuesday
10 a.m.: A janitor discovers a human torso in a suitcase in Montreal in the city’s Snowdon district
11:15 a.m: The Conservative Party of Canada headquarters receives a package via Canada Post. They open it partially before calling the police
11:20 a.m.: Ottawa police respond to a call from the party headquarters about a suspicious package stained with blood
2:40 p.m.: Police confirm there is a human foot inside the package
5:30 p.m.: Police emerge from the Conservative party headquarters carrying a yellow plastic bag with the package inside
9:30 p.m.: Ottawa police confirm they found a second body part — a hand — inside a package at the Ottawa Postal Terminal, where mail is processed. This package was destined for the Liberal party headquarters
Wednesday
10 a.m.: Police confirm both packages containing the body parts originated in Montreal
12 p.m.: Montreal police say the torso, foot and hand all belong to the same person; say suspect and victim know each other
2:30 p.m.: Montreal police announce they are looking for suspect Luka Rocco Magnotta
National Post
With files from Armina Ligaya, Postmedia News and The Canadian Press

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Αντιδράσεις μετά το ψήφισμα για την Τουρκία | Sigma Live

Αντιδράσεις μετά το ψήφισμα για την Τουρκία | Sigma Live

Major US law firm files for bankruptcy protection

Man walking out of Dewey Leboeuf offices on 11 MayMany of the firms lawyers left earlier in the month
Dewey & LeBoeuf is set to become the biggest law firm to collapse in the US.
The firm filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection late on Monday and said it plans to liquidate its business after failing to find a merger partner.
It was hit by the economic downturn, having promised large guaranteed payments to some of its lawyers.
It ran out of cash earlier in the year, which led to the immediate resignation of the majority of its partners.
Dewey & Leboeuf was formed in 2007 by the merger of Dewey Ballantine and LeBoeuf, Lamb, Green & MacRae, which left it with more than 1,300 lawyers in 12 countries.
It has now reduced that to 150 employees, who will wind down the business.
The firm's management promised millions of dollars in guaranteed packages to about 100 of its partners, which left it unable to cope with the downturn in revenues during the recession.
"The full extent of the partner compensation arrangements is subject of continuing investigation," said Joff Mitchell, its chief restructuring officer.

Eurozone crisis: White House holds its breath

US President Barack Obama gives a speech in Colorado Springs, Colorado 23 May 2012A shock from Europe could have an impact on the way the US presidential election plays out
US President Barack Obama has at least some sympathy with the eurozone leaders who find it so difficult coming up with a concrete plan that they can sell to their individual parliaments.
He said, at the end of the Nato meeting in Chicago: "I think about my one Congress, then I start thinking about 17 congresses and I start getting a little bit of a headache."
But I would not be surprised if the 17 nations at the heart of the 18th European crisis meeting end in a 19th nervous breakdown in the White House.
Bringing this crisis to a head really matters to Mr Obama. It could make the difference between "four more years" and "out of a job".
Worldwide panic
In the Justus Lipsius, the Brussels buildings that hosts the European Union summits, you can hear many languages and accents. This time a transatlantic twang may be among them.
Mr Obama may not be coming up with any cash, but his team are on hand.
"We've offered to be there for consultation to provide any technical assistance and work through some of these ideas in terms of how we can stabilise the markets there."
He really does not need this crisis turning into - well, whatever happens to a crisis when it goes beyond critical.
This really matters to Mr Obama. The upcoming election is going to be tougher than many think. National opinion polls have him just about neck and neck with Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, but they are worse for Mr Obama in the states that matter.
A shock from Europe could do him in.
You could argue that even a chaotic Greek exit from the eurozone leading to a further plunge in the European economy would not feed through to America's high streets in time for November. I am not sure that is right.
It is true that any injury to the billions of dollars worth of exports to the EU would take a while to hurt. It is true that US banks are not horribly exposed.
But when markets panic, they panic worldwide and retired Americans use investment plans far more than people in other countries - these might be at risk.
An even bigger danger is that the limited amount of credit available, already harming the US recovery in many eyes, would simply dry up.
Divided by language
The real risk may be much simpler. Crisis begets crisis. Former President Franklin D Roosevelt may have been spot on when he declared: "We have nothing to fear but fear itself." But markets driven by fear are never pretty.
Mr Obama must be pacing the Oval Office carpet in frustration. Time and time again he has delivered the same message. Time and time again, nothing happens.
French President Francois Hollande and German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the Nato summit, Chicago Illinois 21 May 2012Francois Hollande has backed common European bonds, something Germany opposes
He said it again in Chicago: "Acting forcefully rather than in small, bite-sized pieces and increments, I think, ends up being a better approach."
Americans worry that once again that they are divided from their friends across the Atlantic by a common language (although not in this case from the Brits).
They both talk of "austerity" and "stimulus" but they do not quite mean the same thing.
But above all Americans think the Europeans do not get the markets. The Washington view is that European politicians do not think their main job is to calm the markets. They regard them with distain as peripheral to the real structural crisis and rather hysterical.
The Americans do not necessarily think the markets are rational or admirable, but they do think they are real and important players. Calming them down is regarded as the first step on the road back to "normal".
They are more concerned with dealing with what they regard as the real world than making a moral point.
They point out that those who dealt with the crisis in America had long experience of the markets and knew what made them tick. European politicians do not have this background, and probably look askance at anyone who does.
Everyone is holding their breath until the next Greek election. The president of the US may be the most powerful man in the world but he seems fairly powerless in the face of the eurostorm.

Κομισιόν: Ανάγκη να καταπολεμηθεί η φοροδιαφυγή στην Ελλάδα
Ο Α. Αλταφάζ, αρνήθηκε πάντως να σχολιάσει τις αμφιλεγόμενες δηλώσεις Λαγκάρντ.

Aρνήθηκε, σήμερα, o εκπρόσωπος της Ευρωπαϊκής Επιτροπής, Αμαντέου Αλταφάζ να σχολιάσει τις πρόσφατες δηλώσεις της επικεφαλής του ΔΝΤ, Κριστίν Λαγκάρντ, για τους Έλληνες, επιμένοντας ότι οι θέσεις της Επιτροπής έχουν εκφραστεί τόσο από τον πρόεδρό της, Ζοζέ Μανουέλ Μπαρόζο, όσο και από τον επίτροπο Οικονομίας, Όλι Ρεν, την προηγούμενη εβδομάδα.
Παράλληλα, ο Α. Αλταφάζ υπογράμμισε την ανάγκη καταπολέμησης της φοροδιαφυγής στην Ελλάδα.
Ειδικότερα, ο κ. Αλταφάζ δήλωσε ότι η καταπολέμηση της φοροδιαφυγής αποτελεί βασικό στοιχείο του δεύτερου προγράμματος για την Ελλάδα και πως οι ελληνικές αρχές, μαζί με την Ομάδα Δράσης, εργάζονται στενά προς αυτό τον σκοπό.
Ερωτηθείς, στη συνέχεια, σχετικά με τα αποτελέσματα της προσπάθειας για την καταπολέμηση της φοροδιαφυγής στην Ελλάδα, ο Αμαντέου Αλταφάζ παρέπεμψε στις τριμηνιαίες εκθέσεις της τρόικας, επισημαίνοντας, ωστόσο, ότι η υιοθέτηση του προγράμματος προσαρμογής από τις πολιτικές δυνάμεις στην Ελλάδα είναι κρίσιμη για την επιτυχή εφαρμογή του. Πρόσθεσε, επίσης, ότι η καταπολέμηση της φοροδιαφυγής δεν είναι μόνο ζήτημα νομικού πλαισίου, αλλά εφαρμογής και ικανοτήτων.
Κληθείς να σχολιάσει αν η Ευρωπαϊκή Επιτροπή είναι ικανοποιημένη από τα αποτελέσματα στο ζήτημα της φοροδιαφυγής, ο Α. Αλταφάζ απάντησε: «Μπορούν να γίνουν περισσότερα, αλλά το ίδιο ισχύει και για τις ελληνικές αρχές».
Τέλος, ερωτηθείς πότε θα πραγματοποιηθεί η επόμενη επίσκεψη της τρόικας στην Αθήνα, ο εκπρόσωπος της Επιτροπής δήλωσε ότι θα πρέπει πρώτα να υπάρξει κυβέρνηση και πως στόχος είναι η επίσκεψη να πραγματοποιηθεί το τελευταίο δεκαπενθήμερο του Ιουνίου.
www.kathimerini.gr Πηγή: ΑΜΠΕ