At last we see a serious move in Europe to start the much needed process of reining in the many useless financial transactions that are part of the unregulated morass that landed us in the 2008 financial meltdown. James Tobin Hollande’s first budget is introducing a Tobin tax on trading
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Politics, Re-Spun: Blaming the People
Whenever social and economic crises develop, those in power always try to blame somebody else. For example, what caused the recession in the U.S. in 2008? Simple, it was the selfish poor who had the gall to think that they could afford to own their own homes. (And don’t pay
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Europe’s Export of Political Integration
From democracy to banking, Europe has launched institutions that have shaped the world; with its recent financial crisis, Europe might be about to do it again. The European financial crisis is only giving further legitimacy and urgency to greater European political integration. It is argued that with many economies dependent
Continue readingCuriosityCat: The New Roadmap to The United States of Europe (USE)
It’s an ill wind that blows no-one any good, and the eurozone euro crisis is not such a wind, it seems. Having taken major steps in past decades to set up the European Union, including the euro and eurozone, the European states are now being asked to take a giant
Continue readingImpolitical: Mulcair on the euro crisis
This is audio from an interview Mulcair did with Michael Enright on CBC radio this weekend where the eurozone financial crisis came up: That is a brief excerpt but I think it might indicate that the Conservative p.r. effort on Europe against the NDP may have worked. Mulcair mocks the
Continue readingImpolitical: You go, Paul Martin
Yeah they did: “Tories made a ‘major mistake’ in their approach to the euro crisis, Paul Martin says.” “The major mistake that the government has made is the way that it’s characterized this,” Mr. Martin said. “The role of the G20 is to strengthen the financial institutions and the other
Continue readingImpolitical: More Europe bashing from the Harper crew
From the “Today’s Must Reads” on the Globe’s Politics page, an op-ed from Conservative Senator and former Harper campaign chair Doug Finley with a familiar refrain: “Europe needs to take responsibility for its own mistakes.” This is what we’ve been hearing from the PM, from Jim Flaherty and various other
Continue readingImpolitical: The world ponies up to the IMF
The IMF released this table at the end of the G20 yesterday showing pledges received over the past few months by countries around the world to increase IMF resources: That’s quite a list. 37 countries including 15 of the G20 have now contributed to the IMF fund seeking to build
Continue readingImpolitical: Statesman at work
Well this seems to have gone well, what with the takeaway platitudes of agreement between Hollande and Harper about the need for growth and for there to be stability in order to have growth. But wait! “After Harper meets socialist president, Tories take ‘sumptuous’ Europe to task.” Well, I’m sure
Continue readingImpolitical: The Harper interview
A few thoughts on the big interview last night between Harper and Peter Mansbridge on the National… This interview seemed to have two parts to it. The primary focus was Europe, as it rightly should be. This took up more than half the interview. The European situation is a reflection
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Dirty Energy Lobby Wins In EU – Shale Gas Now Considered “Green Energy”
lobbyist-payoff1.jpg In a headline that would appear to be ripped off the pages of The Onion, The Guardian UK this week reported “Gas rebranded as green energy by EU.” After billions of dollars spent in lobbying efforts over the years, the dirty energy industry in the European Union has managed
Continue readingTrashy's World: Be it resolved…
…that the European Union is dead… Or at best, on life-support. Discuss. Trashy, Ottawa, Ontario
Continue readingCuriosityCat: Eurozone: The coming New Deal
Thank heavens for democracy! In a world taken to the brink of financial implosion because of lax regulations of financial institutions, incompetence of regulatory authorities, pure greed on the part of the stakeholders in our investment banking industries (banks, merchant banks, regulatory agencies, regulatory authorities, lawyers, auditors and the like)
Continue readingCuriosityCat: French Presidential election holds out hope for millions of Europeans
The reason is that France seems destined for a new Socialist President this Sunday, replacing the feisty Sarkozy, and dramatically changing the permissible dialogue in every capital of every democratic country in the world, as thisarticle explains: Sarkozy and the other Hooverites The French Socialist candidate Francois Hollande, challenging outgoing
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Europe Remains "A Question of War and Peace"
Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl warns today’s crop of European leaders not to forget the lessons of Europe’s bloody past. “The current discussion in Europe and the crisis in Greece mustn’t lead us to lose sight of or even question or retreat from the goal of a united Europe,” Kohl
Continue readingCanada’s latest threat in an already long line of hostilities: trade war with the EU
(Found this on Google but no attribution. Looks like Montreal Simon’s work, though.) Harper has served notice on seniors, potheads, the youth, internet users, the environment, scientists and just about every other group not profitable to his party. Now, he’s threatened to go to war with the EU over nomenclature.
Continue readingThings Are Good: Victory for Chickens in Europe
Being a chicken who’s sole purpose is egg-laying can be hard because of the horrible living conditions. Too many animals, in this case chickens, are held in enclosures that don’t allow for movement. This is starting to change for chickens in Europe as they have now been granted better enclosures
Continue readingA Little Juxtaposition on Trade
Canada isn’t the only country the EU has been negotiating a comprehensive trade and investment pact with, parallel talks have been ongoing with India on a remarkably similar deal. So I’ve found it interesting to look in on those discussions from time to time for comparison purposes. It seems there
Continue readingImpolitical: Harper government flips and flops on Europe
Yesterday: “Canada could pay into IMF Europe fund, Flaherty says.” Hmmm, maybe they should have been a little more open-minded initially. Here in early November was Harper’s shortsighted message at the G20: “Harper says no Canadian money for European bailout.” Harper was pretty definitive at the time: “We see absolutely
Continue readingImpolitical: Fun Saturday reading
This has to be one of the most epic smack downs of a politician in recent memory: It may be months before the implications of David Cameron’s Europe raspberry become clear; it may be days. Then again they may become clear before going fuzzy again, before suddenly crystallising six weeks
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