OT: The News Thread

zeke said:

I mean seriously, who sat through those ****ing videos instead of briefly scanning a short article instead?

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Wayward DP said:

I am a written word purist. But I have accepted I am not the norm. I still subscribe to the paper copy of the Globe, what a dinosaur.

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The European Commission has told Italy to revise its budget, an unprecedented move with regard to an EU member state.

The Commission is worried about the impact of higher spending on already high levels of debt in Italy, the eurozone's third-biggest economy.

Italy's governing populist parties have vowed to push ahead with campaign promises including a minimum income for the unemployed.

The country now has three weeks to submit a new, draft budget to Brussels.

The Commission said the first draft represented a "particularly serious non-compliance" with its recommendations.

The Commission Vice-President for the euro, Valdis Dombrovskis, said Italy's response to the commission's concerns was "not sufficient" to assuage fears - and the euro's rules were the same for everybody.

"This is the first Italian budget that the EU doesn't like," wrote Deputy Prime Minister Luigi Di Maio on Facebook. "No surprise: This is the first Italian budget written in Rome and not in Brussels!"

His co-deputy PM Matteo Salvini added: "This doesn't change anything."

"They're not attacking a government but a people. These are things that will anger Italians even more," he said.

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Wayward DP said:

obviously, Italian populists

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Altair said:

Well, Italy is taking a new, novel approach to the EU. Instead of saying they hate it and want to leave like the brits did, they are simply going to ignore it and do what they want to instead.

I'm guessing they break when their borrowing costs soar through the roof, to the point of needing a Greece like bailout with a EU that has suddenly found a whole bunch of brand new reasons to hate them.

Problem is Italy is no Greece, they go down and they take a good portion of the EU down with them.

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Wayward DP said:

obviously, Italian populists

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Altair said:

I'll wait. If Macron doesn't deliver on change in 5 years guess who reaps the rewards?

Dissatisfaction with the EU continues to grow, in the long term, this will eventually reach the ballot box. If dissatisfaction with the EU continues to grow the euro will fall apart. I'm young, there's still time.

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Altair said:

And he would have been my 3rd favorite candidate after le Pen and melenchon, both of whom wanted out of the EU, but well ahead of Hamon and Fillion.

I just doubt he makes good on his promises which can very well lead to even more dissatisfaction among the electorate.

While Macron did win, there was a record number of spoiled ballots and abstentions in the second round.

Hints at a undercurrent of discontent that he needs to properly manage, or else let pen can come back in 5 years and truthfully say that everything but her has been tried and everything has failed them.

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(Bloomberg) -- Less than a month ago, French President Emmanuel Macron staked his claim as the flag-bearer for globalism. In a speech to 60 world leaders at the Arc de Triomphe, he eulogized the United Nations and declared nationalism the “betrayal” of patriotism.

Last Saturday, tear gas and cobblestones flew in the same part of Paris as protesters trashed the iconic monument and demanded Macron’s embattled government withdraw a proposed fuel-tax increase. For the first time in his presidency, he backed down. It was a humbling moment for opponents of the populist revolts that spawned Donald Trump.

Europe has seen many a critical juncture in recent years, from the Greek debt crisis to the anti-immigrant backlash against refugees and Britain’s Brexit vote. Rarely, though, have so many political vultures been circling around one leader with so much at stake for the world order.

Poland is flirting with the far right and nationalist parties cajoled by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban are plotting a rebellion at European Parliamentary elections in May. Meanwhile, Italy has collided with the European Union by taking a defiant stand on its budget spending.

With the EU’s erstwhile firefighter, Angela Merkel, planning to step down as German chancellor, the baton was supposed to pass to Macron to uphold liberal democracy. But Merkel’s power on the world stage was underpinned by a political fortress at home, and the French leader looks anything but solid.

“You can’t make speeches about defending the international order when your popularity is at 20 percent and there are protesters in the street,” said Nicholas Dungan, a Paris-based senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. “It’s very difficult to get your credibility back.”

It’s a stark contrast to the weekend of Nov. 11 as leaders marked a century since the end of World War I. Macron championed the need for global cooperation while Trump cut an isolated figure. Europe’s divisions were laid bare that day as Polish government officials marched through Warsaw with far-right groups to mark the country’s Independence Day. Macron, though, stood firm as Europe’s statesman.

The images televised around the world last weekend were of burning cars in the French capital. The retreat by the 40-year-old French leader was mocked by Trump. Macron admitted, via his prime minister, that he’s not been able to connect with the French people. “No tax merits putting our nation’s unity in danger,” Edouard Philippe said in a televised address.

The trouble for opponents of Trump-style nativism and protectionism is that there’s no one else to take up his mantle, Dungan said.

After Macron was elected in May 2017, he sought to work with Merkel and a friendly government in Rome to deepen European integration. He reached out to Trump to convince the American president to stick to international agreements.

Trump ignored him and withdrew from the Iran nuclear accord and the Paris climate agreement. Trump tweeted that Macron’s climb down over a carbon tax that would raise fuel prices was proof that he’d been right all along.

Prevailing Wind

Merkel, meanwhile, was wounded in German elections in September 2017. She was formally replaced on Friday as the head of her party by Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, albeit an ally whose presence boosts the likelihood Merkel will see out her final term. Italy elected a Euroskeptic government in March.

“His ambitions for a strong Europe had already taken a hit from events in Germany and elsewhere,” said Philippe Moreau Defarges, an adviser at the Paris-based French Institute for International Affairs. “But he emerges seriously weakened from the recent events. He’s just not appeared up to the level, and France's image has taken a terrible blow.”

At home, his popularity has been sinking, hurt by the failure of his early unpopular changes to labor and tax law to revive the French economy. Macron’s policies are seen to favor the wealthy, and poll after poll have shown the French electorate thinks the former banker is aloof and arrogant. His approval rating is at 28 percent, according to an average of seven polling institutes.

Then came the “Yellow Vests.” The grassroots protest movement was sparked by opposition to his environmental policy of hiking taxes on diesel and gasoline to fund incentives to buy cleaner cars and home housing systems. But it’s evolved into widespread anger about the rising cost of living and declining services in rural and small-town France.

The protesters’ demands have expanded accordingly. Some want to restore the wealth tax, increasing pensions, raising the minimum wage, cutting the salaries of politicians, and even to Macron resigning and replacing the National Assembly with a “people’s council.” Polls show three-quarters of the French support their demands, even if they also disapprove of the violence that’s accompanied many of the protests.

It’s also been felt in the bond market. The yield on French securities compared with Germany, a barometer for political risk, rose to the highest level since Macron was elected.

He doesn’t face national elections again until 2022, and he’s always said he doesn’t care about popularity polls. French opposition parties will file a joint no-confidence motion against the government on Monday. It’s unlikely to make much difference.

But European elections and a series of municipal and regional votes over the next two years could shape up as referendums on his policies, according to Antonio Barroso, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence, which looks at political risk.

“Whether Macron will have enough political space to implement more economic reforms will probably be determined by the European Parliament elections, which will likely be interpreted as a ‘midterm vote’ on the presidency,” Barroso said.

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uncus said:

I like it ..... I would have no problem with the native ownership of this line and others. Also, I would even agree to canada financing it.
But in return, I would want the end of all land claims by all native groups, as well as the beginning of the dismantling of ALL reserves being held by the queen and each aboriginal interest group.
No more hunting and fishing rights, no more tax exemptions in return for this undertaking.
Let's make Canada truly equal and a level playing field.

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Altair said:

Turns out the EU can veto member nation budgets.

Go figure. Well, they are trying at least. So far Italy isn't having it.

So if Italy doesn't comply with the EU, which they have shown no interest thus far in doing, they can face fines, sanctions, and ironically enough, expulsion from the Euro zone.

Who doesn't love a organization that can veto national budgets?

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Habsy said:

I found this interesting. Next time my wife tells me I drink too much coffee I’ll tell her I’m preventing Parkinson’s.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181210122851.htm

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Brexit hasn't happened yet but it's already shrinking the United Kingdom's financial services industry.
Banks and other financial companies have shifted at least £800 billion ($1 trillion) worth of assets out of the country and into the European Union because of Brexit, EY said in a report published Monday.
Many banks have set up new offices elsewhere in the European Union to safeguard their regional operations after Brexit, which means they also have to move substantial assets there to satisfy EU regulators. Other firms are moving assets to protect clients against market volatility and sudden changes in regulation.

The consultancy said the figure represented roughly 10% of the total assets of the UK banking sector, and was a "conservative estimate" because some banks have not yet revealed their contingency plans.
"Our numbers only reflect the moves that have been announced publicly," said Omar Ali, head of financial services at EY. "We know that behind the scenes firms are continuing to plan for a 'no deal' scenario."

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zeke said:

p.s. biodiversity is in a major crisis right now. we're losing about 95% of it.


The Weather Channel India @weatherindia
5h
"Our planet is now amidst its sixth mass extinction of plants and animals—the sixth wave of extinctions in the past half-billion years," @CenterForBioDiv stated. "We're currently experiencing the worst spate of species die-offs since the loss of dinosaurs 65 million years ago."

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