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Η φωτογραφία της ημέρας
Photos Of Surfers And Other Ballsy Tourists On Oil Contaminated Beaches, Business Insider
ΔΝΤ: «Πουλήστε ή κλείστε» ζημιογόνες ΔΕΚΟ, του Ζώη Τσώλη, Το Βήμα 20/07/2010
Σε αυτό το πλαίσιο ο Πολ Τόμσεν, ο οποίος έχει γίνει «στενός κορσές» για την κυβέρνηση και τον υπουργό Οικονομικών κ. Γ. Παπακωνσταντίνου αφού επισημαίνει ότι δεν έχουν ακόμη αντιμετωπισθεί οι «μαύρες τρύπες» στα νοσοκομεία, στα Ταμεία και στους ΟΤΑ παροτρύνει την κυβέρνηση ή να «πουλήσει ή να κλείσει» τις ζημιογόνες ΔΕΚΟ.
Οπως αναφέρεται χαρακτηριστικά: «Οι Αρχές μπορούν να στείλουν σήμα προς τις αγορές, αν αποδειχθούν ανυποχώρητες στην αποφασιστικότητά τους και στην ταχύτητά τους για ιδιωτικοποίηση ή για κλείσιμο των πολλών κρατικών επιχειρήσεων, που έχουν αποδειχθεί ότι κοστίζουν στους φορολογουμένους μεγάλα ποσά και αποτελούν εμπόδιο σε μια πιο αποτελεσματική δομή αγοράς όσο παραμένουν σε δημόσια χέρια».
 Η κυβέρνηση δίνει μεγάλη σημασία στα δημοσιονομικά αποτελέσματα που θα έχει η ασφαλιστική μεταρρύθμιση. Οπως επισημαίνει και το ΔΝΤ «η μεταρρύθμιση αυτή προσπαθεί να βελτιώσει τη μακροχρόνια βιωσιμότητα του συνταξιοδοτικού συστήματος. Οι αλλαγές θα μειώσουν σημαντικά την αύξηση της συνταξιοδοτικής δαπάνης ως το 2060, οπότε θα μπορούσε να περιοριστεί από 12,5 σε 4 - 6 ποσοστιαίες μονάδες του ΑΕΠ». Κατά το ΔΝΤ η μόνη πηγή αβεβαιότητας πηγάζει από το κόστος των επικουρικών συντάξεων, το οποίο απαιτεί περαιτέρω ανάλυση.
Hungary's IMF revolt augurs ill for Greece, by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph 19/07/2010
Greece is at an early stage of this political sequel. It has won praise from the IMF so far but spending cuts have only just started over recent months, and will grind much deeper over the next three years. Two MPs from the ruling Pasok party have been expelled for refusing to toe the line, and some Greek analysts say the party may ultimately splinter.
"The issue is whether they can carry the Greek people when have to make the next round of cuts in 2011," said Chris Pryce, of Fitch Ratings.
Tim Ash, of RBS, said Hungary deserves some sympathy after sticking to agreed cuts last year as the economy contracted by 6pc. It has broadly complied with IMF terms. The budget deficit is just 3.8pc of GDP this year, far lower than Poland, Spain, France, Japan, the UK or the US.
Even so, he warned that Hungary is playing a "dangerous game" for a state with a public debt of 80pc of GDP and an external debt of 135pc. "If there is another bout of global risk aversion, Hungary is the first target. It has $40bn of reserves, or five months import cover, but in the end it probably can't survive without IMF money," Mr Ash said.
Όχι στον φόβο, του Σταύρου Θεοδωράκη, www.protagon.gr 19/07/2010
Και τώρα να το φέρουμε στα δικά μας πεζά πολιτικά. Η κυβέρνηση όταν ξαφνικά (!) διαπίστωσε ότι «λεφτά δεν υπάρχουνε», σκέφτηκε κάτι πολύ απλό. Να φοβίσει τους Έλληνες. Έτσι θα ήταν πιο εύκολο να δεχτούν όλοι τις περικοπές, να περιοριστούν οι σπατάλες, να πολεμηθεί η φοροδιαφυγή, να κυνηγηθούν οι κλέφτες… Και πράγματι τους τελευταίους τρεις μήνες η επιχείρηση φόβος πήγε πολύ καλά. Δείτε τα πρωτοσέλιδα, δείτε τους κεντρικούς δρόμους των πόλεων τα βράδια, δείτε τα λουκέτα… Προστέθηκε και ο δράκος του ΔΝΤ και μαζεύτηκαν και οι πλέον ατρόμητοι.
True friendship is a plant of slow growth ... but you could always rent, by Haroon Siddique, The Guardian 19/07/2010
Despite all the chatrooms and social networking sites, the lack of face-to-face interaction can make the world wide web a lonely place sometimes. But fear not, for not only can you use the web to order your takeaway and DVD, now you can also use it to order the friend you share them with.
Rent a Friend, which already offers its services in the US and Canada, is being launched in the UK this week to give people the chance to overcome their British reserve and hire someone to keep them company. Unlike the myriad dating websites, which cater for everything from a long-term relationship to a no-strings fling, Rent a Friend advertises itself as "strictly platonic", while also emphasising that it is not an escort agency.
Everything Goes Haywire On The Ocean Floor, by Gus Lubin, Business Insider 19/07/2010
source: monkeyfister.blogspot.com
The New Abortion Providers, by Emily Bazelon, The New York Times 12/07/2010
“Under pressure and stigma, more doctors shun abortion,” wrote David Grimes, a leading researcher and abortion provider of 38 years, in a widely cited 1992 medical journal article called “Clinicians Who Provide Abortions: The Thinning Ranks.” In a 1992 survey of OB-GYNs, 59 percent of those age 65 and older said that they performed abortions, compared with 28 percent of those age 50 and younger. The National Abortion Federation started warning about “the graying of the abortion provider.” In the decade after Roe, the number of sites providing abortion across the country almost doubled from about 1,500 to more than 2,900, according to the Gutt macher Institute. But by 2000 the number shrank back to about 1,800 — a decline of 37 percent from 1982.
There’s another side of the story, however — a deliberate and concerted counteroffensive that has gone largely unremarked. Over the last decade, abortion-rights advocates have quietly worked to reverse the marginalization encouraged by activists like Randall Terry. Abortion-rights proponents are fighting back on precisely the same turf that Terry demarcated: the place of abortion within mainstream medicine. This abortion-rights campaign, led by physicians themselves, is trying to recast doctors, changing them from a weak link of abortion to a strong one. Its leaders have built residency programs and fellowships at university hospitals, with the hope that, eventually, more and more doctors will use their training to bring abortion into their practices. The bold idea at the heart of this effort is to integrate abortion so that it’s a seamless part of health care for women — embraced rather than shunned.
Wine in Quebec? Heard it through the grapevine, by Sarah Staples, Los Angeles Times 18/07/2010
A trip along the Brome-Missisquoi wine route is also a tour through the Eastern Townships' English-rooted history, visible as one-room churches, covered bridges, old sawmills and the like. (Tourism Eastern Townships)
Although most people arrive in the spring and summer, winter tourism is sharply increasing, Leroux said, the result of recent efforts by the Eastern Townships to promote wines and ciders for every season.
In winter, visitors to Val Caudalies can hike, cross-country ski and snowshoe for a few hours, then head indoors to taste wines and observe how the late-harvest vintage is made, all free of charge.
"For me, it's natural to take what the terroir gives us; to use what defines us," the young vintner explained, as his wife, Arianne, and 2-year-old son, Thomas, arrived to help him close the store for the evening. "You have the outdoors here, small-town friendliness, good food, good wine.
"There's so much plaisir de la vie."
Is There Global Economic Slowdown In The Works?, by Edward Hugh 12/07/2010
What we also know is that it is deeply unrealistic to imagine that a burst of new consumer credit will restore growth to economies with such deep structural distortions, and the data seem to be confirming that this rebirth in new credit growth just isn't going to happen (at least not in the short term). According to the most recent ECB data, while the annual rate of Eurozone credit growth for general government stood at 9.8% in May, growth of credit extended to the private sector was at a meager 0.1%. The annual rate of change of loans to companies was -2.1% in May (yes minus, it fell) while the annual rate of change of consumer credit stood at -0.4%. So if it wasn't for the respective governments, I don't think it is too hard to see that domestic demand would be in contraction mode.
And the situation is broadly similar in the US, where the Federal Reserve announced last week that consumer borrowing in the dropped by $9.1 billion in May, following a revised $14.9 billion slump in April. In fact there have only been two months since the end of 2008 when borrowing has increased. So, when Jean-Claude Trichet says that all the global gloom over the Eurozone's prospects is being overdone, since the data they are looking at over on Kaiserstrasse is “not confirming this pessimism”, and adds that a double dip into recession “is not at all what we are observing” someone might just like to ask him which data it is he is looking at. Maybe we won't see a complete double dip, but a serious slowdown in growth does seem to be in the works, and contractions will be once more registered in more of Europe's economies than M Trichet seems to be currently contemplating.
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