του Αθανασιου Ελλις |
| Οι πρώτες συναντήσεις που είχε ο Αντώνης Σαμαράς ως πρωθυπουργός με τον Ζοζέ Μανουέλ Μπαρόζο, τον Ζαν-Κλοντ Γιουνκέρ, την Αγκελα Μέρκελ και τον Φρανσουά Ολάντ, πήγαν καλά. Ο πάγος που είχε δημιουργηθεί όταν ως αρχηγός της αξιωματικής αντιπολίτευσης είχε αρνηθεί να στηρίξει το πρόγραμμα δημοσιονομικής προσαρμογής έχει λιώσει. Η αλλαγή στάσης του κ. Σαμαρά και το γεγονός ότι εμφανίζεται σήμερα ως ο πιο σθεναρός υποστηρικτής της αναγκαιότητας των μεταρρυθμίσεων και ως πραγματικός εκπρόσωπος ενός φιλελεύθερου κόμματος με ευρωπαϊκό προσανατολισμό, έπεισε τους προέδρους της Κομισιόν, του Eurogroup και της Γαλλίας, αλλά και, κυρίως, την καγκελάριο της Γερμανίας, ότι αυτά που λέει τα εννοεί, και πως στο σημερινό πολιτικό σκηνικό είναι ο μόνος που μπορεί να φέρει εις πέρας το τιτάνιο έργο που απαιτείται. Ανάλογα θετικό πνεύμα αναμένεται να επικρατήσει και στη συνάντηση που θα έχει με τον πρόεδρο της Ευρωπαϊκής Ενωσης, Χέρμαν Βαν Ρομπέι, την άλλη Παρασκευή. |
Παρασκευή 31 Αυγούστου 2012
Η θέση της Ελλάδας στον χάρτη
Τουρκία: Ζητεί καταυλισμούς εντός της Συρίας
Το αίτημα της Τουρκίας να δημιουργηθούν άμεσα καταυλισμοί για τους πρόσφυγες εντός του συριακού εδάφους συζήτησε το Συμβούλιο Ασφαλείας του ΟΗΕ.
Ο υπουργός Εξωτερικών της Τουρκίας, Αχμέτ Νταβούτογλου, δήλωσε ότι το Συμβούλιο πρέπει να αποφασίσει «χωρίς καθυστέρηση», αλλά ο αναπληρωτής επικεφαλής του ΟΗΕ είπε ότι το ζήτημα που τίθεται εγείρει «σοβαρά ερωτήματα».
Ο τούρκος ΥΠΕΞ τόνισε ότι η Τουρκία δεν θα μπορεί πλέον σε λίγο να αντιμετωπίσει το κύμα προσφύγων από τη Συρία στο έδαφός της.
Ο Αμπράμοβιτς νικητής στην «μάχη των ολιγαρχών»
Υπέρ του Ρομάν Αμπράμοβιτς έληξε τελικά η «μάχη των ολιγαρχών» στα βρετανικά δικαστήρια, με μεγάλο χαμένο τον αυτοεξόριστο πρώην μεγιστάνα «ολιγάρχη» Μπόρις Μπερεζόφσκι, ο οποίος ήταν παρών στην αίθουσα κατά την ανακοίνωση της αθώωσης του πρώτου.
Η δίκη αφορούσε τις επιχειρηματικές δραστηριότητες των δύο ανδρών μεταξύ 2000 και 2002: ο Μπερεζόφσκι είχε κατηγορήσει τον ιδιοκτήτη της Τσέλσι και πρώην συνεργάτη του ότι «τον πρόδωσε και τον εκβίασε» για να πουλήσει φτηνά μερίδιο της τάξης του 21,5% που είχε στην πετρελαϊκή εταιρεία Sibneft, και ζητούσε αποζημίωση 3 δισεκατομμυρίων λιρών!
China is Okay
NEW HAVEN – Concern is growing that China’s economy could be headed for a hard landing. The Chinese stock market has fallen 20% over the past year, to levels last seen in 2009. Continued softness in recent data – from purchasing managers’ sentiment and industrial output to retail sales and exports – has heightened the anxiety. Long the global economy’s most powerful engine, China, many now fear, is running out of fuel.
CommentsThese worries are overblown. Yes, China’s economy has slowed. But the slowdown has been contained, and will likely remain so for the foreseeable future. The case for a soft landing remains solid.
CommentsThe characteristics of a Chinese hard landing are well known from the Great Recession of 2008-2009. China’s annual GDP growth decelerated sharply from its 14.8% peak in the second quarter of 2007 to 6.6% in the first quarter of 2009. Hit by a monstrous external demand shock that sent world trade tumbling by a record 10.5% in 2009, China’s export-led growth quickly went from boom to bust. The rest of an unbalanced Chinese economy followed – especially the labor market, which shed more than 20 million jobs in Guangdong Province alone.
The NAM is a PR Coup for Iran, But is it More Than That?
Hosting the Tehran summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and its 120 member states is a public relations coup for Iran. Isolated by the major world powers and weakened by sanctions, Iran is in desperate need of solidarity, which the NAM conference hands to Iran on a silver platter. It is the first time in years that Tehran plays host to such a number of high-level delegations.
Despite their attempts—including a letter from Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu— the United States and Israel have been unable to stop the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, from attending. Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is participating, and the appearance of Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi—the first of its kind in more than thirty years of severed diplomatic relations—is also of great significance.
Why crazy ideas are critical: A Nobel-winning chemist's view
Roald Hoffmann talks to Fortune about the benefits of accepting complexity and how to make sure your team feels comfortable with offering seemingly batty ideas.
FORTUNE -- Nobel-prize winning chemist Roald Hoffmann has had anything but a simple path to success. He was born in Poland, and survived the Nazi labor camps. He came to America at the age of 12, attended the prestigious Stuyvesant High School in New York, then Columbia, then Harvard.
Hoffmann received a Nobel in Chemistry in 1981 at the age of 44, but certainly didn't rest on his laurels. The 75-year-old scientist has advised over 200 graduate students, Ph.D.s, and postdocs, taught introductory chemistry at Cornell, co-authored plays, and published poetry. Currently, he helps run a science and performance event on the second Sunday of every month at the Cornelia Street cafe in New York. He recently talked to Fortune about leadership, molecules, and the psychology of enabling crazy ideas. Here is an edited transcript of the conversation.
The time has come for a European Federation
By Viviane Reding, Vice-President of the European Commission
Today, European leaders will be meeting in Brussels to seal the future of the European Union.
It is a decisive moment for Europe. It is the moment to demonstrate to our citizens and to the
world that Europe has a strong determination to further integrate.
The crisis has triggered a very necessary debate about where we stand in Europe. One thing is
clear though: the way out of the crisis passes by consolidating our Union into a stronger, ever
closer and more perfect European Union.
War with China
China could become the most powerful adversary the United States has ever faced. How might a war with China begin, how might it proceed, how might it end, and how might it be prevented?
Since the disappearance of the Soviet Union, China has become America's default adversary, the power against which the United States measures itself militarily, at least when there is not a more proximate enemy in sight. Before 9/11, George W. Bush identified China as America's prime threat, but once the ‘war on terrorism’ was launched China became a strategic partner. Now, in 2012, with America's war in Iraq over, the one in Afghanistan winding down and al-Qaeda on the ropes, President Barack Obama has announced yet another national-security pivot to Asia, with China again the main preoccupation.
Since the disappearance of the Soviet Union, China has become America's default adversary, the power against which the United States measures itself militarily, at least when there is not a more proximate enemy in sight. Before 9/11, George W. Bush identified China as America's prime threat, but once the ‘war on terrorism’ was launched China became a strategic partner. Now, in 2012, with America's war in Iraq over, the one in Afghanistan winding down and al-Qaeda on the ropes, President Barack Obama has announced yet another national-security pivot to Asia, with China again the main preoccupation.
How seriously can investors take Draghi’s assurances?
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ECB president, Mario Draghi, has
repeatedly claimed that the central bank will do everything necessary to save
the euro. Nothing has been formally agreed yet, but the ECB is expected to
announce a new government bond-buying programme following next week’s meeting
of its Governing Council. To have a significant impact on Italian and Spanish
borrowing costs, the latest effort must be big enough to dispel the
convertibility risk that lies behind the extreme polarisation of government
bond yields across the eurozone: investors are loath to hold Spanish and
Italian debt because they fear that the two countries’ membership of the
currency union might be unsustainable. Unfortunately, the ECB is highly
unlikely to do enough to convince investors that membership is unequivocally
forever, not least because the Bundesbank opposes any open-ended commitment to
cap borrowing costs.
Spain, Italy and the periphery
of the eurozone face unprecedentedly high real borrowing costs, which are
preventing a recovery in investment and hence economic growth. Without a return
to growth, they will fail to dispel investor fears over the sustainability of
their public finances and the solvency of their banking sectors. The Italian
and Spanish governments argue that their high borrowing costs largely reflect
convertibility risks and that the ECB should do as much as necessary to address
these fears. The eurozone’s members that currently benefit from exceptionally
low borrowing costs – Germany, Austria, Finland, the Netherlands and to a
lesser extent France – maintain that very high Italian and Spanish borrowing
costs largely reflect these countries’ failure to reform their economies and
strengthen their public finances. There is merit in both these positions, but
much more to the Spanish and Italian argument than the opposing one.
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