These 10 Corporations Control Almost Everything You Buy

A chart we found on Reddit.com shows that most products we buy are controlled by just a few companies. It's called The Illusion of Choice.

Το κυπριακό κοινοβούλιο κάλεσε την κυβέρνηση να απόσχει από κυρώσεις κατά της Ρωσίας

 

Το κυπριακό κοινοβούλιο κάλεσε την κυβέρνηση της χώρας να μην ενταχθεί στις κυρώσεις κατά της Ρωσίας, αναφέρει το Itar Tass.

Forget the drama: A solution for Crimea

By Anatole Kaletsky

President Vladimir Putin has disastrously miscalculated and Russia now faces deeper isolation, tougher sanctions and greater economic hardship than at any time since the Cold War. So declared President Obama after the NATO summit in Brussels.

The trouble with budget transparency

Americans have a great term for a seemingly transparent government practice designed to be anything but.Document dumping is when a politician releases a piece of controversial information hidden amongst a swath of largely irrelevant documents, preferably at 5pm on a Friday or when a big news story is breaking.

While the information is in the public domain, it’s likely to remain far from the public consciousness – and the politician far from harm’s way. Bill Clinton was accused of a document dump in a 1996 controversy about campaign finances. George W. Bush was accused of employing similar tactics by releasing information on military spending in a late night Friday night ‘dump’.

Why Cameron's timing on EU reform is off

British prime minister David Cameron is in a tight spot on EU reform. He must balance calls by eurosceptics in his Conservative Party to repatriate powers from Brussels, and the political reality in Europe that favours less far-reaching change. Cameron hopes to start renegotiating the terms of British EU membership after the 2015 election and believes Germany and the Netherlands will support him in this endeavour. But their plans and timetables do not match his.




Across the Union the debate about reform is gathering momentum. It has reached EU foreign ministers at General Affairs Council meetings in November 2013 and March of this year. Cameron has said that he wants to reform the EU, and renegotiate the UK’s relationship with it, before an in/out referendum in 2017. But instead of leading the debate, Cameron has been holding his cards close to his chest. It is an unwise strategy that threatens to leave him empty-handed.

Mafia family makes more money than McDonald's and Deutsche Bank combined, report claims

Warnings that Mob’s influence is spreading overseas

 One of Italy’s most notorious mafia groups made more money last year than McDonald’s and Deutsche Bank put together, a study has claimed.

Russia seizes 51 Ukrainian ships in Crimea

In its invasion and annexation of Crimea, Russia has seized 51 vessels belonging to the Ukrainian navy, according to information compiled by Dmitry Tymchuk, director of the Center of Military and Political Research in Kyiv.

Among the Ukrainian vessels reportedly captured by the Russians are submarine Zaporizhia, management ship Slavutych, landing ship Konstantin Olshansky, landing ship Kirovohrad, minesweeper Chernihiv and minesweeper Cherkasy.

Yasou: Greece Is Pulling Off an Amazing Recovery

This chart tells a remarkable story. Just two years ago, Greece was on the ropes. The yield on the Greek government’s 10-year debt hit a punishing and unsustainable 30 percent. Today the yield is less than 7 percent—a sign that investors are increasingly confident of the nation’s ability to pay its debts. Rarely has a country repaired its image with creditors so quickly. The world’s attention has moved on since the Greek debt crisis (a lot has happened since), but it’s worth stopping for a moment to look at what went right, as well as the huge challenges that remain.

The Social Impact of Migration and the Notion of Citizenship for the EU Ensuing challenges and opportunities for the Union

Elspeth Guild

The European Union is currently suffering a minor identity crisis. Let us hope that this
episode will pass rapidly, but for the moment it is causing headaches for civil servants
in the EU institutions and the member states as well as uncertainty and a little anxiety
among EU citizens and third-country nationals in long-term residence in the EU. The
problem is that some member states are no longer sure that all EU citizens should be treated
equally – the fundamental claim of citizenship dating from the 1789 French revolution –
while others are outraged that their citizens might be treated as less equal EU citizens than
others.

Reluctant Monetary Leaders? The New Politics of International Currencies

Will the US Dollar lose its privileged status as the international reserve currency? Eric Helleiner doesn’t think so. That’s because the consequences of assuming reserve currency status are sufficiently uncertain that they might deter rival powers from pushing their own currencies as an alternative.