©2012 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
©2012 Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – Angela Merkel, German chancellor, has her first-ever meeting with her new French counterpart, Francois Hollande, who takes office as president Tuesday 15 May before flying to Berlin.
The two meet the day after eurozone finance ministers get together, Monday, to find a way forward with policy, just as voters are moving towards more extreme positions in a number of country’s.
Merkel’s own Christian Democrat party lost heavily in the key state of North-Rhine Westphalia Sunday and Greece is finding it increasingly difficult to put together a coalition government. Merkel continues to push for austerity as the key to solving the eurozone economic crisis, while Hollande campaigned for office on a platform of increasing spending.
The Guardian offers a glum picutre, “Against a background of intense volatility, Europe was pulled in opposing directions by voters, protests, and political paralysis at the weekend, deepening uncertainty over its future shape and gnawing away at the prospects for the euro‘s survival as a 17-country union.”
Reuters earlier reported on the OECD’s latest figures: “Economic activity in the euro zone is diverging, with Germany leading a group of economies showing slightly more positive signals while France and Italy are posting sluggish activity below long-term trends, the OECD said on Thursday.”
GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The annual ILO (International Labour Organization) opens Wednesay 1 June in Geneva and it is sparking more than usual interest, in part because it is the 100th such session for one of Geneva’s oldest international organizations and partly because it is bringing to town Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Two items that are high on the agenda are approval of recommendations and eventually an international convention on domestic workers, and the employment problems of large numbers of displaced persons who have recently fled fighting in Middle Eastern countries. Also on the agenda and likely to garner public attention: the situation of workers in the occupied territories and a new report on hazardous child labour.
The German foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, has denied that Chancellor Angela Merkel told French President Nicolas Sarkozy she would order the closing of Roma camps in Germany within a few weeks. Sarkozy told a press conference 16 September that Merkel had told him German authorities were to clear Roma camps in the coming weeks and added: “We’ll see how calm German politics will become then.”
The embroglio comes after an EU summit in Brussels was dominated by France’s policy this summer to clear hundreds of illegal Roma camps and deport the people in them to Romania. Merkel and Sarkozy are said not to get along well personally and communicate in poor English.
Relative calm day at the Swiss stock market - Photo SWX
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Switzerland had a relatively calm day at the stock market 20 May, compared to the rest of Europe and elsewhere.
Stock markets tanked in Europe and North America during Thursday’s trading. In Berlin German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced controls on speculators, including a ban on naked shorting on some financial stocks.
Naked short selling is speculating on falling markets by selling assets that you neither own nor have borrowed. It is considered by many to be one of the causes of market instability. She also proposed a tax on bank transactions and legal controls on budget deficits in the Euro countries.
Shares fell by 1.6 percent in London, driving the FTSE 100 below 5000 in the biggest two day fall since March 2008.
Wall Street also fell, with additional pressure from poor job figures and the reaction to the Senate passing a financial reform bill. The Dow lost 3.6 percent while the S & P 500 (SPX) fell 3.9 percent to enter an official “correction” with a 10 percent fall since the recent high.
Reassures its European neighbour, too
It’s only three days old, but the new British coalition government under David Cameron’s Conservative leadership is losing no time reassuring US President Barack Obama that it supports his policies in Iran and Afghanistan. William Hague, the new foreign minister, meets Friday 14 May with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Washington, and he has told the Times in the UK that he will reassure the US about Britain’s support. The coalition partner, the Liberal Democrats, warned during election campaigns of a “subservient” relationship with the US.
Cameron reportedly asked Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel for advice on how to best manage a coalition government, sending waves of reassurance that he will not seek to toughen Britain’s stance vis-a-vis the European Union.
Links to other sites: BBC, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Times, UK
The announcement of a senior European official on 29 April, who said the EU is near an emergency rescue plan for Greece’s economy has stirred reactions all over the world.
Time magazine sees the effort as being “too late,” the Toronto Star says the EU “fumbled,” while the Financial Times talks about critics “lining up to rap” German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, over the crisis.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s CDU/CSU centre-right bloc polled almost 34 percent in the German general election Sunday 27 September while her government coalition partners, the centre-left socialist party, SPD, obtained their worst results since the Second World War, with 23.4 percent. The results allow Merkel to ditch the socialists and open talks with the business-friendly liberal party, FDP about forming a new government underpinned by a stable majority in parliament.The FDP obtained almost 15 percent of the vote, its best result ever.
Germany is in the midst of its worst economic crisis in decades, the economy is expected to contract by five percent this year, and the liberal party will want to discuss health care reform, tax cuts and a reduction of the welfare state before joining a government. CNN, NZZ, Reuters
Update 12:25. The French and German economies grew in the second quarter of 2009, raising hopes that the recession in Europe is over. Unexpectedly strong growth of 0.3 percent in the second quarter in Europe’s two largest economies appear to be due to strong demand for European exports, low interest rates and stimulus spending by governments. The good news is expected to give a boost to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s chances for re-election in polls 27 September.
GDP growth in the Euro area was down 0.1 percent in the quarter, however, while econmic growth in the EU 27, which comprises the economies of all EU members, was down a total of 0.3% in the second quarter of 2009, according to Eurostat, the European Statistics Agency.
