Japan’s ruling Democratic Party of Japan failed to hold onto a majority in Upper House elections, gaining only 44 of the 56 seats needed. The Yen fell against the dollar and the euro amid concerns that major financial reform would now become gridlocked. Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan said he would not resign following the election results.
Standard & Poors rating agency said it may revise its credit rating downwards, citing political hurdles in Japan’s fight to maintain its fiscal position. Japan’s economy is undergoing a mild recovery but is still overly dependent on exports to China.
Links to other sites: Reuters, Wall Street Journal
Correction 19:31 Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - Switzerland’s upper house of parliament voted 3 December to transfer to private companies the authority to check cars for valid autoroute stickers and file charges against drivers who do not have them, at Switzerland’s seven motorway border crossings. The lower house of Parliament has opposed this move, saying it is the exclusive purview of the state. The motion now returns to the lower house.
The budget commission of the upper house agrees with the government that customs officials should dedicate themselves to more complex tasks, leaving the job of checking stickers to a private company.
Photo: E Wallace
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) - The upper house of Parliament, the Council of States, voted 2 December to approve the budget for Presence Switzerland, the agency charged with cultivating Switzerland’s image abroad.
The upper house budget committee took note of the lower house’s prior decision to cut the agency’s budget but said that the money would be well-invested to refurbish the country’s image, given the outcome of the past weekend’s vote on minarets.
The lower house had voted to strike CHF2.5 million from the agency’s budget for an advertising campaign in the US, arguing that this was only to polish UBS’s tarnished image there.
Links to other sites: Council of States deliberations (Ger), Presence Switzerland, Romandie News
