Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner is visiting Berlin this week, meeting German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schauble for talks focusing on the economic crisis in the euro zone, and measures being taken to restore global confidence and financial stability and to promote continued recovery. Webster Tarpley says that the whole point of Timothy Geithner’s visit is to make the world safe for derivatives, speculation and this casino economy of globalization.

Duration : 0:7:51

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The beginning of a U.S. currency crisis and hyperinflation. Become a member of NIA for free at http://inflation.us

Duration : 0:54:37

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Which countries import most Scotch whisky?

THE volume of Scotch whisky exports rose to a record 1.1 billion bottles last year, worth $4.9 billion. The value of exports has risen by over 40% since 2000 as more whiskies have gone upmarket and increased their prices. France, America and Spain are the largest markets, but the fastest growth is coming from South America. In Brazil whisky is a status symbol for the growing middle class (in the north-east of the country it is often drunk with coconut water over ice). In Venezuela bottles of whisky may be serving as both a store of value and as a diversion in an economy in deep trouble. Like other luxury-goods makers, the industry is eying India and China: spirits produced abroad account for less than 1% of the Chinese market. The challenge for Scotland’s producers will be to ensure that China drinks Scotch instead of a local imitation, as has happened in whisky-mad Japan.

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Reactions to a modest plan to increase the retirement age show how hard reform is in France

THE French government’s long-awaited pension reform, which was announced on June 16th, turns out to be at once symbolically bold and yet ultimately disappointing. Under a plan unveiled by Eric Woerth, the labour minister, France intends to raise the legal retirement age progressively from 60 to 62 by 2018. Since this alone will not meet the state pension-fund shortfall, the government will increase the top rate of income tax from 40% to 41% from next year, and tax capital gains, stock options and other financial income more heavily. It will also align civil servants’ pension contributions with those in the private sector by 2020. In all, the government thinks it can balance the pension fund, which currently has a €32 billion deficit, by 2018.

The symbolism of this change is clear. It was President Francois Mitterrand in the early 1980s who introduced retirement at 60 as a mark of progress, and it remains a totem for the left and the right. Martine Aubry, the Socialist Party leader, instantly called the government’s plan “irresponsible”, and says that the Socialists will reverse it if they are elected to power in 2012. Union leaders too have queued up to denounce the reforms. Francois Chereque, one union boss, called it “a provocation”. A day of strikes and protests is planned for June 24th. …

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Which chief executives will be out of their jobs by next year?

IT SEEMS only a matter of time before Tony Hayward is granted his wish to get his life back. William Hill, a bookmaker, is giving short odds on the BP boss’s survival beyond the end of the year after his dismal handling of a catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. He is not the only chief executive apparently destined for the door. Even shorter odds are offered on Tidjane Thiam, who faces the wrath of shareholders over Prudential’s failed bid to buy AIA, an Asian insurer. But not all bosses are in hot water for their handling of calamitous events. Sir Howard Stringer may go for presiding over years of steady decline at Sony; Apple has a terrific record under Steve Jobs but poor health may force him out.

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Losing popularity, the Labor Party ditches its leader

LESS than a year ago Kevin Rudd rode high as one of Australia’s most successful prime ministers. Suddenly, his spectacular career has come to a crashing end. With his rating in the opinion polls sliding disastrously, and a federal election due soon, a panicked ruling Labor Party on June 24th dumped Mr Rudd as leader. They replaced him with Julia Gillard, his deputy. She will give a country once branded as a bastion of male chauvinism its first female prime minister.

As his support crumbled among Labor’s 115 federal parliamentarians, Mr Rudd had declared defiantly the previous evening that he would fight a leadership challenge from Ms Gillard. But the coup turned out to be bloodless. Faced with a humiliating defeat, when the moment came Mr Rudd stood aside. His colleagues elected Ms Gillard unanimously. Wayne Swan, the treasurer, will take over as deputy prime minister. …

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Mid-way through a massive counterinsurgency effort in Afghanistan, the commander is toppled and replaced by General Petraeus
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June 23 (Bloomberg) — Joshua Rosner, managing director at Graham Fisher & Co., talks about the outlook for the U.S. economy.
Rosner also discusses efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system. He speaks on Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan.” (Source: Bloomberg)

Duration : 0:4:31

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One of the biggest burdens affecting Greece’s troubled economy is an inefficient public sector.

Barnaby Phillips reports from Athens on how it’s struggling with its unwieldy bureaucracy.

[July 2, 2010]

Duration : 0:2:34

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What Russia and America think of one other

IT IS easy to dismiss the “reset” in Russian-American relationship as mainly puff. After all, the most solid piece of business the two countries have done together since Barack Obama’s visit to Moscow last year—the signing of the new nuclear reduction treaty—belongs to the old era in the bilateral relationship. But as Mr Obama greets Dmitry Medvedev in Washington this week, he can take comfort that his reset policy has yielded one important, even if less tangible, result—the change of Russia’s perception of America. Overall, Russians’ attitudes to America (in polling from the Levada Centre) is mirrored by Americans’ attitudes towards Russia, seen in Gallup surveys. This is no accident. However resentful the Russians can be of America, they also see it as a mirror which reflects their own place in the world. And the more hawkish American neo-conservatives can be about Russia, the more they sound like their Russian counterparts.

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