Immer mehr freigesetztes Kohlendioxyd (CO2) soll für den angeblichen Klimawandel verantwortlich sein. Unzählige Gesetze und Verordnungen verweisen direkt oder indirekt auf den Treibhauseffekt, für den der CO2-Ausstoss die Hauptrolle spielen soll. Man muss annehmen, dass vor lauter Schreckensvisionen wie Überschwemmung ganzer Landmassen oder Wüsten in Deutschland kein Mensch mehr fähig ist ein Lexikon in die Hand zu nehmen. Denn da steht etwas ganz anderes.

Vergangenes Jahr sagte Verteidigungsminister Leon Panetta, wir wären „fast täglich bis auf ein Inch (25,4mm) in die Nähe eines Krieges mit dem Norden“ gekommen. Heute sieht es eher nach Millimetern aus. Das ist ein ungeheuerlicher Kommentar zu sieben Jahrzehnten verfehlter amerikanischer Politik gegenüber Pyongyang.

M5S Senate Whip Vito Crimi confirmed that MPs would occupy the Senate until just after midnight.

„We will stay on the floor and read the Constitution and the rules of the Senate,“ he said. House members of the M5S have vowed to do the same.

„It seems to me it was a good meeting, but we are just at the beginning,“ PD Deputy Secretary Enrico Letta said.
During the meeting, no names were put forth for the country‘s president, PdL Secretary Angelino Alfano said.

• Closing summary
• Soros: eurobonds or euro-exit for Germany
• Slovenia‘s PM denies bailout needed
• OECD: Risk of ‚severe banking crisis‘ in Slovenia
• The OECD report
• Charts: Why the OECD is worried

EUROPE‘S economic weakness and financial turmoil affect the US economy, US Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told EU leaders yesterday, stressing the need to boost demand and move ahead with a eurozone banking union.

…

More than 630,000 Americans currently homeless, figures show, but fears grow that $85bn cuts will make problem even worse

After the suspension of a planned merger of the National Bank of Greece and Eurobank because of capitalization problems and opposition from Greece‘s international lenders, the German magazine Der Spiegel said it believes the Greek government is planning to confiscate some of the deposits in banks as happened on Cyprus.

Am vergangenen Samstag hat Olli Rehn, der EU-Kommissar zuständig für Wirtschaft und Währung, im finnischen TV gesagt, wer ein grösseres Guthaben bei einer Bank hat wird laut einem neuen EU-Gesetz in Zukunft den Verlust seines Geldes ertragen müssen, sollte die Bank in Schwierigkeiten geraten.

Two men committed suicide in northern Italy and on Sardinia Tuesday amid a rising toll of deaths linked to economic woes.

Die Affäre um die “Abwicklung” der Bank of Cyprus, die Entdeckung der “reichen Russen” von Zypern durch den Bundesnachrichtendienst, der dortige Testlauf eines Totalen Kapitalismus und die “Offshore Leaks”. Eine Zusammenfassung.

The delegitimization of Parliament has come about in two steps. The Government, that should govern, has in fact substituted the parliamentary activity and it is making laws using legal decrees. provisional measures that have the force of law, that should be adopted ONLY in extraordinary situations if the Government has a need or urgency, in accordance with the what is laid down in art. 77 of the Constitution. The second step came with the direct appointment of the parliamentarians by the party secretaries thanks to the „Porcellum” {pigswill law}. The parties have occupied Parliament with cardboard cut-outs and they have taken away its legislative function. If this not is a coup, then what is?

5-Star Movement (M5S) leader Beppe Grillo on Tuesday demanded parliament‘s new commissions be set up immediately and accused the established parties of staging a „coup“.

Germany stands out as an exception. Despite sluggish growth in the EU‘s largest economy, unemployment is steady: good news that won‘t fall on deaf ears. In the past two years, the net number of people entering Germany rose from 128,000 to 340,000. German businesses are drawing on a fresh source of cheap, qualified labour from Greece and Spain.

The Bank of Italy said Tuesday that the number of bank loans granted in February was 1.3% down on the same month in 2011.

The spending power of households in recession-hit Italy fell 4.8% in 2012 with respect to the previous year, Istat said on Tuesday.

Greek consumer prices fell year-on-year in March, taking the battered economy into deflationary territory for the first time since 1968.

According to Greek Statistics authority ELSTAT, it eased to an annual -0.2 percent pace in March from 0.1 percent in the previous month. Herewith , it reached the lowest level after 46 years, since May 1968 when inflation hit -3 percent.

Officers injured during public disorder as hundreds turn out across cities in Britain to celebrate former prime minister‘s death

Germany: Institutional independence and anchoring

German economic policy in the post–World War II era was shaped against the vivid memory of the hyperinflation of the 1920s and the monetary reform of 1948 that wiped out savings. Inflation was feared more than anything else. The Bundesbank, set up as an independent institution by the war powers, fought to maintain this independence in the mid-1950s, when the governing law was rewritten. As reported in 1957:

„President Vocke had incurred the Chancellor’s wrath because he pursued a monetary policy that paid scant attention to Konrad Adenauer’s amateurish ideas and politically dictated wishes… On such occasions Vocke demonstrated that the Chancellor’s power ceased to apply
at the gates of the central bank.“
(Der Spiegel, July 17,
1957, pp. 18–20)

Public support for an independent, inflation-fighting central bank ensured that the Bundesbank emerged from this political fight with legal and, more important, practical independence.

Beppe Grillo: P.D. und P.d.L. sabotieren durch “Putsch” das Parlament.

Wer im ungehinderten Kommerz das beste Rezept gegen die Krise sieht, räumt ja nicht nur ein, dass er glühender Freihändler ist.

Er gibt auch zu verstehen, dass die Eurokrise mit eigenen Mitteln nicht mehr zu lösen ist. Offenbar glaubt auch in Brüssel niemand mehr, dass die EU allein zu Wachstum und Beschäftigung zurück findet.

Und das ist eine verdammt schlechte Nachricht…

Social, labour and environmental rights in both sides of the Atlantic are under fire: a first comment to the EU draft mandate for the TTIP

Am Sonntag traf Lew in Brüssel mit Kommissionspräsident José Manuel Barroso zusammen, Montag ging es für einen Termin mit EZB-Chef Mario Draghi weiter nach Frankfurt. Ein Gespräch mit dem deutschen Finanzminister Wolfgang Schäuble ist für Dienstag geplant.

European countries should ease off their austerity and adopt more growth-friendly policies, U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Monday as he kicked off a series of meetings with the region‘s top leaders.

The two day visit will see Mr Lew meeting with Olli Rehn and Jose Manuel Barroso from the European Commission, Mario Draghi at the European Central Bank followed by flying visits to the finance ministers of Germany and France in Berlin and Paris.

He believes the struggle itself was a working-class victory and that he will go down in British trade union history as the only leader who never betrayed his members

The agency said that the drop in real income was less than in previous months.