Política e economia internacional 2015

[james]

Continua a saga dos refugiados aos milhões que continuam a chegar a Europa , era a primavera arabe , era uma nova era de paz no Norte de Africa e Médio Oriente ( nunca acreditei nisso ) , foi bom para os grupos terroristas , que tem agora uma ótima rampa de lançamento .

O comportamento da UE neste campo e mais uma vez patético .
Não decide nada , não toma medidas humanitárias nem de controlo de entradas ( querem destruir os barcos deles , ainda não percebi se cheios ou vazios) .

Eu sou europeísta , mas o rumo que a UE começa a tomar e , no minimo , ziguezagueante : nnão decide nada , constroem - se muros , os paises membros insultam - se mutuamente , nunca se faz absolutamente nada em termos de politica internacional ( veja - se o Ísis a porta da Europa e a UE não se mostra muito preocupada ) , as crises financeiras resolvem - se ( ? ) com toma um cheque e não chateies mais .

A Europa sem a UE e uma Europa de guerra ( sempre foi assim ) .

 

[Orion]

A news website in Germany is being investigated by federal prosecutors for treason after it reported on the country’s apparent plans to expand domestic surveillance of online communications.

http://time.com/3979731/germany-treason-journalists-surveillance-spying-netzpolitik/

Há muitas tangas. Uma tanga recorrente tem a ver com a NSA, que supostamente só serve para proteger contra os terroristas. Depois da Alemanha e do Brasil:

Os Estados Unidos espiaram responsáveis governamentais japoneses, empresas e o governador do Banco do Japão, anunciou hoje o site WikiLeaks.

http://www.sabado.pt/mundo/detalhe/...piaram_governo_empresas_e_banco_do_japao.html

Washington spied on its key ally, Japan, and passed intelligence on to Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the UK, WikiLeaks has revealed. The NSA targeted 35 high-ranking Japanese officials and top companies, and also tracked trade negotiations.

http://www.rt.com/news/311302-nsa-target-tokyo-wikileaks/

A outra tanga que abordo hoje é a democracia e os direitos humanos (outra recorrente; as tangas nunca desaparecem, apenas mudam de forma). Justificação essa que é sempre usada, de tantos locais neste mundo onde há ditadores, no Médio Oriente. Porque será? É provavelmente o segredo mais mal guardado na história da humanidade, mas continua a ser tabu referir isto, inclusive na imprensa: petróleo. Mas enfim, a tanga é sempre a mesma e continuará a ser eficaz.

Secret Foreign Office files show Whitehall’s concern when US intelligence discovered a mustard gas plant north of Baghdad in 1983.

But Margaret Thatcher’s government could not press for an international ban because one of our engineering companies, Weir Pumps, had been duped into selling him components.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/588468/Margaret-Thatcher-Saddam-Hussein

São atrocidades e ditadores, quando já não são úteis nem fazem compras no ocidente. Ademais:

In the weeks leading up to a critical annual U.S. report on human trafficking that publicly shames the world’s worst offenders, human rights experts at the State Department concluded that trafficking conditions hadn’t improved in Malaysia and Cuba. And in China, they found, things had grown worse.

A Reuters examination, based on interviews with more than a dozen sources in Washington and foreign capitals, shows that the government office set up to independently grade global efforts to fight human trafficking was repeatedly overruled by senior American diplomats and pressured into inflating assessments of 14 strategically important countries in this year’s Trafficking in Persons report.

As a result, not only Malaysia, Cuba and China, but countries such as India, Uzbekistan and Mexico, wound up with better grades than the State Department’s human-rights experts wanted to give them, the sources said.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015...icking-disputes-special-idUSKCN0Q821Y20150804

Bons ou maus? Depende do que se pretende.

 

[Orion]

Goldman Sachs has hired former Nato secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, as an advisor, reports Danish newspaper Berlingske. Also a former Danish PM, Fogh Rasmussen is tasked to solve a public dispute over sales of stakes in Dong, Denmark’s state-controlled power producer, to the American investment banking firm.

https://euobserver.com/tickers/129835

Revisitando:

http://www.jn.pt/PaginaInicial/Mundo/Interior.aspx?content_id=3661141

 

[Orion]

 

[Orion]

http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2015/08/daily-chart

 

[Orion]

What would happen if an 800-kiloton nuclear warhead detonated above midtown Manhattan?

http://thebulletin.org/what-would-h...arhead-detonated-above-midtown-manhattan8023#

 

[Orion]

 

[Orion]

E eu a pensar que os comunistas eram ateus:

Construction of the first mosque in Athens will start as soon as final details of the much-delayed project are ironed out and the building permit is about to be issued.

It has been seventy years since it was decided to build a mosque in Athens. The delays have been a constant source of tension with the Muslim world. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation has been highly critical of the delays, with the Minister of Culture, Education and Religious Affairs Aristides Baltas stressing that these delays are used to defame Greece.

In recent years the tender for the construction had been repeated five times and a successful bidder was selected in November 2013. The project has a budget of 964,000 euros and it will be constructed on a plot of land owned by the Greek Navy. It is located in the area of Eleonas in Athens where a former Navy workshop building will be converted into a mosque.

The last detail remaining is the settlement of a stream that should not cause any more delays.

The building of the Athens mosque is one of the priorities of the SYRIZA government and Alexis Tsipras has promised that he will complete it. The project, however, is met with many reactions from the Greek Orthodox Church. Metropolitan Bishop of Piraeus Seraphim has appealed to stop the construction.

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015/08/05/construction-of-first-mosque-in-athens-to-start-soon/

 

[Orion]

Assunto recorrente por lá (privatização da saúde; algo transversal a Portugal):

David Cameron has insisted the health service is “safe in my hands”, as the company behind the only privately-run NHS ended its contract blaming the soaring number of A&E patients.

He went on: “It is absolutely safe in my hands. I rely on the NHS. My family rely on the NHS. I know what it’s like when you’ve got a desperately ill son and you’re struggling to get to A&E, and you want great treatment.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pol...avid-Cameron-The-NHS-is-safe-in-my-hands.html

Por outro lado:



E saúde privada dá nisto:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/danmunr...ked-dead-last-compared-to-10-other-countries/

Health spending accounted for 16.9% of GDP in the United States in 2012 - the highest share among OECD countries and more than 7½ percentage points above the OECD average of 9.3%. In contrast to most OECD countries, health spending in the United States is split evenly between public and private sources. In 2012, 48% of health spending in the United States was publicly financed, well below the average of 72% in OECD countries.

http://www.oecd.org/unitedstates/Briefing-Note-UNITED-STATES-2014.pdf

As dificuldades financeiras dos países ditos socialistas aumentarão as parceiras público-privadas na saúde (tendo em conta o mito que tudo o que é privado é melhor). Isto inevitavelmente criará um sistema neofeudal. Um vídeo, sarcástico claro, para se ter uma melhor noção:

http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/cbbn22/third-world-health-care---knoxville--tennessee-edition

 

[Orion]

Este discurso correu mundo e até aqui no fórum teve destaque:



Como é hábito nestas coisas, a oligarquia nunca diz os seus principais objetivos: enriquecer. O tipo em questão, Guy Verhofstadt, tem interesse nas privatizações gregas, não fosse ele membro de um fundo de investimento chamado Sofina:

http://www.sofina.be/EN/societe/conseil.php

Até tem um bom salário (p. 26):

http://www.sofina.be/pdf/RAFR201404.pdf

É também diretor de uma empresa de gás, a Exmar:

http://www.exmar.be/en/webpage/70/board-of-directors.aspx

EXMAR is a leading participant in the transportation of liquefied gases and the development of offshore oil and gas projects worldwide. EXMAR seeks to improve these projects by implementing innovative solutions and substantial technological advances and thus reflecting EXMAR's motto "Leadership through Innovation".

Não admira o ódio pelos armadores gregos:

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-33444098

Como oligarquia só existe na Rússia (isto transmitido pelos políticos europeus que nunca mentem, claro), não vou usar o termo. Mas o tipo não é propriamente impoluto e tem outros interesses sem ser a democracia, os direitos humanos e a prosperidade coletiva. Desde a privatização das águas à indústria do gás e petróleo na Grécia, há muito para comprar a baixo preço.

No caso grego, não haverá prosperidade. Haverá apenas transferência dos bens de uma 'conjuntura de interesses e ativos económicos desequilibradamente concentrados nas mãos de poucos' (sim, é a minha tentativa de ser educado e politicamente correto) para as mãos de outros. Mas, na Europa federal isto nunca acontece nem nunca aconteceria. Porque ela será o farol da democracia e da justiça. Os bens gregos não vão ser administrados diretamente pelos alemães... por agora. Como a crise grega está longe de terminar ainda vão haver muitas voltas. Não são só os alemães. Os piores fascistas e cleptocratas são os que desconhecemos. Como este que fiz referência, há muitos, muitos outros a tentar puxar a sardinha para a sua brasa.

 

[Orion]

The Netherlands' tax regime is enabling a Canadian gold mining company to pay less tax in Greece, a report by a Dutch foundation concluded Monday (30 March).

The Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations found that Greece has missed out on at least €1.7 million in tax revenues, because the company, Eldorado Gold, profited from the Dutch tax rules.

The report comes as the Greek government is under pressure from countries like the Netherlands to increase its tax collection to meet its cash shortage.

Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who also leads the group of eurozone finance ministers, has repeatedly stated that Greece should improve its method of collecting taxes, an irony which was not lost on the authors of the report, Fool's Gold.

“While Greece’s failure to levy taxes due from certain professions and low tax morale are certainly a problem for resource mobilisation, the public debate in Greece, and that led by the EU and IMF, has primarily focused on wealthy individuals and particular segments of the population that were granted preferential treatment. Tax avoidance by large and often foreign companies … has been largely excluded in public and policy discussions. Incidentally this tax avoidance is facilitated by EU member states such as the Netherlands and Luxembourg”.

According to the researchers, “tax avoidance using legal yet aggressive tax planning methods is widespread in Greece”.

Eldorado Gold has 12 subsidiary companies in the Netherlands, with almost €2 billion in assets. However, only one of those subsidiaries has any employees (three).

While tax evasion is illegal, tax avoidance is not. However, the practice is under renewed scrutiny since last year, when a trove of leaked documents showed how widespread the practice was in Luxembourg, which like other countries concluded tax rulings which benefited multinationals.

The European Parliament has set up a special committee to investigate these tax rulings. On Monday it will hold an exchange of views with EU tax commissioner Pierre Moscovici.

The NGO urges policymakers “to take political and policy steps to coordinate better and implement binding legislation to end tax base erosion and profit shifting by large multinationals”.

A Dutch MP from the Socialist Party told Dutch newspaper NRC the practice “has to stop”.

“Greece needs the EU to get its tax collection in order. A member state like the Netherlands should not help multinationals do the opposite”, said Arnold Merkies.

https://euobserver.com/news/128191

Ufa, felizmente os ricos gregos não vão continuar a fugir aos impostos em países como RU, Luxemburgo ou Holanda. Porque nesses países não há evasão fiscal seletiva

 

[Orion]

Em retrospetiva, uma história curiosa. Claro que este não foi o único interessado:

Robert Mundell, evil genius of the euro

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/jun/26/robert-mundell-evil-genius-euro

 

[Orion]

Curioso seria saber se o governo turco não tem influência em alguns destes incidentes . É no seu total interesse que a instabilidade continue.

 

[Orion]

Former US military intelligence chief: We knew something like ISIS was coming — and screwed it up

http://www.businessinsider.com/form...we-knew-something-like-isis-was-coming-2015-8

 

[Orion]

Coisa rara. Um político a falar, indiretamente, sobre a importância do petrodólar: