Category Archives: EU

Keeping The Competition OUT

EU, Free Markets, Internet, Regulation, Socialism, Taxation, Technology, The State

Under the guise of upholding a fair and free-market order, uncompetitive companies, given the option, will petition centrist establishments to regulate the market. This kneecaps the competition and ensures the lobbyists retain ‘market share’ without having to compete for it. This is what ETNO is doing.

“The ETNO,” informs RT, “is made up of telecommunication companies including Swisscom and Spain’s Telefonica that are well-established in nearly three dozen European countries.” The ETNO’s Executive Board, which is a European-based lobby group, “has asked the United Nations to tax American websites that provide services abroad.”

In December, the leak reveals, the European Telecommunications Network Operators Association (ETNO) approached the United Nations with a proposal that would outline a restructuring of the Internet’s business model when taking into account Web entities with an international presence. If approved, the legislation would tax American-based content providers — such as Apple, Google and Netflix — for offering services to customers overseas. Should they get their wish, the ETNO might soon usher in some serious revisions for the International Telecommunications Regulations (ITR), a legislation that deals with cross-border communications traffic that has remained untouched since its last revision in 1988.


MORE.

The US Vs. The EU

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Labor

When broadcaster Lou Dobbs took to the blackboard, I got a bit of a fright. Flashbacks of Glenn Beck’s not-so-wonderful-mind moments, I suppose. But no. Mr. Dobbs drives home the severity of the situation stateside, by juxtaposing the American economy to certain Eurozone countries.

Take into account, however, that GDP measures the Brownian Motion of debt growth. The unreliability of the indices (unemployment, etc.) used, in general, means that matters are far worse.

Debt as a percentage of GDP:

France: 86%
Italy: 120% (“In a hot mess”)
Greece: 165% (“In a world of its own”)
US: 101%

Economic Growth (take into account, however, that GDP measures the Brownian Motion of debt growth):

France & the US: 1.7% growth
Greece: 7% contraction
Italy & Spain: 1/2% growth

Average age at retirement:

US: 65 years
France: 59
Italy: 60
Greece & Germany: 61
Spain: 62

Labor-Force Participation (this ought to shake you up):

US: 63.6% (“A thirty year low.”)
Greece: 71%
France: 72%
Italy: 75%
Spain & Germany: 76%

I would hazard a guess that the Europeans best us in workforce participation because they have more onerous labor regulations. This is cold comfort, of course.

Till Debt Do the US Apart

Debt, Economy, EU, Europe, Foreign Aid, Foreign Policy

In “One Nation Under Inflation,” I noted that “America’s debt-to-GDP ratio is larger than the European Union’s.” I was unaware that US debt “is greater than the combined debt of the entire Eurozone and the U.K.”

America’s debt is currently $15.1 trillion, while the Eurozone (which includes France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain, the U.K., and others) has a combined debt of $12.7 trillion. (All dollar amounts are in U.S. dollars, and the data refers to closing 2011 numbers.)
The Eurozone is larger than the United States, so America’s debt per capita also exceeds the Eurozone’s. According to the Census Bureau, the U.S. has a population of 313 million, whereas the Eurozone has a population in excess of 331 million.

(Weekly Standard)

Nary a mentioned was made of this apparently minor fact on Fox Business, while the Fox Business anchors discussed Christine Lagarde’s demands for more billions in bailouts from the US to the EU. “More firepower” is how the managing director of the International Monetary Fund described her agency’s requirements.

It’s Lagarde’s prerogative to ask for money to increase her bureaucracy’s sphere of influence. It’s the obligation of the ass with ears who leads the USA to turn her down.

So, it’s not Lagarde’s asking that ought to worry; it’s the fact that, according to Fox News, she expressed confidence that the US would do the “right” thing by her.

Save the People; Kill the European Superstate

Barack Obama, Debt, EU, Europe, Federalism, Foreign Policy, The State

The following excerpt is from this week’s column, “Save the People; Kill the European Superstate”:

“An honest man,” wrote Ayn Rand in “Atlas Shrugged,” “is one who knows that he can’t consume more than he has produced.” Where does this leave the Greeks?

For the second time since 2010, Eurozone finance ministers threw Greece a “financial lifeline,” this time to the tune of $172 billion. The European banks have agreed to write-off more than 50 percent of the money owed by Greece, forgiving a $100 billion in debt.

Still, Athens, like Washington, is corrupt to the core. It continues to spend more than it takes in. Greek labor markets have yet to be liberalized. A high minimum wage impedes hiring. And, by BBC News’s accounting, “a habit of paying a ‘holiday bonus’ equal to one or two months’ extra pay” persists. One need not be a Delphic oracle to divine the next stage in Greece’s unraveling: a downgrading of the country’s credit rating to junk status.

“Austerity,” however, is a euphemism among politicians and their media pack animals for “long term retrenchment and reform” in the public sector. Implicit in their critique of “austerity” is that inflicting pain on the Greek state apparatus will inevitably destroy Greek society.

Au Contraire. State and society should never be conflated.

Try explaining to our president that the bigger the state, the smaller the civil society. …

Read the complete column, “Save the People; Kill the European Superstate.”

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