15 Aug - The Euro in the News

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Argentina's warning to would-be Euro deserters
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/09/argentina-s-warning-to-would-be-euro-deserters
The tensions between the eurozone's north and south, and the complex and politically costly transfers of money required to dampen the euro crisis, have led many people to think the unthinkable: saving Europe's common currency may require that some countries abandon it.
First, a new currency needs to create its own demand as a means in which to conduct commercial transactions by displacing the euro as sole legal tender and unit of account.

This, in turn, requires the forced redenomination of prices, wages, and financial contracts, which can create serious disruptions, owing to heavy and asymmetrical balance-sheet effects, as well as a massive redistributive impact. Argentina«s “pesification” of bank deposits and loans benefited debtors at the expense of depositors, inciting public upheaval.

Second, should any eurozone country quit the euro, the anticipation of forced pesification is likely to set off a bank panic, as depositors quickly switch their pesified holdings back into foreign exchange in order to move them out of the system and probably abroad.

In fact, in Argentina, people started to withdraw their deposits almost a year before the exit from the currency board, fueling capital flight and feeding back into market pressures to abandon the peg to the dollar - a dynamic that could be even faster and more furious in financially integrated European economies.

In these circumstances, a selective deposit freeze appears to be the only option to avoid bankrupting the banking sector. Here, Argentina offers both a good and a bad example. When all deposit withdrawals were capped in November 2001, the resulting liquidity crunch deepened the recession and, eventually, brought down the government. By contrast, the restructuring of term deposits in January 2002 attenuated the bank run and kept the payments system alive, while allowing so-called “sight deposits” - which can be withdrawn immediately without penalty - to help build demand for pesos.

Third, while pesification removes balance sheet losses from domestic foreign-currency debts, external contractual obligations cannot be redenominated unilaterally. Thus, the exit from the dollar peg requires a restructuring of external debt, both sovereign and corporate.

Indeed, Argentina's sovereign default happened almost simultaneously with the demise of the currency board, but corporate renegotiations were a protracted affair.

Eventually, most companies avoided bankruptcy, mainly owing to the fourth ingredient in Argentina's exit toolkit: capital controls that provided the legal umbrella to stop external corporate debt servicing.

Coal power opposition goes global
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/14/coal-power-opposition-goes-global
Almost 10,000 people from 100 countries have objected to plans for a new coal-fired power station at Hunterston in Ayrshire, Scotland, it was revealed yesterday (Friday 13 August) by WWF.

Gibraltar: Between a Rock and a hard place
http://en.mercopress.com/2010/08/09/gibraltar-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-place 
La Linea de la Conception is a small Spanish town on the North side of the border with Gibraltar. The fascist dictator Francisco Franco sealed the frontier in 1969 to punish Gibraltar for rejecting his offer of becoming part of Spain.
Miguel Angel Moratinos is adamant that he will introduce a toll gate. He was  reprimanded for ordering the local police force to halt vehicles crossing into Spain and carry out document checks, an act that caused long delays and was labelled as “harassment” by Gibraltar's government.
The association representing Spanish workers in Gibraltar ASCTEG are strongly against his move, and in a press release say that “12 thousand mouths eat from wages earned on the Rock and nobody should interfere with the border”.

The new rearrangements will be begin as from this week, Sanchez has said, and that the move was “not a bluff” Quite apart from the controversy of charging visitors, the process of checking cars on their way out could slow down frontier traffic and cause tailbacks into Gibraltar.

“It would create a gridlock,” one senior official said.

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The Rag Blog

• Harry Targ : Robert Gibbs and the 'Professional Left' - 1 day agoWhite House press secretary Robert Gibbs slammed the "professional left" for being too critical of Barack Obama. Photo by Carolyn Kaster /AP.Criticizing Obama:A dialectical look at the 'professional l...
• Progressives have appropriately condemned economic policies that limited job stimuli, bailed out banks without nationalizing them, assumed away the very popular single payer option in health care reform, escalated war in Afghanistan, stalled the end of the blockade on Cuba, and maintained an imperial military presence in Latin America, East Asia, and just about everyplace else. The administration has not pursued immigration reform, climate change legislation, and the Employee Free Choice Act. 
• ( We'll have to do a better job! I see more crap from the corporate right than enough. Mind, I can see people who know me rolling in the aisles holding their sides at anyone who just tries to report events fairly being 'Left.' That's as in 'Not Being Left Behind !'' )
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• John Ross : 'El Jefe Diego' and 'The Mysterious Disappearers' - 2 days agoPhoto of kidnapped Diego Fernandez de Cevallos, released via Twitter. This is the second version, with the copy of the muckraking newsweekly El Proceso, featuring his face on the cover, apparently pho...
• Clare Bayard : Soldiers Charge Troops Unprepared for Deployment - 2 days ago
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• La Presse underground (français)
  http://www.freakencesixties.yi.org/Presse%20underground/presseunderground.html
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• The Green Life
• Daily Roundup: August 13, 2010 - 1 day agoBright Lights, Big Kitty: A jaguar rescued from poachers will be the star of an Amazon-based movie. The endangered cat will be taken to an animal shelter after filming concludes. Associated Press Pa...
• Learn About Nature . . . On Your Computer? - 1 day agoThough heading outside is the best way to discover nature, the internet also offers countless chances to learn about plants and animals, if you know where to look. One handy website called eNature o...
• Getting Inked for Mother Earth - 2 days agoIf you missed the chance to get a free tattoo of your favorite endangered species and still want to get inked for a good cause, take note: Melbourne's largest tattoo convention will donate 100% of i...
• Movie Review Friday: Toy Story 3 - 2 days agoEscape to the movies with one of our Movie Review Friday selections. Each week we review a film with an environmental theme that's currently in theaters or available on DVD . Seen a good eco-flick lat...
• Daily Roundup: August 12, 2010 - 2 days ago
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• Global Post
• Opinion: Israeli government passes the buck - 2 hours agoIsraeli officials take responsibility for attempted takeover of Turkish flotilla, but somehow still aren't "responsible" for it. read more
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• France: economic reality hits holidayers - 6 hours agoBroke French still taking vacations, but it's getting harder. read more
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• Energy Entrepreneurs: Reinventing the landfill - 6 hours ago
• Muslim world turns to Turkish model of education
  http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/education/100809/turkey-islamic-schools-education
• “Through education you are, in one form or another, controlling the political socialization of the upcoming generation,” said Iren Ozgur, a Turkish-American academic at New York University who has studied Turkey’s imam-hatip system.
  
  The imam-hatip syllabus devotes just 40 percent of study to religious topics, including Arabic and Islamic law. Secular topics like math, science and literature fill the rest of the time.
  Can children get a balanced education at Islamic schools like the ones in Turkey? Join the conversation in the comments below.
  
  Earlier this year, education ministers from Turkey, Pakistan and Afghanistan met in Ankara to sign a protocol on cooperation in education.
  
  “I visited a few imam-hatip schools in Ankara and saw that they give a balanced education there,” said Farooq Wardak, the minister of education in Afghanistan. “Learning from their experiences, we will be able to achieve a balance in our own Islamic education system.”

No Quarter

• Obama, Stupid is as Stupid Does - 17 hours agoUnbelievable. No sooner had I written a piece on Obama being an idiot and he wastes no time in providing another example of empty headedness that has even Democratic pros shaking their heads. If you...
• It Isn’t About “Freedom To Practice Religion,” Obama - 19 hours agoAs we all know by now, President Obama felt compelled to weigh in on the building of a mosque near Ground Zero. And a number of people are responding to Obama’s Friday Night Ramadan Dinner chat. I m...
• The Queen of (No) Hearts - 1 day agoI think Michelle Obama is a stunning looking woman. I think she is very smart. But I ran across something I hadn’t seen for a while yesterday, and it made my blood boil lava hot. Much has been...
• Barack Obama, A Drunken Drive By? - 1 day agoHow can such a supposedly smart person be so goddamn dumb? Is he hitting the firewater? There is no denying that Barack did well at Harvard Law. So we know that he is not a moron or devoid of intel...
• And Now For The Rest Of The Story - 1 day ago

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