Even as everyone in America seems to have anywhere between 2 and 4 opinions on Fraudclosure now that the topic is firmly planted in the MSM newsflow, things in Europe are not looking any better, even though most people there shun McMansions for their grandmothers' houses. Enter France, where an ongoing national strike (into its fourth day) was just extended by another 24 hours, and 3,500,000 people seem to have no interest in returning to work with any sense of urgency. Apparently the severity and penetration of the strike is much greater than (under)reported on US media, as seen by the following email from Goldman's Natacha Valla to clients, which explains why things may soon turn much worse.
A crucial (fourth) general strike is unfolding in France today against the pensions reform. I got many emails inquiring on how things looked like on the ground down here. In short:
1. Early to tell, but at this stage, mobilisation sounds quite significant (already 500 000 in the streets at mid-day). 3 million will be, once again, the magic number.
2. A key new dimension is the participation of high schools, which increases the risk of escalation. Transportation and refineries are also significantly hit.
3. Beyond the reform itself, discontent is mounting because the government is perceived to be "forcing" the reform through the Parliament (the debate was cut short at the Assembly, and the vote on key points re. retiring age. - on Monday - was accelerated at the Senate, where the debate is still expected to last until the week-end).
4. A few "grèves reconductibles" (renewed strikes) have already been announced.
5. The government already restated it wouldn't make any further concessions...
Elsewhere, the Telegraph just released the following update:
In the fourth such protest in a little over a month, unions estimated that 3.5 million people had taken to the streets against President Nicolas Sarkozy's pension bill – a 20 per cent rise from previous marches and what they called an "exceptional" figure.
Even the interior ministry conceded that turnout had reached a new high, although gave a more conservative figure of 1,230,000, compared to 997,000 on September 23.
In a symbolic act, the Eiffel Tower was closed due to striking staff. The landmark was last closed due to industrial action in April.
"Sarko, you're screwed, the young are on the streets," chanted students in the southwestern town of Toulouse, as they joined protests en masse for the first time. Secondary school pupils also took part with classes disrupted in around 400 schools.
French leaders have been notoriously wary of student protests ever since they sparked a two-week general strike in May 1968 that crippled the country and the government of President Charles de Gaulle.
In 2006, students managed to force the government to withdraw a plan to introduce more flexible short-term work contracts for the young, after paralysing the country.
Who could have possibly anticipated that removing trillions in credit money from the system, and the resulting austerity would have such a negative impact on the general feeling of (dis)content? Luckily, Europe is a fast becoming a great dress rehearsal for what will eventually happen in the soon-to-be-centrally-planned US, when the massively overdelayed domestic austerity episode is finally forced to come to the home of the not so brave and the land of the inkjets.
Just waiting for the 10,000,000 or so "disaffected, Muslim youths" to join the party...
didnt you hear? our public schools are starting to celebrate muslim holidays - that should help. guess the first holiday they will recognize is our presidents B-day
OK. That was kinda funny.
thank-you, just kidding. jihadists junks
still waiting for that poll of how many americans think obummer's a self-chosenite.
http://www.henrymakow.com/is_obama_literally_americas_fi.html
So its just the numbers that count? 3.5 million in the streets is bad news, just 3 million means all is well?
Hopefully they're keeping up with how the strike is going on their iGadgets. Why work if you own a bit of AAPL, you're sitting pretty as can be. I wonder how many Frenchies own AAPL?
they own French Fries.
I'm gonna go to McDonalds on my fat peoples' HoveRound scooter (They sawed off my foot over diabeetus) and order me some Freedom Fries.
"Why work when you can HELOC your equity on that McMansion, because they're not making any more land!" :D
I think so. As Obama said he rescued the economy and without the stimulus unemployment might 15,20,30 percent. So 10 is pretty good.
I hate discussions of relativity.
The markets closed in the green, so I guess so.
It's actually getting nasty there...breaking news says..
Between 1.2 million (Ministry of the Interior estimate) and 3.5 million (Union estimate) people have joined manifestations across all of France’s main cities, including a large number of high school students.
- 25% of trains are running.
- 30% of flights have been canceled in Paris’ main airport.
- Paris’s public transport is severely affected, with only three out of 14 metro lines running normally and delays on all suburban train service.
- 11 of France’s 12 refineries have shut down.
- The Eiffel Tower has been closed.
- 360 High Schools across the country have been closed or affected.
- 19.2% of Public Workers did not show up to work.
- Between 55-85 ships have been left stranded at the port of Marseilles.
ORI
http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com
Enter France, where an ongoing national strike (into its fourth day) wes just extended by another 24 hours, and 3,500,000 people seem to have no interest in returning to work with any sense of urgency.
Pretty much sums up the history of France. Nothing out of hand here.
Out of hand French people:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYHRq7oMnZQ
Harry, Harry, Harry. Still the Wanker.
The End Is Nigh! Prepare!
/end sarc
Don't worry about Harry, he can turn his opinion on a dime...bull to bear in a nanosecond.
Harry, you couldn't be more wrong; the only place it applies in the modern sense is May 1968. It went on for two weeks, was mainly composed of leftist students (e.g., Danny the Red, now a member of Parliament in Germany), and left union members (and by Left, I mean REALLY LEFT, as in International Communists and Socialists). As was its counterpart in the USA, it was violent, nasty, and brought down a government (LBJ in the USA; de Gaulle in France).
If this continues much longer, and attracts more participants, my guess is that it will bring down the 5th Republic (they rename them after every putsch). Let's just hope that things don't really progress to the point of the First Republic, at the end of which blood freely ran in the streets, along with the heads of the victims, until Napoleon I took charge. The latter was the model for every tinpot dictator ever since, despite his massive failure at the gates of Moscow. Even Lenin emulated Napoleon in photo ops, albeit with a leather jacket instead of a full regimental uniform.
Nothing out of hand here? Think again. If nothing else, these people know their history, even if you don't.
When the elections were finally held in June, the Gaullist party emerged even stronger than before.
Hmm. So the government of de Gaulle fell in May/June 1968 did it...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_1968_in_France
did you know jews finally won citizenship after the french revolution?
this time they'll win a lot more than that, most goyim will be exterminated per the talmud.
http://tracker.zaerc.com/torrents-details.php?id=15168
Productivity is normal in France, except the workers aren't getting paid?
Nobody works in France any who, so's no big deal for the strikers, and the cops, EMS, fire, etc., get O/T!
Stimulate that economy!
I once said that to my ex when she was buying birth control.
The real workers are not on strike. The productive economy is much smaller than it is here. Very few among those workers get paid when they go on strike, so they basically don't, although some cast envious eyes. For those who are unionized, it's a paid vacation.
I lived and worked there for years. When I first arrived, in 1975, it was a relatively free market, still, although far less so than the USA at that time. If I recall correctly, the success rate of startups in France then vs. the USA was something like 60:1, due to all the legal hangups regarding hiring--God forbid you should really hire someone, everyone is tenured after 3 months, even in small companies. The ratio has, of course, shortened significantly since then. In many ways, we have become France.
There were many other legal hangups regarding productivity then, some of which had to be done on a collective basis (e.g., wine, in the South). That has changed, in part because Thatcher prodded them to it, and because the officials in France saw Argentineans beating them at their own game.
That's why all hires in France are temps now. This has essentially destroyed the middle class there, and is likely to do so here as well; it is in the process of doing so in Japan as I write (yes, I lived and worked there rather recently, as well). France also has an enormous problem with Muslim immigration and integration. Muslims of foreign extraction now constitute roughly 20% of metropolitan France; most of them now are French citizens, which is very recent, and a by-product of the Franco-Algerian war.
The Muslim birthrate in Europe is 8 kids per couple; the French have struggled to maintain replacement rate, which is 2.1 (see today's New York Times article on French women, and what the French Government has done to attempt to stimulate births among the native population). I strongly suspect that the article fudged the statistics, by including Muslim individuals from the Maghreb, as French.
As I've seen on other sites, these statistics indicate that births in France of European origin, never mind French nationality, were around the EU's typical rate of 1.3, which is not replacement rate.
Please note that I'm not including the Roma here at all. They are very difficult to include on any basis, including those of supposedly French origin. They are by societal nature of unfixed origin, and wish to remain so, by all accounts. Their birth rate would tend to ratchet up the collective EU birthrate by a serious factor; but we have no idea of what that factor is. The bottom line, in terms of real productivity in France, is that we have no real idea what it is right now, and that's really bad news; the numbers are just not reliable.
Land of the inkjets... indeed.
Land of the zombies
zombies, indeed....
http://theautomaticearth.blogspot.com/
Haven't the French heard that they're now wealthier than the US and UK? What more could they want?!?!
LOL!
In France, they're probably entitled to go to the proper government office and collect generous "strike benefits" to keep them going during those tough days off from work.
Not true; they sacrifice the pay for the day(s) when they strike .
Whats TD always say -- "That should be good for another 20 ES handles"
maybe more....
Wow the more bad news that gets posted here the higher the market goes.
It's not really "bad news". Why would our market react to this?? France does this type of thing fairly often.
Stocks Up!
@ Harry and Morph
Your jingoism won't save you, sorry for the disillusionment.
I know, I know, denigrating those with the minerals always makes those without feel more important, less recreant.
Bonne Chance!
I wonder how long it will be before the powers that be need a "crisis" and this might actually become news.
they already have more wealth on average per person than in the USA, after higher taxaes, right? what the phuk more do they want???
To retain it. They'd rather not starve their elderly so that corrupt banksters are ensured their bonuses for the year.
They aren't as easily distracted by 'bells and whistles' as some. Harder to divide and conquer.
Regards
+1
Damn harder to divide and conquer.
Speaking of division, Bob, 3 million of the French is a bit less than 5% of the population. That would be the U. S. equivalent of 15 million people. If my dividing was correct.
That would be some news!
That would indeed. And well earned, I would add.
+1
Everybody shits on the french. Fine. But they do some things right. And shutting down shitty government is one.
++ Go French little people. Reclaim your country.
Allons enfant de la patria, La jour do glorwa (sp?) est arrivee' contra nous est le tyranny, elevee elevee elevee ...
'gloire' :)
The man has a point....
....+1
Another month of paid vacation.
but not for the banksters this time.
They do appear to be getting all oui oui'eed up. Reminds me of a book I read once called "Who Removed My Cheese".
I don't guess anyone on this forum is long equities.