European Union

"We ourselves in the European Union provoked the conflict through our territorial expansionism in the Ukraine. We poked the Russian bear with a stick, and unsurprisingly, Putin reacted. But this now is to be used as an opportunity to build a European army... And Mr. Juncker said, we must convey to Russia that we are serious. Who do you think you are kidding, Mr. Juncker?"

The computerisation of European jobs - who will win and who will lose from the impact of new technology onto old areas of employment?

Earlier today, Greek Prime Minister Tsipras was busy not making German friends, following the latest Greek overture to confiscate German assets in response for allegedly unpaid German WWII reparations. “After the reunification of Germany in 1990, the legal and political conditions were created for this issue to be solved. But since then, German governments chose silence, legal tricks and delay. And I wonder, because there is a lot of talk at the European level these days about moral issues: is this stance moral?” Tsipras said and added that "despite the crimes of the Third Reich and Hitler’s hordes, the German debt was written off." As a result Greece is now seeking to recoup German WWII reparations which may amount to as much as 80% of Greek GDP!

Russians view the United States much more unfavorably today than they did during the end of the Cold War era.  As you will read about below, an astounding 81 percent of all Russians now view the United States negatively, and only 13 percent have a positive opinion of this country.  In all of the years when Russians have been surveyed on their attitudes toward the U.S., they have never been this negative.  But of course Americans generally do not view the Russian people unfavorably.  Even while most Americans are extremely apathetic about what is going on over in Russia, an increasingly large chunk of the Russian population is angry enough to go to war.

"...as with the car on a slush-covered highway, any fool can get it to spin out, but that same fool is then unlikely to have the presence of mind, the skill and the steel nerves to keep it from hitting one of the barriers. Same goes for the would-be builders of an “empire of controlled chaos”: sure, they can generate chaos, but controlling it in a manner that allows them to derive some benefit from it is rather out of the question, and even their ability to stabilize it, so that they are not themselves hurt by it, is in grave doubt."

No lesser trustworthy character than Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland explained this morning that the US can "confirm" new Russian weapons delivery to Ukraine and that they "can tell" when Russia sends in new weapons (though offering no explanation of this statement). This comment to the Senate Committee comes a day after the US delivered 'lethal aid' to Latvia - 120 armored units (including tanks) - with US Army General John O’Conner who witnessed the tanks arriving on Latvian soil said, "Freedom must be fought for, freedom must be defended." And finally, one more shot in the eye of the germans, deputy under-secretary of Defense Brian McKeon said the US is "actively considering more weapons for Ukraine," seemingly implying they alreadt sent some?

The Federal Reserve, and now the European Union have set the stage for the biggest collapse in bond markets that will make the sub-prime financial crisis look like a cakewalk

... gradually, from one scare to another, many – and especially those who have nothing left to lose – have given up looking for defenses, whether individual or collective, and have given in to the sin of sloth. They are not lazy or indifferent but experiencing emotional apathy. It has become a certainty that our destruction is much worse than a self-fulfilling prophecy: It has been orchestrated from outside. Either to punish the “lazy Greeks” or to warn others being tempted into believing that the European Union – as it is today, as a herald of a policy of austerity that can’t even be backed by the numbers – is repulsive rather than attractive.

With all the focus on Grexit in recent weeks, investors have not paid much attention to the risk posed by ‘Brexit’ or the possibility of the UK leaving the European Union.

Having specifically aimed his call for a unified European Army at "reacting credibly to show Russia that Europe is serious about defending its values," it is no surprise that Russia has responded to Jean-Claude Juncker's statements. As TASS reports, first deputy chairman of the United Russia faction in the State Duma, Frants Klintsevich, told the media on Sunday that "in the nuclear age extra armies do not provide any additional security. But they surely can play a provocative role," adding it was regrettable that such ideas had already met with some support.

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No lessor official than European Commission President (and liar-when-it's-serious) Jean-Claude Juncker has called for the creation of an EU army... in order to show Russia "that [The EU is] serious about defending European values." Juncker explained an EU army would "help us fulfil Europe's responsibilities in the world," arguing that NATO was not enough since not all EU members are part of the alliance. As one stunned euro-skeptic exclaimed, "we have all seen the utter mess the EU has made of the economy, so how can we even think of trusting them with its defence."

Back in 2009, the United Nations Statistical Commission endorsed a revision to the System of National Accounts (SNA), which sets the international standards for the compilation of national accounts. As a consequence, Eurostat has amended the European equivalent of the SNA, the European System of Accounts (ESA) leading to a revision of GDP figures. Out of nothing but accounting smoke and mirrors, the reclassification has had a positive effect on GDP, increasing it on average by 3.5 percentage points for the EU and the Euro area as whole.

The divergence is not just between the US and Europe/Japan, but also China.  

This absence of moral values is something Europe in its present form will never be able to claim back. Never. The EU has shown itself to be a gross moral failure, and that’s it: the experiment is over. What will undo Europe from within is its economic policies. Which are strongly linked to the same moral values issue: inside a union, you cannot let thousands of people go without food and health care while others, a few hundred miles away, drive new Mercs and Beamers over a brand new Autobahn. That’s not a union. That’s a feudal society. And those don’t hold.