Officially, the EU doesn’t have an intelligence service. It’s dependent on the national intelligence services of its members. Officially. In reality, it is building an intelligence apparatus of six services, populated already by 1,300 specialists, some operating overseas, with vast databases at their fingertips. Much of it beyond any kind of democratic control.
Europe
Starving the World for Power and Profit: The Global Agribusiness Model
by Don Quijones • • Comments Off on Starving the World for Power and Profit: The Global Agribusiness Model
Contributed by Don Quijones: A daily ration of bread is now beyond the reach of roughly a billion people on planet Earth. What’s more, hunger is spreading like a pandemic, making incursions from its traditional strongholds in the global south to towns and cities across depression-hit Southern Europe. In Greece….
Class-Action Lawsuits Come to France
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Class-Action Lawsuits Come to France
In theory, a class-action lawsuit allows the little guy to stand up to a big corporation and seek redress. Alone, the little guy wouldn’t have the means. Justice comes down to money, and class-action lawsuits add leverage. In theory. It’s a world-famous American product, infested with flaws. And it’s about to be imported by … France!
The French Government’s Exquisite Bullying
by Contributor • • Comments Off on The French Government’s Exquisite Bullying
The French government is saddled with enough problems; in theory, it no longer needs to create new ones. But now it wrote another excellent chapter in its tome on how to interfere with private-sector businesses, hamper entrepreneurs, and encourage them to start up their operations elsewhere instead of creating jobs in France.
Luxembourg Is Not The Next Cyprus, Not Yet, But….
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Luxembourg Is Not The Next Cyprus, Not Yet, But….
Luxembourg, with a population of just over half a million, smaller even than the other speck in the Eurozone, Cyprus, ranks in the top three worldwide in per-capita GDP. In a Eurozone wealth survey, it had the highest average household wealth. Only Cyprus, a former off-shore banking center in the Eurozone, came close. Yet Luxembourg is threatened with ruin.
The Spanish Unemployment Powder Keg
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on The Spanish Unemployment Powder Keg
Austerity succeeded in trimming the bloated government sector. But instead of picking up the slack, the private sector destroyed jobs almost four times faster! The hope is that this fiasco will finally reverse course, that something will click and start a virtuous cycle before the unspeakable happens. But so far, it has relentlessly gotten worse.
Italy’s Corrupt Political Machinery Lurches Forward
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Italy’s Corrupt Political Machinery Lurches Forward
“Those wanting to prevent change are willing to do anything,” firebrand Beppe Grillo griped. “They are desperate. Four people, Napolitano, Bersani, Berlusconi, and Monti, met in a living room and decided….” They’d ganged up on him and restarted the corrupt political machinery he’d brought to a stop. The one that is strangling Italy’s economic core.
Germany’s Trial Balloon Of A “Plan B”
by Wolf Richter • • Comments Off on Germany’s Trial Balloon Of A “Plan B”
Those close to the epicenter of power, those near Chancellor Merkel, have to toe the line on the euro – it’s far more than just a currency, it’s a sacred concept worth saving no matter what the costs. While the possibility of a small country’s exit from the euro has been accepted, the euro itself has been inviolable in those circles. Until now. An insider offered a “Plan B”; and the euro’s life is limited to five years!