News Links: ECB’s Draghi Says Debt-Crisis Strategy Is Working
- Draghi Says Debt-Crisis Strategy Is Working as ECB Postpones ‘Armageddon’ – Bloomberg
The ECB’s massive injection of cash into the financial system last month is beginning to lubricate seized credit markets and there are "tentative signs" of economic stabilization in the euro area, Draghi said in Frankfurt yesterday. While "substantial downside risks" remain, he pointed to falling yields on Italian and Spanish debt this week.
- Talk of new bailout is not ludicrous – Analysis, Opinion – Independent.ie
The Government may be unwilling to admit it but such speculation is consistent with the facts, writes Colm McCarthy
- Google Just Made Bing the Best Search Engine – Gizmodo
Google changed the way search works this week. It deeply integrated Google+ into search results. It’s ostensibly meant to deliver more personalized results. But it pulls those personalized results largely from Google services-Google+, Picasa, YouTube. Search for a restaurant, and instead of its Yelp page, the top result might be someone you know discussing it on Google Plus. Over at SearchEngineland, Danny Sullivan has compiled a series of damning examples of the ways Google’s new interface promotes Plus over relevancy. Long story short: It’s a huge step backwards.
- Apple Loses Ruling in Motorola Patent Suit – WSJ.com
Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. welcomed a ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission that denied patent-infringement allegations raised by Apple Inc. Apple had asked the commission to block imports of Motorola phones such as the Droid and Droid X that run Google Inc.’s Android software, claiming they infringed on its patents.
- AppleInsider | Former Apple CEO John Sculley says he never fired co-founder Steve Jobs
Former Apple Chief Executive John Sculley has said in recent interviews that the late Steve Jobs was never fired from the company he helped found, an assertion that runs counter to Jobs’ own public claims on the matter.
- España cierra el año con la inflación por debajo de la media europea – CincoDías.com
La inflación española se colocó el pasado diciembre por debajo de la media europea por segundo mes consecutivo. En términos armonizados, el IPC cerró 2011 en el 2,4%, lo que supone un nivel de precios un 0,4% inferior al de la zona euro, según datos del Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE).
- 2011 cerró con 5,4 millones de parados – CincoDías.com
El presidente del Gobierno Mariano Rajoy ha adelantado el dato en la convención que el PP andaluz celebra en Málaga. Califica la cifra de "astronómica" y supone un "gran reto" para su mandato.
- OK, MG, I Take It Back | TechCrunch
OS fragmentation is the single greatest problem Android faces, and it’s only going to get worse. Android’s massive success over the last year mean that there are now tens if not hundreds of millions of users whose handset manufacturers and carriers may or may not allow them to upgrade their OS someday; and the larger that number grows, the more loath app developers will become to turn their back on them.
- Facebook Finds Quieter Ways to Complain About Google’s Search+ – Liz Gannes – Social – AllThingsD
Facebook employees criticized Google’s moves in public status updates. Several prominent Facebookers shared and endorsed a Gizmodo article by Mat Honan about switching his default search engine to Bing after "Google broke itself."
- Obama Opposes Parts of 2 Antipiracy Bills – NYTimes.com
The Obama administration said Saturday that it strongly opposed central elements of two Congressional efforts to enforce copyrights on the Internet, all but killing the current versions of legislation that has divided both political parties and pitted Hollywood against Silicon Valley.
- Sarkozy Is In A Dead Heat With The ‘Let The Euro Die’ Candidate
Never before in history has a sitting French president polled so low 100 days before the first round of votes.
- CEOs urge court to throw out SEC-Citigroup ruling | Reuters
A group of chief executives at more than 200 large U.S. companies urged a federal appeals court to undo a judge’s controversial decision making it harder for companies to settle Securities and Exchange Commission fraud cases.
- Debt talks falter, Greeks warn of disaster | Reuters
Talks between Greece and its creditor banks to slash the country’s towering debt pile broke down on Friday, with the Greeks warning of "catastrophic" results if a deal to swap bonds is not reached soon.
- JPMorgan could lose $5 billion from PIIGS exposure: report | Reuters
JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) could lose up to $5 billion from its exposure to Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain, Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in an interview with Class CNBC, carried in Italian newspaper Milano Finanza on Saturday.
The French socialist presidential candidate is even more pro-European than Sarky.
https://francoishollande.fr/
Let me just make a general observation about I dare to make about some English speaking bloggers which I got after observing their opinions for some time and their working with the “facst”. It is fine if for whatever reasons you loathe the EU project, socialism, euro as a currency …etc. We all have our opinions and word-views. It is fine when you selectively pick events that suit and seem to prove your bias. But in that case don’t be surprise when there are people like me who call you out on it.
And becaus I always strive to make statements which I can support by the facts I give you a concrete example about a certain blogger I remember (because at that time I was thinking “why on earth does this guy even comment on politics as his understanding is obviously at a level of a 10 year child ?”.
Example n.1) The Slovak vote on the EFSF. A very minor figure in the Slovak politics (at best) Richard Sulik from a party Freedom and Solidarity was hailed a hero when he refused to vote in favor. I was at the time getting a newsletter from one forecasting company who were singing eulogies on the guy – it was obvious they knew nothing about the Slovak politics (and the context and the guy’s motivations) and I suspect if asked most of them wouldn’t even find Slovakia on the map but why should they bother ? The guy voted against the hated EU he is our hero (at least for a day or two). They don’t care to mention that is mostly a cynical political calculus to sink a very fragile Government when he calculated that is advantageous for him to look high-principled with the group of his voters. Of course they do not care that by far the strongest political party in Slovakia (40 % of votes expected) is strongly pro-European. Why should they ?
Example 2) Czech prime minister Necas demanding referendum on joining the EURO in October 2011. What a reasonable and profoundly democratic gesture. Right ? Except a couple of points. First, the prime minister’s party has always been strongly opposed against all forms of “direct democracy” – plebiscits, referendums, direct election of president… prior to that they have always vehemently blocked all attempts to introduce these institutes branded blocked all attempts these as “populist”.
The obligation to join the common currency was a part of the EU admission treaty approved in plebiscit in 2003 by a majority of 78 % voters.
Furthermore, the blogger (being a total political analphabet) cannot understand sometimes what is needed is just to give a verbal support to the common currency and if you cannot do that you just remain silent and you do not undermine and sabotage the effort of your partners. In either case you are not bound by any obligation and leave yourself plenty of space for future decisions – and you wait how the things will pan out. Nobody was putting a gun to the Czech republic’s head forcing them to join the common currency immediately. After all, joining the common currency would be matter of couple of years in the future…. So the declarations of premier Necas was pure populism. Yeah but I guess for some bloggers it is too hard to understand this…
3) Blowing out of proportions : Some countries staying out of some countries on proposed EU changes last November :
Some blogger (apparently in their blind hatred) grasping at everything resembling a feud, discord, problems, troubles….
Prime Minister was first a hero for certain bloggers when he vetoed the EU-changes treaty only to let them down when said in “question time” that the EU membership is “vital for Britain’s national interests”.
4) Giving importance to “second league” (at best) figures in the EU politics like Nigel Farage. Yeah, I understand it. He is passionate, he is radical, he is loud, he is outspoken, he is visible…. Ideal combination for the media. Something like Peter Schiff in the States.
I can continue on and on…but that is the point I was trying to make….
The Germans too are misunderstood here. They have proved to be very reliable Europeans who want the euro to succeed. One can fault the economic paradigm but they have gone the extra mile – and will continue to do so — in my view
I agree entirely on Germany, the problem I have with the Euro is I don’t see it as politically feasible even in the medium term. For monetary union to work, you need fiscal union and for fiscal union you need some sort of common electorate. Even when you have those things it can be tough, look for example at the problems Britain is having right now in convincing Scotland to remain in the UK.
Android introduces user interface guidelines https://developer.android.com/design/index.html
I saw that one of the stories I posted referred to these guidelines but they may not be enough to stop the fragmentation frustration that is slowly creeping into Android