Links: 2013-03-11
News links for 11 March 2013
Seit 2005 : Eine Million Deutsche sind Hartz-IV-Dauerbezieher – Nachrichten Wirtschaft – DIE WELT
Since 2005, over 1 million Germans have been permanently on the new Hartz IV social program despite the program’s implementation to reduce need for unemployment assistance and the low rate of unemployment.
Canada’s Arctic glaciers headed for unstoppable thaw: study | Reuters
“Canadian glaciers that are the world’s third biggest store of ice after Antarctica and Greenland seem headed for an irreversible melt that will push up sea levels, scientists said on Thursday.”
Bank compensation up in 2012 despite cutback efforts | Reuters
“Compensation at the world’s biggest banks rose last year, with 35 of them spending a combined 10 billion euros ($13.1 billion) more on staff than in 2011, figures compiled by Reuters show.”
BBC News – Norway oil wealth fund made big gains in 2012
“Norway’s oil fund, one of the biggest investors in the world, rose in value by 13.4% last year, its second-best performance ever.
The central bank said the fund’s investments in shares jumped by 18.1% in 2012, boosted by soaring equity indexes around the world.
It is now worth 3.8tn krone (£450bn; $670bn), up from 3.3tn krone in 2011.”
Analysis: U.S. concern on China currency fades as yuan grinds higher | Reuters
“After years of grabbing the spotlight in U.S.-China economic relations, U.S. concerns over the value of Beijing’s currency appear to be fading, giving ground to newer issues like cyber-security and trade secret theft.”
Israel Economy Expanded 3.1% in 2012, Slower Than First Estimate – Bloomberg
“Gross domestic product grew 3.1 percent last year, down from 4.6 percent in 2011, the Central Bureau of Statistics said in an e-mailed report. The figure compares with a preliminary estimate of 3.3 percent. In the fourth quarter, the economy expanded 2.4 percent, slower than the bureau’s 2.5 percent estimate from last month.
“Growth slowed as the year wore on,” said Alex Zabezhinsky, chief economist at DS Securities & Investments Ltd. in Tel Aviv. “It doesn’t look like things have improved this year, judging from tax receipts.””
Germany must not let France break EU fiscal pact: Merkel ally | Reuters
“”The announcement of the Socialist president of France that he would take on more debt than allowed must not lead to a breach of the fiscal pact,” the Free Democrats’ parliamentary group chief, Rainer Bruederle, told a party convention.
“At the very least, we should not encourage France on this,” he said. “We must take heed because the fiscal pact breakers are out and about once more.””
IMF faces losing second French boss – Telegraph
“Christine Lagarde is part of an inquiry into whether former government officials were complicit in the payment of huge damages to a tycoon, which could lead to a second French head of the International Monetary Fund being forced to step down.
Investigators are trying to determine whether Lagarde’s decision to refer the long-festering dispute between Tapie and the Crédit Lyonnais bank to arbitration in 2008, rather than let it work its way through the courts, was an abuse of power designed to help Tapie reap bigger damages from the French treasury.”
Must Read Elizabeth Warren | The Big Picture
“Now HSBC paid a fine, but no one individual went to trial. No individual was banned from banking. And there was no hearing to consider shutting down HSBC’s activities here in the United States. So what I’d like is, you’re the experts on money laundering. I’d like your opinion. What does it take? How many billions of dollars do you have to launder for drug lords and how many economic sanctions do you have to violate before someone will consider shutting down a financial institution like this? Mr. Cohen, can we start with you?”
Germany’s anti-euro party is a nasty shock for Angela Merkel – Telegraph
“They propose German withdrawl from EMU and return to the D-Mark, or a breakaway currency with the Dutch, Austrians, Finns, and like-minded nations. The French are not among them. The borders run along the ancient line of cleavage dividing Latins from Germanic tribes.
The plans draw on work by Hans-Olaf Henkel, former head of Germany’s industry federation (BDI) and a chastened europhile — the “worst error of my professional life”, he told me.
The appeal of German exit is obvious. It is the least traumatic way to end the 20pc to 30pc misalignment between North and South, the cancer eating Europe. Club Med keeps the euro. It enjoys instant devaluation, while still able to uphold euro debt contracts. The spectre of sovereign defaults recedes.”
New Party in Germany Goes after Euro Skeptic Voters – SPIEGEL ONLINE
“Euro-skeptics are everywhere these days, particularly in those southern European countries that have been hit hardest by the crisis that continues to plague the common currency. And even in mainstream parties, concerns about the path on which the EU currently finds itself are common. But in Germany, as elsewhere in northern Europe, the most vocal critique of the euro has tended to come from right-wing populist parties.
Prominent Supporters
Alternative for Germany appears to be different, though it has yet to produce a party manifesto. Its impressive list of prominent supporters includes a large number of conservative and economically liberal university professors. The most notable name on the list is Hans-Olaf Henkel, the former president of the Federation of German Industries, but it also includes such economists as Joachim Starbatty and Wilhelm Hankel, who were part of the group that challenged Greek bailout aid at Germany’s Constitutional Court.
Main initiator Bernd Lucke, a professor of macro-economics from Hamburg, was a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats for 33 years before leaving the party in 2011 as a result of euro bailout efforts. “The current, so-called rescue policies are exclusively focused on short-term interests, primarily those of the banks,” Lucke told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung this week.”
“Samsung Electronics topped China’s smartphone market for the first time in 2012, according to data from Strategy Analytics (reported by Yonhap News Agency). The Korean tech behemoth nearly tripled its sales in the world’s largest market for smartphones: in 2012, it sold 30.06 million smartphones in China, up from 10.9 million handsets a year earlier. According to Strategy Analytics, Samsung now holds a 17.7 percent market share–an astonishingly rapid climb considering that the company only started selling mobile devices in China in 2009.”
“The progressive ’empathy gap’, a strain of liberal authoritarianism, and a distortion of Holder’s letter are invoked to defend Obama”
Report: Obama still secretive despite transparency vow | McClatchy
“President Barack Obama has relied on state secrets and secret laws to make national security decisions with little congressional or public oversight much as his predecessor did, according to a report being released Sunday by a liberal government watchdog group.
The Center for Effective Government’s study on transparency finds that Obama has issued important open government policy reforms in his first term, but that implementation is inconsistent across federal agencies despite his claim of being the most open president in history.”
Wells Fargo Typo Victim Dies in Court – – News – Los Angeles – LA Weekly
“The bank billed Larry Delassus $13,361 owed by his neighbor, then foreclosed”
Intrade halts trading pending probe – FT.com
“Intrade, the popular online prediction market that was forced to cut off its largest customer base following a US government crackdown, has halted all trading activity and frozen customer accounts pending an investigation into its business.
The Dublin-based company said in a notice on its website late on Sunday that recently discovered “circumstances”, on which it did not elaborate, would be subject to an investigation and could uncover potential “financial irregularities”.”
India gang rape suspect found dead in cell – FT.com
“The alleged ringleader of a brutal gang rape that rocked India and highlighted the dangers Indian women face in public spaces has been found hanging in his high-security jail cell in New Delhi.
Ram Singh, a 33-year-old bus driver, was facing the death penalty for his role in the brutal gang-rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapy student on a bus she had boarded to go home after watching a film at an upmarket shopping mall.”
The Associated Press: Exonerated Ohio man wins civil rights suit, $13.2M
“An Ohio man who was exonerated after spending 13 years in prison for murder cried as a federal jury found that two Cleveland police detectives violated his civil rights by coercing and falsifying testimony and withholding evidence that pointed to his innocence.
The jury’s verdict on Friday, which included awarding $13.2 million to David Ayers of Cleveland for his pain and suffering, brings an end to the legal battle he’s been fighting since his arrest in the 1999 killing of 76-year-old Dorothy Brown.”
Mortgage arrears could force BoI into State ownership – Independent.ie
“BANK of Ireland is still refusing to face up to the true extent of the problems lurking in its €28bn Irish mortgage book, writing off just €418m in 2012. Facing up to the full extent of the problem could finally force Ireland’s oldest bank into majority State ownership.
Last year’s provisions bring the total amount of write-off on Bank of Ireland’s Irish mortgage book to €1.43bn since March 2008. While this might appear to be a large number, in absolute terms it still represents just 5 per cent of the total Irish mortgage book.”
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