Proposals to fight unemployment

Proposals from several sources for growth and employment in Europe are examined for the number of jobs created and the required budget; as well as the Stimulus program of the Obama Administration (2009). At best, only part of the 27 million unemployed might expect a job by 2020 or 2030 (except for a single proposal). A few explanations are offered for this lack of ambition

Aardgas onder de zee van Gaza

De gedetailleerde berichtgeving van de Canadese onderzoeker Michel Chossudovsky belicht een aspekt van de invasie van Gaza, dat onze media (nog) niet hebben (durven) beschrijven. Het is de aanwezigheid van een aardgasveld onder de zee van Gaza, ontdekt door British Gas (BG) maar nog niet geëxploiteerd..

Investing in times of austerity

European Member States that have signed the treaties on fiscal consolidation are now experiencing difficulties to finance infrastructure and social services. Following the treaties, governments must urgently reduce their loans since their annual budget deficit should not exceed 0.5% of GDP and total sovereign debt should be lowered to 60% of GDP. Moreover Eurostat recently expanded its definition of sovereign debt to include public-private collaboration and financial guarantees by public authorities. The private sector on the other hand is not using its huge amounts of cash to increase production and employment. Instead corporations increase dividends, buy back shares and pay for take-overs and mergers. The latter rarely create jobs and often destroy some. The financial sector invests in the stock market instead of in the productive economy. While the European treaties prohibit additional borrowing by MS, they do not exclude that governments generate higher income. This is possible by preventing the massive tax avoidance and evasion that was recently documented, estimated by the EC at 1000 billion euro annually. Europe should implement and extent actions against tax evasion decided by the OECD, the G20 and the US Treasury. They include automatic exchange of information on bank accounts in more than 40 countries; the BEPS tax Action Plan (OECD-G20, 2013); and, in the US, FATCA (2010) and retroactive actions against tax inversion already effective. Also, the EU should add the earnings in all nations of each multinational, and redistribute this sum to MS using objective criteria. All this does not require a change in legal tax rates in MS. Another lead is taxing capital that leaves the EU if resulting in lower taxation. Each MS should ban rulings that lower the tax revenue. By increasing their internal revenue MS can reduce their debt, and simultaneously finance economic growth, in order to 1) avoid the massive loss of jobs in the public sector decided under austerity policies; 2) remedy the waiting lists in social housing, affordable nurseries, old age homes, hospitals and care for handicapped and refugees, school buildings, insulation, maintenance of roads, canals and rail, green energy, water conservation, and the ridiculous shortage of proper personnel in internal revenue services, the police, justice departments and detention centres, in several MS. This immediate rise in employment will increase demand and business results (updated July 2015)

What hope is there for the 27 million unemployed in Europe?

How many new jobs can be created to resolve unemployment of 27 million? In a first paper I discuss two fallacies that are commonplace, but do not guarantee job creation. One is investment, which has many meanings; but the biggest investments are mergers or take-overs that destroy jobs. So does restructuring of enterprises. Activation of the unemployed is another popular policy, but it does not create jobs

Resolving unemployment

There are 26 million unemployed in the EU, and no improvement is predicted for several years. But at the same time there are many unremitting needs in social housing, education and culture, nurseries, health, correct treatment of psychiatric patients, care for the elderly and handicapped, personalized help to youngsters in closed institutions, rehabilitation of convicts, public transport, protection of the environment and clean energy, integration of immigrants, more efficient internal revenue services, justice departments and the fight against crime. Publicly funded jobs should be created in these areas that are largely neglected by the commercial sector. The wages paid to the novel jobs will flow immediately into the commercial economy, since families of previously unemployed have many unfulfilled needs. This will raise demand, corporate earnings, private employment, and tax and social security contributions. By the concommitant rise of GDP, the debt ratios will decrease. Poverty and insecurity will disappear for millions of families, and inequality will decrease. The funding required can be assembled by taxing corporations more effectively,by a financial transaction tax of 0.1%, and by European legislation taxing the revenue that is now parked in tax havens. In an immediate step, the ECB should finance governments and agencies at the interest rate offered to banks (0.25%). In the first year the expenditure would be of the same magnitude, or smaller,than the present interventions of the ECB, EU and US governments, or QE by the American Fed and Bank of England. Objections to this proposal are discussed; they are mostly ideological, not economic. Compared to other policies, this proposal is more efficient in creating jobs, and at a cheaper cost for the taxpayer

International sport federations in the world city network

In this article, we analyze the transnational urban geographies produced by international sport federations (ISFs) through their global, regional, and national headquarter locations. Data on the global urban presence of 35 major ISFs are examined through connectivity analysis and principal component analysis. The connectivity analysis reveals the relative dominance of cities in Europe and Pacific Asia, whereby Seoul, Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Cairo, and Lausanne stand out. The principal component analysis reveals the main subnetworks produced through ISF location decisions, which includes inter alia a "winter sports subnetwork" centered on Ankara, Belgrade, Helsinki, and Stockholm; an "Olympic subnetwork" centered on Lausanne; and a decentered subnetwork with truly "global sports."

Combustive approach for measuring total volatile phosphorus content in landfill gas

A technique was developed to measure the total gaseous phosphorus content in biogas. The amount of air needed for a neutral to oxidising flame was mixed with the biogas. The gas mixture was burnt in a closed quartz burner and the combustion gasses were bubbled through a nitric acid solution. The phosphate content in the bubbling liquid was determined with sector field ICP-MS. The technique was validated in the lab with phosphine. Afterwards the set-up was installed on a landfill. The total gaseous phosphorus content in the landfill gas, measured with the combustive technique, ranged from 1.65 to 4.44 mug P/m(3). At the same time the phosphine concentration in the landfill gas was determined gas chromatographically (GC). The phosphine (PH3) content measured with GC ranged from 7.6 to 16.7 mug PH3-P/m(3). Since the phosphine-P content (GC) was consistently higher than the total gaseous phosphorus content (burner/ICP-MS), the hypothesised presence of highly toxic gaseous phosphorus compounds other than phosphine could not be demonstrated

Het generatiepakt: alles staat of valt met de creatie van jobs

Os dados foram recolhidos e registados pelo técnico da ESACB João Nunes sob a supervisão da Prof.ª Maria do Carmo Horta Monteiro.Dados climáticos relativos ao ano de 1989, recolhidos e registados no Posto Meteorológico da Escola Superior Agrária do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco

Blair: 'George Bush is mijn vriend'

Tony Blair, promoting his memoires in Amsterdam, had a long talk with Wouter Bos, previously Netherlands vice-prime minister. Blair admires George W. Bush because he took a deeply impopular decision (to invade Iraq); he showed courage and power. The lies about WMD, about Al Qayda, his defense of waterboarding... are not essential for Blair: Saddam was a dictator and had to be done with. In another interview (De Standaard) Blair says he is mostly inspired by religion. Religious fanaticism is on the rise he says. About the pope Blair says: he is an exceptionally honest and respectable person; I support him. We conclude that it appears more probable than before that Blair and Bush were inspired by their religious belief when deciding about Iraq. Since it is unlikely they actually had a direct line with God, they are hallucinating religious fanatics in command of nuclear weapons. May God save us

Mensen moeten inleveren terwijl miljarden worden uitgedeeld

While unemployment continues to rise, and governements prepare their austerity programs, corporations make billions of proftis. In 2009 Belgian enterprises on the stock market made 14 billion euro of net profit. Among foreign corporations, Goldman-Sachs, Nestlé and Barclays Bank each made over 10 billion euro. Data of the current year are even more optimistic (some 89 figures are given). Nevertheless, the financial press evaluates results by comparison to predictions by analysts; if the prediction was higher, result is called "disappointing". The question is raised what would be the economic impact if the net profit would be redistributed, through taxes, to workers and consumers of the lower wage classes. These sums would be spent immediately, in order to lower debts, or buy long-needed essential goods/services. Small and big business would benefit, and so would employment