July 2012 archive

Jul 20

Catastroika

Like in the disastrous sale of public goods in the former Soviet Union and DDR in the early nineties of XX Century, a limited company is in charge of privatise goods and services in Greece, water and energy included. The authors of Debtocracy, a documentary with two million views broadcasted from Japan to Latin America, …

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Jul 19

FP7 calls

Latest FP7 Calls supporting RI in a large number of sectors, have been released: climate change; industrial innovation connected with piloting, demonstration, standardisation and technology transfer; research training and mobility around the European Union and further abroad; sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors; technologies for urban areas and cities; combating the threat of …

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Jul 19

Italy’s world records

Taxation at 55% of GDP, says Confcommercio in its latest study on the national economy placing Italy on top of the list of Countries by tax rates (if we exclude Kiribati, Timor-Leste…) . Mr. Befera, Director of Agenzia Entrate, replies: “Even more… around 70% in some cases”! Read more…

Jul 19

HSBC to find a settlement

One of the biggest financial scandals (see an old but dedicated database in our Weblist), a criminal probe into laundering of drug-cartel and other money , according to a WSJ note. Again, unsolved questions present their burden on business making and daily life conditions. How regulators perform their tasks, when such enormous mass of money can …

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Jul 18

Senator Dell’Utri accused of blackmailing Berlusconi over mafia

“Magistrates have launched a formal investigation against an Italian senator on suspicion that he attempted to blackmail his longtime patron, former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, over alleged mafia links, judicial officials said on Wednesday…” (Reuters)

Jul 18

Capital outflow in Bankitalia report

Non resident investors retired 47,1 billion euro from Italy, while Italian investors sold foreign assets for about 17,6 billion euro, Bank of Italy said in its last report.

Jul 18

Everybody knew: the LIBOR scandal

New York FED knew about possible ‘problems’ of LIBOR fixing process since 2007, as in its answer to Congressional Request for informationon Barclays-LIBOR matter. Just while Mr. B. Benenke says that Libor is ‘structurally flawed’ (LA Times) and the Fed had pushed for reform of the rate setting process in 2008 when it became concerned …

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