Addicted to the Apocalypse

By PAUL KRUGMAN

The New York Times

Once upon a time, walking around shouting “The end is nigh” got you labeled a kook, someone not to be taken seriously. These days, however, all the best people go around warning of looming disaster. In fact, you more or less have to subscribe to fantasies of fiscal apocalypse to be considered respectable.

And I do mean fantasies. Washington has spent the past three-plus years in terror of a debt crisis that keeps not happening, and, in fact, can’t happen to a country like the United States, which has its own currency and borrows in that currency. Yet the scaremongers can’t bring themselves to let go.

Greece’s Parliament Clears Way for More Charges Against 6 Right-Wing Lawmakers

The New York Times
By NIKI KITSANTONIS

ATHENS — As part of a widening effort to clamp down on violent extremism in Greece, the country’s Parliament moved on Wednesday to lift the immunity of six lawmakers of Golden Dawn, the neo-fascist anti-immigrant party prosecutors portray as a criminal organization involved in murder, attempted murder, blackmail and other crimes.

Profile of an IT Worker

Forget the stereotype. For one thing, most of them don't have college degrees in computer science, technology, engineering or math

The Wall Street Journal

By MICHAEL TOTTY

Oct. 20, 2013 4:59 p.m. ET

Who are these employees who install new computers, keep the corporate network running and help other workers reset their passwords? Cultural stereotypes about nerds with pocket protectors aside, what do we know about the people who keep the bits flowing and the digital lights on?

China Seeks Clearer View of Government Debt Mountain

Local Governments Have Borrowed a Pile of Money in Recent Years, Leaving Even Beijing Wondering How Much

By SHEN HONG

Updated Oct. 20, 2013 9:36 p.m. ET

SHANGHAI—In the next few weeks, the Chinese government is expected to release the results of an ambitious effort to calculate a seemingly simple figure: just how much the country's local governments have borrowed from banks and investors in the past few years.

ObamaCare's Black Box

Why the exchanges are worse than even the critics imagined.

The Wall Street Journal

Updated Oct. 17, 2013 8:59 p.m. ET

The White House set low expectations for the Affordable Care Act's October 1 debut, so anything remotely competent should have seemed like a success. But three weeks on, the catastrophe that is Healthcare.gov and the 36 insurance exchanges run by the federal government is an insult to the "glitches" President Obama said were inevitable.

Jim DeMint: We Won't Back Down on ObamaCare

Fighting a law that is unfair, unworkable and unaffordable is reasonable and necessary.

The Wall Street Journal

By JIM DEMINT

Oct. 17, 2013 6:27 p.m. ET

Now that the government shutdown has ended and the president has preserved ObamaCare for the time being, it's worth explaining why my organization, the Heritage Foundation, and other conservatives chose this moment to fight—and why we will continue to fight. The reason is simple: to protect the American people from the harmful effects of this law.

Republicans’ hollow defeat

The Washington Post

By Eugene Robinson, Friday, October 18, 3:23 AM

President Obama’s victory this week was as complete and devastating as Sherman’s march through the South. But there is no early sign that the zealots of the anti-government far right have learned the lessons of their defeat — which means that more battles lie ahead.

Green Shoots In Greece

Forbes

As Europe struggles through an anaemic recovery, its structurally challenged South is trying to mend itself. It is a fascinating, and still undecided turnaround story, best illustrated by the Eurozone’s former bête noire – Greece. Exacerbating the problem, the media often do a poor job of helping explain both the current situation and its prospects- as a panel in London’s Southbank Centre will discuss on 19 October 2013.

Greece expects decision on 2014 funding gap in December

By Lefteris Papadimas

ATHENS | Wed Oct 16, 2013 5:01pm BST

(Reuters) - Greece expects its foreign lenders to agree in December on how to plug a funding gap the country faces next year, its finance minister said on Wednesday, while a decision on how to cut its debt will come several months later.

Twice-bailed out Greece first sought a financial rescue from the European Union and International Monetary Fund in 2010 and has since been kept afloat with over 200 billion euros in aid.

Greek far-right leaders accused of organised violence

Sun Oct 13, 2013 1:54pm IST

* Case triggered after left-wing rapper knifed to death in street

* Testimony said to reveal inner workings of far-right Golden Dawn

* Party vote soared with debt crisis, sees political witch-hunt

By Renee Maltezou and Deepa Babington

ATHENS, Oct 13 (Reuters) - She first got into politics in Greece last year - when she bought herself a bullet-proof vest and learned how to beat up immigrants with poles hung with the national flag.

Global finance chiefs ready defenses ahead of Fed exit

By Anna Yukhananov and Alonso Soto

WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 12, 2013 4:58pm EDT

(Reuters) - Global finance chiefs on Saturday told the IMF to stand ready to aid emerging market economies that could be destabilized by a sudden flight of capital when the U.S. Federal Reserve and other central banks back away from ultra-loose monetary policies.

The International Monetary Fund's governing panel, after a semi-annual meeting, acknowledged the risks posed by a transition toward more normal policies in advanced economies, and it urged nations not to delay preparations.

Climate change sceptics aren't all alike, so don't tar them with the same brush

Denying the sceptics a voice on the IPCC report is surely bad for democracy and bad for science

The Guardian

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/oct/09/climate-change-sceptics-not-all-alike

Last week my friend and onetime colleague, the UK government's former climate adviser John Ashton, berated the BBC for giving Australian climate sceptic Bob Carter undue airtime in its reporting of the findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). The geneticist Steve Jones also weighed in, reminding the corporation not to fall into the trap of "false balance" by treating the views of sceptics equally alongside mainstream climate researchers.

Hooded assailants start fire at Greek minister's office

ATHENS | Wed Oct 9, 2013 4:52pm EDT

(Reuters) - Six hooded assailants doused the office of Greece's merchant marine minister with gasoline on Wednesday and set it on fire, causing only minor damage to the entrance, police said.

Ex-Minister in Greece Is Found Guilty in Bribery Case

October 7, 2013

By NIKI KITSANTONIS

ATHENS — In a landmark verdict, a former Greek defense minister and co-founder of the country’s once-mighty Socialist Party, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, was found guilty on Monday of setting up a complex money-laundering network to cover the trail of millions of dollars in bribes that he is said to have pocketed from government weapons purchases.

Paulson hedge funds backing recovery in Greek banks

ATHENS | Mon Oct 7, 2013 4:21am EDT

(Reuters) - Funds run by billionaire investor John Paulson see Greece's recapitalised banking sector as an attractive investment play on the country's recovery after a deep six-year slump.

Encouraged by Greece's rising exports and a rebounding tourism sector, U.S. hedge fund group Paulson & Co expects the protracted recession to bottom out this year and begin recovery in 2014.

Greece Plots ’14 Budget Course to Secure More Debt Relief

By Marcus Bensasson & Christos Ziotis - Oct 7, 2013 1:50 PM GMT+0300

Greece will have a budget surplus before interest costs in 2013, a year ahead of schedule, giving Prime Minister Antonis Samaras leverage to prod euro-area creditors for more help in lowering its debt burden.

The primary surplus will rise to 2.8 billion euros ($3.8 billion) in 2014, or 1.6 percent of gross domestic product, after a surplus of 340 million euros this year, according to the 2014 draft budget, Alternate Finance Minister Christos Staikouras told reporters in Athens. The overall deficit will be 2.4 percent of GDP both this year and next, according to the budget, which was submitted to parliament today.

Ενα δύσκολο «στοίχημα» το πλεόνασμα

Θα διαμορφωθεί στα 100-200 εκατ. ευρώ από 489 εκατ. που προβλέπει το Μεσοπρόθεσμο

Παρασκευή, 04 Οκτωβρίου 2013 07:00

Ναυτεμπορική

Στην είσπραξη των προβλεπόμενων φορολογικών εσόδων στο τελευταίο τρίμηνο του έτους εναποτίθενται οι ελπίδες του υπουργείου Οικονομικών για την επίτευξη πρωτογενούς πλεονάσματος στον προϋπολογισμό του 2013, ενώ συμπληρωματικά οι όποιες απώλειες θα υποστηριχθούν με περικοπές των δαπανών καταναλωτικών και επενδυτικών δαπανών.

Working hours: Get a life

Sep 24th 2013, 12:19 by C.W. and A.J.K.D. | LONDON

The Econimist

BERTRAND RUSSELL, the English philosopher, was not a fan of work. In his 1932 essay, “In Praise of Idleness”, he reckoned that if society were better managed the average person would only need to work four hours a day. Such a small working day would “entitle a man to the necessities and elementary comforts of life.” The rest of the day could be devoted to the pursuit of science, painting and writing.

Leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn jailed before trial

By Lefteris Papadimas and Karolina Tagaris

ATHENS | Thu Oct 3, 2013 7:36am EDT

(Reuters) - The leader of Greece's far-right Golden Dawn party was sent to jail on Thursday pending trial on criminal charges, the first time an elected party chief has been put behind bars since a military coup nearly five decades ago.

The imprisonment of Nikolaos Mihaloliakos, who has watched support for his party wane after a supporter fatally stabbed a popular rapper, is a reprieve for Prime Minister Antonis Samaras's government that has vowed to wipe out the party, calling it a "gang of neo-Nazis".

Greece's Golden Dawn lawmakers freed before trial

By Renee Maltezou and Yorgos Karahalis

ATHENS | Wed Oct 2, 2013 1:45pm EDT

(Reuters) - Three senior lawmakers from Greece's far-right Golden Dawn were freed on Wednesday pending trial on criminal charges, an unexpected setback to the government's efforts to clamp down on a party it has labeled a neo-Nazi criminal gang.

The decision to free the men after an 18-hour court session raises questions about the solidity of the state's case against Golden Dawn after one of its sympathizers stabbed to death an anti-fascism rapper.