Friday, Jan 27th 2012
Water charges (or levies or taxes) will come up the agenda and no doubt there will be considerable confusion as to what they are intended for: incentivise ‘efficient use of water’ or cover the cost of water provision. These are not necessarily intertwined; one may incentivise efficient use and not recover costs and vice-versa.
What is [...]
Iceland aims to become an offshore haven for journalists and leakers » Nieman Journalism Lab
On Tuesday, the Icelandic parliament is expected to introduce a measure aimed at making the country an international center for investigative journalism publishing, by passing the strongest combination of source protection, freedom of speech, and libel-tourism prevention laws in the world.
See: [...]
The latest CSO figures showing a decrease in the cost of living have prompted employer groups to renew calls for a decrease in the minimum wage. However, on closer examination, the CPI reveals several increased costs which, combined with welfare cuts, push many people further into poverty.
The cost of living has decreased by 3.9% from [...]
There’s another angle on the George Lee saga that is as interesting to media watchers as any consideration of whether he was ‘frozen out’ of Fine Gael or a victim of his own ego. Let’s put aside too whether Enda Kenny wasted a brilliant talent or had simply expected Lee to take a little time to settle into politics [...]
Strikes and more strikes confront the social-democratic PASOK Government in Greece
Public sector workers, supported by many Trade Unionists from the private sector responded massively yesterday, Wednesday February 10th, to their Union call for a 24-hour strike in Athens. At the same time, leaders of the two Greek left wing organisations Syriza and the Greek Communist [...]
Paul Mason | Greece: “The PIGS Fight Back”
Paul Mason, Newsnight economics reporter, gives a low down of events on Wednesday.
The question of the day is: will Germany and maybe France step forward to guarantee Greece’s future loans, allowing the cost of borrowing to fall and greater certainty that it will roll-over the debts in a [...]
Europe prepares to help Greece out of crisis — EU Business News
EU leaders are under increasing pressure to lend support to cash-strapped Greece when they meet in Brussels Thursday, with attention increasingly on offering financial guarantees to soothe the markets.
On Wednesday, finance ministers from the European single currency area planned phone talks with European Central [...]
Socialist Project | Consolidating the Coup in Honduras?
A country of sharp inequality and class polarization, Honduras recently returned to the frontlines in the battle for Latin America’s soul. The terrain of struggle has shifted on multiple occasions over the last seven months, following the military coup against the democratically-elected President, Manuel “Mel” Zelaya. The battle [...]
With due apologies to Søren Kierkegaard, it is with ‘Fear and Trembling’ that I put fingers to keyboard to contribute to the burgeoning media orgy, commonly known as the “George Lee Phenomenon”.
Since the ‘earth-shattering’ news that George Lee has decided to withdraw his support from Fine Gael and quit the Dáil, the media have had [...]
175 Boston Scientific jobs to go in Galway, the loss of 200 Bitech Engineering jobs in Louth,a seismic 750 job lost at Halifax, those depressing numbers that Ronan Lyons has pulled up - what are we to make of the state of the labour market only a few weeks into the new year?
Hard to get [...]
