Archives Jan. 1, 2014

Il y a cette fois deux chiffres du jour au mois d’octobre : le commerce extérieur avec l’évolution de nos exportations, et la situation budgétaire, avec chaque catégorie de recettes et les dépenses correspondantes. Leur publication simultanée donne un éclairage révélateur sur les difficultés auxquelles est confrontée l’économie française et sur la pertinence des solutions qui ont été mises en oeuvre.  

Depuis deux ans, l’action conduite vise à rétablir la « compétitivité » des entreprises par des baisses d’impôts et de charges, pour leur permettre d ...

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The European Waste

In Sweden, the anti-European far right has just brought down the government and new general elections have been called. In Germany, Angela Merkel, before the congress of her party, the CDU, has questioned specifically France and Italy, whose "structural reforms" would be insufficient to allow both countries to resume growth and restore their accounts. The day before, however, the Bundesbank had lowered its growth forecast for 2015 to 1%, illustrating the fragility of the German economy. The time and place chosen by the Chancellor to lay bare the divisions that undermine the European project, is revealing: the ...

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The North Sea oil barrel, which is a benchmark in Europe, costs now 72$. Its price has continued to fall and has reached a new milestone with OPEC's decision to maintain its production at current levels, contrary to past practice where the offer was reduced to halt the fall in prices. This new situation calls for two observations.

First, this situation contradicts some theories about the depletion of hydrocarbon resources. Oil companies have long supported this approach, drawing on the concept of "peak oil", according to which production would peak and then decline after a certain date that the ...

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