For more than forty years, developed countries economies went through a kind of permanent crisis, with some rare periods of remission, the last one having just finished with the brutal bumps which have affected financial markets at the beginning of February. Nothing more was needed by financial institutions and economists which have been silent just before the subprime crisis, to send alarmist messages. Worries had been generated by an interpretation, which will be proved wrong, of the intentions of a central bank after the publication of an economic indicator. That case shows the new position these institutions have taken. Their ...

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The names, in the Chinese calendar, carry no particular symbolic message but the dog, as a domestic animal itself, is well-known for its faithfulness. It is not incompatible with the point that China is loyal to the principles stated by its leaders and is redirecting progressively its economy toward its interior market through its modernization and in satisfying its population demands regarding environment. In 2018, the year of the Dog, following the year of the Cock, growth should continue with a strong rhythm. The point to know if it will “slow” after the 6.9% reached in 2017 to be ...

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20 years ago were published the first rules reducing the legal duration of the working time to 35 hours per week. We know how much this measure was criticized at that moment even when it was in practice for a long time in the German industry. The socialists themselves, who were at its origin, are not anymore defending today that reform. As an irony of history, and maybe to celebrate this anniversary, the IG Metall union has just obtained, after a long and tough social battle, the possibility, for its employees who would ask for it, to work only 28 ...

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