Eurostar employees file racism complaint against Guerlain perfume boss - France. France Info radio says the three employees, two black men and and a woman of Asian origin say that Guerlain made racist remarks on 24 February at the Gare du Nord in Paris.
French court fines Google maps for unfair trading - France - internet. Côte d'Ivoire President Ouattara to sign military accord on Paris visit - Côte d'Ivoire - France. French leaders play down triple-A rating loss as Euro-crisis deepens - France - Eurozone. French Prime Minister François Fillon on Saturday declared that the downgrade was expected and said it should not be “overdramatised”, following up on Finance Minister François Baroin's assertion that the decision was "not a catastrophe".
Fillon hit back at Socialist François Hollande, saying that he was “particularly wrong” to say that it was the government’s economic policy that had failed. Earlier Hollande, his party’s candidate in the forthcoming presidential election, took a swipe at President Nicolas Sarkozy’s earlier attempts to pose as the chief defender of Europe’s economy, commenting, “It’s a policy that has been downgraded, not France.” Sarkozy and Merkel want new EU treaty before March 2012 - France - Germany. Economic Mobility & the American Dream. Paris police swoop on Occupy La Défense protest - France. Italian fury at Sarkozy 'meddling' as Berlusconi prepares to resign - Italy.
“Madame la présidente …,” Northern League MP Massimo Polledri began his intervention in Saturday’s debate on an austerity package being passed under pressure from the European Union and international finance bodies.
Rise in sales tax as French PM Fillon warns bankruptcy no longer an abstract word - France. He said the country’s financial, economic and social sovereignty meant “prolonged collective efforts and even some sacrifices” were necessary.
France needs to save 100 billion euros a year to eliminate the budget deficit by the 2016 deadline, including 500 million euros in extra state budget savings next year. New measures include an increase in Value Added Tax, VAT, from 5.5 per cent to seven per cent, bringing forward by a year to 2017 the increase in the state retirement age from 60 to 62 and increasing corporate tax by five per cent for companies which have an annual turnover of more than 250 million euros. The government also hopes to reduce spending on public health by 700 million euros and will increase some social benefits by just one per cent next year in line with expected growth figures. The prime minister also said there would be wage freeze for the President of the Republic and government ministers.
No more tax havens, says Sarkozy as G20 wraps up. Sarkozy said 11 tax haven countries had been identified and pointed out Switzerland and Liechtenstein as not doing enough to end banking secrecy. Police clash with Athens protesters as record turnout on Greek demonstrations. Clouds of teargas hung over the centre of the Greek capital after groups of youths had thrown Molotov cocktails at the police and attacked a steel barricade in front of the parliament building and other targets.
There were also clashes in Thessalonoki and protests in other cities, including Patras and Herklion. Police, who claimed that 125,000 people turned out on the protests at the start of a two-day general strike, said that participation was the highest in a decade, while unions put the turnout at 200,000 in Athens alone. The government says the legislation is vital to convince the European Union crisis summit on Sunday to release further loans.
Anti-capitalist Occupy protests continue Sunday. Over 950 rallies in at least 80 countries took place on Saturday, the largest being in Lisbon, Madrid and Rome with thousands also turning out in New York and Washington.
Violence broke out in the Italian capital, with 70 people injured, three of them seriously, and 12 arrests. In New York 88 people were arrested. Unexpected support came from Italian central bank governor Mario Draghi, a former Goldman Sachs executive who takes over as European Central Bank president next month. Indignant protests in 82 countries target corporate greed, austerity. Hundreds of protestors held in anti-Wall Street New York demo. Some of those arrested at the Brooklyn Bridge on Saturday were released after a few hours, while others could be held for a day or could receive a court summons, police said.
Activists belonging to the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ movement, many of whom have been camped out in Manhattan for two weeks, were detained during their latest and biggest demonstration so far. The movement said it had staked its ground in downtown Manhattan "as a symbolic gesture of our discontent with the current economic and political climate. " The anti-Wall Street activists began their campaign by occupying Zuccotti Park, in the heart of Manhattan's financial district, on 17 September and have since held protests outside the New York Stock Exchange and NYPD headquarters.
Saturday's protest forced authorities to shut down the Brooklyn Bridge for several hours as police placed protestors in handcuffs while others chanted slogans. According to organizers, around 3,000 people marched outside the bank. 'Modern capitalism has reached the end of its rope’ Paris property prices rocket. A study of Paris and its suburbs compiled by notaries, who are responsible for property conveyancing in France, shows the biggest increase in prices for 20 years.
The average price per square metre in the capital is now 8150 euros. The cheapest district is the racially and socially mixed 19th arrondissement on the northeastern edge of Paris at 6 350 euros per square metre. European markets recover, UK paper apologises for Société Générale rumours. European markets picked up on Thursday morning after Wednesday’s fall, which was largely prompted by rumours that France was set to follow the US in losing its AAA credit rating.
France’s Cac 40 bounced back after plunging 5.45 per cent Wednesday. The French government indignantly denied the credit-rating rumour yesterday, apparently reassuring the markets although economic indicators are still poor with unemployment rising again in May and June to 9.7 per cent. Gallup.Com - Daily News, Polls, Public Opinion on Government, Politics, Economics, Management. Loans, Financial Infographics, Savings Accounts & CD Rates - VisualEconomics.com. China: 2,000 Years of Income and Population Growth. This graph shows the dramatic change in China's population and GDP per capita (especially in the last 200 years).
Compare this to the graph of the World that I created earlier. {Click on the image to take a closer look} Data estimates for population and GDP per capita are from Angus Maddison Emeritus Professor, Faculty of Economics, University of Groningen. 1990 international Geary-Khamis dollars are purchasing power parities (PPPs) used to evaluate output which are calculated based on international prices. See United Nations Statistics Division for more information their computation. [tags]income distribution, population, GDP per Capita, economic history, income, history, China[/tags] The Great Divergence In Pictures: A visual guide to income inequality. Visualizing Economics — Making the "Invisible Hand" Visible. Notre Monde En Mutation. Standard & Poor's Credit Rating for each country. Interactive Infographic of the World's Best Countries.