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Home >> Europe Western Europe Irish Bank Bailout Leaves Financial Markets Nervous for Good Reason
Prof. Peter Morici - 12/1/2010
The EU bailout for Irish banks failed to quell financial markets. Borrowing costs for Portugal, Spain and others continue to rise, because structural problems created by the euro and single European market remain unaddressed and more crises are inevitable. In the United States, banks engage in dollar-denominated deposit gathering and lending. The smooth functioning of the banking and payments systems are guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Treasury and Federal Reserve. Ireland’s Banking Crisis and the Euro Myth
Prof. Peter Morici - 11/30/2010
The Irish banking crisis illustrates the euro makes little sense, because the EU lacks taxing, spending and regulatory authority critical to managing a modern economy. The U.S. federal government regulates banks and guarantees deposits, because continuously functioning banks are as essential to modern commerce as uninterrupted electricity and the internet. Spain: Who spreads anti-Semitism amongst children?
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury - 3/18/2010
Israel’s ambassador in Spain Mr. Rafi Shotz received dozens of postcards from students ages 6 and 9 - including hand-written anti-Semitic messages such as “Jews kill for money,” “Evacuate the country for Palestinians,” and “Go to someplace where someone will be willing to accept you.” This was reported in a number of newspapers in the world. Nations Must Know When to Cringe and Crawl--But for the West It's Becoming Routine
Prof. Barry Rubin - 3/18/2010
Sometimes selective appeasement is necessary in foreign policy. But when and just how far should a democratic country go in such behavior? Here's a brilliant defense of giving in at times-which doesn't mean I necessarily agree with it, but I do respect it-and a recent example of how it's overdone and mistakenly carried out nowadays. Auschwitz Sign Claiming that
Prof. Barry Rubin - 12/22/2009
The theft and then recovery of the famous sign at the entrance of Auschwitz-Arbeit macht frei, work will make you free-has brought that artifact of the Holocaust to international attention once again. Merely dismissing the sign as "cynical," few understand the meaning of the sign in context and its underlying implications for Jewish thought and Israel today. Cash is King
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 11/8/2008
Libya has recently emerged as the second-biggest shareholder in Unicredit, Italy's number one bank and Europe's sixth largest banking institution, with a massive presence in Central and Eastern Europe. Japanese, Chinese, and Arab investors and sovereign wealth funds are purchasing Western assets at bargain basement prices: banks, brokerage houses, factories, and real estate. Condemning the central value of western society
Alamgir Hussain - 4/19/2008
One must wonder what would be the reaction of Muslims if a museum in Riyadh or Islamabad, or in any Muslim country, displays, for example, a Piss Muhammad photograph like the one of Jesus by American photographer Andres Serrano, which depicts a small plastic crucifix submerged in a glass of the artist's urine. AIDS - Europe's New Plague
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 10/11/2007
The region which brought you the Black Death, communism and all-pervasive kleptocracy now presents: AIDS. The process of enlargement to the east may, unwittingly, open the European Union's doors to the two scourges of inordinately brutal organized crime and exceptionally lethal disease. As Newsweek noted, the threat is greater and nearer than any hysterically conjured act of terrorism. Roadmaps to Peace or Signals of Trouble
Lorna Thomas - 4/15/2007
1. AMERICA AND BRITAIN DIVIDED AS EUROPE UNITES Austrian Banking - Interview with Wolfgang Christl
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 2/11/2006
In the second half of 2005, Erste Bank, Austria's second largest, took over yet another East and Central European financial institution: Romania's BCR (Romanian Commercial Bank). This acquisition threw into sharp relief the post-Communist Mittel-European strategy of Austrian banks, big and small. Cartoon Controversy and Respect of Islam
Badrul Islam - 2/9/2006
The political cartoons portraying Muhammad in a negative light originated from a well-meaning attempt to write a book about our Prophet Muhammad to promote religious toleration. The Author of the book couldn’t find any illustrators to draw the picture of the Prophet out of fear, remembering the fate of the Dutch film-maker, Theo Van Gogh killed by Islamic Militants for criticizing fundamentalism. Rose, Culture Editor of Jyllands-Posten Newspaper contacted 25 Danish newspaper Cartoonists challenging them to draw the picture of “Prophet as they see him”. In response 12 cartoonists submitted the ... Europe and the Spectrum of Auctions
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 1/17/2006
Months of procrastination and righteous protestations to the contrary led to the inevitable: the European Commission assented on September 2002 to a joint venture between Germany's T-mobile and Britain's mmO2 to share the mammoth costs of erecting third generation - 3G in the parlance - mobile phone networks in both countries. The two companies were among the accursed winners of a series of spectrum auctions in the late 1990's. Altogether telecom firms shelled well over $100 billion to secure 3G licences in markets as diverse as Germany, Italy, the UK, and the Netherlands. Europe's Theme Parks
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 12/13/2005
War - especially coupled with a globally sluggish economy - has a contradictory effect on the consumption of entertainment. Disposable incomes plummet curtailing the sales of medium to big ticket items such as cruises and resort vacations. But people - besieged by anxiety and bad news - also wish to be diverted. As the conflict rages, they stay indoors and tune in. Home entertainment booms. But once physical insecurity abates, consumers go out in full force mobbing movie theatres and theme parks, making up for lost time and frayed nerves. Switzerland's Cheesy Economy
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 11/15/2005
In a series of referenda in 2003-5, Swiss citizens transformed their country forever, economically aligning it with the European Union and opening it up to work migration. It was an uncharacteristic response to increasingly worrisome times. The Story of the Guillotine
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 9/13/2005
The guillotine was first put to lethal use on April 25, 1792, at 3:30 PM, in Paris at the Place de Greve on the Right Bank of the Seine. It separated highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier's head from the rest of his body. The Demise of the West?
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 7/8/2005
The edifice of the "international community" and the project of constructing a "world order" rely on the unity of liberal ideals at the core of the organizing principle of the transatlantic partnership, Western Civilization. Yet, the recent intercourse between its constituents - the Anglo-Saxons (USA and UK) versus the Continentals ("Old Europe" led by France and Germany) - revealed an uneasy and potentially destructive dialectic. Michael Moore: America-Bashing Reaches New Levels in Europe
James DeMeo, Ph.D. - 4/6/2005
When Michael Moore lampooned "Corporate America", it was at least an entertaining contribution to the social debate, but now he's moved on to more serious subject matter. Since making his millions by skewering capitalism, he's also plunged into the conspiracy swamp with a disinformation film "Fahrenheit 911"- financed with $3 million from Disney/Miramax. The movie blamed George W. Bush and the CIA (and Mossad?) for the 9-11 terror attacks. [1] Moore has shown himself to be expert in the use of "lies of omission" which most people won't know about unless they consult his critics. Apocalyptic Population Drops in the West: And Then There Were Too Many
Sam Vaknin, Ph.D. - 3/22/2005
The latest census in Ukraine revealed an apocalyptic drop of 10% in its population - from 52.5 million a decade ago to a mere 47.5 million last year. Demographers predict a precipitous decline of one third in Russia's impoverished, inebriated, disillusioned, and ageing citizenry. Births in many countries in the rich, industrialized, West are below the replacement rate. These bastions of conspicuous affluence are shriveling. Will Europe Survive to 2012?
Antero Leitzinger - 3/21/2005
The "number of the beast" of the Book of Apocalypse, Nostradamus' prophecies, astrology and numerological magic have entertained people for centuries. Even if history was not predetermined and predictable, it might be useful to present some scenarios, based on historical comparisons, presuppositions of repeating cycles, and warning examples. European history has been traditionally approached from a Western point of view, where the central point would be situated somewhere around Switzerland. From the slopes of Sankt Gotthard, the great rivers flow to different directions, towards the North Sea...
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