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France is still looking for the keys to competitiveness

Wednesday, October 12th, 2011

What should imagine to make French industry more competitive and allow it to regain market share in the euro area? This is the question almost as old as the foreign trade report of the Economic, Social and Environmental Committee (EESC) tries to answer.Indeed, despite its strengths, the delay of France grows: the trade deficit to increase from 51 billion euros in 2010 to over 70 billion this year.

To stop the bleeding, Isabelle de Kerviler, rapporteur of the opinion that is presented this morning at the EESC proposes to facilitate the development of medium-sized companies in particular by improving the financial environment.

"We must strengthen the role of OSEO, we want to launch a loan specifically for the industrial sector and the creation of a special savings account," says the reporter who did not want to quantify the amounts or the levels of these measures especially to SMEs.

Other proposed runway: corporate taxation."It should modulate the rate of corporation tax, the report said, by shifting the tax burden of work on the consumption of natural resources or pollution or swaps."

"Create" Grenelle of competitiveness "

Compared to Germany, envied model that continues to get ahead of our country, the EESC notes that the French labor costs are not even an advantage.The moderation of costs across the Rhine and the progression (in the EU average) of this side are trimmed away.

Nevertheless, France still has a bright points in its favor: the dynamic demographic, geographic location, quality workforce, the quality of public services contrasts with an educational level that s' weakens.

To implement practical solutions, Isabelle de Kerviler wants to organize a "Grenelle of competitiveness." But is that enough to compete with Germany?

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Soon a film based on the life of Steve Jobs

Monday, October 10th, 2011

Sony would be willing to pay one million dollars to acquire the rights to the only authorized biography of Steve Jobs. Conducted by the former editor of Time, Walter Isaacson, it is forthcoming. According to the site deadline.com, which revealed the existence of these negotiations, a source quoted by AP, the Japanese group is preparing to bring to the screen the existence of the co-founder of Apple.

The realization of "biopics" has already earned some success to Sony, as evidenced by The Social Network, chronic early Facebook around the personality of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg, who cardboard box office and won three Oscars.

Commercial success

As for Steve Jobs, his character had so far been brought to the screen only once, as part of an American TV movie focusing on the rivalry between Apple and Microsoft in the 1980s absolutely free credit score.The character of the co-founder of Apple was then played by the actor Noah Wyle, best known for his performance in the series Medical Emergency.

The biography of Steve Jobs also promises to be alone is a huge commercial success. The date of publication of this book of 750 pages, made from forty successive interviews Steve Jobs, has been repeatedly advanced. Initially planned for spring 2012, the release of Steve Jobs-not iSteve: the Book of Jobs, considered as a time will eventually take place on October 24 in the United States, said its U.S. publisher, Simon & Schuster. In France, the book came out at JC Lattes is scheduled for Nov. 2. A first printing of 500,000 copies is already planned.

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"The Italians can say thank you to the rating agencies'

Wednesday, October 5th, 2011

Lefigaro.fr – Italy can it fail?

Jean-François Jamet – Nobody knows. This is the total blur as both a politically and economically. This will depend on the coming weeks. Today, investors doubted the credibility of the Italian government of Silvio Berlusconi in particular, entangled in scandals about his private life. They do not believe in his ability to find consensus in the short term and implement structural reforms to end a decade of stagnation. Italy is in the situation of a country whose financial situation is very dependent on the psychology of financial markets: the deficit depends on interest rates payable on its debt.

What will happen if Italy does not make structural reforms?

Italian debt will eventually become unsustainable. The risk of panic can not then be excluded.It would then interest rates will soar as investors withdraw massive failure and would become a likely scenario. However, unlike Greece, the risk is lower. First, the country just to pay interest on public debt. Then Italy had a primary surplus, that is to say, it generates a budget surplus, excluding interest payments on public debt. And so if going to Italy the confidence of financial markets – that if the interest rate is not found at high levels (above 6% for bonds to 10 years) – it should not have difficult to stabilize its public debt.Finally, unlike Spain and Ireland, Italy has no problem with private debt.

Just accept the Italian population does a tax increase?

Italy is able to reform itself, it has proved in 1992 and 1993. But if she will be unable Silvio Berlusconi remains in office. The government's failure to carry out structural reforms to boost growth, coupled with the antics of "Il Cavaliere", eventually to exasperate the Italians. As in Spain, early elections must be organized. By this election, a new government must be established: either a national unity government, a government technique, including bureaucrats.This was the case in 1993, a year after the start of the crisis in Italy: the governor of the Italian central bank, no political label, was then elected Chairman and appointed several ministers among its senior officials instant personal loans guaranteed. The choice of a technical government would nevertheless be a sign that politicians have lost the hand and have not lived up issues.

Finally, is not it a blessing in disguise that the note of Italy was worse?

Paradoxically, Italy can probably say thank you to Standard & Poor's and Moody's. The deterioration of the Italian note the merit of the heart of the debate lack of credibility of Silvio Berlusconi and increase pressure for his departure.While it is regrettable that the rating agencies and interfere in the democratic, political pressure has been mounting in recent months with the electoral success of the opposition and critics of the Confindustria (Italian MEDEF) and even its own majority. One can also regret that the rating agencies and the European states have expected the crisis to sound the alarm about the structural problems that have existed for many years.

Europe can sustainably support it Italy?

It is already doing through the interventions of the European Central Bank to calm speculation on the Italian debt. Once the Member States of the euro area have all ratified the agreement reached in July, the European Financial Stability Fund will take over. However, this support to Italy by its European partners can only buy time.Only reforms and the return to growth will allow Italy to escape the trap of debt inherited from the patronage and corruption which had prevailed during the years 1970 and 1980.

* Author of Europe can do without an economic government? (French documentation, to be published October 10, 2011)

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The long wandering unemployed California

Monday, September 26th, 2011

For three years she is unemployed, Sheila Magsby short job center job center in the wheel of his battered car in the hope of becoming thinner, to find a job. The point where it is, after thirty-six months of fruitless searches and applications without response, the forties would be satisfied with a minimum wage, although it has twenty years experience as secretary to the prosecutor in Los Angeles. Over the past year, Sheila no longer receives any unemployment benefits. It is therefore no income. "Luckily I live with my father. How else am I get out? "She asks.

Sheila lives in Los Angeles, but that it is today came Torrance consult the job offers. "I might have better luck here," she sighed half-heartedly.At about twenty miles west of downtown, Torrance is home to the headquarters of U.S. automakers Toyota and Honda, companies that only hire certainly not now, but around which created an economy of small merchants , restaurants, etc..

Degreasing the chain

Eighth global economy, California stands today especially the second worst unemployment rate in the country (12.1%) after the Nevada (13.4%). Only the San Francisco area, the heart of high-tech industries and the Internet is more or less spared thanks to companies like Twitter and Facebook continue to recruit qualified personnel. The rest of the state bogged down. Building on education, the downsizing continues as roads and school performance deteriorated.In the center, in the San Joaquin Valley, the unemployment rate reached 40% in some towns. To the south, near the Mexican border, it rises to 26% in the Greater El Centro.

Alarmed by stagnant growth, stock market rout and a nagging housing crisis, employers in California have eliminated 8,400 jobs in August (after having created 98,500 since the beginning of the year). 3600 of them were eliminated in the public sector. The teacher Cindy Cheritan is one of the many victims of these cuts. She found herself obliged to accept a job as a nurse throughout the summer, paid $ 50 per day, because the City of Downey, where she works, can no longer afford to offer the remedial courses that summer allow teachers to make ends meet during their two months of unpaid leave."I've mostly replacements, says Cindy, because it is currently impossible to get tenure."

Three hundred applicants for every job

Cindy's case is emblematic. She returned several times the path to college for a career change. Having obtained a real estate license at the beginning of the real estate crisis of 1997, she was forced to abandon this activity almost immediately. "At the time, there was a shortage of teachers. So I opted for this profession. "Struck by bad luck, she became a teacher at age 45, after five years of study, just when education authorities began to fire teachers. Cindy is now for the group 16.3% of Californians living below the poverty line.At 50, she returned also live with her parents.

"We see a lot of engineers, says Christina Haggins, the job center of Redondo Beach as the aerospace industry, a strong presence here, has eliminated thousands of jobs. Recently we even had a judge have been unemployed for several months. We tried to help him, but he still has not found anything. "

According to the California Labor Department, about 300 candidates apply for each job. As was recently the case in a holistic care center for pets. "They were looking for a receptionist. We were 250 to introduce ourselves, "said Julie, unemployed for two years.

California and have any interest in adopting the employment plan recently presented by Barack Obama.The $ 3.9 billion allocated to infrastructure renewal of the state could create 51,500 jobs, 37,000 teachers could find the way to school. Finally, about 710,000 SMEs would receive tax cuts and social security. "We absolutely must get out of the economic hole we have fallen," calls the director of the Institute for Research and Development of the use of UCLA, Chris Tilly. "People need to get back on their spending and businesses to hire."

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France is deploying the smart electricity meter

Sunday, September 25th, 2011

The smart electricity meter – or communicating – also known as counter Linky, will be extended to all of France. The decision will be made official Wednesday by the Minister of Industry, Eric Besson, attended by all stakeholders in this important industry. So far, this counter had been the subject of a test phase, in Lyon and Touraine.

This counter communicator, which allows to know its power consumption in real time and thus better control, will be installed progressively from late 2013-early 2014. A five-year period is planned to equip 35 million consumers, knowing that the European directive assigns a target that 80% of users are in possession of this tool in 2020. "This counter is a future asset for the modernization of the electricity distribution network.It will particularly help to end the current system of estimated bills, sources of discussions, said one industry player. In addition, the meter installation will require the creation of over 10,000 jobs. "

Throughout the past few weeks, a severe battle was between ERDF – a subsidiary of EDF in charge of distribution – and local authorities about the property counters Linky. Upon arrival, the government has not decided to change the current law, which states that the networks, which include counters, belong to communities. In support of its reflection, the government relied on the report of "Committee Linky" on the generalization of communicating electricity meters in France.The report, led by parliamentarians Ladislas Poniatowski and Jean-Claude Lenoir, was sent Sept. 21 to Eric Besson.

According to the overall pattern was retained, ERDF will be responsible for ordering and installation of new meters. These will be installed free of charge, the government decided that not considering either a tax increase for network use, one of the elements of the bill paid by customers.

A cost of 4.3 billion euros

In charge ERDF therefore, which plans to spend 4.3 billion euros to the generalization of the program Linky, to compensate the investment by the productivity gains achieved through this tool. For example, the new meter will perform many interventions that will distance the presence of agents of ERDF to the customer will no longer be necessary."But whatever the gains, a system of passing on costs is possible sooner or later," suggests an industry expert.

As for local, they indicated that the expected effectiveness of the new meter is fully proven. In other words it is shown that consumers can realize significant energy savings. Widespread Linky is a crucial element of energy efficiency policy of the government at a time when energy prices rise.

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Savers: Do not panic, but concern about the risks

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

"Customers are asking us if they have to worry about. To reassure them, we remind the facts, we communicate on our exposure to Greece … our profitability, "said Jean-François Sammarcelli, Network Manager of Societe Generale France. He said the withdrawals are not more important than usual, as the bank continues to attract savings … but the wealthiest clients shall, as a precaution, to spread their cash across multiple institutions. "Those other banks have the same reaction. We therefore also take this opportunity, "he adds. This is a situation that the banks had already known in 2008.

In every European bank, customers benefit because in case of bankruptcy of a guarantee on their deposits: checking account, savings plans, deposit accounts, or bank books (excluding Livret A, guaranteed by the state).But it is capped at 100,000 euros per person.

In France, it is provided by the Guarantee Fund deposits, which now has … two billion euros. Obviously too small a sum to compensate customers of a major bank. "The fund is one of the best capitalized in Europe. And he may at any time raise additional capital or borrow from banks, "says Thierry Dissaux, CEO of the Guarantee Fund deposits. In practice, its mission is primarily to avoid the worst, by participating in the rescue of troubled institutions before it is too late.

Life insurance affected?

And it is ultimately the more reassuring for the French: none imagine that the state gives up a large bank low fee payday advance. The debate, which opened this weekend on the assumption of a partial nationalization in point.Some investors wonder, them, especially the fate of their contract of life insurance. Although insurers claim to have little Greek bonds, a default of Athens served diminish returns to investors. Yields as affected by the collapse of the Exchange.

Insurers also hold, in proportions much larger government borrowing Italian or Spanish. If concerned about this exposure to sovereign debt, and disappointed by the declining returns of their investment favorite, the French withdrew their money en masse, insurers could be forced to sell their assets at the worst time. "We're not there. Withdrawals from the contracts increases for two years, partly because the holders of life insurance age and draw on their savings to finance their retirement, "said Chistophe Eberle, President Optimind, actuarial consulting firm.But insurers still manage the risk. "In 2008, the drying up of liquidity in the markets had led to withdrawals from the contracts. In our funds in euros, so we decided to keep cash in the interests served by our bond portfolios, to be ready to face any withdrawals, "says Sonia Fendler, General Heritage.

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HSBC will eliminate 30,000 jobs by 2013

Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011

New cold shower for employees of large international banks. After Goldman Sachs, Lloyds Banking and Intesa Sanpaolo, HSBC is about to turn to give a serious tightening in its workforce: the British giant plans to eliminate 25,000 jobs worldwide within two years, in addition to the 5000 already announced in Latin America, United States, Britain and France.

Institutions are trying to adjust to their new regulatory and economic environment heated, that undermine the profits of their activities and investment.

HSBC did not identify the countries involved in the wave of savings.But the new leader of the group since January, Stuart Gulliver, had clarified its intentions with the publication of its strategic plan in May: he wants to return to the strategy of geographical expansion at any of his predecessors, will focus its efforts to on Asia.

In 39 countries, the bank has planned to scale back or even shut down some businesses, as it did for its retail banking in Russia or Poland. In the U.S., it will sell 195 branches to First Niagara for one billion dollars. In total, approximately 10% of the HSBC will be affected by the wave of savings. "A brutal restructuring plunging thousands of employees in limbo," according to the union Unite.The purpose of the institution is to reduce by two years its fixed costs at least $ 2.5 billion.

New regulations

The markets expressed their good report: in a very depressed market environment, the title of the bank surged 2 online payday advance.19% Monday. Investors greeted the passage of publication of interim results of good quality, marked with a taxable income of $ 11.5 billion (8 billion), up 3% year on year.

The HSBC savings plan should also prepare the institution to banking regulations in the future. More demanding in terms of mobilizing capital and liquidity, the new rules have encouraged banks to lower their activity levels. The gloomy global economic outlook, fueled by the debt crisis, also pushing the leaders to be cautious.Especially for the upturn, the schools had massively hired two years ago, in trading activities, in particular.

Since the spring, the banking industry have frequent announcements of job cuts. Goldman Sachs will separate for "economic reasons" about a thousand employees in September. Barclays would have eliminated 600 jobs in its investment banking division, BarCap and 2000 in its retail operations, since the beginning of the year. His compatriot Lloyds Banking Group is preparing to offload 15,000 jobs in order to focus on the United Kingdom. Allied Irish Bank Irish plans to turn to go from 2000 employees. German Commerzbank has already eliminated 7,400 positions. Credit Suisse expects 2000 job cuts in its investment bank, Intesa Sanpaolo 3000 …

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U.S. debt: the savings plan scaled back

Sunday, July 10th, 2011

The U.S. lawmakers are reviewing their ambitions down. The Republican chairman of the House of Representatives of the United States, John Boehner, said Saturday that he would not agree on the broad deficit-reduction plan advocated by Barack Obama. Instead of four trillion dollars in savings over ten years required by the President of the United States is now on a more narrow of the order from 2000 to 3000 billion dollars in savings, to be negotiated between Democrats and Republicans, said John Boehner.

"Despite good faith efforts to find a common base, the White House will not consent to a broader agreement on reducing the debt without raising taxes. So I think that the best approach might be to focus on a smaller, "said the Republican.

Budget cuts

The aim of the negotiations that are straining the elected representatives of two major American parties is twofold: first, raising the U.S. debt ceiling authorized, currently set at 14,300 billion and achieved since mid-May Without agreement on this point, the Treasury warned that the United States would find themselves in default of payment on 2 August. A scenario unique to cause global bond market crash.

Elected officials must also agree on a comprehensive plan of savings, without which Democrats as Republicans admit that the U.S. debt is not sustainable in the medium term. An aging population should lead to higher mechanical effect of public debt, charged in the future by heavier spending on health and higher costs related to the pension system.However, the U cash advance no fax.S. national debt has already reached the summits, looked with suspicion by the rating agencies. In this context, the figure of 4 trillion reassure markets further.

Electoral concerns

After days of deadlock, negotiations appeared to unravel Thursday, after Obama met with leaders of both major parties in Congress. In granting budget cuts for health and social security, so far regarded as untouchable by the Democrats, Barack Obama has paved the way for an agreement that he would like "historic".

In return, the president was calling for concessions from the Republicans on the taxation of the rich. "We can not ask the middle class and senior citizens to bear alone the brunt of budget cuts, held Saturday, spokesman for the White House.Are also the richest pay their fair share, and we believe that Americans agree on this point. "

For their part, Republicans are reluctant to vote for one trillion tax increases that Barack Obama is calling for. In general, Republicans as Democrats are concerned that measures spending cuts or tax increases adopted in the savings plan does not cost them the next election.

Barack Obama would meet again in the early evening the leaders of the House of Representatives, where Republicans are the majority, and Senate. The White House said in the wake of the announcement of John Boehner she still hoped to get him back on his positions.

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Le Parisien 30 million invested in its recovery

Saturday, July 9th, 2011

Philip Carli, who arrived in October 2010 within the Amaury group, wants to make Paris Aujourd'hui en France "a reference to the national daily press and local cross-media in France."

LE FIGARO. – What is the content of the proposed stimulus package you presented yesterday to the employees of "Parisien in France today?"

Philippe CARLI. – We have decided to invest 30 million euros to develop and diversify our offer. This choice results from the observation that 80% of our revenues come from sales to the number. We must therefore meet the expectations of our readers. The objective is to increase our revenues of 100 million euros on the brand Le Parisien in France today. To retain and expand our audience, we plan to invest ten million euros, with, among others, the creation of a weekly magazine offers.Coupled with the daily on weekends, it will include in the second half of 2012, a news and lifestyle magazine picture of a hundred pages. In a second step could be added a weekly edition of our monthly enriched La Parisienne.

And for everyday?

Besides the fact that the model will be upgraded with a passage of 64 full color pages, we wish to reaffirm our commitment to strengthening our close nine departmental editions (eight departments of the Ile-de-France and the Oise), representing 49% of our sales. We plan to increase their editorial pagination of 50% and increase local resources, including rich media. Finally, to be closer to the cities and communities, we want to enter into agreements with associations, clubs and municipalities.A manager of the communities would be created for each edition.

You also mentioned before the diversification of employees …

Indeed we expect to invest 20 million euros in acquisitions of companies specializing in electronic transactions, including trade between individuals, group purchasing, or even the classifieds. We are also interested in human services.

The envelope of 30 million euros, also includes capital expenditure?

The journal's editorial changes will be accompanied by a modernization of two of our printing presses Saint-Ouen, where we have modernized our mailroom at a cost of 3 million euros. In addition, we invest in our management tools related to our subscribers, our readers and clients low interest rate personal loans.30 to 35 million French people each month are in contact with one of the hallmarks of our group (Le Parisien in France today, the team, Amaury Sport Organisation). It's time to capitalize on these contacts by imagining new offers for our subscribers. I am convinced that this is a very strong leverage income.

Where are you in the digital convergence of your editors?

If there is one place where it is well advanced, it is in our county editions, where journalists play the game But there is still room for improvement, including better integration of information flow and anticipate events . In terms of organization of the group Le Parisien, five major areas should be established, bringing together existing services around cross-cutting issues – news, entertainment and sports – and two that would be created – investigation and image.The realization of any newspaper should be linked to art direction and a cross-media desk would also be created to handle all information and redirect them to different media.

This major reorganization will she downsizing?

It should actually result in the removal of items from 40 to 50 of the 600 employees that has Le Parisien. But I said that my desire is to avoid forced departures. We want to set up a voluntary redundancy plan the details of which will be discussed with the social partners in September.

What functions are involved?

Mainly managerial functions, simplifying the hierarchical organization, and positions related to the achievement of the newspaper.The creation of new centers, in particular survey and image, is expected to provide opportunities in writing to some of those involved. Scribblers writing should not, however, be affected.

On the branch Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO), what are your plans?

We will continue its internationalization. Several opportunities are being explored. We will support the development of ASO in South America, including Brazil, where we opened a subsidiary in late 2010. But also in Spain, where we took a significant stake in the Vuelta, the Tour of Spain. We also plan to organize events around the bike in Qatar and Oman. Discussions are also underway for events in China.

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Towards a tax on financial transactions?

Thursday, June 30th, 2011

A further step for the tax on financial transactions tax known as "Tobin". The European Commission will propose its creation as part of its next Buget for the period 2014-2020. She hopes to raise up to 50 billion euros per year, according to European sources cited by Reuters.

Another major proposal for the new budget: funding for the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) would be frozen at their current level of 370 billion euros, the sources said.Taking into account inflation and the general evolution of European finance, this means that the share of the CAP in the budget of the European Union (EU) will naturally decrease.

Taken up by several Member States since the crisis, including Nicolas Sarkozy, the idea of ​​tax on financial transactions developed by the Nobel Prize in economics James Tobin is considered a credible solution to help poor countries fight against global climatique.Son rate should be moderate, at 0.05%.

"The EU as a first step"

Ten days ago, the Commission President José Manuel Barroso had already discussed the proposed tax on financial transactions in a letter to EU leaders. "The Commission completes its impact and present a formal legislative proposal after the summer," wrote José Manuel Barroso.

"Our analysis shows that there is a strong case to decide whether a tax in the financial sector in the EU as a first step," he said, assuring that the Commission will "in parallel, continue to work for a global agreement on a tax on financial transactions. "

Supported by the Franco-German Cup, the tax "Tobin" has been a joint proposal of the French Socialist Party and the German SPD in their respective parliaments.The resolution was adopted in mid-June by the French deputies but less successful in the Bundestag, where she was referred to committee.

According to the French deputies, the EU legislative proposal should include "a tax on all financial transactions of 0.05%", including all stock exchange transactions and non-stock, securities, bonds and derivatives, as well as all transactions in the foreign exchange market to the tax base and revenue allocation to each of the national budget. "

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