Sundial of world news

France has not lost fiscal credibility in one night: the election of Francois Hollande suddenly does not make the country less able to finance its debt. While remembering not to take any "political position" is the message that wished to address the rating agency Standard & Poor's Monday morning, issuing a statement saying that the memo from France – "AA +" with perspective negative – was not challenged.

"We still believe there is at least one in three chance that we may need to lower the long-term rating of France this year or in 2013," says S & P, however, with regard to finances public.

Test market 16 May

In its statement, the agency says it will "analyze the choice of new president and new government" and take into account in any future decision on the outcome of the June elections payday advances.

The next auction of debt, which will be held Thursday, May 16, should serve as a real test markets. It is at this moment that we will know if investor demand to fund the French debt is as important as ever.

At the Agence France Trésor (AFT), we simply note that Monday morning, "the 10-year yield continues to relax"

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Finally! Nearly three years after entering into partnership, the Alliance Search, research online, the Microsoft and Yahoo! extend to Europe. The operation aims to add Internet searches conducted since those of Yahoo! Bing, the search engine from Microsoft.

This partnership aims to bridge the delay between the two groups facing Google. They desperately need to increase their market share. First, because the algorithms used by search engines feed on queries made: most recent, the stronger the results will be relevant by users.

By capturing more online research, Search Alliance also aims to improve the profitability available to online advertisers and attractiveness. Furthermore, this joint platform simplifies the management of advertising campaigns for advertisers. Thursday, May 4, customers advertising French, British and Irish Yahoo! Search have been switched on the Microsoft platform Adverstising Center. The next step will concern Germany, Switzerland and Austria.

On paper, this combination has many advantages, including simplification, and the advantage of offering an alternative to Google. The only problem is that people do not follow. In the U.S., Google holds nearly two-thirds of the market for online search. Just over 80% in France.

The CEO of Yahoo! lied on his CV

In addition, the deployment of this agreement is particularly slow. Especially in a world that is changing as rapidly as the Web. While Google reflects on responses to set up facing the rise of Facebook, Search Alliance is still looking to counter Google.

And for good reason. The agreement between Microsoft and Yahoo! on-line search was concluded in July 2009. Two years after having negotiated, Carol Bartz, Yahoo! CEO then, decided to suspend operations because of disappointing results, especially for sponsored links. Since then, Carol Bartz was dismissed with loss and noise, before being replaced four months later by Scott Thompson.

But Yahoo! unlucky. Only the group he was commended for a new CEO is a scandal erupted on May 3 Scott Thompson lied on his resume. The man claims to computer science graduate from a prestigious university. It actually has a degree in accounting. The information was revealed by Dan Loeb, head of a fund activist who is seeking seats on the board of Yahoo!. And now, the head of the new boss. If he defends himself by noting that it is just a simple "failure", that is not enough to silence the fire from critics.

United States, we do not mess with the lie. This controversy could not come at a worse for Yahoo!. Already analysts are betting on a possible resignation.

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Google, Apple, Amazon and Facebook have better watch out. The French presidential candidates are determined to stop tax evasion which these American giants of the Internet are guilty by repatriating their revenues in France to countries like Ireland or Luxembourg, where tax companies is softer.

In their profession of faith addressed to the Digital Collective of digital players, Nicolas Sarkozy as Francois Hollande promised to introduce fiscal measures to impose American groups as their French competitors in the Hexagon. "We will favor the European way (…) but we also work with a national solution," said the Socialist candidate as well. Specifically, it is to negotiate the "establishment virtual stable" at European level even with the OECD and to use the short term, to "complete business cycle" that can be considered as localized in France transactions of a company headquarters abroad. Both solutions also contained in the program menu of digital Nicolas Sarkozy, who wants "a fair taxation system in France and Europe." These tools would produce more revenue than the proposed "Google tax" championed by Senator Philippe Marini UMP, limited him to online advertising revenues.

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The gas leak that caused the evacuation of 238 people on the platform of Total Elgin in the North Sea, 240 km east of Aberdeen in Scotland, still has a risk of explosion.

The BBC said that the flare used to burn non-exploitable gas was left burning on the Elgin platform, despite the risks involved with all the gas that is brought to the surface. A surprising situation, considering that the oil company has yet taken every precaution to avoid an explosion, especially by cutting the current on the farm. A spokesman for Total, quoted by the BBC, ensures that risks are limited, since the flare is 90 m high and the winds are favorable, causing the gas cloud in the right direction.

Preston Martin, an expert in marine pollution at the University of Liverpool, in turn ensures the BBC that the explosion risks persist and that "nobody will be able to approach the platform as the flare is lit . As it burns, they will have to find a plan B, "he said.

The director of health, safety and environment at Total, David Hainsworth, also acknowledged that a risk of explosion existed.

The flare is not supplied with gas, and had decreased in size Tuesday night. It can not be turned off remotely, but should eventually go out of itself, according to the spokesman for Total television quoted British public.

The evacuation of the platform Elgin has avoided a repeat of the worst disaster in the history of oil, the explosion of the Piper Alpha platform, which had 167 deaths in July 1988 after a gas leak on a similar offshore operations.

According to the British magazine New Scientist, quoting a source at Total, the leak did not come from the main geological reservoir in which natural gas is extracted, but an intermediate layer, closest to the surface. The gas goes back to the surface by the casing surrounding the drill pipe.

This would explain why all the efforts of staff the platform to plug the leaks found Sunday were unsuccessful. Only positive, the amount of gas in the intermediate tank should be smaller, and lower pressure than the main tank, which in turn, was secured.

Total would not confirm or deny this information, providing only that "studies are underway to analyze the causes of the leak." Industry experts estimate it will take several days to positively identify its origin, which is made very complicated by the fact that nobody left on the site.

LE FIGARO. – Must restart nuclear power plants in Japan?

Nobuo Tanaka. – Yes, as soon as possible. Iran represents a huge potential risk. Over 80% of our oil imports and 20% of our gas imports pass through the Strait of Hormuz. We have 170 days of oil stocks, only 20 days for gas. Iranian attack risk is much higher than that of a large tsunami! If we do jumpstart by plants, it could be missed 10% of electricity this summer.

How much would it cost to Japan to do without nuclear power?

At current oil prices, just to replace the current nuclear by fossil fuels, it would cost 3 trillion yen per year (28 billion euros, Ed).

To diversify your natural gas supplies, the construction of an undersea pipeline bringing Russian gas via the neighboring island of Sakhalin is feasible?

Just as the German decision to import Soviet gas in the 1970s improved the Germano-Russian relationship, build a pipeline could help solve the diplomatic dispute that pits Japan against Russia over the Kuril Islands. Russia's interest to diversify its customers in the Far East. Japan could also operate its own gas: methane hydrates on the ocean floor mats are a great potential, especially if oil prices continue to rise much.

How to develop renewable energy in Japan, which are still marginal?

I see no future for the solar wind, in Japan. The government will introduce a feed-in tariff incentive. This is necessary but not sufficient. To complement the intermittent energy, it takes gas or geothermal energy, and a soft market. There is also great potential in marine energy.

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A first for thirty years! The U.S. utility Southern Company said Thursday it would launch the construction of two new nuclear reactors at the site of the Vogtle plant in Georgia. The U.S. nuclear watchdog, the NRC has in fact given the green light, the final stage of an administrative process that began in 2005. The award of this license comes eleven months after the nuclear disaster at Fukushima and at a time when, in the opinion of most American experts, the historically low gas prices in the U.S., thanks to the abundance of gas shale, makes uncertain the profitability of the construction and operation of a nuclear power plant. Thomas Fanning, CEO of Southern Company, hopes the two new reactors of 1,100 megawatts each will respectively be operational in 2016 and 2017. They feed one million homes. The project represents an investment of $ 14 billion (10 paperless payday loans.6 billion euros).

Southern chose the long AP1000 designed by the American Westinghouse, now controlled by the Japanese giant Toshiba. If the last U.S. nuclear power plants came online in 1996, the NRC had not awarded a license since 1978, the year before the accident at Three Mile Island in Pennsylvania, where a nuclear reactor had partially melted, causing no victims. Announced the revival of nuclear power in the 2000s has been slowed due to a combination of the accident at Fukushima in 2011 and the spectacular development of shale gas that made the United States, in the space of three years , an exporter of natural gas.

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"Besson:" Nuclear power will remain cheap "

The nuclear power, which is in France more than 75% of the total electricity production, it is the lung of the domestic industry? A total industrial consumption in the Hexagon is approximately 140 terawatt hours (TWh), representing a third of the total electricity consumption. It covers 30,000 companies – including 600 "electro-intensive" – ​​which employ 3 million workers and generates a turnover of 900 billion euros.

In addition to these large volumes, nuclear power is distinguished by its long prices. "In late 1980, Pechiney had wanted to relocate its operations in Canada, where hydroelectric power is a considerable asset.The group ended up staying in France because that EDF was able to make a competitive offer-cons based on the competitive cost of nuclear electricity, "recalls Colette Lewiner, director of international energy and utilities sector at Capgemini payday loan lenders.

Specifically, in its latest "Observatory of European energy markets," Capgemini shows that the electricity in France remains one of the cheapest in Europe. "But to the industrial, the argument prices is not the only criterion. They also want the visibility, the gold price of nuclear electricity are distinguished by their predictability: they are much less sensitive to changes in the price of electricity produced from fossil fuels such as gas or oil, Jean-Jacques Nieuviaert note, Councillor in charge of the overall economy and markets to the French Union of Electricity (UFE).

A double crisis summit before the true summit! This is the shock treatment that Europe has inflicted over the last hour due to Greek crisis. Completely disrupting the predetermined agenda, European leaders met late Wednesday afternoon in Cannes on the eve of the official opening of the G20, to try to restore order in their home. The foundations of the euro have been greatly shaken by the surprise decision by Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, to submit the agreement between EU leaders in Brussels on October 27, in a referendum. Called to come and explain this decision, the Greek ruler walked away from Cannes late Wednesday night.

In a press conference, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy have shown a very high severity, both in form and substance. "We will not let destroy Europe and the euro," commented Nicolas Sarkozy.The Greeks have to say quickly and clearly if they choose or not to keep their place in the euro area. "

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Not everything has dragged on last night in Brussels. From 20 hours, the heads of state of the 27 EU countries have approved the launch of a large recapitalization of European banks, encrypted by the industry policeman to 106 billion euros. The principle was in fact acknowledged the last Saturday by finance ministers.

106 billion euros. This figure results from the examination of bank balance sheets after taking into account the loss of value to the end of September of sovereign debt Greek, Irish, Portuguese, Spanish or Italian, but also gains recorded on their German or British counterparts. On this basis, regulators assessed for each bank the way to go to 9% of regulatory capital ratio ("core tier 1" prudential banking jargon). This objective will be achieved on June 30 at the latest.And the addition is particularly heavy for Greek banks, of course (30 billion euros), but also in Spain (26 billion) and Italy (14.8 billion). In France, the bill is estimated at 8.8 billion, Germany at 5.1 billion.

A new showdown promises

This total was largely anticipated by the market and the banks themselves. However, a new showdown between the industry and promises to the authorities. "We ask banks to recapitalize. Not to cut their balance sheets, "argued a senior Wednesday ahead of the summit. Number of facilities provided to achieve because much of the effort flopped the sails, that is to say, by limiting their activities consume the most capital. But Europe is concerned about the impact of these strategies on the distribution of credit, especially in the east where the industry is largely owned by groups of Western Europe.The Council of the Union has insisted on its vigilance on this point. And regulators have developed their doctrine accordingly. End of June 2012, they calculate the ratio of each bank according to its balance sheet at September 30, 2011 …. It is therefore too late to play on the variable of total assets. Only an increase in capital will reach the famous 9%.

Putting aside the benefits

To avoid making capital increases in market conditions given the state of detestable share price values ​​the industry or, worse, to use the state to bail out the banks who can n ' have only one option: to put their profits in reserve, probably in much higher proportions for use. This means that the shareholders of the banks concerned will receive little or no dividend next year.Politicians hide it just, that sacrifice is almost as an objective.

All has not been lost to the banks. The Council of the EU, the European Banking Authority, promised to lay the foundation for coordinated action to help them take on the market. The sovereign debt crisis cut investors' appetite for foreign bank debts. However, they will raise more than € 600 billion next year. The European Central Bank has opened the floodgates of funding up to a year. But it can do much more as the industry needs stable funding, so many years. Government guarantees could be implemented.

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The debt crisis that shook the euro area, the French deep mine. This is for 79% of them, the crisis "the worst" in recent years, according to a poll Ifop for the Journal du Dimanche. Faced with the economic and social situation of France, 53% of respondents said they were "rebels," while 29% are "resigned." A resignation which probably explains why the movement of "outraged" that began in Spain last spring and has spread across Europe and to the United States, failed to France.

The French are indeed very pessimistic. Only 4% of them believe in a crisis within the next six months. Nearly a majority (46%), however, do not expect improvement until 2014. "This survey highlights the malaise of the French," said Frederic Dabi, director of the division of opinion Ifop."For them, this is a serious crisis which they do not see the exit and on which policies can not be weighed." However, they are preparing for 57% of the "painful and difficult measures." They are also willing to make sacrifices, including cutting costs in their "comfort" and in their holiday budget, the study said.

When asked about the causes of the crisis, 52% of French people point the finger at the role of financial markets. Far behind, the government (26%), banks (15%), EU (10%), the French as a whole (6%), emerging (5%) and businesses (1%) are also considered partially responsible for the current crisis. "Paradoxically, while their commitment to the EU is often tenuous, the French for more Europe," Frederic Dabi analysis.As proof, they say they support the creation of a European Ministry of Economy.

Theme of the presidential election

As European leaders gather in Brussels on Sunday for a coordinated response to the crisis, the French have already an idea of ​​what the state could do 63% of them believe the government should take an interest in banks, either by becoming the majority shareholder of the establishment or nationalization. Despite their concern, 23% of respondents would prefer the state to intervene simply abstain. Maybe they think that the French economy can only suffer, as the government prepares to revise downwards its growth forecast for 2012 still set at 1.75%."Part of the public continues to believe that when dealing with Greece, it does not deal with French," says Pierre Giacometti, advisor opinion of the President of the Republic, in the columns of world.

Yet a few months before the presidential election, the crisis in the euro area will be the theme of the campaign. Nicolas Sarkozy will speak on the subject on television next Thursday, the day after the second EU summit is to say, once firm decisions have been taken. A key event with the French, while the popularity of the president is at half mast. "Even if the credits of some courage, nothing will be counted as long as there is a lack of visibility on the crisis," Pierre Giacometti analysis in Le Monde.

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