Sep 19




All Americans should be involved in the effort to reduce the deficit. This is the message sent on Monday by Barack Obama from the White House Rose Garden. The U.S. president, who presented his program of deficit reduction, confirmed a tax plan of 1500 billion to the deficit of 3000 billion over the next ten years. "We can not get out of this abyss only by reducing spending. It is normal that we ask everyone to pay their fair share, "said the president.

In Focus: the wealthiest Americans. Barack Obama chose not to extend beyond the end of 2012, the expiration date, the tax breaks granted to wealthier by the administration of his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush (800 billion dollars and would be recovered over ten years)."We can not afford these tax rates low for the rich. We can not help us while we are suffering large deficits, "he says.

The most significant proposal remains the introduction of a tax, "Buffett," the name of the investor Warren Buffett who has proposed. As expected, Bush did not go into details about the conditions of its applications but according to the New York Times, the tax on millionaires that will concern only 0.3% of taxpayers.

"This is not the class struggle is mathematical"

Responding to criticism from his Republican opponents, who accuse him of wanting to punish those who have succeeded and discourage the "job creators," Barack Obama said that "it is not the class struggle is mathematics ".He said "any reform plan will increase revenues to help reduce our deficit. This must be part of the formula. " Democrat for President, "the middle-class taxpayers should not pay more taxes than millionaires and billionaires. It is loud and clear, and difficult to contradict. I will not support a plan that puts the entire burden of deficit reduction on the shoulders of the average American. "

The project also includes U.S. President down $ 580 billion in mandatory spending on social programs, including Medicare (health insurance for the elderly) and Medicaid (the federal program for the poor).But Barack Obama has warned that he would veto any proposal that would reduce these benefits without requiring an increased effort in return for the wealthiest Americans and big business.

The President was prepared to lower taxes on companies providing launch an overhaul of the tax code to eliminate some tax loopholes, such as offering tax exemptions to businesses through the acquisition of business jets (gain total of 700 billion). It is also banking on an economy 1.1 trillion dollars over ten years because of withdrawals from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Propostion of "not serious"

But the camp of the Republicans who control the House of Representatives, has already expressed his displeasure."Threatening to veto, massively increase taxes to save ghosts and build on a reform of social programs, it is not a recipe for economic growth and labor market," said the leader Senate Republicans, Mitch McConnell. John Boehner, chairman of the House of Representatives, it was found that the contribution of Obama's bipartisan commission was not "serious."

The proposals of the White House must still be forwarded to a bipartisan parliamentary committee which will meet in late November. This means that the bill is unlikely to be adopted in the state.

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Aug 10




Treasury bills do not suffer from degradation of the note of the United States. Instead, rates remain historically low. U.S. finances are parties to drift, but investors have long known, and such a decision undermines their confidence in the ability of the United States to meet its repayments. "On the contrary, the threat of similar actions in other states has positive points: it encourages the ECB to carry more debt buyer of European public and invites States to precipitate the budgetary consolidation measures, which will strengthen intrinsic quality of government securities, "relativize Patrick Artus, Research Director of Studies and Natixis.

In fact, it is especially risky assets, which suffer from fears of contagion cuts ratings of sovereign debt.Evidenced by the plummeting global stock indexes following the shock announcement Standard & Poor's. Over the past five trading days, the Cac 40 lost almost 8%, and the index companies were affected differently. These are "primarily growth stocks" that have suffered the most, says Patrick Artus, "since the fall of 2400 billion over ten years the U.S. deficit will cost a point of growth the first year." Over the period, it is almost 70 billion euros in market capitalization went up in smoke.The equivalent (almost) the biggest company in France, namely Total!

Veolia has collapsed and literally (almost 30%) in just five sessions, within the scope of the panic that has shaken the markets, but the fall of its course is mainly attributable to the publication last week of very disappointing results, while the group left half of the countries in which it operates payday loan lenders.

For Natixis, "convinced that U.S. growth will remain weak for some time (+1.8% in 2011 and estimated 2.1% in 2012)," the companies directly related to the U.S. economy will remain permanently affected by the stroke of Soft in the U.S..This is especially true of automotive manufacturers and suppliers (Renault, Peugeot, Michelin, etc.). And IT companies (Alcatel-Lucent, CapGemini).

However, the decline in raw materials – oil fell below 80 dollars – which led to the values ​​of the construction (Lafarge, Saint-Gobain), mining or oil (ArcelorMittal, Technip, Vallourec) down in recent sessions, "should not last," said Natixis again: "The demand for commodities does not depend on the U.S. economy, but more and more of the Chinese economy, especially investment in China whose growth is weakly linked to the U.S. cycle and will remain strong. "From that side, the markets have overreacted and clearly.

As for the bank, the reactions were very different depending on the titles, which are differently exposed to the problems of sovereign debt.Societe Generale is one that has suffered most of the bad going on equity markets (down 21.7% of its stock price), while Credit Agricole has sold 13.9%, BNP Paribas, 7, 7% and Natixis, only 2.1%. However, the European banking index, the Stoxx 600 Banks, hit late Tuesday to its lowest level in two years. But overall, the French banks face the storm better than two years ago because they have strengthened their balance sheets.

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Aug 9




If this is not a government program or a setting under the supervision of Italy is like. Friday, Jean-Claude Trichet and his designated successor Mario Draghi sent a joint letter to Silvio Berlusconi stating the conditions set by the ECB to the acquisition of Italian government securities on the secondary market. Conditions detailed binding, behind which one can read the label of the current governor of the Bank of Italy, future boss of the ECB. The letter should have remained secret: the Corriere della Sera reported Monday morning, after the Executive Board of the central bank in the euro area, which has long balked at the reluctance of German and Dutch governors, gave the green light to purchases of securities in Italy and Spain.

Roadmap drastic

The ECB seems to blame the previous plans of Silvio Berlusconi to be inadequate, too general, too spread out over time.As she raises her conditions. First, she asked Silvio Berlusconi to proceed by order, immediately applicable, not Bill (DDL), that Parliament is still time to approve. It then lists the reforms it expects Italy. In terms of privatization, she cites municipal corporations (public transport, roads, electricity supply, with the exception of water which will remain public).

With regard to the Labour Code in force since 1970, the ECB requires to make more flexible the procedures for dismissal and to focus on agreements in companies with sectoral agreements negotiated at the national level. This is a crucial point: Sergio Marchionne, boss of Fiat, continues to denounce the rigidity of hiring and layoffs.

By asking such requirements, the ECB ventures into unfamiliar ground.But it does not matter to the hawks in Frankfurt to fly to the rescue of Rome by putting huge sums into play if Italy does not comply with a roadmap drastically. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel pushed in that direction. In their joint statement on Sunday night, they emphasized that the return of Italy to a balanced budget in 2013 was an important "fundamental" for markets and called for "a rapid implementation and complete" the measures announced Friday by Silvio Berlusconi.

This intervention boosted the opposition: "What we really require the ECB and the international institutions? A government powerless now totally discredited and Trust must at least say what the real situation, "said the press head of the Democratic Party, Pierluigi Bersani.As for the former European Commissioner Mario Monti, he now believes that Italy is governed by a "foreign Podesta."

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Aug 7




The penalty was expected but it still sounds like a shock. In the night from Friday to Saturday, the rating agency Standard and Poor's (S & P) has dared to lower the rating for government debt of the United States, and deprived of their "AAA" for the first time in history . S & P said in a statement it had degraded to the next level this note, the best possible, to bring it to 'AA +'. It also lowered its outlook to "negative", which means that Standard and Poor's believes that the next time the note will change, it will be to be devalued again. The United States were rated "AAA" by S & P since the creation of this agency in 1941.They remain in the other two major agencies, Moody's Dean (since 1917) and Fitch Ratings.

Standard and Poor's, which had warned in April that it was considering lowering, justified its decision with "political risks" to see the country taking insufficient measures against its budget deficit. For her, the political debate on these issues is not up to the problems caused by a debt of more than 14,500 billion. "The plan for balancing the budget on which Congress and the Executive have recently agreed is insufficient compared to what, in our view, would be needed to stabilize the dynamics in the medium term public debt" said S & P, citing the law known as "control the budget" passed Tuesday.

S & P is the second rating agency to downgrade the American note, after the Chinese – less powerful – Dagong.Other – mostly American and French Moody's Fitch – are currently at Triple A.

The U.S. public debt to more than 100% of GDP

The first power of the world is, well, so sure before. The United States and joined Japan, Spain and Ireland have lost that status envied no fax payday loan. The loss of this seal of excellence is expected brutal impact on the financial markets, difficult to imagine right now. But while the financial world is upside down, the risk that markets continue to dive is high. The announcement of S & P comes in effect when the markets were closed for the weekend, closing on both sides of the Atlantic one week black.

China, by far the world's largest creditor United States, found that she had "every right now to require the United States to address their structural problems of debt."Second World holder of U.S. debt, Tokyo assured him that his confidence in the U.S. Treasury and its strategy of purchasing these bonds were unchanged. In France, the Minister of Economy Baroin reiterated his "total confidence in the strength of the U.S. economy."

Two days ago, the U.S. debt has passed a symbolic milestone. Because it exceeded the threshold of 100% of GDP, just after raising the debt ceiling by Congress. The United States saw their public finances sealed by the harsh recession that crossed their economy from late 2007 to mid-2009. Since then, economic growth has returned, but they are not able to restore the health of their public finances. According to estimates by the International Monetary Fund, they should acknowledge this year, with about 9% of GDP, the highest budget deficit of the G20 countries, except Japan.It is sixteen countries rated "AAA" by Standard and Poor's, four of the G7: Germany, Canada, France and Great Britain.

(With AFP and Reuters)

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Aug 4




In a market still panicked on issues of U.S. and European debt, he had to look this morning to find values ​​still moving into positive territory. Yet the case of Bic, which is Wednesday morning at the top of the charts in the SBF 120 and values ​​eligible for the SRD, with an increase of 5.27% to 64.74 euros an hour after opening. The reason: the publication of interim results above expectations, at least much of its activity. Good news that restores a little balm in the heart of the operators, cooled from a fortnight in business publications rather disappointing. Demonstrated again this morning the profit warning from Société Générale, in turn affected by the effects of the crisis of the Greek debt.

This is clearly not the case for Bic.The specialist in stationery, lighters and shavers has indeed unveiled Wednesday half-yearly sales up 5.5% (comparable) to 886.1 million euros and an operating profit of 174.9 million euros. An annual increase of 22.4% more than that of revenue, thanks in part to the increase in gross margin and cost savings involved in the restructuring program in 2009.

Offset deliveries of orders for back-classesCes good results are obtained Bic thanks to sales growth markets (+15.3% on a comparable basis) and by the strong performance of its consumer division (stationery, lighters, razors ).The latter, which represents over 85% of its turnover, has in fact increased by 8.8% over the period to 758.8 million euros, supported among others by the good performance in stationery and lighters in Latin America and Asia lighters.

However, in Europe and the United States, stationery grew much lower (about 1.5%), affected by the timing of delivery of orders to return to school. "Distributors delay until the last moment of receipt of goods back to school," explains the release. With the effect a shift in sales from the second to the third quarter. Despite this, the group remains confident for the year-end on this division that made its reputation. For 2011, management believes that growth in this sector will exceed the 5% previously announced for the year.

Advertising products to the penalty

Investors have therefore retained the good news rather than the poor performance of the other activities of Bic, namely advertising and promotional products (Bic APP), which represents 15% of its sales. In the first six months of the year, income from this activity decreased by 10.2% on a comparable basis, affected by "customer service issues, including delivery." In addition, BIC recorded in this division of non-recurring items mainly related to the reorganization of its Italian operations, affecting up to 1.9 million euros operating profit. In the end, Bic APP recorded a loss from operations of 3.5 million euros, against a gain of 1.6 million a year earlier.Bic said however, "confident about the success of the integration plan and return to growth of this branch in 2012."

In the longer term, Bic is also focusing on growing markets for its development. Within a decade, he wants to increase the share of its business that is conducted at over 40% against 29% in 2010. And to address inflationary environment of commodity prices, Bic plans in the coming weeks price adjustments "targeted" on some of its products. A "power-pricing" that would also be useful to offset increased marketing investments to support the brand.

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Jul 19




The wiretapping scandal that is the empire of the waver media magnate Rupert Murdoch could seriously undermine the financial health of News Corp.. The rating agency Standard & Poor's has placed under surveillance the note of media group, currently BBB +. Investors welcomed this decision: As News Corp, which lost 4.32% yesterday even on Wall Street rebounds on Tuesday morning at the Sydney Stock Exchange, gaining 2.75% in mid-session.

Standard & Poor's is concerned about "the increased risk associated with the activities and reputation (the group) while the legal extend." The financial consequences of the scandal is already heavy for News Corp, which had to abandon his flagship project of redemption of all of the satellite channel BSkyB.And the rating agency believes that a tarnished reputation "may scare off customers or future, to lose opportunities and divert attention from the leaders." Now that reputation has been affected by "the amplification of the legal proceedings in Britain and the pressure from U.S. lawmakers for an FBI investigation," said the rating agency before turning to the resignations and the convening of several leaders for a hearing by the British Parliament on July 19.

In addition, the group management may be altered. According to Bloomberg, the Board would discuss the replacement of Rupert Murdoch as head of the group, despite the support the manager confirmed yesterday by a director, Tom Perkins.The Wall Street Journal yesterday, the CEO and founder of News Corp is considering himself to let go of the reins of his company for more than a year, giving way to Chase Carey, the current chief operating officer of group. The departure of Rupert Murdoch has also become a struggle for the collective LulzSec hackers, who hijacked last night a page of the website of Sun, directing users to a hoax article-which announced the death of the boss of News Corp.

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Jul 2




The Secretary General of the UMP, Hervé Novelli, wants to remove the 35 hours if Nicolas Sarkozy wins in 2012. And, as requested by the MEDEF. Hervé Novelli unveils project in an interview Saturday in Paris, in France today. "This is to define the new rules and the areas in which the social partners will now hand as the length of working time. Just like Germany where the legal working time is negotiated and determined on a company or branches, "says Novelli."We know that from one sector to another, the needs are not the same, so it's logical that he return to the social partners to address this problem." Argues there yet.

"Three years to negotiate working hours"

Speaking at a convention on social reconstruction that will host Tuesday with Jean-Francois Cope, secretary general of the UMP, he will present his script. "Companies will have three years from 2012 to negotiate working hours, he says. While some employers will remain at 35 hours, they can. Those who play the game will be held to compensate their relief over the next three years. " He also said that the tax exemption of overtime will be abolished after 2014.

The UMP also wishes to address the financing of social protection."The solution would be to transfer part of its funding on indirect taxation of consumption type VAT or CSG. Only the family branch would be transferred, in whole, or 32 billion euros, or in part, "he explains. He added: "If we transferred the whole, this would be 4 points plus VAT. But I recognize that this growth would break. We therefore advocate a gradual transfer of 12 billion euros in three years, in the end an increase of 1.5% VAT or 1.1 point of CSG, "says Novelli.

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Jun 29




After the accident nucléraire Japan March 11 Fukushima, who questioned the safety of nuclear power in the world, Areva intends to secure its investments by standing as a major player in offshore wind Thus, the group NUCLEAR he announced Wednesday morning that it has signed a strategic partnership with Iberdrola Renewables, a subsidiary of Spanish giant Iberdrola and world leader in offshore wind to meet the tender just launched by the French government. The project, detailed by Nicolas Sarkozy last January after being repeatedly postponed, for the first phase is to establish 600 wind turbines with an installed capacity of 3,000 megawatts (MW) in France. In 2020, Nicolas Sarkozy has described the goal of 6000 MW of offshore wind, or 1200 units to be built.The specifications of the tender will be published in July, two months behind schedule.

"Areva and Iberdrola are two major areas of the five selected for the first phase of the tender," said the French group said in a statement, without giving further details. The five development zones are located on the Atlantic coast and the Channel, between Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique) and Tréport (Seine-Maritime) easy pay day loans. According to the newspaper Les Echos, the areas of Saint-Brieuc and Saint-Nazaire are cited, and the two companies together produce between 500 and 750 MW of capacity. In addition, a construction group should join them "very soon".If the alliance was successful, Iberdrola Renewables will develop the project as it does in Germany or the United Kingdom while Areva exclusively manufacture and supply of wind turbines of 5 MW.

Recently, GDF-Suez and Vinci jointly responded to the tender which is a whole of 10 billion euros for zones of Dieppe-Tréport, Fecamp (both in Seine-Maritime) and Courseulles -sur-Mer (Calvados). While at the beginning of the year, Alstom and EDF Energies Nouvelles announced together to meet all of the tender.

This announcement could be the last made under the direction of Anne Lauvergeon whose term expires June 30 Luc Oursel then take the head of the Executive tomorrow, Thursday.

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Jun 26




A race against time. On Monday, the French stage will present at the National Rugby Marcoussis, before the DNACG (National Directorate of assistance and management control) financial guarantees as to the survival of the Parisian club, after the fraud case linked Facem the Canadian Foundation (Foundation for the Improvement of children in the world).

Still two million find

The figure is known, the French stage has a deficit of 6 million euros to be filled Monday. Bernard Laporte would have found new investors. But after the spectacular failure of Facem, the pool of investors formed by the Englishman Richard Pool-Jones, former player for the club, has also been reactivated, with the help of Serge Kampf, CEO of Capgemini and a great patron of rugby French, and former international Jean-Pierre Rives.The DNACG, before which the Parisian club had already presented in May, is now more demanding, it expects 12.6 million euros in guarantees, in the amount that would normally Facem injected. The round of Pool-Jones would have raised 8 million – the amount initially met – and another 2 million could be saved by reviewing the operating mode of the Parisian club. Remains yet to find 2 million euros to avoid the gauntlet of the "financial policeman" of French rugby. The question is which of the two solutions will be chosen.

A bloated workforce that will have to degrease

Ironically, the missing 2 million in the plane of Pool-Jones correspond to expenses incurred in recruiting high-end by the French stage version which had Laporte on 20 million euros pledged by the Facem but are never arrived.

A total of 19 players have committed to the Paris Club, including the Argentine Felipe Contepomi, New Zealand's Byron Kelleher and Paul Sackey English no fax cash loans. The wage bill had increased to 8 million euros. Another nod, the signature of South Africans Mostert and Van Zyl was announced just minutes before the revelation of the scam. Tuesday afternoon, already aware of the shock, the agents were in turmoil, many trying to resettle their foals outside the capital. Obvious: we'll have to degrease the mammoth. Pascal Pape and David Attoub could rebound in Lyon, recently promoted to Top 14. Bastareaud, who wishes to engage with Toulon but is retained by Bernard Laporte, will get the proper output in the coming days. Mourad Boudjellal, the president of RCT, intention, however, take advantage of the situation. "The first thing that the French stage recovers.I prefer to renegotiate with Max Guazzini and Bernard Laporte in top form in this situation. I really do not want to take advantage, "he said Friday in Var Matin.

Laporte, a return that is like a slap in the face

It would revive the French stage, it could remain who precipitated his fall. Without money from the Facem (three related to this foundation have since been placed in custody), there is nothing. Former Secretary of State for Sport has played with fire. He has left € 170,000 under the guarantees. Salagoïty Francis, former president of the Bayonne where "Bernie" was a brief passage, drives the point home in South West: "Everyone will understand that my apprehensions were based on Bernard Laporte." The only way to bounce back is that the new rescue plan is adopted.In either case, it is rumored that Serge Kampf would not want to hear about it …

Jun 24




A dozen days after an employee is killed at the site of the nuclear reactor of the third generation EPR under construction at Flamanville, the newspaper L'Humanité reveals that the Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN) denounced a "deliberate process" of non- -reporting of accidents on the site, particularly on the part of Bouygues. In a report dated June 6, Constable nuclear lists 112 accidents occurred in 2010 on the site of the EPR with 38 accidents "to report has not been the subject of a declaration." Thus, about one accident in four has not been under declared.

ASN emphasizes the responsibility of employers, including Bouygues, which controls the civil works on site and Elco Construct. "In many cases (at least 11 examples for the group Bouygues and 8 Elco), these employers were informed of the accident.They also had knowledge of the regulatory requirement to report any accident, "wrote the Authority, adding that this proves" intent to evade the information of the inspector's work and thus to divert the surveillance "of it.

Bouygues denies responsibility

In January, when another worker, 37, died after falling from 13 to 15 meters that the CGT Bouygues accused of being responsible for the accident, and claimed to have provided the Justice documents showing that the giant construction labor law trampled on the site of Flamanville cheapest personal loan rates. A spot investigation for "manslaughter" was opened by the prosecutor of Cherbourg. And last April, ASN insiqué it was beginning an investigation of "under-reporting of accidents at the site of the EPR."

At EDF, prime contractor for the project is ensured then "make every effort" to improve the situation. The site manager was replaced a few months ago. But according to Bouygues, which controls the civil engineering of this project over 3000 workers, non-reporting of accidents "are personal initiatives." Twenty people-safety recall "regular" instructions. According to the unions, a dozen subcontractors are involved in these accidents.

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