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The German left reopens the debate on the ISF

Inspired by the French Socialists, the German Social Democrats just put a swing to the left. The SPD has decided to revive the wealth tax. Four German states, ruled by the great party of the Left, have announced their intention to submit before the summer in the Bundesrat, the upper house of Parliament, a bill for the reintroduction of a "Vermögensteuer" (ISF) modernized.

"The SPD has never hidden its emphasis on social justice. We can not simply cut down spending to meet the golden rule. That is why we are determined to pave the way for the reintroduction of the wealth tax, "said Carsten Kühl (SPD), Minister of Finance of Rhineland-Palatinate. Led by the SPD, Rhineland-Palatinate, North Rhine-Westphalia, Baden-Wuerttemberg and Hamburg will present, before the summer break, their text in the Bundesrat, which are represented the German regional states.

Their proposal includes a tax rate of 1% for individuals and businesses. This should apply to people whose heritage is over two million and save the middle class homeowners. Calculated by the SPD, this FSI could relate to the federal state between 8 and 10 billion euros per year. However the text is unlikely to be adopted in the Bundesrat, where Angela Merkel has lost its majority, but where the SPD does not have an absolute majority cheap business cards. And it would still be ratified by the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament, dominated by the center-right coalition of Chancellor.

Elections

Whatever. For the SPD it is to lay the groundwork for the legislative elections of 2013. The German Social Democrats had considered the proposal outrageous tax to 75% of the very rich made by Francois Hollande. The reluctance of the socialist candidate against the golden rule also raise the misunderstanding of the German left. But she sees the ISF a good opportunity to stand out from the Chancellor on matters of taxation.

Across the Rhine, the income tax is capped at 42% with a special 45% said "tax the rich", for those whose monthly income exceeds the 250,731 euros. The Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled in 1995 that the income tax could not exceed 50%, whereas beyond this was a confiscatory measure contrary to the fundamental law. And the federal government, which has never carried out the modernization demanded by the Court in Karlsruhe, has stopped collecting the tax on capital in 1997.

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Free Mobile: FO takes a stand on employment

Concern is growing about employment in the telecom sector. Jean-Claude Mailly, general secretary of the Workers Force, wrote to Constable telecom (ARCEP), with a copy to Francois Fillon, a letter to "attract (his) attention to the impact of the fourth mobile license in the sector ". An appointment was set with the President of ARCEP, Jean-Ludovic Silicani next Monday late afternoon.

"Our fears are a large alignment with lowest social ultimately affect employees in terms of pay, job destruction and group benefits and more generally on the future of this branch , "wrote Jean-Claude Mailly. "The public authorities must establish as quickly as a regulated framework for preventing the destruction of jobs and preventing these abuses do not fall into place," he adds.

Concerns for call centers

End of March, in an interview with Le Figaro, Jean-Ludovic Silicani indicated that the sector "risks losing about 10,000 jobs in two years." But this destruction should be creating value, generating new jobs at Free Mobile first, but also in related sectors such as electronic commerce or the Web.

A macro view is far from convincing FO. "Our feedback from the field we are rather echoes of 30,000 job cuts on the entire industry," said Pascal Pavageau, FO confederal secretary in charge of economic and industrial.

Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom, destabilized by the arrival of a new competitor, of course, have interest in stirring the cloth of employment quick guaranteed personal loans. "Some may want to cry wolf. But we see that restructuring is already underway among operators: contracts are stopped, benefits with subcontractors shall be adopted, the new hires are canceled and call centers are now going abroad, " Pavageau said Pascal, even claiming that "3% to 7% of jobs in France are starting to be outsourced, mainly on call centers." In the medium term, the union also fears that the sector is no longer able to invest as much in development, innovation and research and development.

That is seeking its FO meeting with the regulator? "First, we want to immediately and quickly, from the regulator and the government, an overview of employment in the sector, says Pascal Pavageau. Second, we want the government obtain a commitment of four operators in the maintenance of employment in France and their investment opportunities. "

The union will even consider that Oseo or ISPs may be called on to provide funding, if necessary.

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Eurozone: agreement to a firewall 800 billion

The seventeen countries of the euro reached an agreement Friday to raise 500 to 800 billion euros their "firewall" against financial crisis. Germany has dropped the ballast, but the compromise is far from meeting the expectations of the European Commission, IMF and OECD.

The envelope, which represents a theoretical capacity of loans, includes three components: 500 000 000 000 ahead for the European Stability Mechanism (SPM) which will be launched in July, 200 billion already committed by the temporary fund established in 2010 (EFSF) and 100 billion in loans already spent or pledged various EU.

This elaborate structure – and perhaps questionable because it mixes future and past – allows everyone to say it held its position. For Germany, it was essential to avoid having to raise the ceiling of the MES to avoid another vote in the Bundestag payday loan. Wolfgang Schäuble, the favorite in the race for the presidency of the Eurogroup, but agreed to keep alive a year for the EFSF, which temporarily inflate the pot.

In contrast, those that grew as the French Baroin a figure of around 1 trillion, did not get satisfaction. Discussed in Copenhagen, the project of an additional tranche of 240 billion to be used "in exceptional circumstances", has disappeared from the final declaration of the Eurogroup. Here too, Berlin has been successful. But the question remains the strength of the new firewall in the event of a major financial accident, involving, for example Spain or Italy.

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Growth: more efforts

The government calls it a "false flat". And is careful to avoid complacency. But simply slowing growth announced Wednesday morning by INSEE (0.2% in the fourth quarter of 2011, after +0.3% in the third quarter) is a pleasant surprise. At least, France does she not in recession! In its latest memo on the economy, in December, the statistics institute saw no improvement emerge this winter and announced a negative fourth quarter.

If the first comments from Bercy Wednesday morning play sobriety, it is because the executive is well aware that neither the economic equation in 2012, nor the budget equation – let alone the political equation – only became simple in one day.  

In the wake of European difficulties, a GDP contraction is expected in the first quarter of this year (0.1%), before a small growth spurt (also 0.1%) in the second quarter, according to forecasts INSEE. Under these assumptions, the growth overhang at mid-year would be almost nil. Suffice to say that although the government has revised down its growth forecast for 2012 (0.5% against 1%), nothing is won yet. To accommodate this new lens, a 0 no fax payday loans.6% increase in GDP per quarter during the second half of the year is necessary. But we must go back well before the crisis, in late 2006 and early 2007 to see similar growth rate. Today, the French economy is far from out of his convalescence.

The government has repeatedly said he had put enough money in reserve to hold its trajectory to reduce public deficits without resorting to additional austerity measures. He welcomed the results better than expected on the forehead of public finances in 2011 gives him a little oxygen for 2012. "We are in the right direction, but we can not relax," said the Minister of Economy, Baroin, a few days ago. Almost sluggish growth this year would considerably complicate a fragile situation. Half a point less growth, it is about 5 billion more to find. It will take somewhere, have clearly in mind the French.

Anyway, Paris is committed to its partners in Brussels to bring back the deficit to 4.5% of GDP at end 2012. This objective is "intangible", regularly repeats the Prime Minister Francois Fillon. Election year or not.

Airports: the strike disrupts air traffic Monday

The strike of Air Staff, which began on Monday through Thursday, did not affect this morning mass disruption of traffic, despite some delays and cancellations. But Air France still had to cancel nearly 20% of additional flights, mainly medium-haul and four long-haul.

A source aéroporturaire quoted by AFP, "126 cancellations were scheduled on Sunday evening on the 1190 movements (takeoffs and landings) provided on Monday." Air France, which represents 50% of flights from Roissy and Orly, then planned to provide 80% of its short and medium haul flights and 85% of long haul. While stating that "delays and last minute cancellations are possible."

Several cancellations "hot" have actually been announced Monday, including to Geneva, Naples, Istanbul and Rio. EasyJet has also canceled five flights this morning from Roissy. In the provinces, cancellations were also reported, without massive disruption of traffic. 13 flights were canceled Monday flights from Lyon, four due to the weather, 15 from Toulouse, Nantes to ten …

Right to strike

Sunday, the trade unions movement promised a "closely watched". Almost all of the pilots' unions – the very majority SNPL and the SPAF, and the UNPL Alter – have indeed called off work Monday through Thursday evening. The movement regards seagoing personnel (pilots and flight attendants), but also employees working on the ground, including service companies, such as baggage handlers, ramp attendants, mechanics, etc.. According to an airport source, "the movement is little ground follow-up at Air France, but the mobilization stronger among the sailors same day payday loans."

The unions are protesting against the reform of their right to strike by the National Assembly voted on the initiative of UMP Eric Diard, modeled on the guaranteed service set up to SNCF and RATP. A text that unions consider intrusive the right to strike. Transport Minister, Thierry Mariani, but on Monday reaffirmed its willingness "to go through."

Union opposition to this text adds to the social unrest generated internally by the drastic measures that savings is about to take the management of Air France to regain profitability. "Air France does not treat its employees badly but our model is out of breath", justified in the Journal du Dimanche, the new company president, Alexander Juniac.

Learn

As a precaution, Aéroports de Paris has set up a service to accommodate travelers. Teams of Aéroports de Paris (ADP) are mobilized to facilitate the reception and orientation of passengers. She advises, however, passengers will be traveling during this period to consult their airline or inquire by phone or online. Passengers can call 39 50 or from abroad +33 1 70 36 39 50. They can also go surson website. Information is also available on the website of Air France''. Smartphone users can also download the application "Myairport".

(With AFP)

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The ongoing negotiations to prevent an outright collapse of the euro area will lead, if successful, the definition of a new European balance. It will then explain to the French. What lies there, in fact, behind the formulas often repeated by Nicolas Sarkozy of "convergence Franco-German" or "greater European integration"? First of all a European circles, the first being composed of 17 members of the euro area. Second, a more integrated Europe, where intergovernmental bargaining outweighs the Community method, the latter being relegated to the role of implementation and technical body.

Before the French, Nicolas Sarkozy will decide maybe not the word federalism, because it means a loss of sovereignty that they do not approve.Polls show they are committed to the euro – are 77% want to keep the single currency, according to the latest BVA poll for BFM / Challenges / Avanquest. But other surveys indicate that about two out of three French are not ready to "more integration". The ridge is close to the head of state for several months defending the prospect of a further step towards more integration.

"Bargaining"

It should engage in this exercise in front of the French education before or after the European Council of December 8 and 9, as a great speech that will trace the contours of France in the Europe of tomorrow. "Europe must rhyme with protection, not with globalization in the eyes of the French," says William Peltier, a member of the UMP, and patron of the Letter of opinion.

Large deviation from the European Central Bank. Mario Draghi, warned on Friday that a central bank "may quickly lose credibility" and that "it would have a huge economic and social costs." It refers to market demand and France, reject, would be for the ECB buys massive state debt to halt the rise in interest rates in the euro zone and end to the crisis. A policy that the institution refuses to take on behalf of his economic principles.

"Our credibility implies the success of our monetary policy to anchor inflation expectations in the medium and long term (…) to sustain growth, job creation and financial stability. And we make this contribution in full independence, "insisted Mario Draghi.You must not wait any longer. "

Mario Draghi anticipates a decline in inflation

In his statements on Friday, the President of the ECB also said it expects a weakening "in most advanced economies." Specifically, "in the euro area, downside risks to the outlook have increased, and activity weakened moderate the pressure on prices," he added. One way, perhaps, pave the way for a new lower interest rate in December. In early November, the ECB has declined by 25 basis points (or 0.25%) to 1.25%.

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Cloud computing brings new giants

Everyone uses without necessarily knowing it, cloud computing, cloud computing, provided mostly by U.S. companies. Facebook, Hotmail (Microsoft) and Gmail (Google), the new Apple icloud are cloud services for the general public. The user accesses the service from anywhere in the world from a mobile or a PC, provided you have an Internet connection. The information is provided on request.

The same goes for companies. With the crisis, they turn to cloud computing. Instead of investing in their own equipment, they buy at the request of their storage needs, software and calculations.The cloud is "a fresh approach to IT services," says Nathaniel Martinez, analyst research firm IDC.

To make these services available all the time and safely, most of the groups IT and telecoms involved in this transformation. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Rackspace, IBM and HP are some of those actors who provide services or equipment.

"We're always interested in personal computers, smartphones and tablets. But we want to provide end to end solutions for businesses. The global market for information technology is 3000 billion per year and no company in the world carries 10% of this total, "said Michael Dell, CEO of the eponymous company.

With more PC, Dell follows a strategy similar to that of IBM.The group is building data centers and specialized solutions, including one opened in France for the distribution sector.

No company shall, alone, all the elements of the chain terminals, telecommunications network, operating systems, applications, servers, storage equipment and security software. They come together and buy the skills they lack.

Monday, Oracle acquired RightNow, $ 1.43 billion to complete its offering in the cloud applications. In storage, a battle was between market Dell to HP to purchase 3Par, won by HP. Dell fell back on Compellent. In this area, IBM, HP and Dell that are facing specialists EMC, NetApp and Hitachi Data Systems no fax payday loans.

VMware ally of Orange

For its part, the U.S. has become a giant VMware. Its market capitalization reached $ 40 billion.Size gained through solutions that optimize business costs. Its software is used to reduce the number of servers to a client company and deploy multiple applications running on the same computer. "Partner Orange to sell its solutions to French companies, the alliance is a competitor of that formed by SFR and HP," said the expert, IDC. His opponents are Citrix, IBM, Microsoft and Oracle.

In specific applications for cloud computing, Salesforce thrives on its software paperless which is a kind of Facebook for business teams. Its potential is considerable. Its market capitalization reached 17 billion dollars, almost ten times its revenues.It confronts, in this niche, Sugar CRM, Oracle, Microsoft and SAP.

Faced with the immense amount of data created and stored, ordering specialized publishers and analyze the flow of information. IBM, MicroStrategy and SAS Institute, for example, allow a better understanding of user profiles and to predict their behavior. Amazon, Facebook, Google and Microsoft can then better target their marketing campaigns.

"The problem with cloud computing is not as data security, but the protection of privacy," said Vivek Kundra, the former CIO of the federal government of the United States Obama Administration.

However, the software security to the cloud adjust such Symantec, McAfee or Kaspersky. Finally, the major telecom equipment manufacturers such as Cisco and Huawei, want their share.In short, the entire landscape of information technology is transformed.

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The world is concerned about the European blocking

The gap is struggling to fill. France and Germany continue to tear publicly on the best "firewall" to oppose the euro crisis, watched dumbfounded from their European partners, but also the United States and China. On the first day of a series of ministerial appointments and European Summits crucial for the common currency, Paris has once again pushed the idea of ​​using the ECB "because it has the firepower necessary "to contain the contagion, they say the French side. Angela Merkel has hammered his refusal, when approaching a new crisis meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy in Brussels tonight. "The road is closed to appeal to the ECB to ease liquidity problems" in Europe, said the Chancellor before its elected coalition in Berlin.

The impasse before a double peak of the euro Wednesday and Sunday, beginning to worry the rest of the world."The impact is disastrous outside (…) We do not really an example of leadership that works," commented the head of the Eurogroup Jean-Claude Juncker, before presiding over a first camera finance ministers on Friday afternoon.

Chinese and American impatience

Washington and Beijing in particular sounding the alarm. The Chinese leadership did not like the cancellation of a summit Tuesday in Tianjin with European leaders, due to repeated conclaves in Brussels. Premier Wen Jiabao has called on the EU "fundamental reform" of its finances and fiscal policy, the agency official New China. "This requires political courage and determination unparalleled," he added, as if he doubted it.

The U.S. government, intervened with the Europeans at every turn of the crisis, also expressed his impatience check cash advance.Barack Obama spoke by video conference with Nicolas Sarkozy, Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron on the night of Thursday to Friday. According to the White House, Bush insists that a European response to the crisis is effectively implemented before the next G20 summit in Cannes, November 3.

Franco-German dispute

Multiply the firepower of EFSF, the bailout fund for countries in difficulty, is the key weapon in the euro area to raise her two other challenges: reducing the burden of crushing debt on the shoulders of 11 million Greeks and persuade banks to beef up their capital in order to overcome the market turmoil. Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel agree on the diagnosis.But France, worried about its budget deficit and a valuable "triple AAA" prefer tap into the existing European funds, starting with the ECB.

Germany, also sensitive to the separation of powers as inflation risks, refuses anything resembling a crisis by printing money in Europe. Friday, Paris and Berlin were still camped "in very different positions," lamented one European official. The inflexibility of Angela Merkel, attested as early as Wednesday during a one-on-one with Nicolas Sarkozy in Frankfurt, had its effect. The European Commission and many of the countries of the euro is already a cross on a direct involvement of the ECB together with the EFSF. To work around the obstacle, the European experts worked Friday to a "new palette" of instruments, including greater use of IMF already applied at each stage of the crisis.

States are investing heavily in security

A camera that sees through walls, an exoskeleton that multiplies the forces, a drone the size of a bird that monitors the movements of crowds, vehicles, robots intervention in hostile environments, a tomograph – the equivalent of the scanner for human beings – which reconstructs 3D inside a bag and is able to identify explosives, a fingerprint reader that makes the difference between a real and a fake finger through its ability to "see" veins, a machine for biometric identification based on iris scanning or face … It's not the gadgets James Bond, but some of the amazing technological innovations that are presented Milipol, the first World Fair Homeland Security states, including the 2011 (from 18 to 21 October, Porte de Versailles in Paris) opens its doors this morning.

This show is held every two years alternating with Paris Doha in Qatar, is the child of September 11 and terrorist attacks in the United States. "Although he was born in 1984 but in 2003 the concept of homeland security market has emerged differing from the defense market itself," says Alain Rondepierre prefect, president of the show. Milipol also aims to provide solutions in the fight against crime, interventions in hostile environments – infected or affected by natural disasters – as well as the operations of public safety and law enforcement as well road safety, port and airport.And wider border surveillance.

A growing market

Customers come from public and private horizon: business as head of sensitive sites such as nuclear power plants, police forces (in the field, scientific) and emergency preparedness (fire, miners, rescuers …), gendarmerie, customs, airports, government agencies (FBI, Home Office …), the Ministries of Interior and Defence equipment because some applications have mixed civilian and military.

In total the global market for security at large weighs 420 billion euros (+5.5% in 2010), the survey published in the Atlas of Safely, the newspaper of record on the subject. The market is dominated by the United States with 30% of the world but Asia is gaining ground (23% against 14% of expenditures in 2001).For its part, Israel Export Institute believes that the only market "homeland security" weighs 170 billion and it increased by 7 to 8% per year.

On these growth markets, France has several champions. Morpho, the world leader in biometric identification since the purchase of American L1, used by over 100 countries and 450 organizations such as the FBI, the Israeli police and Interpol. Morpho is a specialist in such border crossing facilities at airports. "Faced with evolving threats, we must provide answers to more sophisticated, more effective are not too expensive and that thin the border crossing. For example, we went from detection to the identification of explosives, "said Didier Bernard, Executive Vice President of Morpho.Soon there will be no need to register to use the Initials successor that allows holders of biometric passports to cross the border control without queuing.

For its part, Thales relies on its leadership in information systems, to provide answers to the problems generated by "urbanization". This "requires cities smarter and therefore supported by systems that can facilitate decision-making in complex environments," said Luc Vigneron, Chairman of Thales. The group from Mexico won the first contract of its kind with its offer to secure Hypervisor this city of 22 million people, plagued by violence. In addition to large groups, SMEs, supported by some Directorate General of Armaments, engage in an orgy of creativity.Overview of some of the novelties of Milipol 2011.

Some products presented at Milipol, the first international exhibition of security

• Cobra – A range of robotic vehicles (see above)

Developed by ECA, one of three subsidiaries of the SME Gorge, the Cobra Bubble is a ground vehicle robotic intelligent. Its onboard camera is covered with a protective bubble antiéboulement that does not stop to see day and night to 360 degrees. The vehicle of 40 cm square weighs 5 kg. It can be equipped with a gun to remove the mines. He drives up to 300 m away from a touch pad or joystick. Its mission: to make tracking and filming in hostile environments or contaminated or monitoring sensitive sites such as nuclear power plants. Gorged sells 100,000 a year.

• Millicam 90 – Sees Through Walls