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Economy

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The Hot Wednesday wasn’t that hot after all. Greece denies need for the third bailout package. Spaniards don’t want any bailouts either. Rompuy has a plan. Americans don’t want to be left behind. The Judgment Day came, but it didn’t bring any shocking surprises. Bailout mechanism is not against the Constitution in Germany and the parliament can ratify it. The opponents got a little gift at least, the court forbade automatic ESM increasing over the initia capacity,…

Economy

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Is the last fortification falling down? Spain used backup. American debt can ask for a driving license. And Bulgarians are ungrateful. Silly season ended in a big style. ECB decided on its meeting last week to resurrect the program of purchasing bonds of the problematic states under a new label. Forget SMP, here comes new and better OMT – Outright Monetary Transactions! Apart from bubbles of active oxygen, it also offers lack of limits, sterilization and consolidation….

Economy

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In Spain it will be hot after the summer. Judgment day will be on September 12. Did you sell grandfather’s gold teeth in Italy? We are treating depression by delivering news about bad situation our neighbours are in. The heat is slowing down the pace of society, but if you think it will slow down the pace of the crisis in the Eurozone, you’d better check if you don’t have sunstroke. Even though the news…

Economy

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While the “green” countries like Austria or Switzerland are slowly surrendering the dream to reach the carbon dioxide limits set by the Kyoto Protocol, one of the few countries, which will probably reach them, is USA. Those United States, which refused to ratify Kyoto and were strongly criticized by the western world community for this decision. This situation would be unimaginable just a few years ago. How is such rapid change possible and how is…

Think Tank News

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For the third time, Institute of Economic and Social Studies INESS was honored to organize event commemorating Milton Friedman, one of the most notable flag bearers of economic liberty. As INESS is the most frequently quoted economic think tank in Slovakia and a loud defender of market freedom, we wanted to make sure Friedman’s 100th birthday event had the prestige it deserved. The event took place in Pulitzer Restaurant in the center of Bratislava, capital…

Economy

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ECB trade unions protest, Barclays collects all the prizes both at home and abroad, Sarkozy packed toothbrush and pajamas – just in case, Finns and Dutch are disobedient, Klaus witty about the Europe as always. And you know who rules the EU? Communists. Ongoing crisis has profound social implications. So significant that they were noticed even by the trade unions in ECB. In a survey carried out among employees it turned out that the years of hard…

Economy

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The current soap opera is far from being wrapped up by the bailout for Spain. We’re only at the 44th episode, and the main character of the whole series – Italy – has so far only been flitting furtively through the background. If you were to change the names of the countries to names of characters with a more southern ring, current developments in the eurozone would seem like a quality soap opera, full of…

Economy

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About the Greeks beating German-looking pensioners and Greek members of parliament playing black metal, while Merkel is happy to gamble with their lives. About fiscal pact, which is good in one country and bad in another one, about reducing debt with the help of magic and about American budgetary hockey game, which ended 99:0. After  3 000 years Greeks have improved the art of drama to the level of perfection. After practically nobody happened to agree…

Economy

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Marshall is coming back to Europe, where British argue with French about banking rules and Greeks want to place mines on the borders. Even though a new wave of recession is flooding Europe, rating agencies turned gentlemen  and raised a couple of ratings. Fiscal pact hasn’t properly cooled down yet and there is already anti-austerity mood in Europe, not only among demonstrating people but also among politicians. Maybe it is because of the level of unemployment in…