Regional Profiles: Indicators of Development 2012
Regional Profiles provides a snapshot of the socio-economic conditions of Bulgarian districts as of mid-2012, as well as their development since the year 2000.
Economy
Time for a Change in Family Benefits Distribution?
The conclusion is that if we stopped providing the benefits for the richer part of the society and only the poorer families were entitled to them, public expenditures could decrease by EUR 270 million a year.
Quo vadis, Pension System?
A major pension reform was approved in a fast track procedure. The expense of this fast track procedure was not only the violation of legislative rules by the new parliament and government, but also lack of understanding of the long-term impact of this reform.
Upner Report 42/2012
Gold and silver are still in the correction phase. Switzerland is going to introduce a gold coin as official currency. Swiss army is prepared. Mario Draghi will kiss with everybody. Gold and silver were traded around $1737 and $32.7 per ounce at the beginning of the week. The story for this week is very similar as was for the previous one – correction. Both metals were smashed down on Monday but we could witness some…
Open Wallets – Fiat Euro! 40/2012
Finally we are sending ESM our money. Spain is waiting for a miracle. Greeks saved money for karts. Iranians made a bomb – inflationary bomb! Similar bomb is predicted by FED’s models. So we finally have it. After months of negotiations, voting and ruling ESM – the permanent bailout mechanism – is finally here. It is the first time when Slovakia provided real money for saving the euro, to be specific EUR 264 million. As the saying…
New Round of Promises – Fiat Euro! 39/2012
Spanish economy is now producing nothing else but promises. Why to lock trash bins and how many policemen are needed against one disabled person? IMF against the EU
No New Rules But Commitment to the Old Ones
Are you catching up all the tools, actions and countermeasures designed to save the eurozone from a break-up? Let’s count them together. Bilateral loans to Greece, IMF loans, SMP, EFSM, EFSF, LTRO, Sixpack, Fiscal Pact, ESM, OMT… It’s difficult to find a politician, not to say an ordinary citizen, who understands all these abbreviations. And still, these letters mean hundreds of billions of euro. Each of these tools represents also a set of rules, which…
I Integrate, You Integrate, They Don’t Integrate – Fiat Euro! 38/2012
The Southerners don’t want any help, but they keep sinking deeper and deeper. Will the Neo-Nazis lead Europe? Japanese QE worked for 9 hours. It seems that ECB can complete construction of its new residence before the Eurozone falls apart. If only there wasn’t this inflation… Eleven Ministers of Foreign Affairs agreed on what is supposed to save Europe. If you guess the answer is deeper integration then you got it right. Apart from the traditional…
Upner Report 37: Soap Opera Continues
Unexpected news came from Scandinavia last week. Sweden will have lower corporate tax rate than Slovakia! Last Thursday Swedish government announced its intention to lower tax rate from 26,3% to 22% in order to „strengthen climate for investments and growth“ in the country. Well, even Scandinavian socialism is not what it used to be. Truly shocking news from Southern Europe: Greece will need a third bailout. According to the country’s representative in the negotiations of…
The End of Siesta – Fiat Euro! 37/2012
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,…
