Hong Kong and Switzerland top the rankings of a new index released today that presents the state of human freedom in the world. The U.S. performance is worrisome and shows that the United States can no longer claim to be the leading bastion of liberty in the world. The Human Freedom Index (HFI) is the most comprehensive measure of freedom ever created for a large number of countries around the globe.
The euro indeed plays a major role in the Greek drama, but the ultimate cause of the Greek economic turmoil lies somewhere else. The real problem is that the architects of the euro used it as a turbo that was meant to speed up the integration engine of the eurozone, while encouraging other European countries to do so as well.
In the last five years, Piraeus Bank has lost 97% of its value and Eurobank (indeed, an apt name) an astounding 99.8% of the value. Their market value is currently five times lower that the market value of the Uber company. However, the Stock Exchange has not reached the historic low of the year 2012.
If the hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, small and big businesses alike, took as long to deal with their daily existential crises, every last one of them would have already gone bankrupt. At the same time, politicians don’t have to worry about it.
The delay with the implementation of the DCFTA had caused some concerns that important economic reforms associated with the Agreement could be delayed. However, one year after the Agreement signature, reforms are moving forward.
In February 2015, the Institute for Economic Research and Policy Consulting (Kyiv) held its regular quarterly survey of industrial enterprises as a part of its Business Tendency Survey. The respondents were asked a question “Can your company use the possibility to apply a reduced rate of the single social contribution?”. Let’s take a look at the results.
The Lithuanian Free Market Institute has launched a unique interactive teaching platform for teachers of economics at www.ekonomikosvadovelis.lt. This one-of-a-kind platform in Lithuania that encompasses a variety of features including video lessons, interactive tasks, a dictionary of economic terminology and other practical material is a part of LFMI’s brand new textbook on economics – Economics in 31 Hours.
Although Greece’s drama has left no people indifferent, neither those who stick to a tough position on Greece (Lithuanian government, for starters), nor newly declared Greece’s friends (European nationalists and socialists) would want the same scenario for their countries. However, becoming Greece is not so difficult. Here are a few guidelines.
Uber, established in 2009, today is valued at around $50 billion and its great success lies in the simplicity of the business model. Anyone can become an Uber driver in the USA, but is it so simple in Europe?
The events during the Christmas Truce 1914 were described by Robert Naiman as “the most morally compelling acts of spontaneous mass civil disobedience in recorded human history”. The anniversary of this date is a perfect opportunity to investigate the power and impact of free press not only in those times, but also in present day when it comes to Ukraine-Russia- conflict.
