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Economy

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In recent years, the Baltic States have been showcased as an austerity success story. While the whole world has seen countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal struggling to reduce their public spending, Lithuania has been hailed as an austerity example. Lithuanian success in public spending cuts has been widely acknowledged; yet simultaneous tax increases and their harmful effects have received less attention. Since the end of 2011, however, the country once again found itself…

Economy

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In most recent years a famous graph, showing how deep the recession is in the UK and what is the path of recovery, appeared periodically. The graph is made by the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and compares the profile of the worst recessions in the UK over the past 100 years. The graph clearly shows that the last economic decline from 2008 is the longest of all compared episodes and that…

Economy

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The aging Estonia and Europe need to accept that the state has to earn and save before it can spend and must remain within its limits both financially and functionally, writes Jürgen Ligi, the Minister of Finance. Right now, large English language news channels could bear the common name ‘eurozone crisis’ and they could all be merged. All their attention is directed towards the crisis and the keyword with which it all starts and ends…

Politics, Society

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ACTA will not enter into force. Thousands of demonstrators opposed it. Polish Minister of Culture and National Heritage – Bogdan Zdrojewski – discussed Polish drive for liberty and assumed that “we may also take pride in the protests of Internet users”. Nevertheless, everyone wonders why people started to demonstrate against the agreement. If nothing unexpected happens, the problem with the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement will be solved in the middle of the current year. The agreement…

Economy

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Are there the first signs of banks‘ restructuring? Will Netherlands lose its AAA rating? Spain won a battle, but the war is not over yet. Sarko once again wants to reach for the treasure buried in ECB, Argentina is nationalizing, Italians are burning paintings, and ECB officials are afraid of inflation. Following Germany, also Ireland will determine the constitutionality of the „fiscal pact“ and the new European Stabilization Mechanism. They were challenged by the Irish MP…

Economy

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Will a knight from the executive board of ECB buy problematic bonds for his private portfolio as well? Are the „fiscal pact“ and ESM unconstitutional? Do you know that through the European funds you are also contributing for the early retirement of the boss of the company which was bought by Facebook for a billion dollars. It seems that the period of peace brought about by the massive intervention of ECB is coming to an end. The…