News – Business & Economi

The UMP is considering the possibility of lowering unemployment benefits for top earners. Medef protests. Update on the controversy. The compensation of executives in unemployment in the viewfinder of the UMP. What exactly is the proposal of the UMP?

Speaking of "proposal" is a bit premature. It is rather a reflection outlined by Bruno Le Maire in an interview with L'Express, in the form of question: "Can we keep a system of unemployment benefits among the most generous in the world, especially for executives with high salaries? "asked the Minister of Agriculture, also supports the party platform for 2012. But this idea does not come from nowhere. It was brought by Peter Méhaignerie early years, in an interview with Marc Landre, Le Figaro journalist and host of the blog The Cartoon Network.And quickly put away in the closet.

Why is unemployment compensation cap frames?

Because the government does not know where to save money, and that the financial situation of the UI is poor: 10.5 billion euros of debt accumulated by the end of the year, and a deficit of 2 billion for 2011. Yet some executives, those who earn 11,000 euros a month and can accommodate up to 6000 euros per month. And for two years. The temptation is great to scrounge money from this population, especially as our European neighbors, the limits of compensation are much lower: 1400 in Spain, Germany 2200 or 1000 in Italy, as Marc Landré points.

It would still not a measure of social justice?

Difficult to present it as such … Managers reported more than they cost to unemployment insurance, as confirmed Unedic.Bernard Van Craeynest, the President of the CFE-CGC, for his part said on BFM TV "they account for 30% funding of unemployment insurance and consume roughly 15 or 17%." In fact, they are less affected by unemployment than other occupational groups and the contributions they pay are higher, since these contributions are a fixed percentage of salary and wages are higher. Lower the contribution limit would create a mechanical reduction of these contributions, and crop revenue so the UI, as outlined Laurence Parisot, president of MEDEF, against the proposal. Unless you do not reduce contributions … "It would be discrimination, an analysis of the trade union CFE-CGC. And it would be questionable in court for breach of equality, the principle is that you receive based on what you contribute."

Failures and start-ups fell by 3.5% and 21% in the first half in France over the same period last year, Coface said on Monday.

The decrease is due creations, according to the credit insurer, for a lesser interest in the status of entrepreneur.

The number of failures has reached 32,655, a level that is far from the pre-crisis, when the failures did not exceed 30,000 a semester, said Coface.

Only five sectors are increasing the number of failures, including transportation (9%), food (7%) and distribution (5%). Pharmaceutical, energy and agriculture and fisheries recorded in contrast to declines of more than 20%.

The number of jobs threatened by bankruptcy decreases by 7% over the first half of 2010.The failure of a company threatened 3.3 jobs on average in late June against 3.5 in late 2010.

The half saw a decrease of 19.6% in the number of creations, with nearly 320,000 new entities created, including 21% for businesses, which represent 85% of all creations.

China's central bank said Friday it wanted to maintain a relatively stable exchange rate, but the announcement has not been enough to calm the speculation that Beijing would consider letting the yuan rise further to better contain the inflation.

In a quarterly report, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) announced that it would employ "many tools" including interest rates, exchange rates and bank reserve requirements to try to control rising prices.

It recalled that it would maintain the yuan's exchange rate relatively stable at a "reasonable and balanced level."

But the noise is spread in the markets, however, the PBOC preparing an intervention currency.Local newspapers related to the central government suggested including it would rely on a stronger yuan to try to curb imported inflation in China by the weak dollar.

It remains to ascertain whether the report of COPD was written before or after these press articles, published Friday.

"We will use reasonable tools (regulatory) price as interest rates adjust to the demand for capital and savings behavior, and manage our investment and inflation expectations," said the PBOC.

The monetary institution noted that it would not drop the guard against inflation, although many economists believe that it peaked in July.

"Price stabilization is not yet firm enough and the situation is not optimistic," said the PBOC.

Beijing is regularly subjected to international pressure, including from the United States and the International Monetary Fund to allow the yuan to appreciate faster.

The yuan was stabilizing Friday around 6.39 to the dollar on the spot markets, pausing after a sharp rise this week.

The Chinese currency has appreciated about 6.7% since the abandonment of its indexation to the dollar in June 2010 and 3% since the beginning of the year.

Gold surpassed the 1771 Tuesday dollars an ounce and the price of the metal end now exceeds that of platinum, traditionally higher because of its rarity.

On the spot market, gold has gained more than 3% on the previous day.This is his twelfth record high in 20 sessions.

The gold will record after record with the surge of risk aversion of the past two weeks in the financial markets, exacerbated since the weekend by the loss of "triple A" of the United States.

It is favored by investors as other safe haven – Swiss franc, yen and Treasuries – while global equity markets drop.

"Markets are worried now have a new global recession (…) I think everyone has also led to the fall 7% S & P 500 (-6.66% Monday on Wall Street, Ed)" , said Natalie Robertson, commodities strategist at ANZ.

"Gold is now more expensive than platinum and the last time this happened was in December 2008.It's an interesting dynamic. "

At 9:35, an ounce of gold was trading around 1,745 dollars.

Markets in Asia tumbled Monday, despite the proliferation of policy statements and central bankers from the lowering of the sovereign rating of the United States by Standard & Poor's.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei index ended down 2.18% and the broader Topix index lost 2.26%. Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda said that market confidence in the dollar and Treasuries had not decreased, suggesting that Tokyo did not intend to dispose of its huge investments in U.S. debt.

In Seoul, the Kospi index fell 3.82%, after falling more than 7% in session.The Korean authorities, in a statement, ensured that the G20 countries were ready to act to ensure stability and liquidity of financial markets.

At the end of these places, the Hang Seng Index gave up 3.8% at the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and the composite index of Shanghai Stock Exchange fell by 3.56%. Volumes were 20% below their levels in Hong Kong Friday.Cyclical stocks were among the most attacked.

At the same time, the Moscow stock exchange opened in turn and started the session at its lowest in a year, down 3.3%.

In Europe, the index contracts lost about 2%, as well as the "future" on Wall Street indices.

In this context, the gold all-time records above $ 1,700 an ounce and was trading around 1,713 dollars an ounce or so.

Under pressure, the dollar fell in a time and 0.7500 Swiss franc was trading around 1.4365 per euro.

The oil market, crude prices pplus lost $ 3 a barrel to 83.35 dollars for U.S. crude and 106 dollars for Brent.

"There are obviously some places to hide, and these places are doing very well.Gold took the opportunity because no central bank sells only ", says Greg Gibbs, an analyst at RBS in Sydney.

Just before the opening of Asian markets, finance ministers and central bankers from the G7 pledged to take "all necessary measures" to support financial stability and growth, expressing determination to act whenever necessary. The European Central Bank has announced its next "actively implement" the bond buyback program to try to stem the debt crisis in the eurozone.ECB has not specified which countries will be affected by these acquisitions but suggests it could be from Spain and Italy.

Markets now expect the monetary policy meeting of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday that they hope new efforts to revive the U.S. economy mechanical.

"Investors are wondering whether the Fed will open the door to more accommodative measures, such as quantitative easing. If this is not the case, investors express their disappointment by continuing to sell," Toshio Sumitani provides analyst at Tokai Tokyo.

Unlike other more conservative cities, China has reacted angrily Saturday to the lowering of the sovereign rating of the United States from Standard & Poor's, criticizing the economic policy of the "world's only superpower."

"The U.S. government must resign himself to a painful state of affairs: the good old days when all he had to borrow to get out of trouble he had himself created is over," said the official agency Xinhua particularly virulent in a comment.

As the largest creditor of Washington, China, which holds more than one.000 billion dollars of U.S. debt, "is now in its right to require the United States they face the problem of debt and ensure the structural safety of Chinese assets in dollars," the agency said.

"There is a need for international monitoring on the issue of the U.S. dollar and a new reserve currency, stable and secure, can also be an option to avoid a disaster to be caused by a single country," added Xinhua.

Russia, the third holder of gold reserves and foreign currency in the world behind China and Japan, by contrast into perspective the decision of the rating agency S & P.

"In the short term, this will not affect us," said Vice-President of the Bank of Russia Sergei Chvetsov the RIA news agency, adding that Russia did not intend to proceed in the immediate adjustments to its reserves of gold or foreign currency denominated in dollars.

The Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak, 'sherpa' Russian international summits, for his part felt that the one notch downgrade of the American note was a "moderate correction can be ignored by the terms of managing long-term investment. "

"KEEP A COOL HEAD"

First state to react in Europe, France has affirmed its "full confidence" in the strength of the economy of the United States, the sovereign rating was downgraded by Standard and Poor's, and the ability of the U.S. government out of "this bad".

The French Minister of Economy and Finance, Baroin, spoke on several media to hold reassuring face to the first in the history of the United States.

"I recall that, even under (Bill) Clinton, the U.S. budget was declared in default for a few days.So do not dramatize, keep a cool head, we must look at the fundamentals, "said Baroin on iTV.

Baroin stressed the need to give time to political time.

"The time of democracy, the time for government action, the time of acceptance by the population as those plans that are difficult by definition is not the time for market participants, investors or speculators or even the time it seems a few rating agencies, "he said.

The minister and questioned the relevance of the initiative of S & P. "It begs the question of how an agency like that can make that decision based on numbers that are not consensual.So there will certainly be a debate in the United States, "he noted.

In Berlin, Norbert Barthl expert in budgetary matters to the CDU, the Christian Democrats in power, has in turn "surprised that for weeks, rating agencies have focused their attention on the situation sovereign debt in the euro zone countries without addressing the United States. "

India, an emerging major power likely to be affected by the decision of S & P, has found the situation "serious".

"We will have to be analyzed (degradation). This will take some time.The situation is serious and we have nothing to gain by making comments off the cuff, "said Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in the Indian news agency Press Trust of India.

Until the EFSF takes over, the European Central Bank resumed its purchases of government bonds of countries in the Eurozone in trouble in the markets. It will also help the banks, said Thursday its president Jean-Claude Trichet. The European Central Bank resumed its operations in the bond market, said its president Thursday, August 4, French Jean-Claude Trichet. Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the ECB decided to keep its key rate at 1.25%.

The European Central Bank (ECB) decided to take firm action to try to extinguish the fires of the debt crisis in the euro zone, notably by taking over its operations in the bond market, announced Thursday, August 4 President Jean-Claude Trichet .The Governing Council of the ECB decided "overwhelmingly" to make new purchases, he said at a press conference in Frankfurt (west), head of the institution. Paris market sources have confirmed to AFP that the ECB intervened on Thursday afternoon. Previously, Mr. Trichet had said he had "never said" that the program had been "interrupted".

The ECB did not, however, used for more than four months. The extent of intervention will not be known until Monday at the earliest, the ECB communicates only once a week about it. It is even possible that the intervention of this Thursday is not yet included in the figures for Monday, because of delays in compensation. Mr.Trichet added, however, he wanted the European Financial Stability Fund (EFSF), set up to lend to troubled states of the euro zone, the relay fast as was decided at a summit in Brussels on 21 July. "What we expect is that this fund is to be effective so that we can not intervene," he said.

The ECB will also help banks by providing them with additional liquidity. An exceptional operation six months on loan to banks will be launched on August 9 with a maturity at March 11, 2012, in response to "renewed tensions in certain markets in the euro area," said Mr Trichet. The ECB had already conducted such operations in response to the global crisis, but these operations had ceased in late 2009.The benefit of unlimited credit to banks, fixed rate for periods up to three months, is itself extended by a quarter, until January 2012, said Trichet. "We think it's appropriate under current conditions, to restore the proper functioning of all markets," said the president of the ECB, which also decided to keep its key rate to 1.5%.

Still no agreement between the White House and Congress on raising the legal limit of debt. The prospect of a failure to pay the United States is increasing. At the risk of creating a shock wave in global finance. View of the Capitol, seat of Congress. At 15 days of the deadline of August 2, elected Democrats and Republicans do not agree on conditions for raising the U.S. debt ceiling.

In Washington, the pressure is increasing on the White House and Congress. For two weeks the deadline of August 2 to raise the legal ceiling of U.S. debt, the elected Democrats and Republicans still can not agree on the terms of such recovery. Result: the rating agencies threaten to impair the sovereign rating of the world's largest economy.

Why is it necessary to raise the ceiling of U.S. debt? Benchmarks

The U.S. public debt is around 100% of GDP, the deficit to 10%. In comparison, the French debt amounts to 2.5 trillion euros, or 85% of GDP, the deficit and 7%.

The debt ceiling is a maximum level of indebtedness, level regularly adjusted by the U.S. Congress since 1917. He was raised ten times over the past decade. Last time, in 2010, this ceiling was increased to 14 297 billion. Yet the level of U.S. debt has reached this limit in May. It is bypassed, since only by technical adjustments Treasury. But beyond the August 2, if the legal limit of debt is not raised, the U.S. will no longer honor their commitments.

What happens if the debt ceiling is not raised?

Specifically, the U.S. will not lift the markets the amounts needed to pay interest and renewal of their debt. The state must pay U.S. $ 30 billion monthly interest on the debt. They also need to refinance in August more than 500 billion dollars of debt. So the U.S. is lacking on some of their deadlines, or they sacrifice other spending. The first hypothesis would create such a shock wave throughout the international financial system that seems to be excluded. To honor the interests of their debt, the U.S. will have to cut spending. President Barack Obama spoke a non-payment of pensions for retirees and veterans – the state must pay $ 23 billion on Aug. 3 to Social Security for these payments.The U.S. Treasury announced meanwhile that the state must cut spending by 40% overnight, which is equivalent to 1.5 trillion dollars, or 10% of GDP.

Why Republicans and Democrats do not reach an agreement?

Democrats and Republicans oppose the plan to reduce the budget deficit, which conditions any agreement on raising the debt ceiling. Barack Obama is committed to savings. He even agreed to cut heavily in social spending, including health insurance. But it requires an offsetting increase in taxes for the wealthiest households and businesses. What the Republicans, including elected officials from the ultra-conservative movement of the "tea party" categorically refuse. They advocate on their side a more drastic reduction of public spending, the ceiling of 18% of GDP against 24% today.

A compromise is still possible?

The White House thought Sunday still possible to find a compromise with Congress to raise the debt ceiling of the federal state. "Things have progressed in recent days," assured Jacob Lew, director of the Office of Budget, one of the negotiators of Barack Obama. "The American political life is punctuated by psychodrama between the White House and Congress, said Christophe Desta, Deputy Director of the CEPII. It is possible that both sides reach an agreement on August 1 at midnight." Especially there is a backup solution, proposed by Republican Senator Mitch McConnell: a legislative maneuver allows the president to veto the congressional vote against raising the debt ceiling. This veto can be overturned as a two-thirds majority, the Republicans have not.Barack Obama might as well take it upon himself to raise the debt ceiling to 2.5 trillion dollars by 2012. It's better than nothing.

The "AAA" of the United States is threatened?

Yes, even if the debt ceiling is raised. Moody's and Standard & Poor's, which put the U.S. debt under pressure last week, have both said they expected a "credible plan" to reduce the deficit and debt in the medium term. S & P expects a budget saving of 4000 to 5,000,000,000,000 dollars over the next ten years. Now both agencies are skeptical of the likelihood of an agreement on a plan of fiscal consolidation between the government and the Congress in 2012, the year in the U.S. presidential election. The possibility that the United States lose their triple A is not excluded. This would have potentially disastrous effects.Not so much for the United States, which will continue to support the markets without difficulty, although it should be at a higher cost, but for the financial system as a whole. The U.S. Treasury is in fact the investment vehicle most prevalent in the world. The total amount of "Treasures" held by institutional investors (governments, central banks, banks, insurers, etc..) Reached $ 13.6 billion in late 2010. The loss of "AAA", indicating that the U.S. debt is no longer safe, would lead to a devaluation of the value of Treasury bonds, so the asset portfolio of most international financial players.

The excellent quarterly results announced by Google on Thursday night carried the Nasdaq on Friday and allowed him to achieve the highest increase in three major indexes on Wall Street.

However, the persistent paralysis on raising the ceiling of U.S. debt weighed on the markets, and may cool further investors next week.

The increases came Friday to bring a breath of fresh air to American values, but do not prevent the indices finished the week on weekly declines.

The Dow Jones closed up 0.34% or 42.61 points at 12,479.73 and the S & P 500 ended with a gain of 0.56% or 7.27 points at 1316.14 .

Driven by Google, the Nasdaq was awarded 0.98% (27.13 points) to 2789.80.

These increases over the day do not erase the losses of the week. Since Monday, the Dow has sold 1.4%, the S & P 500 2% and the Nasdaq 2.4%.

The publication Thursday of figures after the close of the second quarter Google had immediately pushed up the title in after-hours trading.

The trend continued Friday: Google's value has appreciated by 12.98% to 597.62 dollars, reaching a session high of 600.25 dollars on.

The better than expected results of stress tests conducted on 90 European banks have also helped support the U.S. markets.Only eight schools have failed these assessments, so that was expected to fifteen.

Values ​​related to energy and new technologies have led the session, clinching their sector indices respectively 2.34% and 1.55%.

Citigroup said Friday in progress and the results exceeded expectations, but finished down 1.64% to 38.38 dollars after having evolved into positive territory in early trading.

But the vote may be wasted … The law will only take effect if Congress's vote to 3/5e. Which requires the votes of the PS.

The Parliament adopted Wednesday during a final vote in the Assembly the "golden rule" of balancing public finances, which will enter into force, however, in the constitution that if Nicolas Sarkozy convenes both houses in Congress, where the majority of 3/5e is required.

The bill "provides for the establishment of framework laws to balance public finances, with the objective to provide over several years, the balance of government accounts."

To date, no date has been set for the convening of Parliament in Congress. The opposition doubts that the executive take the risk to convene parliament without being sure of getting the required majority.Read about the interview with Michel Sapin, the Socialist Party national secretary for the economy: "Nicolas Sarkozy is a pyromaniac firefighter who claims".