How the Welfare State Dies | Acting Man

How the Welfare State Dies

Hollande Threatens to Ban Protests

Brexit has diverted attention from another little drama playing out in Europe. As of the time of writing, if you Google “Hollande threatens to ban protests” or variations thereof, you will find Russian, South African and even Iranian press reports on the topic. Otherwise, it’s basically crickets (sole exception: Politico).  Gee, we wonder why?

They don’t like him anymore: 120.000 protesters recently turned Paris into a war zone. All Hollande wanted to do was to loosen a handful of labor market restrictions (it’s too little too late of course). France’s labor legislation is among the most convoluted and restrictive in the entire nominally capitalist world. It has created enormous institutional unemployment and is a major contributor to France’s inexorable economic decline (see “France’s Sacred Labor Code” for details).

Photo credit: Benoît Tessier / Reuters

Given that France is under a “state of emergency” since last year’s terror attacks in Paris, it is presumably easy for Hollande to ban demonstrations by decree, from a legal perspective at least. It seems unlikely though that a ban would actually stop the protesters. What is Hollande going to do if they just continue to strike and hold demonstrations? Invade France? Arrest hundreds of thousands of people?

These protests have been going on for more than a month now. What makes this confrontation so interesting is that Mr. Hollande himself started out as a devoutly committed socialist. Upon coming to power, he immediately introduced a 75% “super-tax” on the rich (causing a number of them to simply pack their bags and leave) and let loose his far-left industry minister Arnaud Montebourg, who’s job it apparently was to spout outdated Marxist slogans and micromanage France’s industries – especially the dying ones.

For a reminder of the days when a gung-ho Montebourg set out to show the world that socialism works after all  (if only it is done right!), see “Moving France toward a Command Economy”. Somehow, he failed to deliver the desired results though. Big surprise! The whole world was vastly astonished.

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Oliver Stone Documentary: “Ukraine On Fire” – The Burning Platform

Oliver Stone Documentary: “Ukraine On Fire”

OLIVER STONE accuses the CIA for UKRAINE’S COUP and the KIEV MASSACRE. He believes the Western Media is NOT reporting the TRUTH about the developments of the Urkaine Crisis and is PRODUCING a NEW DOCUMENTARY on the UKRAINE CRISIS based on the Truth. He claims the “CIA’S Fingerprints are all over the KIEV MASSACRE.

  ==========================

Oliver Stone? Truth teller?  Holy shit, maybe there is hope.

Someone should send SSS free tickets. I’m sure he’ll love this movie.

Huge Scandal Erupts Inside NATO: Alliance Member Germany Slams NATO "Warmongering" Against Russia | Zero Hedge

Huge Scandal Erupts Inside NATO: Alliance Member Germany Slams NATO "Warmongering" Against Russia

As we reported in just the past week, not only has NATO accelerated its encirclement of Russia, with British soldiers deployed in Estonia, US soldiers operating in Latvia and Canadians in Poland, while combat units are being increased in the Mediterranean... 

... but even more troubling, was NATO's assessment that it may now have grounds to attack Russia when it announced that if a NATO member country becomes the victim of a cyber attack by persons in a non-NATO country such as Russia or China, then NATO’s Article V “collective defense” provision requires each NATO member country to join that NATO member country if it decides to strike back against the attacking country.

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Tensions Between US/NATO & Russia Are Flaring Dangerously | Zero Hedge

Tensions Between US/NATO & Russia Are Flaring Dangerously

Submitted by Chris Martenson via PeakProsperity.com,

As if there weren’t enough crises to worry about in the world already, from shooting rampages to accelerating species loss, the US and NATO continue to ‘poke the bear’ and risk an outbreak of war with Russia.

I wish this were idle speculation. But if you haven’t been paying close attention, you'll probably be shocked at just how much direct military and diplomatic provocation has been going on between NATO/US and Russia over the past several years -- and in recent weeks, in particular.

Even more shocking is that no one in power can provide us with a compelling reason for exactly why these tensions are flaring. It seems that Russia’s main sin is in not entirely, completely and immediately giving the US/NATO anything and everything they request.

In other words, it’s imperial hubris and petulance that seems to be driving the ship of state. That’s a dangerous thing.

I’ve written extensively on the dangers of war with Russia as my concerns have mounted ever since the situation in Ukraine devolved in 2014.

There have been plenty of chances to dial down the rhetoric and mend fences, but they've all come and gone without healing. In fact, as we detail below, quite the opposite has happened. 

The bottom line is this: If you're not already mentally and physically prepared for the prospect of a NATO/US war with Russia, you really should be.

Perhaps the chances of outright war are still low on a relative scale, but the costs would be catastrophically high -- making this worthy of your attention. A low risk of a catastrophic outcome is the very reason we all buy insurance – life, auto, and home.  Not because we wish things to go wrong in our lives, but because they sometimes do nonetheless.

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Brexit: Made In UK, Designed In Brussels | Zero Hedge

Brexit: Made In UK, Designed In Brussels

Submitted by Pieter Cleppe via EUObserver.com,

If the British vote for Brexit, the European Union will be reaping what it has sown.

In 1992, Denmark voted against the Maastricht Treaty, which established the possibility of creating a common European currency. In France's referendum on the same issue, only 51.1 percent voted in favour.

What if Europe’s leaders had listened to the doubts of their citizens and ditched the Maastricht Treaty?

The euro enabled countries to borrow more cheaply than they ever could have done without access to the ECB’s cheap financing. But this wasn’t a good thing.

It allowed Belgium, Greece and Italy to postpone necessary public sector reforms. As a result, the public sector and the public debt burden were allowed to grow even bigger.

It led to property bubbles and massive private debt in Ireland and Spain, which forced both countries to beg for a bailout. It led to transfers between countries, through the bailout funds and the ECB, and between taxpayers and banks. For example in Greece, the banks were able to dump a large part of their exposure on to eurozone taxpayers.

The common currency threatens the EU

The conditions linked to those transfers, in the form of a Troika or a Memorandum of Understanding, evoked a lot of anger in those countries forced to comply with the conditions.

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The Rape of the West « The Burning Platform

The Rape of the West

I wanted to find a less ugly title for this article, but I couldn’t find one that still conveyed the depth of the crimes that are under way. So, apologies where they are due.

In this post, I’m going to give you an overview of what is going on and an outline of how the schemes work. I am not going to “prove” everything I write with citations and math. That’s an important thing to do, but today I’ll pass. If you doubt anything I write here, do your own research: Find the facts, question them, compare them, and forge your own opinions.

What’s Happening

Right now, people who can fairly be called the “ruling elite” are bleeding the West dry, and many of them are fully aware of what they’re doing. Others are simply “doing what works” and hiding behind slogans like “it’s all legal” that help them bypass morality.

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JPMorgan CIO Crushes Cameron's Scaremongery: Brexit "Hardly The Stuff Of Economic Calamity" | Zero Hedge

JPMorgan CIO Crushes Cameron's Scaremongery: Brexit "Hardly The Stuff Of Economic Calamity"

First The Telegraph, then The Sun, and today The Spectator all came out on the "Leave" side of the Brexit debate. However, perhaps even more shocking to the establishment is the CIO of a major bank's asset management arm dismissing the apparent carnage that Cameron, Obama, and Osborne have declared imminent, warning that, "many articles on the Brexit vote overstate its risks and consequences." As JPM's Michael Cembalest adds, the reality is "hardly the stuff that economic calamity is made of." As The Spectator concludes, "the history of the last two centuries can be summed up in two words: democracy matters."

As JPMorgan Asset Management CIO Michael Cembalest explains...

My sense is that many articles on the Brexit vote overstate its risks and consequences for the UK, and/or overstate the vote’s impact on political movements and economic malaise in the Eurozone that predate it by months and years. Here are some thoughts on issues I have seen raised over the last few weeks.

“UK growth will suffer a huge hit”. Of all the analyses I’ve read about a possible Brexit scenario, I found Open Europe’s report to be the most clear-headed and balanced. Their realistic case estimates the cumulative impact of Brexit on UK GDP at just -0.8% to 0.6% by the year 2030; hardly the stuff that economic calamity is made of.

“UK-EU trade will collapse”. Not necessarily. Norway, Iceland and Switzerland have entered into agreements with the EU on trade and labor mobility (European Economic Area, European Free Trade Area). As shown below, these three non-EU countries export as much to the EU as its members do. Such agreements could serve as a template for post-Brexit trade between Britain and the EU, if both sides see it in their mutual self-interest.

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NATO Begins Encirclement Of Russia | Zero Hedge

NATO Begins Encirclement Of Russia

Via German Economic News, translated by Eric Zuesse,

NATO prepares a veritable military buildup in Eastern Europe: German soldiers are operating in Lithuania, the British take over Estonia, and US soldiers move in to protect Latvia. The Canadians will be in Poland. Also in the Mediterranean, combat units are being increased. Russia perceives the activity as a threat, but hasn’t yet announced any countermeasures.

Source: RiskAdvisory

At the NATO summit during July 8th-9th in Warsaw, the Alliance will adopt a massive military presence along Russia’s border. Russia is classified by NATO as a threat. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg recently said in Washington that the US and the EU have the right in the form of NATO to defend its territories on foreign soil. Critics of this strategy believe that it’s possible this upgrade will increase significantly the danger of a conflict between the superpowers. Wednesday in Brussels, the defense ministers want the military alliance to take decisions which will then be sealed by the leaders in Poland. NATO wants to strengthen its military presence on its eastern borders significantly, and to position foreign combat troops battalions in Poland and the three Baltic states. Germany is the core of the Association in Lithuania, the British in Estonia, and the United States is expected to be that in Latvia. What remains unclear, however, is who will be sending troops to Poland.

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ABANDON SHIP « The Burning Platform

ABANDON SHIP

Via Ben Garrison

The Only Thing That Grows Is Debt - The Automatic Earth

The Only Thing That Grows Is Debt

Two months ago, there was a referendum in Holland about an association agreement between the EU and Ukraine. A relatively new Dutch law states that with an X amount of signatures a referendum can be ‘forced’ by anyone. Before, during and -especially- after the vote, its importance was -and is actively being- pooh-poohed by both the Dutch government and the EU. That in itself paints the issue better than anything else. Both the call and the subsequent support for the referendum stem from resistance against exactly that attitude.

The Dutch voted No to the EU/Ukraine agreement. It was with a turnout not much above the validity threshold, but a large majority of those who did vote agreed they want no part of the deal. This puts Dutch PM Rutte in an awkward position, he can’t be seen ignoring the population. Well, at least not openly. The EU can’t validate the agreement, and with Holland still holding the chair of the Union until July 1, a meeting on the topic has been pushed forward until the last weekend of June. With Rutte still in charge, but only just, and with the June 23 UK Brexit vote decided.

Brussels is frantically looking for a way to push through the agreement despite the Dutch vote, and likely some sort of bland compromise will be presented, which Rutte’s spin doctors will put into words that he can -with a straight face- claim honor the vote while at the same time executing what that same vote specifically spoke out against.

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Germany May Be A Bigger Threat To The European Union Than Brexit | Zero Hedge

Germany May Be A Bigger Threat To The European Union Than Brexit

Submitted by John Mauldin via MauldinEconomics.com,

Two polls were recently released that call the European Union in question.

A poll in Italy reported that the Five Star Movement (a populist political party that wants to hold a referendum on whether Italy should remain in the European Union) was the most popular political party in the country ahead of local elections scheduled for next month. 

On the same day, British researchers who surveyed nine EU countries reported that 45 percent of respondents believed that their country should hold a referendum on whether to remain in the EU.

48% of Italians want to leave the EU 

Reuters tried to explain that political scandals, which have undermined public confidence in current Prime Minister Matteo Renzi’s Democratic Party, affected the poll numbers. But this is Italy we’re talking about, the same country that brought us Silvio Berlusconi. 

The country is no stranger to political scandals. A few instances of corruption would not be enough to make an anti-establishment party like the Five Star Movement as popular as it has apparently become.

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Migrants Responsible For 69,000 Crimes In Germany In The First Quarter: Police Report | Zero Hedge

Migrants Responsible For 69,000 Crimes In Germany In The First Quarter: Police Report

In the latest development that is certain to raise the heat under Merkel's cabinet and may lead to even higher support for Germany's anti-immigrant AfD party, Reuters reports that migrants in Germany committed or tried to commit some 69,000 crimes in the first quarter of 2016, according to a police report "that could raise unease, especially among anti-immigrant groups, about Chancellor Angela Merkel's liberal migrant policy."

The report from the BKA federal police showed that migrants from northern Africa, Georgia and Serbia were disproportionately represented among the suspects. Absolute numbers of crimes committed by Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis - the three biggest groups of asylum seekers in Germany - were high but given the proportion of migrants that they account for, their involvement in crimes was "clearly disproportionately low", the report said. In other words, just because there was so many of them, it is difficult to give a clear picture of the criminal recidivism resulting from the latest immigrant wave. The report gave no breakdown of the number of actual crimes and of would-be crimes, nor did it state what percentage the 69,000 figure represented with respect to the total number of crimes and would-be crimes committed in the first three months of 2016.

The silver lining: the report stated that the vast majority of migrants did not commit any crimes.

Still, the report, the first of its kind, is sure to prompt many question. It is the first time the BKA has published a report on crimes committed by migrants containing data from all of Germany's 16 states, so there is no comparable data.

The report showed that 29.2% of the crimes migrants committed or tried to commit in the first quarter were thefts, 28.3% were property or forgery offences and 23% offences such as bodily harm, robbery and unlawful detention. Drug-related offences accounted for 6.6% and sex crimes accounted for 1.1%.

In a widely publicized indicent in Cologne at New Year, hundreds of women said they were groped, assaulted and robbed, with police saying the suspects were mainly of North African and Arab appearance. Prosecutors said last week three Pakistani men seeking asylum in Germany were under investigation after dozens of women said they were sexually harassed at a music festival. 

And in confirmation of the tit-for-tat nature of the escalation between the local population and immigrants, earlier today we learned that a large fire ripped through a refugee center housed in an exhibition hall in Dusseldorf on Tuesday. All 280 residents were thought to be safe, the fire service said. TV footage showed plumes of black smoke billowing into the air at the facility on the site of the west German city’s trade fair, Reuters said. It was not immediately clear what caused the blaze.

As a reminder, there has been a record influx of more than a million migrants into Germany last year and concerns are now widespread about how Europe's largest economy will manage to integrate them and ensure security. Furthermore, should Turkey follow through with its blackmail of Europe and unleash more of the over 1 million refugees currently held behind its borders, it is assured that these number will spike in the coming months as another wave of foreign immigrants lands inside Germany.

Turkey Resorts To Blackmail, Warns Europe It Will Unleash Refugees If No Visa-Free Travel | Zero Hedge

Turkey Resorts To Blackmail, Warns Europe It Will Unleash Refugees If No Visa-Free Travel

The month of May was very contentious one for Euro-Turkey relations.

Following months of monetary and diplomatic appeasement of Erdogan, which culminated with a migration deal according to which Turkey would hold Syrian refugees within its borders instead of allowing them to continue onward to Central Europe, things promptly fell apart. As a reminder, less than a month ago, a high-ranking deputy for Turkey’s ruling AKP party, Burhan Kuzu (also a former adviser to President Erdogan) issued an explicit threat to Europe which was at that time discussing whether or not to grant Turkey visa-free travel within the continent. Specifically, he tweeted that "The European Parliament will discuss the report that will open Europe visa-free for Turkish citizens. If the wrong decision is taken, we will unleash  the refugees!." Many read that as tacit blackmail.

Fast forward two weeks later, when we learned that the EU plan to extend visa-free travel privileges to Turkey as of July 1 would be delayed over worries Ankara won't meet the key conditions on time. As Deutsche Welle reported "Chancellor Angela Merkel is in no mood to budge" in what is the first actual indication of resistance by the German to the increasingly more whimsical demands by the Turkish president.

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Introducing Europe's Frightening New Tax Directive | Zero Hedge

Introducing Europe's Frightening New Tax Directive

Submitted by Simon Black via SovereignMan.com,

In a bizarre story disclosed over the weekend, we learned that Belgium’s Princess Astrid was robbed by two assailants on a motorbike.

The thieves apparently approached her while she was sitting in traffic, smashed in her window, snatched the Royal Handbag, and sped off with over 2,000 euros in cash.

I have no doubt that was a harrowing experience for the princess, as it would be for anyone.

But as I researched a bit more, I learned that Belgium’s royal family is lavishly paid, particularly for a small country of just 11 million people.

King Philippe of Belgium receives more than 10 million euros per year. His father, the ‘retired’ king receives a pension of nearly 1 million euros annually.

Princess Astrid, the King’s sister, receives about 300,000 euros per year, in addition to usage rights of the royal properties.

In order to pay for this largesse, Belgium suffers some of the highest tax rates in the world, as high as 50% if you earn even a modest income.

In addition there’s 13% employee contributions to Social Security (plus employer contributions of 35%), and a Value-Added Tax of 21%.

Businesses in Belgium are subject to a 30% corporate tax rate, a 3% ‘crisis surcharge’, and my personal favorite, a 5% ‘fairness tax’.

In total the Belgian government’s tax revenue eats up about 45% of GDP, which means that the government takes almost half of all economic output.

This is an astounding figure… though it’s less than other governments in Europe like France or Denmark.

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SELF-LOATHING IN THE WEST « The Burning Platform

SELF-LOATHING IN THE WEST

The lack of a majority of individuals in the West willing to defend Western Civilization and the lack of an understanding of the value of it means that the battle to save it will be unnecessarily bloody and destructive.

How sad that so many are simply willing to throw it all away.

via The Rebel.

Europe Braces for More Jihadist Attacks: "Another Attempted Attack Is Almost Certain" | Zero Hedge

Europe Braces for More Jihadist Attacks: "Another Attempted Attack Is Almost Certain"

Submitted by Soeren Kern via The Gatestone Institute,

• Sports stadiums and big music events are especially vulnerable: "This is where you put a small town into a small area for a couple of hours." — Neil Basu, deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, London.
• "We know that the Islamic State has the European Championship in its sights." — Hans-Georg Maaßen, head of Germany's domestic intelligence agency.
• According to Patrick Calvar, head of the France's domestic intelligence agency, at least 645 French nationals or residents, including 245 women, are currently with the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Another 200 individuals are "in transit," either on their way to Syria or returning to France. Around 244 jihadists have already returned to France.
• British police chiefs are struggling to recruit enough officers who are willing to carry a firearm, because many fear they will be treated as criminal suspects if they use their weapon in the line of duty.

European security officials are bracing for potential jihadist attacks at public venues across Europe this summer.

In France, officials are preparing for possible attacks against the European Football Championships. The games, which start on June 10, comprise 51 matches involving 24 teams playing in 10 host cities across the country.

Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said that more than 90,000 security personnel will be on hand to protect the 2.5 million spectators expected to attend the games, as well as the hundreds of thousands more who will watch the matches on big screens in so-called "fan zones" in major cities.

Patrick Calvar, the head of the France's domestic intelligence agency (Direction générale de la sécurité intérieure, DGSI), warned: "We know that the Islamic State is planning new attacks in France." He added:

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