New website for teens!

A new website designed by the British Council for teenagers...

Have a look!

http://learnenglishteens.britishcouncil.org

Future of the European Union

A Financial Times Special Report

on the impact of the economic crisis on the future of the EU

link to the page

http://media.ft.com/cms/62041770-98b4-11e1-ad3e-00144feabdc0.pdf

Europe's elites feel the backlash

Ian Traynor, The Guardian, Uk

That's the major problem of the European system. It's too inflexible.

In elections in France on Sunday, in the Royal Palace in The Hague on Monday, and on Wenceslas Square in Prague on Saturday, a democratic backlash appeared to be gathering critical mass as the economic prescriptions of the governing class collided with the street and the ballot box. The collision looks likely to bring down three European governments.

Read the article on the Guardian's website

http://gu.com/p/374am

Occupy this album, music for the movement

 

99 tracks by 99 artists in favour of 99% of the people

 http://musicforoccupy.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/MFO-Poster-195x300.jpg

How companies learn your secrets, Charles Duhigg

The New York Times Magazine, February 16 2012

 

Andrew Pole had just started working as a statistician for Target in 2002, when two colleagues from the marketing department stopped by his desk to ask an odd question: “If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that? ” [...]

Specifically, the marketers said they wanted to send specially designed ads to women in their second trimester, which is when most expectant mothers begin buying all sorts of new things [...]

the company’s primary goals is convincing customers that the only store they need is Target. [...]

Read the article on The New York Times Magazine website, and see how companies study your habits (recording what, when, where you buy) and use the data in their marketing strategies. The case of Target, a retailer company.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/magazine/shopping-habits.html 

Johnny Grammar - Making comparisons (playlist)

Irish Debt

Dublin has pressed ahead with a plan to defer a €3.06bn cash payment due on its banking debt in a move it hopes will ease its return to international bond markets in late 2013.

Michael Noonan, Ireland’s finance minister, said on Thursday the government would settle the payment, due on March 31, using a long-term government bond rather than with its cash reserves. “This [financing] approach reinforces the commitment of our European partners in assisting the state in its path to recovery,” he said.

“I, and the Irish government, would like to thank all parties to these discussions for their constructive approach and positive engagement.”

For months, Dublin has been trying to persuade the EU to allow it to restructure debts related to its rescue of Anglo Irish Bank, the lender at the centre of Ireland’s financial crisis, and a second failed lender, the Irish Nationwide Building Society. On Thursday, Dublin said it had secured the agreement of the European Central Bank for its latest arrangement.

However, the ECB gave the announcement a lukewarm greeting. “The ECB takes note of today’s announcement of the minister of finance of Ireland regarding the government’s intentions on the payment of the promissory notes due on Friday the 30th of March 2012,” it said in a statement, stopping far short of endorsing the move.

The issue has moved centre stage as Ireland prepares to hold a referendum on the EU’s fiscal treaty on May 31. Some ministers have warned of an angry public reaction if the onerous repayment terms on its banking debt are not improved.

Under the arrangement, Dublin will give a long-term government bond to the IBRC to cover the €3.06bn payment it is due to make under the terms of promissory notes worth €31bn it issued at the height of its banking crisis.

The IBRC can then use the bond to reduce the €40.6bn in emergency liquidity assistance it has received from Ireland’s central bank.

But although Dublin said it had secured the ECB’s agreement, Thursday’s move will be seen with scepticism in Frankfurt because of the increased longer term costs to Ireland and fears that its government was acting for reasons of short-term expediency.

The ECB will also worry that by sidestepping the payment due, Ireland has risked its credibility with investors, possibly delaying its return to capital markets. The “nuclear option” for the ECB would be to block Ireland’s use of emergency liquidity assistance, but it seems unlikely to go that far.