Central Perk

marți, 20 decembrie 2011

This is not a game

Hello --

We've been fighting for months to make sure taxes on the middle class don't go up on January 1st.

This weekend, Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came together, compromised, and took a giant step to avoid just that. In fact, 89 senators approved an extension of the payroll tax cut. And 39 of them were Republicans, including GOP Senate Leader Mitch McConnell.

But now, a faction of Republicans in the House refuses to even vote on that compromise. And they're on the brink of allowing taxes to go up on 160 million Americans.

Here's part of the problem: A lot of people in Washington don't understand what these tax cuts mean. A typical family gets about $40 with each paycheck from this tax cut, and opponents look at that and argue it doesn't have an impact.

Just today, one House Republican referred to this debate as "high-stakes poker." He’s right about the high-stakes, but he's dead wrong about the poker. This is not a game.

We know better -- $40 has tangible benefits for millions of families. Can you help us prove that point?

Tell us what your family will give up if your taxes increase. We'll highlight stories like yours publicly so that they're part of the debate here in Washington.

What's missing here in Washington is your voice.

Too many just don't understand the perspective of a working family. They need to hear what it's like to be part of the middle class in this country.

Thankfully, there's still time to change the conversation. We have 11 days until taxes go up.

Send us your stories and we'll share them on Facebook and Twitter. We'll display what we received on WhiteHouse.gov. With your help, we'll put the middle class front and center.

Tell us what an extra $40 means to you and your family:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/40dollars

Thanks,

David Plouffe
Senior Advisor to the President

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The Five Marketing Lessons That Took Me a Long Time to Learn

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 01:15 PM PST

Posted by neilpatel

This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.

Because I grew up surrounded by entrepreneurs I learned early that working for yourself was a great way to make money and improve your lifestyle. However, even though I had this early drive to build businesses, I didn’t always know the right way to go about building or marketing them. In fact, through trial and error I eventually discovered what it takes to build and market a successful business, and the following five lessons are what I think to be the most important.

Being the category leader is not the only way to be successful

Everyone seems to think that if you’re not number one then you won’t have a successful business. I know I fell into this trap early in my career. Whether I was working as a marketing consultant or SEO, I tried to be number one, but it didn’t take me long to discover that being the best and being the category leader is not the same thing.

In some cases, you are number one when you dominate in revenue, number of users or market position. In other words, it’s pretty clear you are number one. For example, according to StatCounter, when it comes to browser, it’s pretty obvious who rules:

But if you are in a less-developed market, number one is often perception, which you can control with marketing. Listen, a company with a product that’s inferior to competition, yet gets a lot of media buzz, will seem like the category leader.

The clothing company American Apparel is a great example. Constantly in the media, whether for good things or bad things, American Apparel seemed unstoppable. In the case of AA, you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing one of their ads or hearing about them in the news. What did they do to make that happen?

Controversial policies - American Apparel doesn’t outsource and often includes employees posing for their soft-porn ads, both great topics for the media to report on.
Adopt a social cause and make noise about it – American Apparel is behind two social causes, Legalize LA and Legalize Gay, both causes that bring them attention.
Break the mold for good – The majority of employees at AA are immigrants who are paid more than twice the minimum wage and offered low-cost, full-family healthcare. (It’s unfortunate that 1,500 were illegal, but the CEO claims they used fake papers.)
Defend your values tooth and nail. The CEO of American Apparel is unapologetic about his unorthodox polices, values and views, which adds further fuel to the fire.

Of course some argue that the AA CEO is a sleaze ball who undermines all of his good. Others argue that his behavior is part of the brand’s DNA.

Are they market leaders? Not when it comes to market capitalization. That title belongs to Burberry Group at $552.2 billion. But you wouldn’t know it if you watched the news. In 2008, the Guardian named American Apparel label of the year and in 2009 Time magazine named the CEO one of its finalist for most influential people in the world.

My point is American Apparel went from a small clothing manufacturer in 2003 to a successful business in less than a decade because they were constantly in the press. You can usually compete with the big dogs if you figure out how to get a lot of press and buzz.

Focus on the opportunity, not the market leader

Another myth about market leaders has to do with market growth or saturation. For example, early this November comScore came out with data on US smart phone market. Here’s the data as a graph provided by Asymco:

What should jump out at you immediately is the all the blue on the top of the graph. That stands for all the opportunity out there for getting smart phones into the hands of people who don’t use smart phones. In other words, it doesn’t matter who the market leader is. The game is far from over for newcomers.

Good marketing means you look at what your competitor is doing, especially if he is the market leader, but you also look around them…you look for the opportunity that others are ignoring and, if it is there, taking advantage of it without having to take on the big guys.

Thinking like a customer is essential

It’s important to remember, however, that just because you are getting so much attention doesn’t mean you will be successful. Marketing rule number one is to solve your customer’s problems.

You’ve probably heard this many times before, but it bears repeating…you must make a product that meets an obvious need. Over time I’ve developed a method when it comes to business and product development. It’s called the SIMPLE method:

Simple – A successful product will take the guesswork out of how it satisfies a customer’s problems. Febreeze, for example, is simple…spray and kill odors. You get it immediately.
Interesting – Furthermore, a successfully marketing product puts distance between it and other commodities by explaining what makes it different. All products are a commodity. The iPhone…it’s a commodity, namely a smart phone. But not just any smart phone. It’s got apps, Face Time and now Siri.
Meaningful – But just because you figured out a problem to solve doesn’t mean you’ll be successful. The problem has to be meaningful. Look at Square, for example. It allows small businesses to easily collect payments via credit cards. Most of these small businesses will tell you they were losing money because they couldn’t take credit cards.
Productive – Like being simple, a product that customers will like helps them do something they currently do…but faster, easier or even cheaper. In other words, the product doesn’t complicate the customer’s life, but offers a convenience.
Long-lasting – A successful product will have longevity. It will provide a meaningful solution to a customer’s problem that will be more than just a fad. And it will go through multiple generations.
Entertaining – This last point is important because it explains the popularity of sites like Facebook or video games, which everybody can argue are not productive ways to spend your time. However, they provide excitement and enjoyment, which is meaningful to you.

I wish I’d thought of this method before I even started in business, but maybe I can help you avoid the mistakes I made and get successful in less time than I did by sharing it with you.

Free advertising can be your best promotional tool.

If you don’t have a lot of cash and you are trying to market your company online, don’t worry, as companies have been able to succeed without spending much money on marketing. This fact becomes apparent when you see that social media advertising spend will only be $4.4 billion or 7% of online ad spend by 2016. The reason is that to set up a social profile doesn’t cost anything and ongoing costs are low.

When I was trying to grow one of my first businesses, Advice Monkey, I paid over $5,000 to three different companies to market it. Unfortunately I got zero results, so I decided I was going to learn how to do it myself. Here is a list of six marketing ideas I used that didn’t require a huge budget:

Blog – By now it should be obvious that blogging is a great idea for generating traffic and attention. But I still run into entrepreneurs who dismiss it for one reason or another.
SEO - A few companies that have leveraged SEO fairly well are About.com, Wikipedia, Craigslist, Amazon, and Zappos. And an example of a smaller company that has done this is Bargaineering, which was acquired by Bankrate for 2.8 million.
Guest poster – An easy way to get your company out there is to write guest blog posts on other blogs. From TechCrunch to Huffington Post, there are thousands of popular blogs on the Internet. And the one thing all of these blogs want is more content.
Speak at conferences – You don’t have to spend a lot of money travelling to regional conferences, but occasionally splurge and got to a national conference. You’ll get more exposure.
Talk shit – People tend to pay attention when someone talks trash. For example, I once wrote a blog post on Like.com and how they were messing up with their marketing efforts. Shortly after that the CEO called and offered me consulting work.
Do interviews – I cannot tell you how many times I simply emailed someone and asked if they would like to interview me. Blogs and media sources are always looking for content…and interviews are an easy way to get it.

Check out this article if you want fifteen other big marketing ideas for your small budget.

Social media can absolutely drive sales

I pretty much jumped head first into social media when sites like Blogger, Twitter and Facebook came on the scene. However, it took me quite a while to figure out how to use them correctly so I could drive traffic and sales to my website.

Did you that for every hour we spend on online, we spend about fifteen minutes of that hour on social media sites? This is according to Neilson:

And did you know that about half of that time we are looking at products and services? The lesson is that if you want to build a sales relationship online, social media is your best bet.

A good example of monetizing social media is Joie De Vivre, a California company that operates luxury hotels. Every Tuesday the company tweets exclusive deals to their nearly 13,000 followers who have only a few hours to act on deeply discounted deals. Joie De Vivre typically books over 1,000 room nights with these types of deals, rooms that might remain empty.

Even large companies like Virgin use social media effectively. Richard Branson says that their approach to social media is with a healthy sense of fun and attractive offers. For example, the fourth highest sales day for Virgin America came when they tweeted, “$5 donated to KIPP Schools for every flight booked today.”

Conclusion

Some of these lessons may seem obvious, others not so. I know it took me a several years to figure them all out, but once I did, building successful business got easier and easier. This is not to say that if you follow these lessons above you will be guaranteed a successful business. You will improve your chances, however.

What not-so-obvious marketing lessons have you learned during your years in business?

About the author: Neil Patel is the co-founder of KISSmetrics, an analytics provider that helps companies make better business decisions.

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What Can You Buy with $40?

Your Daily Snapshot for
Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2011

What Can You Buy With $40?

If Congress fails to extend the payroll tax cut, the typical family making $50,000 a year will have about $40 less to spend or save with each paycheck. Over the year, that adds up to about $1,000.

Opponents of the payroll tax cut dismiss its impact by insisting $40 isn’t a lot of money, but that’s not the case for many families who are already working hard to make ends meet. Forty dollars buys a tank of gas or a fridge and pantry full of groceries. It covers a water bill or the cost of a prescription.

Tell us what $40 means for you and your family.

SEOptimise

Small Business Owners! 6 Quick Ways to Help Your Customers Help You

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 06:15 AM PST

Sometime last month, my friends and I did what most people do on a Friday night. Yes, we went out to blow off some steam and in the process, popped in to Pizza Hut to grab something to eat. The problem was, we probably dropped by at a bad time. The waitress seemed like she’d be anywhere in the world except serving at our table. Don’t get me wrong, my friends and I weren’t expecting 5-star treatment, but is a little courtesy or even a smile too much to ask for? Like most people who simply wouldn’t bother to complain about how rude the waitress was, we just grit our teeth and left as soon as we could. Fast forward to the next morning and one of my friends suggested that we go to a local restaurant named Joe’s, located in Oxford’s Summertown (isn’t that the best ever name for a town?) so we paid them a visit.

From the moment we entered the restaurant, we were made to feel welcome. The food was absolutely divine, their attention to detail was impeccable and their service was amazing. In fact, their receipt had a handwritten ‘thank you’ along with a smiley face on it!

Apologies for the low quality mobile phone image.

It’s amazing how little effort can make a customer happy. Having enjoyed the food and the service, I felt I must run to the top of a hill and announce to everyone that these guys are amazing and that all my friends should check them out too; or at least the modern method of doing so, which is to tweet about them or to mention them on Facebook. Unfortunately I couldn’t tag them in my tweets or Facebook status as they didn’t have a presence on Twitter and Facebook. So here I was, a satisfied customer, looking to give this restaurant a big ‘thumbs up’ and a recommendation to my friends about how awesome they are, but with no natural channel to do so. So I thought I should compile a list of quick and easy ways small businesses can help customers become their advocates. (Please note that Joe’s, to their credit, have now set up a Facebook page).

#1 Out of sight, out of mind

At the very least, make sure you have some sort of social media presence so that, like me, your customers can recommend your business to their friends. This shouldn’t take you long, as setting up a Facebook page and a Twitter profile literally takes a few minutes. Make sure you include details such as the address, a phone number and a link to your website. If you are unsure or are not confident in doing this yourself, get someone who is tech savvy (like your niece or nephew) to do this for you. If you have the time, here are a couple of great posts on how you could set up a Facebook page and a Twitter page.

#2 A picture is worth a thousand words

Images can convey quite a lot about your business, and this is especially important if you are a restaurant or a retail outlet. This also helps to give your business or your brand some sort of personality. So when you include images of your premises on Facebook, make sure you either invest in a really good camera or you obtain the services of a professional photographer. Although this may sound silly, the images on the web do in fact influence what people think about your business, as it’s the only tangible way they could associate quality with.

If you want to take this to the next level, you could propose to your guests that you can take good quality images and with their consent, upload it to your Facebook page and invite them to tag themselves and their friends on your fan page. This will ensure people will visit, engage and share your page with others.

#3 Consistency is the name of the game

Now that you have set up a Facebook page and/or a Twitter page with about 10-20 fans or followers, it is important to consolidate your existing fans and to grow this number. When it comes to Facebook and Twitter, it is extremely important to be part of your followers’ social network experience (which means being visible on their Twitter feeds and Facebook newsfeeds). Having said that, it is also important to not overdo this; there’s nothing more offensive on the social sphere than spam. On average, I’d say 1-2 posts a day is more than sufficient. The secret to maintaining great posts is to make sure your updates add value to your fans and followers. If you are a restaurant owner, sharing little cooking tips to your followers could be quite beneficial to them. For example, you could have a ‘recipe of the week’ post and share a tip to your followers.

#4 Offer incentives

Everyone likes to feel special and it’s the same on social media. Offering your fans and followers a special discount to try out a new item on the menu would help bolster loyalty toward your Facebook fan page.

#5 Save time with tools

I’m sure most small business owners wouldn’t really have the time to constantly be on social media platforms updating statuses and tweets. If you can’t hire someone to do this for you I suggest you use tools such as Hootsuite and Tweetdeck in order to schedule your tweets for the coming week and to monitor what people are saying about your brand or business on Twitter. Make a schedule at the beginning of the week as to what type of tweets and updates you want to share with your followers and also schedule at least half an hour a day to monitor and respond to any user engagements.

#6 “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it”
Use Facebook insights to measure and monitor the virality of your posts. Facebook provides a wealth of statistics, from how many people who are talking about your page right now to which demographic and geographic (including which cities) are most receptive to your posts. This will help you understand what works and what doesn’t. Marketers at one time used to spend quite a lot of money to obtain this market intelligence data which Facebook now provide you on a platter, and all this free of charge. So take advantage of the plethora of data and constantly tweak and improve your campaigns.

Conclusion

I’d like to share with you what an ultra-local business owner mentioned to me recently. His father set up a grocery store on a very competitive and busy high street in Colombo. I remember as a child frequenting his store on a daily basis with my grandfather who bought his loaf of bread, newspaper and his bottle of milk from this store like a prayer. How this business owner distinguished himself against his many competitors was his ability to form relationships with his customers. He knew my grandfather and me by name. He always made us laugh and we always left his store with a smile. So although two generations have passed, and his tiny grocery store is today a chain of supermarkets, he hasn’t forgotten what made his business succeed in the first place. When his son took over, he made sure he continued this formula on a whole new platform; he says that social media is simply a tool to form and develop these very same relationships at scale. None of the original classical methods of marketing have changed. The only thing that has, is where these relationships and conversations take place. Sadly most businesses don’t seem to grasp this concept well. Herein lies an opportunity for small business owners to be a serious threat to large multinationals. For me personally, Joe's Bar and Grill has won a customer for life, without having to dish out heavy advertising spend.

*Image credit: ActiveSteve on Flickr.

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Seth's Blog : The new lazy journalism

The new lazy journalism

When journalism was local, the math of reporting was pretty simple: you found a trend, an event or an issue that was important and you wrote about it. After all, you were the voice to your readers. Being in sync with a hundred or a thousand print journalists around the world was important, otherwise your readers woul'd be left out of a story everyone else knew about. And being in sync let a reporter know she was working on the right stories.

It wasn't lazy. It was smart. Your job was to report to the people in your town first, and to report what would be important tomorrow, which was the same thing everyone in every other town was doing.

But it led to events like this one:

Of course, now there is pretty much no such thing as local when it comes to news. Anyone in the world can read about anything in the world. As a result, this habit of being in sync completely undermines what we need from professional journalists.

How many times have I read the story about Louis CK in the last week? Did I need a newspaper to write precisely the same story days after I read it for the first time? How much do we care about the race for 'first' when first is now measured in seconds or perhaps minutes?

We don't need paid professionals to do retweeting for us. They're slicing up the attention pie thinner and thinner, giving us retreaded rehashes of warmed over news, all hoping for a bit of attention because the issue is trending. We can leave that to the unpaid, I think.

The hard part of professional journalism going forward is writing about what hasn't been written about, directing attention where it hasn't been, and saying something new.

• Email to a friend •

luni, 19 decembrie 2011

Mish's Global Economic Trend Analysis

Another Preposterous Proposal to "Fix the Unfixable"; Political, Economic, and Mathematical Realities
Ron Paul on Jay Leno: His Best Video Ever; Paul Soars into the Lead in Iowa Polls; Paul Passes Gingrich in New Hampshire!
European Unemployment Rates Suggest Pressure Cooker Will Soon Blow Sky High; UK Rejects Additional Money to IMF, Sweden Wants "Conditions"
Thatcher's Last Stand Against Socialism: Humorous Video on the Euro, European Politics, and Wealth Creation

Another Preposterous Proposal to "Fix the Unfixable"; Political, Economic, and Mathematical Realities

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 10:51 PM PST

The devalue-your-way to prosperity proponents are out in full force in spite of the mathematical silliness of it all.

Three writers of the Wall Street Journal article Weak Currency Stands to Buoy Zone Exports propose Europe is in the midst of a "weak recession" and a falling Euro will help exporters.

Weak recession? We will see about that.

At the top of the "beggar-thy-neighbor", weak-currency devaluation list is Martin Feldstein who writing on the Financial Times specifically proposes A weak euro is the way forward.

The Way Forward - Not

Feldstein believes "The key is to expand the net exports of those trade deficit countries to the world outside the eurozone."

Yet at the same time Feldstein readily admits "The politicians who planned the euro, generally did not think about future current account imbalances or other economic problems. They wanted the euro as a means of accelerating political integration."

Moreover, Feldstein specifically notes "Productivity in Germany rose much faster than it did in Italy, Spain and France. Germany also placed limits on wage growth. Those two factors mean that labour costs in Germany's tradable sector have risen some 30 per cent less since the start of the euro than labour costs and prices in those countries with slower productivity growth."

Proposal to Fix the Unfixable

Devaluing the Euro cannot and will not fix those structural problems. In essence Feldstein wants to fix a problem that is not fixable.The amazing thing is Feldstein nonetheless wants to try anyway with proposals he knows full well cannot work.

Put Feldsetein in the can-kicking group with this admission: "A decline of the euro cannot be a permanent solution to differences in productivity trends within the eurozone. But it would give those countries time to improve productivity growth before the euro's fundamental strength returns."

Can the Euro Be Saved?

Given that the Euro is fundamentally flawed, even if it could be saved, why should it be saved? At what cost? To whom?

Feldstein does not specifically address any of those questions, although does wonder how much the Euro needs to fall.

Wondering how far the Euro needs to decline to "save the euro" is akin to wondering how many peanuts elephants need to eat before one can launch a rocket ship to the moon.

Ironically, Feldstein concludes "If those relative improvements in productivity do not happen, there may be no choice but to end the eurozone as we know it today."

Why Don't We Start There?

Getting Greece, Spain, Portugal productivity up to the standards of Germany is NOT going to happen while all those countries are on the same currency with the same interest rate (and probably not under any circumstances at all).

While currency devaluation may in theory help one country in isolation, it cannot save the global economy or Europe as an entity.

Feldstein should know that, and I suspect he does. Unfortunately, he refuses to go down the only path that makes political and economic sense.

This is after all, not only about economics, but also about political realities.

Political and Economic Realities

The political and economic reality is the Euro has failed. It was fundamentally flawed from the beginning. Politics suggests it is too late to start over. Germany will not go along, and in my opinion, for excellent reasons.

So, instead of attempting to fix the unfixable, why not work on the best plan to break up the Eurozone?

Mathematical Realities

Not every country can run a current account surplus. Yet, every country wants to. On May 19, 2011, Paul Krugman Praised a Weaker US Dollar.

What's driving the turnaround in our manufacturing trade? The main answer is that the U.S. dollar has fallen against other currencies, helping give U.S.-based manufacturing a cost advantage. A weaker dollar, it turns out, was just what U.S. industry needed.

Yet the Federal Reserve finds itself under intense pressure from the right to make the dollar stronger, not weaker.

Mathematical Impossibilities

Krugman and the Fed want a weak Dollar
Feldstein and European countries want a weak Euro
Switzerland wants a weak Swiss Franc
Japan wants a weak Yen
China wants a weak Yuan

Can someone, anyone, tell me how that is supposed to work?

Magically it's supposed to. Yet, mathematically its impossible in relation to each. However, it is possible in relation to another currency: gold.

Amazingly, not even Nouriel Roubini can figure that out, which prompted my article Dear Nouriel Roubini: The Fundamental Case for Gold Has Not Changed; To Understand, All Roubini Need Do is Look in a Mirror.

Here's the deal: If the Euro slips, the dollar must by definition rise. If dollar exports then drop, the Fed may respond with QE3 and Japan may sell the Yen.

Note the extreme silliness of the circular proposals to weaken everything, yet the writers cannot even see it. It's a sad testament to the absurd grip Keynesian and Monetarist theory has on academia, Nobel prize economists, and in general economic writers most places you look.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Ron Paul on Jay Leno: His Best Video Ever; Paul Soars into the Lead in Iowa Polls; Paul Passes Gingrich in New Hampshire!

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 04:16 PM PST

Many people have serious misconceptions about who Ron Paul is and what he stands for. In a riveting video on the Jay Leno show, to a wildly enthusiastic audience, Ron Paul explains his position on numerous subjects.

Link if video does not play: Ron Paul on Tonight Show with Jay Leno

Ron Paul Soars Into Lead in Latest Iowa Poll

I am extremely pleased to report Paul takes lead as Gingrich collapses in Iowa

Newt Gingrich's campaign is rapidly imploding, and Ron Paul has now taken the lead in Iowa. He's at 23% to 20% for Mitt Romney, 14% for Gingrich, 10% each for Rick Santorum, Michele Bachmann, and Rick Perry, 4% for Jon Huntsman, and 2% for Gary Johnson.

Gingrich has now seen a big drop in his Iowa standing two weeks in a row. His share of the vote has gone from 27% to 22% to 14%. And there's been a large drop in his
personal favorability numbers as well from +31 (62/31) to +12 (52/40) to now -1 (46/47).

Negative ads over the last few weeks have really chipped away at Gingrich's image as
being a strong conservative- now only 36% of voters believe that he has 'strong principles,' while 43% think he does not.

PPP Poll Results

Ron Paul eclipses Newt Gingrich in latest New Hampshire PPP poll

As pleasing as the Iowa caucus poll is, the latest New Hampshire poll is an absolute stunner.

Please consider Ron Paul eclipses Newt Gingrich in latest New Hampshire PPP poll

Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, continues his streak of strong poll finishes. Mr. Paul eclipsed former House Speaker Newt Gingrich in the latest Public Policy Polling poll of likely New Hampshire Republican Presidential Primary voters released Monday. Mr. Paul pulled in 19 percent of the votes to best Mr. Gingrich, who garnered 17 percent of the votes. Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who has always been the front-runner in New Hampshire, finished in first place with 35 percent of the votes.

Mr. Paul can also celebrate two other recent poll victories. Mr. Paul won both an Insider Advantage and Public Policy Polling poll of likely Iowa GOP caucusgoers Monday. Mr. Paul bested Mr. Romney by 3 percentage points in the PPP poll and by 6 percentage points in the Insider Advantage poll. The Iowa poll victories represent the first time that Mr. Paul has led in Iowa since he launched his campaign in May.

With Mr. Paul in the lead in Iowa, Mr. Gingrich's campaign appears to be gasping for air. As it stands now, Mr. Paul has a healthy chance at a top-tier finish in Iowa and New Hampshire and growing chance of finishing first in Iowa and second in New Hampshire.

How You Can Help

It is a sad state of affairs when more are concerned about the latest Hollywood gossip than an extremely important presidential election.

That you are reading this post to this point suggests you are different. Do not be afraid to discuss politics and why you support Ron Paul. Please forward this post or the Jay Leno video to your friends and have them watch it.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

European Unemployment Rates Suggest Pressure Cooker Will Soon Blow Sky High; UK Rejects Additional Money to IMF, Sweden Wants "Conditions"

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 11:17 AM PST

In spite of what you hear by the nanny-zone Eurocrats, the rifts keep getting wider and the odds the Merkozy agreement gets tossed to the dogs rises every day.

Today the UK put a nail in the coffin of more money to the IMF and Sweden may do so as well. Please consider Euro zone IMF lending plan in danger as UK declines

European finance ministers looked unlikely to reach a target of boosting IMF resources by 200 billion euros to ward off the debt crisis on Monday, after Britain said it would not take part in a plan aimed specifically at helping the euro zone.

In a three-hour conference call, ministers also assessed plans for tighter euro zone fiscal rules - a new 'fiscal compact' - that policymakers hope will insulate the 17-country currency zone against a repeat of the two-year debt crisis.

Treasury sources said Britain had made it clear on the call it would not participate in the plan to increase IMF resources by up to 200 billion euros, with 150 billion of coming from euro zone central banks.

While Sweden said it would take part, with conditions, Britain's decision to stay on the sidelines means it is unlikely the headline goal will be reached. Ministers had set an informal deadline of Monday to arrive at the 200 billion figure, which was agreed by EU leaders at a summit on December 8-9.

Speaking during testimony to the European Parliament, ECB President Mario Draghi praised EU efforts to forge a new 'fiscal compact' as a solid base for responding to the crisis, and called the euro an "irreversible" project.

Finland's opposition, if not overcome, could scupper efforts to bring the ESM into force in July 2012, a year earlier than planned, to step up crisis-fighting efforts.

While EU leaders agreed at their last summit on the desire to boost IMF resources, there are doubts about whether the scheme will work, with not just Britain unenthusiastic, but the United States and Germany's Bundesbank too.

"Washington cannot make bilateral loans available to the IMF without Congress approving it," German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told German radio. "There's no chance of that and the American government has always made that clear."

Market response to measures agreed at the December summit has been cool, mainly because of the reluctance of the ECB to step up bond purchases and declare its readiness to do so.

As a result, ratings agency Fitch concluded on Friday that a 'comprehensive solution' to the crisis was technically and politically beyond reach. It warned that six euro zone economies, including Italy and Spain, could be hit with credit downgrades in the near future.

Standard & Poor's has said it could soon downgrade nearly all the euro zone's 17 members.

A declaration from the ECB that it would buy unlimited amounts of euro zone bonds for as long as necessary would immediately calm markets, but would probably break EU law and would relax pressure on politicians to reform their economies.

"The ECB simply can't and won't say that, and it's very unreasonable to even expect it," one euro zone official said.

Instead, the bank was likely to keep quietly buying enough Spanish and Italian bonds to keep both countries on the market but with financing costs sufficiently high to keep pressure on their lawmakers to pursue tough reforms.

"This is the most expensive approach, also not likely to work in the longer run, but still it is the only one possible," the euro zone official said.

Euro zone leaders agreed on December 9 to write into national constitutions a rule that budgets have to be balanced or in surplus in structural terms. If they are not, automatic corrective measures would follow.

Such rules would sharply limit government borrowing, bring down debt and, euro zone politicians hope, help restore market trust in the sustainability of public finances.

Pressure Cooker Will Soon Blow Sky High

European nations that sign the Merkozy treaty will be locked into austerity programs with falling GDP and rising unemployment rate every step of the way. The IMF tightening the screws on Greece every month will surely not help any.

European Unemployment Rates

Note the unemployment rate is 22.8% in Spain and 18.3% in Greece. Combined with additional austerity measures, high-and-rising unemployment rates across Europe ensures the lid on the European pressure cooker will soon blow sky high.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

Thatcher's Last Stand Against Socialism: Humorous Video on the Euro, European Politics, and Wealth Creation

Posted: 19 Dec 2011 08:55 AM PST

Please consider this humorous video of Margaret Thatcher's last House of Commons Speech on November 22, 1990. What Thatcher said then about the Euro, European politics, socialism and wealth creation makes as much sense today as it did then, when she made fools of the opposition in Parliament to much laughter from the conservatives.

Here is a link if the video does not play: Thatcher's Last Stand Against Socialism

The video is quite funny, please play it.

The complete Transcript of Thatcher's Last Stand is well worth a read as well. Here are some pertinent snips on Eurozone, not all of which is in the above video.

Mr. Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed)

Will the Prime Minister tell us whether she intends to continue her personal fight against a single currency and an independent central bank when she leaves office?

Mr. Dennis Skinner (Bolsover)

No. She is going to be the [central bank] governor. [Laughter.]

The Prime Minister

What a good idea. I had not thought of that. But if I were, there would be no European central bank accountable to no one, least of all national Parliaments. The point of that kind of Europe with a central bank is no democracy, taking powers away from every single Parliament, and having a single currency, a monetary policy and interest rates which take all political power away from us.

As my right hon. Friend the Member for Blaby (Mr. Lawson ) said in his first speech after the proposal for a single currency was made, a single currency is about the politics of Europe, it is about a federal Europe by the back door.

So I shall consider the proposal of the hon. Member for Bolsover (Mr. Skinner). Now where were we? I am enjoying this.

Mr. Michael Carttiss (Great Yarmouth)

Cancel it. You can wipe the floor with these people.

The Prime Minister

Yes, indeed—I was talking about Europe and the socialist ideal of Europe. Not for us the corporatism, socialism and central control. We leave those to the Opposition. Ours is a larger vision of a Community whose member states co-operate with one another more and more closely to the benefit of all.

Are we then to be censured for standing up for a free and open Britain in a free and open Europe? No. Our policies are in tune with the deepest instincts of the British people. We shall win the censure motion, so we shall not be censured for what is thoroughly right.

What Thatcher said about the Euro being a "back door" mechanism for transformation of Europe into a socialist nanny state was stunningly correct.

Hopefully, prime minister David Cameron will see the light and stand to to the EU and its attempt to extort another £25bn from the UK. For details, please see EU Leaders Endlessly Play "Ring-Around-the-Rosie"; Finance Ministers Seek IMF Funding Deal; EU demands £25bn lifeline from the UK.

Indeed, rules have gotten so crazy in regards to agricultural policy and other rules, that Cameron should put exiting the EU to a popular vote.

UK Should Exit the EU

Why should UK citizens pay through the nose for inane trade regulations especially on agricultural goods?

The UK needs to send a statement that it has had enough. If France wants protectionist agricultural policies then France, not the UK should suffer the consequences.

Those who do not know what I am talking about can find a nice example in UK facing £20m garlic tax bill

The UK Government has received a European Commission ultimatum to hand over £20 million within two months or face legal action. The wrangle is over the fact that import tariffs on frozen garlic from outside the EU are lower than the rates for fresh garlic. And, according to the Commission, UK authorities carelessly levied the lower rate applicable to frozen garlic on imports of the fresh product from China, in breach of EU customs rules.

A Commission statement explained: "Between 2005 and 2006, the UK customs authorities allowed imports of fresh garlic from the People's Republic of China under wrong authorising documents. They have erroneously stated that the goods imported were frozen garlic for which significantly lower import duties apply.

Why Put Up With This?

The EU has inane agricultural policies, inane trade policies and tariffs, and absurd rules on labeling bottled water, for example EU Bans Claim "Drinking Water Can Prevent Dehydration".

Previously, EU officials banned the selling of overly bent bananas and curved cucumbers but backed off after international ridicule.

Expect more such stupidity if a European Nanny-Zone forms.

What does the UK get for these endless regulations other than higher prices and direct subsidies to French farmers?

Mike "Mish" Shedlock
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com
Click Here To Scroll Thru My Recent Post List

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