In the News (From BBC News): “Some of France’s wealthiest people have called on the government to tackle its deficit by raising taxes – on the rich.

“Sixteen executives, including Europe’s richest woman, the L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, offered in an open letter to pay a ‘special contribution’ in a spirit of ‘solidarity.’

“Later the government is due to announce tighter fiscal measures as it seeks to reassure markets and curb the deficit. They are expected to include a special tax on the super-rich.

“Before the announcement, expected on Wednesday evening, a letter appeared on the website of the French magazine Le Nouvel Observateur.

“It was signed by some of France’s most high-profile chief executives, including Christophe de Margerie of oil firm Total, Frederic Oudea of bank Societe Generale, and Air France’s Jean-Cyril Spinetta.

“They said: ‘We, the presidents and leaders of industry, businessmen and women, bankers and wealthy citizens would like the richest people to have to pay a “special contribution”.’

“They said they had benefited from the French system and that: ‘When the public finances deficit and the prospects of a worsening state debt threaten the future of France and Europe and when the government is asking everybody for solidarity, it seems necessary for us to contribute.’

“They warned, however, that the contribution should not be so severe that it would provoke an exodus of the rich or increased tax avoidance.

“The move follows a call by US billionaire investor Warren Buffett for higher taxes on the American ultra-rich.”

My Comment: This is a commendable step. However, it will not change the general course of the crisis because its cause is in the program from Above, the program of Nature (the Creator), which, according to the plan of creation (Nature), should bring the whole of creation, all its parts, to general balance.

Of all creation, it is a human being who stands out due to his egoism and disregard towards other parts of nature. His egoism has fully ripened, and that is why time has arrived to force him to come to equilibrium within himself, in society, and with the environment.

No action weakening man’s conflict with the environment will help other than temporarily. And even this step of altruistic egoism is necessary in order to see its negative result and wish to hear and to be able to understand (from us) the correct solution.
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Opinion: “If you thought that 2011 was a bad year for the world economy, just wait until you see what happens in 2012. The U.S. and Europe are both dealing with unprecedented debt problems, the financial markets are flailing about wildly, austerity programs are being implemented all over the globe, prices on basics such as food are soaring and a lot of consumers are flat out scared right now.

“Many analysts now fear that a ‘perfect storm’ could be brewing and that we could actually be headed for an economic apocalypse in 2012. Hopefully that will not happen. Hopefully our leaders can keep the global economy from completely falling apart. But right now, things don’t look good. After a period of relative stability, things are starting to become unglued once again. The next major financial panic could literally happen at any time. Sadly, if we do see an economic apocalypse in 2012, it won’t be the wealthy that suffer the most. It will be the poor, the unemployed, the homeless and the hungry that feel the most pain.

“The following are 20 signs that we could be headed for an economic apocalypse in 2012….

[Read more →]

Filed under: Crisis, World - 1 Comment →

In the News (From economicsnewspaper.com): “Against the background of the debt crisis in Europe is a growing distrust among banks. They borrow less money….

“The mistrust of banks taking each other for the assessment European Central Bank, given the debt crisis in Europe. ‘Banks prefer in certain regions of the euro area to its to deposit excess liquidity with the ECB, rather than to other Banks borrow,’ said ECB chief economist Juergen Stark to the ‘Handelsblatt’ in the Monday edition. ‘The signal we take seriously.’

“Alone between last Thursday and Friday, the offshore banks Stark’s statement after 90.5 billion euros at the ECB, rather than the money other banks to borrow. The situation was not yet comparable with the Situation in fall 2008. After the bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers was at that time the so-called interbank market, on which the Financial institutions provide liquidity to each other, in a state of shock fallen. The report shows that at times were in the € 200 billion ECB depot. (Abendblatt.de / dpa)”

My Comment: Since increasing mutual dependence is manifested in the world, the alienation of the banks from each other will lead to the collapse of the whole system. However, namely because of this, from the realization of their death, they will understand that there is no other way out but connection in the form of “mutual guarantee.” Through these crises (sufferings), Nature (the Creator) will bring humanity to correction.
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In The News: “Hamburg. Police in this northern German city said Sunday they used water cannon to disperse rampaging youths who set garbage bins ablaze and tried to break into a bank after an annual street party.

“A Hamburg police spokeswoman said officers turned water jets on vandals late Saturday and early Sunday after they were attacked with bottles, rocks and fireworks…

“The violence came at the end of the Schanzenfest, an annual street festival in a traditional hotbed of leftist activism in Germany’s wealthiest city that has undergone rapid gentrification in the last decade…

“Police mobilized 2,100 officers, many brought in from other regions, to keep the peace after recurrent problems linked to the event.

“The photos show not a single banner, but the participants left inscriptions on the walls of the buildings that remind of the recent riots in the UK and sound like “London is everywhere.”

My Comment: As the world has become global, integral connection that appears between us is manifested in our egoism in its characteristic forms of violence and unrest.

This trend will grow because the world is becoming more interconnected with each passing day; we are back to “Babylon” when we were one small humanity in one place, but today, under the influence of the Upper force of nature, the Creator, we instinctively desire to unite around the Earth, the globe, globally, by all means of connection, integrally.

And if we do not correct our nature, we will blow up the Earth. We have no choice but to do what Abraham suggested to the Babylonians during his time—to rise above the egoism that emerged in them, towards mutual guarantee, to love towards the other as to oneself.
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In the News (From Investors.com): “[Polish] Prime Minister Donald Tusk presented government assessment of the aggravating international financial turbulence in the Sejm on Friday [19 August]. He said his government would continue responsible policies to ensure that public spending is under control, and Poland is perceived as a stable and reliable country.

“It is the task of every responsible government and political party to ‘shield the country against the threat of chaos, nervous reactions and wave of emotions’ because such things harmed local and international economies, Tusk argued. He said that the main problem of countries engulfed by the present crisis was nervous reactions of investors and businessmen as well as waning confidence of citizens in financial institutions, including banks.…

“Poland is well prepared to stave off another wave of international crisis, he repeated. ‘We have currency reserves large enough for the foreseeable future and the Flexible Credit Line (with the IMF) makes it possible to effectively protect the zloty if it becomes necessary,’ Tusk assured.…

“’We are not afraid of (..) a more effective management of the euro zone because we believe that the euro zone is deeply in need of a stronger management,’ Tusk declared.”

My Comment: If the crisis is global, how could it not affect the country in the middle of Europe, how can a country not depend on export and import and on the earnings of Polish workers in other countries? Even leaders still do not understand what the globality of the world entails.
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In the News: “What causes riots? That’s not a question you would expect to have a simple answer. But today, Marco Lagi and buddies at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, say they’ve found a single factor that seems to trigger riots around the world.

“This single factor is the price of food. Lagi says that when it rises above a certain threshold, social unrest sweeps the planet….

“But what’s interesting about this analysis is that Lagi and co say that high food prices don’t necessarily trigger riots themselves, they simply create the conditions in which social unrest can flourish. ‘These observations are consistent with a hypothesis that high global food prices are a precipitating condition for social unrest,’ say Lagi and co….

“That leads to an obvious thought. If high food prices condition the world for social unrest, then reducing the prices should stabilise the planet.

“Today, the food price index remains above the threshold but the long term trend is still below. But it is rising. Lagi and co say that if the trend continues, the index is likely to cross the threshold in August 2013.

“If their model has the predictive power they suggest, when that happens, the world will become a tinderbox waiting for a match.”

Comment: According to Kabbalah, all the events in the world are caused only by the need to bring humanity to correction, similarity with nature, balance among everyone. This is reflected in the transition to a society of reasonable consumption where everyone consumes to the extent he needs to exist, and not more. In this case, there will be enough resources for everyone.

But reaching this state is possible only under the condition of “mutual guarantee” where “one is for all and all are for one.” Kabbalah explains how to achieve such a connection between everyone in the world. Otherwise, incorrect distribution of food will lead to a world war.
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[Show slideshow]

“The Round Table” began to function a few days ago; however, already it has been attended by Charlie Biton, a social activist, one of the founders of the “Black Panthers”; Dr. Esther Eilam, the founder of the Israeli feminist movement, as well as the movement “Achoti” and one of the leaders of the tent city on Lewinski Street; Dr. Ishak Saporta from the the Recanati Graduate School of Management at Tel-Aviv University; Shira Ohayon, a specialist in education and public activist, one of the leaders of the tent city in the “HaTikva”district; Ilya Marshak , a representative of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition (a Facebook group, connecting 43,000 participants); Eyal Mautner, the coordinator of the movement “Dror Israel”; Professor B. Davidson Arad from the School of Social Work at Tel-Aviv University; Dr. Tamir Leon, an anthropologist; Ron Cobi, a chairman of “The Middle Class Revolution” (a Facebook group, connecting 12,000 participants); Ron Sasson from the forum “Strategy,” and other participants.

The objectives of the “Round Table”:

• Expand cooperation among various individuals and organizations through civilized dialogue,
• Focus on social issues and problems,
• Present different views on the situation in the social sphere,
• Talk about possible solutions to social problems we face,
• Encourage partnership and mutual understanding between all those who are active in the field.

In our eyes, the approach is no less and perhaps even more important than the goal itself. We believe that mutual communication and constructive cooperation sometimes plays a greater role than the final decisions. We see our task in supporting the debate in a pleasant, business-like manner so that the participants show respect towards each other and open the “umbrella” of mutual guarantee, like at a family meeting.

During discussions, we encourage consideration and attention to the needs of others so that everyone perceives the problems of others as their own. The idea is to learn to care about each other despite different personal views, positions of various organizations, and problems of individual communities and social strata, as if we are one family.

Program format: Discussions are held from 8:00 until 9:30 P.M. at the round table on Rothschild Boulevard next to the “Mutual Guarantee” movement’s tent. The discussion involves six or seven people who listen to each other and take turns expressing their opinion. The program “The Round Table” is broadcast online on the “Mutual Guarantee” movement website, as well as on its Facebook page (in Hebrew).

Each participant gets enough time to express his or her opinion, present ideas, and respond to the views of other participants. The general public from Rothschild Boulevard and from the Internet are also invited to the discussion. Part of the public response is streamed live. The discussion is filmed by a team of professional cameramen with the support of sound operators and lighting professionals.
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Research: Foundation for Future Studies (Stiftung fur Zukunftsfragen) has published findings on personal happiness in Europe. “The most positive outlook on life came from the people of Denmark, with almost all of those interviewed (96%) saying they were happy. In contrast, the Germans (61%) came in at a lowly third to last place, justifying their reputation as pessimists.”

68% – Europe (average),
96% – Denmark,
80% – Greece,
79% – Italy,
77% – France,
72% – The Netherlands and UK,
63% – Austria,
61% – Turkey, Germany,
37% – Russia.

My Comment: How can the Greeks, in debt and other problems, be happier than the Turks and Germans? As we see, everything is relative, and happiness is not in abundance, although in general, women, country folk, couples, well-off people are happier than men, urban dwellers, singles, and low-income people. If we give a person “everything necessary for existence” and the joy of reciprocity, warmth, and justice, he will be happy!
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Opinion: (Philipp Roesler, German Economics Minister): “German Economy Minister Philipp Roesler called for a euro zone ‘stability council’ with the power to sanction countries that mismanage their finances.

“Such a council would be independent of governments and have the power to help countries implement economic reforms, if need be by determining where financial aid from fellow members would best be spent, Mr. Roesler, who is also vice-chancellor in Angela Merkel’s government, told reporters.

“‘A stability council wouldn’t mean – “you’re not getting any money”, but rather we’ll apportion it for you,’ he added.

“Mr Roesler, the head of the small pro-business Free Democrats (FDP), also called for ‘competitiveness tests’ to determine how countries were managing their finances.”

My Comment: Needless to say, this decision is very much German. But we shall soon see that without the ballast of industrially developing countries, Germany itself will fall into the crisis more deeply than anybody else. And no establishment will help until they change egoistic society to a “family.”
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