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Welcome, 77 artists, 40 different points of Attica welcomes you by singing Erotokritos an epic romance written at 1713 by Vitsentzos Kornaros

Thursday, November 22, 2012

A scheme designed to net trillions from global tax havens is being scuppered | Nicholas Shaxson

Switzerland and other offshore specialists are doing their best to frustrate international transparency in taxation

The world is seeing the first stirrings of an emerging new architecture of global transparency in taxation which could, if pushed forwards, help governments for the first time raise serious revenues from the estimated $21-32 trillion sitting offshore. Switzerland, in alliance with the tax havens of Luxembourg, Austria and Britain, is leading the charge to derail it.

The battle now under way hinges on a powerful transparency principle called automatic information exchange. According to this, governments routinely tell each other about the cross-border assets and income of one another's citizens so they can tax them appropriately. This is the gold standard of transparency and the basis for a multilateral European scheme, the European Savings Tax Directive, which includes 42 European and other countries. This multilateral scheme is riddled with loopholes, but it is already up and running. Amendments to plug those loopholes are being prepared.

A second pillar of the emerging architecture is run by the OECD, a club of rich countries that contains several tax havens (including Britain, which partly controls a number of major tax havens, such as the Cayman Islands, the British Virgin Islands and Jersey).

The OECD scheme runs on a ridiculously weak transparency principle: information exchange on request. Here, you cannot make blanket information requests to a tax haven: you must ask, on a case-by-case basis. That means you effectively have to know the information you are looking for – before you ask for it. Precious little information flows through these narrow pipes.

The OECD also runs a black, white and grey list system of tax havens. To get a sense of how useful this list is, note that in April 2009, when G20 leaders declared that "the era of banking secrecy is over" and asked the OECD to lead the charge, the blacklist was empty within just five days. The G20 asked the OECD to drain a swamp – and it has been handing out drinking straws. The project helps at the margins, but is not a patch on the European scheme.

The United States is creating a third pillar under its Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, which requires financial institutions to tell the authorities about foreign accounts held by American taxpayers. Like the European system, it runs on the principle of automatic information exchange and, although originally set up unilaterally, the US is now pushing for reciprocal arrangements with other countries. Over time, one would expect rising co-operation and cross-linkages between the trailblazing US and European schemes, and with others.

In August last year, Switzerland threw a huge spanner into the works. It signed bilateral tax deals – "Rubik agreements" – with Germany and Britain, based on a very different principle: wealthy people with Swiss accounts can preserve their secrecy and, instead, merely pay a one-off, withholding tax on assets, and a bit of future income. "Trust us," say Swiss bankers – who have centuries of form helping the world's wealthy get around the rules of civilised society.

The British tax authorities promised it would yield a tantalising bounty: a one-off £4-£7bn for cash-parched, austerity Britain. But the deals are riddled with catastrophic loopholes, some so egregious as to amount to signs planted in the text saying: "Evade me here". You can skip around them with discretionary trusts, foundations, insurance wrappers, offshore companies and more – or just shift your wealth to Singapore.

A forensic analysis by the Tax Justice Network last year revealed that Britain's Rubik would not raise even a tenth of the promised sum. The analysis was sent to HMRC, to the Swiss tax authorities, to Swiss bankers and to several tax advisers. None could refute it. HMRC's response? It has kept its head down.

The Rubik project is a Swiss swindle – and a humiliation for this government. If successful it would, in the words of Professor Itai Grinberg of Georgetown University, "stifle the emergence of multilateral automatic information exchange". The Swiss Bankers' Association, which designed Rubik, has explicitly admitted that its original purpose was "to prevent" automatic information exchange: in other words, to kill the European Savings Tax Directive. In particular, crucial and powerful amendments to plug the directive's loopholes are now held up because Luxembourg says it won't accept them if Germany and Britain (and now the tax haven of Austria, which has signed its own Rubik deal) get special bilateral treatment from Switzerland. This obstructionism was the plan all along. EU tax commissioner Algirdas Semeta recently slammed Luxembourg's and Austria's involvement in this political chess game. "I cannot understand," he said, "that anyone would make even more difficult the consolidation efforts by Greece, Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain and many other member states by holding up this issue."

Thankfully, Germany's Bundesrat is widely expected to throw its Rubik deal out in a vote on Friday. The deal, forcefully supported by finance minister Wolfgang Schäuble for reasons best known to himself, has been attacked by German opposition politicians. A top Green party official called it "a slap in the face for all honest taxpayers"; and the head of the centre-left Social Democratic party, has accused Swiss banks of engaging in "organised crime". If Germany rejects the deal, as seems likely, Austria will be easily dealt with, leaving Britain alone as the last big obstacle to progress in the greatest transparency project the world has seen.

Chancellor George Osborne in his budget speech in April described tax evasion and avoidance as "morally repugnant". But his tax deal with Switzerland, as a fiscally useless spoiler, is a tax evader's dream. This government must repudiate it immediately. If it doesn't, Labour must commit to abolishing it – or hang its own head in shame.


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Euro immune to Greek woes, but for how long?


TheBull.com.au

Euro immune to Greek woes, but for how long?
NASDAQ
FXstreet.com (Córdoba) - The euro continued to push higher versus the dollar in thin trade amid the US Thanksgiving Day holiday, hitting a fresh 3-week high just shy of 1.2900 amid expectations international lenders will soon agree an aid deal for Greece.
JPY Underperforms, Greek Deal Seen Possible Next WeekAction Forex

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David Cameron demands €6bn cuts to EU bureaucrats' pay and perks

Overall EU spending proposed by Herman Van Rompuy remains €50bn higher than the initial British demand

David Cameron launched an attack on the EU's bureaucracy on Thursday, demanding €6bn (£4.85bn) in cuts to the pay, pensions and perks of thousands of European officials over seven years from 2014.

As the prime minister prepared to water down his initial demands for swingeing cuts in overall EU spending, he handed a list of proposed cuts to the entitlements of EU officials to the European council president, Herman Van Rompuy.

One EU official said many in Brussels believe that Britain is taking a tough stance on the relatively small administrative spending to mask a change of tack in Cameron's plans for a real terms freeze in the overall EU budget.

While Cameron told Van Rompuy he was pleased with big budget cuts tabled last week by Brussels, the spending proposed by Van Rompuy remains €50bn higher than the initial British demand. The Van Rompuy paper reduced European commission budget proposals by €81bn.

Stepping up his campaign against eurocrats, Cameron urged further cuts to administration costs by:

• Increasing the retirement age to 68 for all EU officials now under the age of 58. The current retirement age is 63. This would save €1.5bn.

• Cutting the overall EU pay bill by 10% for officials, saving €3bn.

• Lowering the pension cap from 70% of an official's final salary to 60%, saving €1.5bn.

A UK official said: "These are not dramatic changes. The commission and others are telling the Greeks, the Italians and others that they should put the retirement age up to 68. In the UK we have cut [public sector] pensions to a career average salary. They argue that it is very difficult legally to change people's terms and conditions. Well, we have managed it in the UK."

The commission has proposed increasing the administrative budget from €56bn to €63bn. Van Rompuy has proposed a trim to €62.63bn. Cameron told Van Rompuy the EU should follow the example of Whitehall which has imposed cuts of between 25%-30% in administrative costs. One British official said: "We can save tens of billions compared with what is on the table."

While Van Rompuy was said not to have responded to UK demands, Jose Manuel Barroso, the commission president, was reported to have reacted defensively.

Under pressure from Barroso, Van Rompuy has already minimised his proposed cuts to eurocrats' terms and conditions to €500m over seven years. Some of the British demands are also supported by the Germans and the Dutch.

EU officials accept it is difficult to argue with the need for cuts in the cost of administration during a time of austerity, though there is anger that Britain has declined to publish the salaries of its diplomats in Brussels. They receive generous housing allowances and live in the most exclusive areas of Brussels such as Ixelles in the centre and Tervuren on the outskirts.

Cameron is encouraged by Van Rompuy's proposed "payment ceiling" – the amount that is due to be paid out – of €940bn, compared to the first European commission payment ceiling of €987.6bn. Britain is insisting that the overall figure has to come in below €940bn. But Cameron appeared resigned to accepting he would not achieve his original target figure of €886bn.

The administration costs of the EU represent only 6.4% of the overall budget. Senior UK officials admit that big savings cannot be made there, but emphasise that the issue is "very symbolic" not only, but especially, in Britain.

Cameron highlighted the "Connecting Europe" project, which is designed to connect the continent through transport and energy infrastructure projects. The European commission has proposed increasing this by 350% – from €8bn to €36bn. Britain believes this should be merely doubled to €16bn.

One EU official said: "David Cameron lectures us all on the need to draw up a budget for growth. And yet he now wants to cut the very part of the budget that will build up transport, energy and broadband infrastructure."

Another EU official pointed out that it is designed to help fund the proposed high speed rail link from London to Birmingham and the electrification of the Great Western rail line.

Cameron's decision to target the growth budget and administrative costs for cuts shows Downing Street has accepted that Britain will not win any further cuts in the two highest areas of expenditure. These are the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) and structural funds that help build the infrastructure of poorer areas, notably in eastern Europe.

France's president, Francois Hollande, arrived at the summit incensed at proposed cuts to the farms budget of some €60bn compared to the current seven-year period and also embittered at having currently to fund a quarter of Britain's annual €3.6bn rebate.

He sought to gain the support of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, before the summit started, but was said to have found little sympathy. The French said they were in no hurry to reach a deal, indicating that the summit could collapse in failure over the next 48 hours.


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Euro stronger in Asia on Greece hopes


Business Recorder (blog)

Euro stronger in Asia on Greece hopes
Economic Times
TOKYO: The euro was stronger in Asia Thursday on optimism a long-sought bailout deal for Greece will be found, while the yen was under pressure amid speculation of further Bank of Japan easing measures. In Tokyo, the European single currency fetched ...
GLOBAL MARKETS-Shares climb, investors hope for Greece progressReuters
Euro supported by Greece aid hopes, hits 6-month peak vs yenBusiness Recorder (blog)
Euro gains in Asia on Greece hopesThe News International
Wall Street Journal
all 415 news articles »

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Greece's Only Option Is Default


Wall Street Journal

Greece's Only Option Is Default
Wall Street Journal
This week's gridlock over Greece's next round of bailout funds underscores an unsettling reality that Europeans would do well to realize sooner rather than later: For Greece, default is the only option. Indeed, a managed write-down in the near future ...
Wrangling Over GreeceSeeking Alpha
ECB presses Germany on Greek deal amid debt writedown talkReuters
Greece Dismayed by Lack of Deal to ReleaseJournal of Turkish Weekly
CNBC.com -Investment Europe -Times of Malta
all 3,440 news articles »

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Greek bond yields at lowest since March restructuring


Financial Post (blog)

Greek bond yields at lowest since March restructuring
Financial Post (blog)
Greek 10-year bonds advanced for a 10th day, pushing yields to the lowest since the nation's debt was restructured in March, amid optimism European policy makers are taking steps to stem the nation's fiscal crisis. Spain's government securities rose ...

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Euro stocks higher as Greek bailout put on hold


Euro stocks higher as Greek bailout put on hold
Sydney Morning Herald
European stock markets and the euro rose as traders welcomed strong Chinese manufacturing data and an Israel-Gaza truce, while a Greek bailout deal was put on hold ahead of an EU summit. Investors shrugged off news that Cyprus, which currently holds ...
Greek setback weighs on sharesThe Age

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Greece Bond Yields Drop to Lowest Since Restructuring in March


Greece Bond Yields Drop to Lowest Since Restructuring in March
Businessweek
Greece's government has appointed a team of officials to begin preparatory work on a debt buyback, financial news website Capital.gr reported, without citing anyone. German bonds were little changed as leaders of the 27 European Union nations meet ...


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Greece PM Samaras: Europe, IMF Must Do Their Part on Greece Aid


Greece PM Samaras: Europe, IMF Must Do Their Part on Greece Aid
Wall Street Journal
BRUSSELS--Greece has done its part to meet the terms of its bailout agreement and it's now time for its partners in the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund to do theirs, Greek premier Antonis Samaras said Thuesday. He made the comment on his ...


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Church groups urge EU to help Greece in crisis


Church groups urge EU to help Greece in crisis
Reuters
In an open letter from Greece, the secretaries-general of the World Council of Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC) said the country faced youth unemployment of over 50 percent and basic services were at risk. Noting the EU ...

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Across Europe, leaders fear spectre of separatists breaking countries apart

From Antwerp to Italy, separatists are making the financial case for going it alone. But how would the EU react?

Amid the statuary, marble and lavish wood panelling inside Antwerp's Renaissance-era town hall, a slow revolution is being plotted. Strolling in the autumn sunshine outside, Martin Roef seems an unlikely radical, but the retired lawyer harbours few doubts about the machinations of the politicians inside.

"The problem's down south. It's the French-speakers. They eat from the north, they eat from us and they want it to stay that way. We should split up and make Flanders a separate country. We'd be better living together but separately. Perhaps De Wever will make a difference."

He is referring to the rising star of Belgian politics, who has just conquered the town hall in a victory that merits the term historic. Bart de Wever, leader of the New Flemish Alliance, is a separatist and nationalist bent on redrawing the map of the European Union. Like Alex Salmond in Edinburgh or Artur Mas in Barcelona, De Wever is far from a fringe extremist. He is a mainstream conservative who wants to break Belgium apart and whose support is soaring.

"The end goal is clear for De Wever. He wants Flanders as an independent state in a democratic Europe," said Lieven de Winter, a professor of politics and expert on European regionalism at Belgium's Louvain University.

Catalonia goes to the polls this weekend in a fateful early election tipped to produce a mandate for an independence referendum. Scotland has its vote on separate statehood in two years. Around the same time in 2014, De Wever looks likely to be fighting national and regional elections in Belgium from a position of strength, seeking support for the gradual break-up of the country between Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south.

"He will certainly be calling for a form of confederalism, meaning two separate states that do a couple of things together," said De Winter.

"He has a new vision for politics, for the city, and for the country," said Robert van de Voorde, a post office worker. "He's very radical. He's saying we Flemish have had enough. I don't want a break-up, but it's very possible. A lot of Flemish think it would be better."

Antwerp v Brussels, Edinburgh v London, Barcelona v Madrid – in this tussle of regionalism against national capitals, Europe is both cause and effect.

All of these mainstream separatists are committed Europeans, insisting that if their independence campaigns are successful they should seamlessly assume membership of the EU. Not so fast, respond the current national leaders and policy-makers in the EU capital.

Three years of currency, debt, and financial crisis have set Europe's wealthy countries against the poor, the fiscally rigorous against the reckless, and triggered a certain renationalisation and fragmentation. Separatism, always present, has been boosted. "It is about money," said De Winter.

Flanders is much wealthier and more productive than Wallonia. De Wever stokes grievance against the poorer region by referring to the federal centre as "the taxation government of French-speakers" and railing against welfare spongers.

With Catalonia just about the richest part of crisis-hit Spain, the independence drive there is also fuelled by economic self-interest or selfishness, depending on your point of view.

Parallel frictions over how to slice up the national cake are similarly present in Germany, where the wealthy federal states of the south, Bavaria and Baden-Würtemberg, are fed up with subsidising the needier parts of the country. In Italy the same arguments over why Milan should pay for Naples have kept the neo-separatist Northern League in business for years.

Back in the 90s when Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia splintered, relative wealth was again a key factor, with the Prague leadership calculating the Czechs would be much better off without their poorer Slovak cousins, while Slovene and Croatian secessionism were party fired by exasperation at seeing their revenues swallowed up by Belgrade.

But if De Wever, Salmond and Mas all emphasise that their putative new countries must be granted seats at the EU's top tables, it is not that straightforward. With the exception of Algerian independence from France in 1962 – an example not relevant to the current dilemmas – no European Union member state has ever broken apart, thrusting the EU into uncharted and uncertain territory over how to respond.

It is inconceivable the EU could ignore the democratically expressed will of the Catalan people if they vote freely for independence, argues Mas. But national leaders of the EU would need to agree to admit new members. Would a Spanish prime minister or (Greek) Cypriot president welcome a country called Scotland into the EU?

"Several countries would not want to make that an easy precedent," says a senior EU official.

A handful of EU countries refuse to recognise the Kosovo secession from Serbia in the Balkans. They include Spain, Cyprus and Slovakia for reasons of domestic politics – fear of the impact of legalising potential secessions or partitions at home.

"The departing entity from a member state wouldn't get EU membership automatically," says the EU official, contradicting Scotland's deputy first minister, Nicola Sturgeon of the SNP, among others. "You need unanimous agreement among the member state governments and parliamentary ratifications. It's a legal minefield and very tricky. You could have a situation where Scotland keeps its six MEPs but is not a member state in the European council [of national governments]. The onus is not in favour of the secessionists."

These uncertainties may yet have an impact on the trajectory of the independence campaigns. Catalonia in Europe may well attract majority support. But if Catalans are told they could be excluded, however temporarily, from the EU, that could change voters' minds. Ditto in Flanders, of which Brussels, albeit a French-speaking city, is the historical capital as well as the EU capital.

In the UK, the EU is less of a toxic issue in Scotland than in England. Eurosceptic or Europhobic conservatism are minority sports there while increasingly prevalent in England. If, by the time of Scotland's date with destiny in 2014, it looks as though a Conservative government in London is leading Britain to the EU exit, support for independence may be boosted.

"Europe is being used and abused," said De Winter. "But the main national capitals are likely to give the separatists a hard time."


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ECB presses Germany on Greek deal amid debt writedown talk


Aljazeera.com

ECB presses Germany on Greek deal amid debt writedown talk
Chicago Tribune
BERLIN (Reuters) - The top German at the European Central Bank urged his own country on Thursday to compromise in a stand-off over aid to Greece after officials said Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble had hinted at possible debt forgiveness, then ...
GLOBAL MARKETS: Stocks, Euro Boosted by Data, Greek Buyback HopesWall Street Journal
Greek PM presses for deal on loanThe Seattle Times
If Greek talks are tough, check out the EU budgetReuters Blogs (blog)
MNI News -Aljazeera.com
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Germany’s neo-Nazis: How to stop more

BEATE ZSCHÄPE has just been charged in a Munich court as the surviving member of a neo-Nazi trio that, between 2000 and 2007, murdered eight Turks, one Greek and a policewoman, besides planting nail bombs and robbing banks. She is accused of helping two male accomplices, who shot their victims in the head with the same Ceska 83 pistol, with the aim of getting Turks and other foreigners to flee Germany in terror.The crimes of the National Socialist Underground (NSU), as the group styled itself, have held Germany in thrall ever since November 2011, when the group botched a bank robbery. The police closed in, and the two men killed themselves. Before turning herself in, Ms Zschäpe set fire to the flat where they had been living under false identities and sent out gory videos they had made, in the style of a Pink Panther cartoon, of their dead murder victims.Germany is now consumed with soul-searching. How could the NSU, in hiding since 1998, have stayed undetected for so long? For years the police searched for clues not among neo-Nazis but in the Turkish population, even suspecting the victims’ own families. If German intelligence services had worked better together, they might have stopped the NSU earlier.Instead, in a country that is highly sensitive to neo-Nazi threats, the bureaucracies failed utterly. Sebastian Edathy, chairman of an investigating parliamentary committee...


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Analysis: Greek economy pays high price for its high prices


Analysis: Greek economy pays high price for its high prices
Reuters
But another set of reasons goes to the heart of Greece's political and economic malaise: collusion among producers, the state's complicity in shielding protected professions and businesses, and a thorough lack of competition that allows a favored few ...

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Stelios Votsis obituary

My friend Stelios Votsis, who has died aged 83, was representative of the first generation of Cypriot artists who appeared on the national and international art scene soon after Cyprus gained independence from Britain in 1960.

Born in Larnaca, he studied at the city's Pancypriot Commercial school, where his artistic talent was spotted early by the art teacher Victor Ioannides. He began to stage exhibitions while at school, and in 1950 left Cyprus to study in England at St Martins School of Art and the Slade School of Art.

At the Slade, he was taught by William Coldstream, and in his early work Stelios was influenced by the Euston Road School, a group of leftwing realist artists including Coldstream. Although Stelios's paintings from this time were beautifully coloured and richly atmospheric, he destroyed almost all of them. This unwillingness to compromise over what he saw as the quality of his work was a defining feature of Stelios's approach to art. In the second year of his studies at the Slade he won first prize in a university drawing competition. But he refused to accept the prize because he did not believe his work merited it.

Stelios's demands on himself also affected his health. His poor diet and unhealthy living conditions in London resulted in him contracting tuberculosis. Returning to Cyprus in 1963, he helped form an artists group, the Cyprus Chamber of Fine Arts. He also represented Cyprus at the Venice Biennale in 1968. Cyprus was changing at a pace that was sometimes difficult to cope with. Violence continued between the island's Greek and Turkish populations. As a consequence, images of pain, loneliness and longing, with human figures set in complex geometrical landscapes, became Stelios's hallmarks.

Until the end of his life, he remained a radical and creative artist. In 2005, he and I began a unique series of collaborative paintings. In these we worked together in our own styles on a single canvas, passing the paintings back and forth like jazz musicians responding to each other's riffs. An exhibition of these works was opened by the British art critic Norbert Lynton in Nicosia in 2007 under the title The Anarchists.

He is survived by his wife, Eftihia, and two sons and a daughter.


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EURO GOVT-Greek debt rallies on aid deal prospect


EURO GOVT-Greek debt rallies on aid deal prospect
Reuters
Aid optimism pushes Greek yield to post restructuring low. * Spanish yields down after auction kicks off 2013 funding. * Bond markets still pricing in Spanish bailout request. By William James and Marius Zaharia. LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Greek bond ...

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FOREX-Euro boosted by Greece aid deal hopes, yen wobbly


Business Recorder (blog)

FOREX-Euro boosted by Greece aid deal hopes, yen wobbly
Reuters
LONDON, Nov 22 (Reuters) - The euro hit its highest point against the yen since late April on Thursday on expectations that international lenders will soon agree an aid deal for Greece and that Japan will ease monetary policy again. The single currency ...
Euro buoyant on Greece aid deal hopes, yen weakBusiness Recorder (blog)
Euro stronger in Asia on Greece hopesEconomic Times
Euro supported by Greece aid hopes, hits six-month peak vs. yenCNBC.com
Sydney Morning Herald -The News International
all 500 news articles »

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Politics Weekly podcast: Cameron demands EU budget squeeze and 'Breadline Britain'

David Cameron travelled to Brussels this week on a mission to cut not only the EU budget, but Britain's contribution to it. With his party losing votes to Ukip in recent byelections and growing pressure from his backbenchers, he'll be hoping for more than the usual Euro-fudge. Meanwhile Greece is still hanging on for the latest tranche of its promised bailout funds and France has seen its credit rating downgraded.

Joining Tom Clark this week to discuss all this: Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee, the Observer's economics editor Heather Stewart and the Guardian's political supremo Michael White.

Also this week: the growing problem of in-work poverty. Government ministers may like to talk of 'strivers v skivers' in the debate on cutting welfare, but does it really make sense when most children in poverty come from working households?

And is the government really doing all it can to keep energy companies in check? With fuel poverty becoming a life or death issue in winter months, is there anything to underpin the prime minister's tough talking on fuel bills?

Leave your thoughts below.






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Yen's haven status set to be tested


Livemint

Yen's haven status set to be tested
Financial Times
The prospect of elections in Japan and subsequent pressure on the country's central bank to ease monetary policy aggressively have driven the yen sharply lower in recent days. Has the move been overdone – or will the currency stay weak into 2013?
FOREX-Euro buoyant on Greece aid deal hopes, yen weakReuters
Euro extends gains, hits 6-month high vs. yenMarketWatch
Tokyo Shares End at Highest Since Early May as Yen Slide ContinuesWall Street Journal
Bloomberg -Businessweek -CNBC.com
all 435 news articles »

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