Daily Archives: November 4, 2014

European Commission slashes eurozone forecasts – FT.com

November 4, 2014 By in Austerity, Business Administration, Central banks, Energy Policy, Fiscal Policy, Foreign Policy, Growth, Keynesian, Politics, Public Services Reform 1 Comment

This is a must-read. It’s currently the FT’s most popular article. It highlights the European Commission’s latest Eurozone forcasts for 2015. Check it out!

via European Commission slashes eurozone forecasts – FT.com.

Go to the graphic and press the arrow on the right hand side of the chart.

I was truly amazed at the change in the EC’s forecasts between Spring & Autumn 2014. What stunned me was little old Cyprus!

Cyprus moved from -0.5% to +2.0%. The only other Eurozone country to beat Cyprus was Ireland. Perhaps, the EC are beginning to factor in the Cyprus offshore gas reserves?

Apart from Ireland & Cyprus, otherwise there’s lots of bad news.

I wonder if the new team at the EC are being really conservative, so that they can later chalk up their success in response to their own policies?

Any thoughts, especially on the Cyprus rebound?

Opinion – Turkish President Erdoğan complains of cacophony in US – POLITICS – Hurryet News – Turkey – John Gelmini

November 4, 2014 By in Defense Policy, Foreign Policy, Turkey, US Leave a comment
English: Map showing the territories of the Ot...

English: Map showing the territories of the Ottoman Empire in 1914, including nominal and vassal territories. According to the information on the map in http://ottomanmilitary.devhub.com/ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Dr Alf says he struggles to find logic in Erdogan’s position and sees conflicting signals emerging from Washington’s position.

He is right on both counts.

President Erdogan of Turkey is trying to rebuild the Ottoman Empire, using Qatari and Kuwaiti money and assistance from Saudi Arabia, whilst pretending to be Washington’s ally.

At the same time, Turkey pretends to be a European country and willing NATO ally and wants to be part of the EU.

Washington would like to overthrow the regimes in Syria and Iran but knows that public opinion will not yet stand for another ground invasion after Afghanistan and Iraq.

ISIS and its financial backers want to build a global Caliphate but until they directly threaten American interests, Obama will do nothing, even though the Pentagon and the US military are ready for what comes next; they see the bigger danger and would act more robustly if they were allowed to do their job.

Turkey is allegedly secretly assisting ISIS and wants a no fly zone in Syria, which I suspect the Russians would take as as an act of war.

John Gelmini