Allemagne - Faiblesses structurelles: son avenir ne sera pas forcément plus serein que celui d'autres pays actuellement dans la tourmente

L'Allemagne, un modèle pour l'avenir ?

Par LE PROFESSEUR DIDIER RAOULT

Les indéniables succès économiques de notre voisin d'outre-Rhin masquent les faiblesses structurelles qui le minent, souligne le professeur Didier Raoult.
La gestion économique énergique de l'Allemagne, ces dernières années, a amené à penser, dans la crise actuelle, que cette politique permettait d'en faire le leader incontesté d'Europe, avec un modèle vers lequel nous devrions tendre. Pour évaluer le succès d'une société et d'une civilisation, d'autres éléments permettent d'avoir une autre approche de l'organisation sociale. 

• Un point essentiel est la qualité de la production scientifique d'un pays.  ....
• Un autre élément important concerne l'espérance de vie. ....
• Enfin, le patrimoine des familles à revenu égal, ....

Lire ici la suite: www.lepoint.fr

Une étude s'inquiète de l'augmentation trop rapide des salaires en cette période de crise.

Pourquoi vos salaires sont trop élevés

Par MARC VIGNAUD

Une étude* s'inquiète de l'augmentation trop rapide des salaires en cette période de crise. Pour y faire face, les entreprises doivent sabrer dans leurs effectifs.

"Pour préserver la motivation des travailleurs et le climat social, deux déterminants essentiels de la productivité, les entreprises préfèrent réduire les emplois que les salaires." Résultat, l'augmentation des rémunérations dépasse celle de la productivité (le coût de production par tête d'une entreprise) depuis l'éclatement de la crise financière, en 2008. Une spécificité bien française en Europe : les salaires ralentissent en Italie, en Espagne, au Royaume-Uni, mais aussi aux Pays-Bas, relèvent les trois auteurs de ce travail. Seule l'Allemagne a fait comme la France, mais après une stagnation des salaires avant la crise. 
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Lire la suite ici: www.lepoint.fr

* Dynamique des salaires par temps de crise, Phlippe Askenazy, Antoine Bozio et Cecilia Garcia-Peñalosa, Conseil d'analyse économique

Total brain death is a valid criterion for pronouncing the death of human beings.

Total Brain Death: 

Valid Criterion of Death

by Patrick Lee and Germain Grisez 

Total brain death--the complete and irreversible cessation of functioning of all parts of the brain--has been widely accepted in ethics and law as a valid criterion for pronouncing the death of a human being. But in the last fifteen years, some philosophers and neurologists have advanced arguments that challenge this criterion. D. Alan Shewmon, a neurologist from UCLA, has advanced the strongest case so far. In our judgment, Shewmon has shown the unsoundness of the usual argument for the total brain death criterion, but we think--on different grounds than the standard rationale--that the criterion is a valid one for death.

The usual argument for the total brain death criterion has been that, once a human individual's brain has developed, it is the primary integrator of all the body's tissues and organs into a single organism. It seems to follow that, when all parts of the brain irreversibly cease to function, what remains is no longer a single organism, but an aggregate of tissues and organs.

However, Shewmon presents what appear to be counter-examples that disprove this criterion. Shewmon's evidence seems to show that some individuals have survived total brain death. In such cases, there are many functions that seem to belong to the individual as a whole. Among these are: homeostasis of a variety of mutually interacting chemicals and physiological parameters, detoxification and recycling of cellular wastes throughout the body, maintenance of body temperature (albeit at a lower than normal level), wound healing, and, of course, respiration and nutrition (though assisted). Shewmon describes an individual called "TK" who continued to manifest all those functions for more than twenty years, even as total brain death was confirmed by repeated clinical tests.

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Read more: www.thepublicdiscourse.com

Helicopter sans pilote ...

EC145 AFlight

Al Qaeda's threat did not end with Osama bin Laden

Al Qaeda and its Affiliates in 2013

By Katherine Zimmerman

Al Qaeda and its Affiliates in 2013 from AEI's Critical Threats Project

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Osama bin Laden envisioned al Qaeda as a global network that led the jihad against the United States, the West, and allied Muslim governments. The group known today as al Qaeda core serves as the center of the al Qaeda network, which now also includes groups recognized by the al Qaedaemir, or leader, as affiliates. These are al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, al Shabaab, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, al Qaeda in Iraq, and the Islamic Emirate of the Caucasus. Recovered al Qaeda correspondence, especially from the Abbottabad raid, reveals continued communications about ongoing developments and operations between senior leaders in Pakistan and leaders of affiliated groups.

Read more: www.criticalthreats.org

Books - "Speer: The Final Verdict" by Joachim Fest

The Relevance of Albert Speer: 

Decent Citizens in an Indecent Society?

by Matthew Anger

"Certainly, I was one of those co-workers of Hitler’s 

who are called “technocrats” today"

Albert Speer’s career is a microcosm of the decent (but philosophically agnostic) citizen living in an indecent (and ideologically fanatical) society. Speer served as Hitler’s chief architect, and during the Second World War was Germany’s minister of armaments. As such, Speer was a leading technocrat in a totalitarian state. While 21st century America is a far cry from the death camp regime, totalitarian aspirations are no longer a fringe phenomenon. Ideological despots are increasingly mainstream, and many individuals in power are bent on controlling the “totality” of national life. Their politicized morality is opposed to traditional beliefs, and it is growing more brazen and assertive. So if we are to avoid the desperate choices that faced people like Speer, we should be aware of these trends before they become “inevitable,” as they did during Hitler’s seizure of power.

Albert Speer (1905-1981) has been an object of controversy since he issued his best-selling memoirs in 1969. The chief accusation against this suave, intelligent and respectable man – who stood apart from the corrupt and thuggish Nazi inner circle – is that he was an accomplished opportunist who deliberately blinded himself to the dark side of Hitler’s genius. Certainly this was true of much of his career. But, as the late Joachim Fest pointed out, Speer opposed Hitler’s inhuman last-ditch scorched-earth policies at personal risk. Likewise after the war it would have easy for him to avoid the lingering and often fractious controversy over German guilt. But he chose not to.

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Read more: www.theimaginativeconservative.org

Argentina - When it comes to getting more dollars, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is more than willing to comply with the International Monetary Fund.

Anti-IMF Stand Forgotten 

When Cash on the Line: Argentina Credit

By Eliana Raszewski 

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner en la ONU comparando al FMI con la FIFA

"Quiero decirle al FMI que esto no es un partido de fútbol sino la crisis financiera y económica más grave desde la década del treinta. Y que mi país no es un equipo de fútbol sino una nación soberana que toma sus decisiones de manera autónoma y que no va a aceptar presiones ni mucho menos amenazas de parte de ningún organismo internacional" afirmó la presidenta argentina...

Argentina, which the IMF censured for underreporting inflation less than three months ago after three warnings over the past two years, last week authorized the deposit of $400 million with the Washington-based lender to increase the nation’s access to emergency cash. The move will boost Argentina’s special drawing rights that currently total $3.2 billion and comes as reserves, Fernandez’s main source for bond payments, declined to a six-year low of $39.8 billion.

Fernandez, who has also criticized the IMF for causing the country’s record $95 billion default in 2001, is using the bank to bolster her dwindling supply of dollars as a decade-long legal dispute with holdout creditors and her increasing influence over the economy leaves Argentina as the world’s least creditworthy debtor nation based on swaps trading. With overseas borrowing costs at 13.92 percent, Argentina hasn’t sold bonds globally in over a decade, prompting Fernandez to tighten capital controls and ban most dollar purchases.

“They’re doing this because they’re worried, and the special drawing rights helps them have more liquidity,” Claudio Loser, a former IMF director who now heads research firm Centennial Group Latin America, said by telephone from Washington. “Once the drawing rights are approved, they can use the money practically immediately, like cash.”

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Reado more: www.bloomberg.com