Technological University Dublin senior lecturer Dr Lorcan Sirr speaks to Wikinews on housing market in Ireland

Wikinews correspondent J.J. Liu spoke with Technological University Dublin (TUD) senior lecturer at the School of Surveying & Construction Management, Dr Lorcan Sirr on Friday regarding the supply of housing in the Republic of Ireland and relevant parallels across the rest of Europe, as well as recent developments by the government and private sector that are causing a rise in rents and home prices in the Irish real estate market.

Dr Sirr is a regular contributor to The Irish Times and has provided commentary to Irish radio station Newstalk, national broadcaster Raidió Teilifís Éireann (RTÉ) and various other publications.  In addition to being a chartered planning and development surveyor and assessor to the Society of Chartered Surveyors, Dr Sirr is a Peace Commissioner and former external examiner for the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, according to his profile on Worky.

Dr Sirr was a lecturer and former head of research for the Faculty of the Built Environment at the Dublin Institute of Technology, which entered a merger with two partner institutes to become TUD January 1, 2019.  He received his bachelor's degree in estate management at the University of Greenwich, United Kingdom, and master's degree in urban design and PhD in town planning at the University of Manchester.  He has a second master's in literature from KU Leuven, Belgium, and speaks French.

By most measures, Ireland is a far wealthier country than it was decades ago, yet the cost of rent and owning one's own home has been steadily on the rise.  A Q1 Daft.ie price report found the average monthly rent in Ireland is up to EUR1443.  Broadly speaking, to what do you attribute this to?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  One of the main reasons for rents rising significantly over the last decade has been the increased use of the rental sector for social housing.  So, social housing is typically housing that's provided by the state for people that can't afford their own housing.  And traditionally what has happened is that the state builds houses for people who need housing.  And increasingly, they've not been doing that, but instead they've been placing families who need housing into the rental sector.

So, what they're doing there is, they're putting a lot more demand into the rental sector, constraining supply, and then rents are going up.  So, if we got rid of the government's practice of using the private rental sector for state housing or for social housing, you would find that there's a lot more supply available, and that is a huge driver of rents.

The other driver of rents, of course, has been that, about four years ago, the government introduced a new system whereby rents could be increased annually up to a maximum of 4%, but of course when you introduce a maximum, the maximum quickly becomes the target.  So, every landlord just increase[s] their rent by 4% every year.  So over a number of years 4% on 4% on 4% on 4% adds up to significant rental increases.

((WN))  Now, you're saying, 'the 4% the 4% the 4%', I know the [government] opposition, Social Democrats and Sinn Féin, even before the [COVID-19] pandemic, they've been advocating for a temporary, I believe, ban on rent increases, or just a rent-freeze overall.  Do you think that would help the situation?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  It depends on what you mean by 'the situation'.  It would help tenants, without a doubt, it would help tenants in situ, because suddenly they'd have a rent-freeze and their rents would be stuck where they are.

Whether it would benefit the sector overall is a different thing—whether it's constitutional is a third thing—but, so, it would benefit tenants.  Would it benefit the system overall?  If landlords aren't able to make a return on their rents, there is an increased chance that the landlords will leave the sector.  Now, the house is still there, but the house will go for home ownership or for something else.  So, you know, at a more macro[economic]-level, maybe that wouldn't be the best thing to happen.

And the third issue is that constitutionally there has been a court case in 1982, Blake [v.] the Attorney General, which said that rent-freezes, per se, are unconstitutional.  So, you're beginning to trickle in legal ground by doing something like that.  Having said that, what they've brought in—it happened today, actually; [it] comes into effect today—is rents are now linked to the European harmonised price; basically inflation.  And that happens, today.

((WN))  Daft.ie relates the COVID-19 pandemic to the situational cession of construction activity and the second-hand market.  Do you expect these variables to change in the coming weeks and months?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Funnily enough, last year, you know, we had built 21 thousand houses in 2019, and we kind of thought that last year, because of COVID[-19], we might get 12 or 13 thousand houses: these are really small numbers, like.  But we got 20 thousand houses, I think 20 thousand houses in the last year, which was really surprising, it was nearly the same as the year before.  So, COVID[-19] didn't really stop that much housebuilding activity.  It didn't really have the change, the impact that we thought it was going to have.

Yeah, the construction industry are quite [fortunate] that construction sites [are] open-air, should be allowed to be open and remain open, and they kind of won their case a lot of the time.  But, the other thing is like, do we expect these variables to change in the next months?  I don't think we'll ever see.  You have a lot of people out there who say we need 33 thousand houses a year, 48 thousand houses a year, whatever, all that numbers.

The market isn't going to supply more houses than it can sell, and over the last four or five years it has been selling the same number of houses every year: about seven or eight thousand houses.  Out of the 20 thousand houses, only about seven or eight thousand come on the market for sale for ordinary people.  And that's about right, that's about the level where prices are stabilising, at seven or eight [thousand].  If they build any more houses, sales prices will fall because they've increased the supply.  And so, I think builders are quite clever and that, no matter what happens with COVID[-19], right, I still think we're only going to churn out 20, 22, 24 thousand houses every year.  Because if they churn out any more than that, they're going to oversupply the market — and negatively impact the sales price.  So they're very clever about maintaining, drip-feeding the market like that.

((WN))  Speaking of the prices, residential property prices rose by 4.5% the year to April, in a range from 0.5% in apartments in Dublin to 8.5% in houses on the border with the North [of Ireland; Northern Ireland], according to the Central Statistics Office.  Do you expect this to change as post-pandemic consumer price inflation—European harmonised inflation—eases more broadly?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Well, you've got to remember the places like the Border, Midlands and western region that you're referring to now with the 8.5%, they are starting from a really low base.  So 8.5% is coming from something very low, so it's 8.5% of something low anyway, so [in] those areas, 8.5% doesn't scare me at all.  It's more in the large cities, or, we don't really have large cities, but in the cities, our price rise is moderating.

And the interesting thing that's driving the sales prices outside Dublin is COVID[-19], and the idea that a lot of people have decided that, "instead of living in a city, and now that we can work from home, I'm going to move back to [the] Border, Midlands, wherever I'm from originally where I can buy or get free land and buy a big house that I could never buy or build in Dublin, blah blah blah, and do that".  And that's driving prices, with the people moving to other areas.

How long that will last is the other question.  I don't know: I think a lot of employers will want a return at some stage, but I think we haven't fully thought out this idea [of] working from home, I think we're only [in the] very early stages of it.  So I'm not sure of those price rises will sustain themselves over the next few years.  I think there could be a moment of excitement at the moment, where people are going: "oh great, I can get out of the city, I can buy a cheaper house back in the countryside, and I'll do that", but, you know, pretty soon I think people will realise they want to be back in the city, or the excitement will wear off of that, and only a certain number of people do that, and the rest of the people stay in the cities.

((WN))  What are your thoughts on the government's Rebuild[ing] Ireland initiative?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Rebuilding Ireland was the government policy from 2016 until this year, actually, last month.  So it's finished now, it failed.  It had five main pillars, like reusing stock, ending homelessness, all that stuff.  It failed on all the pillars.  It didn't hit any of its targets, and one of the problems with it was that it was very simplistic in many ways, and very much driven by quantity over quality.  So, it was all about numerical targets, and it didn't matter if the houses that were built under these numerical targets were connected with public transport, they had local infrastructure, they had services et cetera, et cetera.  That didn't matter, that was secondary; the most important part was to get numbers of houses up, you know, get those numbers, hit those targets.

So, very simplistic.  We're [a] first-world country, we're quite a wealthy country.  We should be doing better planning than, you know, the target is 25 thousand houses a year, let's hit 25 thousand, and it doesn't matter if they're not serviced by public transport, it doesn't matter if they're not sustainable development, it doesn't matter if they're in areas where they're not needed.  You know, it was very much targets-driven, which is why it failed.

So, it failed on all their targets.  So, you know, you need it better.  We have a national planning policy that's telling us to do one thing in a kind of more correct, best-practice way, and then you have a Rebuilding Ireland housing strategy that's telling us to throw up houses everywhere as quickly as we can, and the two things do not compute, they're not compatible, you know.  So we ended up with this mess, you know, as always.

((WN))  So you're saying that the numerical strategy is not the best approach.  I don't know if you've had the chance to read this, but [on] 14 July the government published its Summer Economic Statement and it's included a promise for a Housing for All strategy that's "designed to boost housing outputs".  So, what do you think is most crucial in pursuing that aim, if not strictly numerical?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  There's no point in building houses if it means that people are living far away from employment, for example, because you're building houses, but yet you're creating other pressures on traffic and congestion and forced car ownership and a whole lot of other issues.  So, you know, it's not about the numbers, and in any event, one of the problems with these strategies is that it's one thing to have a numerical target if I have control over the numbers that are going to be delivered, because I am the state.

The problem with the Irish state is that it relies nearly entirely on the private market to deliver its housing output targets.  You can't control the free market, you know, the market will do what it wants to do, so even though we might need 30, 40, 50 thousand houses a year, if the market decides that 20 thousand houses is the optimal level, that's all they're gonna build.  And the state can't force them to build 40 thousand, so one of the problems with Rebuilding Ireland and having a targets-driven system is that targets are fine if you are in control of the delivery of the targets, but targets are pointless if you're relying on someone else to deliver those targets for you.  And that was where we went wrong with that.

So I think, with the new Housing for All strategy, I haven't seen it, and I know there's arguments in the government about how much money should be allocated towards it, but I mean really, if it's going to achieve what it wants to achieve, the state needs to take far more control over the delivery of housing.  Because if you don't have control over it, you lose control over quality, you lose control over costs, you lose control over timing, and by relying on the market, these are all lessons that we know from 20 years ago, but we're a bit dumb in that we don't, kind of, learn the lessons that we should be learning.

So we're back again relying on the market, and then, you know, you just lose control over everything.

((WN))  What would you recommend the government do then, for its Housing for All strategy?  It hasn't been published yet, but what would you personally think would be best, just in trying to solve [through] the strategy?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Yeah, I think we already have a lot of lands and we already have a lot of vacant housing in Ireland.  We have an incredibly high rate of vacant housing, and the government seems to be reluctant to tackle either land that we have — a lot of land owned by the state itself, not even private land — and the reuse of existing housing.  Like, we don't even tax people who leave properties empty, for example.  I could leave my house in Dublin for ten years and nobody would tax me, nobody would say anything to me.  And that's crazy, you know, when you have a housing shortage, like how could you let people leave their houses empty in a housing shortage?  But we do!  We can, in Ireland.  There's no way to, kind of, penalise people for doing that.

And we don't charge property tax really, we don't charge a meaningful property tax.  So we're very reluctant to interfere with people's ownership of property and people's usage of property.  So, we have land, and we have a lot of empty housing.  I think really what has been happening over the last ten years is an increased centralisation over the control of the delivery of housing, so in other words, taking away power from local government—we have very weak local government anyway, like councils and town councils—and bringing it back to a centralised government department.

Really, what needs to happen is responsibility for the delivery of housing needs to go back to a local level, and put responsibility on councillors and mayors and people like that to deliver housing, not having it done from a central office up in Dublin.

((WN))  What are your thoughts on the Affordable Housing Bill [2021], which was defended by the Fianna Fáil Minister [for] Housing[, Local Government and Heritage] Darragh O'Brien as "empowering local authorities to deliver affordable homes [for] purchase on their own lands"?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Yeah, it's kind of interesting because it's doing the opposite of what I was talking about, like.  So I'm, you know, saying "give more power back to councils", and at the same time the Minister is taking power away from councils on the disposal of land.  He's, you know, forcing councils to give up good land they have zoned for housing to a centralised body, and really it's the opposite that needs to happen.

A lot of the affordable housing stuff still brings in the private sector.  And when you're bringing in the private sector you're bringing in profit, and the more you bring in, the less affordable the housing becomes, because the private sector has to make a profit, that's understandable.  Well, unless you're kind of willing to do it yourself, then you need to use the private sector and the affordability comes out the window.  So really, what the government's been urged to do by opposition and even by its own internal members is to borrow, at a time like now when money is quite cheap to borrow, to borrow more money and build housing ourselves, and forget the private sector.  Let the private sector look after the private sector, and let the state look after the state.

But we've mixed up the two for so many years now that we're finding it hard to disentangle ourselves from our reliance on the state.

((WN))  The Residential Tenancies Act [2021] which, as you said, comes into effect today, it ensures that the rent pressure zones can increase with the consumer prices.  It has been challenged by the opposition obviously, just because they think that it's unfair on tenants, and that sort of thing.  What are your thoughts?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Well actually, a lot of the opposition people were in favour, I know Sinn Féin were very much in favour of an inflation rate-related rent change system.  I mean, I think it's better than the current system: when you set an upper limit, a ceiling, of what rents can go, so in our case it was 4%, that just becomes a target for landlords.  So landlords go, "well, the most I can increase it by is 4%, so I'm just going to increase it to 4%", and everybody does, and then rents go up, and suddenly that's the market rent, so the next year you can increase your rent by another 4%, and the rents all go up and up by 4%.

Look, when you have an inflation one, at least it's more broadly related to your expenditure on everything, and it should take some of the sting.  Now, having said that, inflation has been rising over the last few years, so what I would have liked to have seen would have been inflation, related as it is as of today, inflation-related rent increases, but with a cap of, say, two-and-a-half or three per cent on it.  I would have liked to see that, because if inflation does take off, and say we get 6% inflation, then we're in a worse position than we were before when it was only 4%.

But in principle, I think I would be supportive of inflation[-related] rent increases.  And I think most of the opposition would be too.

((WN))  You wrote in The Sunday Times on 24 July, 2016 on the obsolete housing rate "[h]ousing policy deserves a better evidential basis."  Could you speak more to this?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  What I meant with that was, for a start, we didn't know how many houses we were counting every year.  We're very bad at data, so we didn't know how many houses we were building every year, we couldn't count them.  We didn't really know how many empty houses we had, and we didn't know [of] how many obsolete houses.  So, obsolete.  So, we have houses that we live in, we have empty houses like vacant houses, so, I'm away on holidays and my house in Dublin at the moment is empty, that's a vacant house, and then we have obsolete houses.

So, obsolete houses are houses that are, effectively, uninhabitable.  Houses that we have let fall into a huge state of disrepair, so that nobody can live in them: so there's no water, no electricity.  It's just, you know, windows, no rooms, whatever.  And we have a huge problem with that.  Our rate of obsolescence is about four times the international norm, so we're letting an awful lot of buildings that could be potentially reused go un-reusable, if you know what I mean.

We're letting them fall down.  [The computer is moved to the outside of his building.]  You see this building here?  That is part of an old farm, and that was a building that was almost obsolete, and the people spent some, borrowed some money and refurbished it, and now they rent it out on Airbnb or whatever.  [The computer is brought back inside.]  And that's the way to do it, like.  It's a perfectly good building, it's a beautiful building.  It's huge and it's really nice and it's really well-done, and, like, we have thousands of houses every year that we let fall into a state that they can't be reused.  And we didn't know how many we were doing it [to].

So, in other words, we have a potential stock of housing that we're just letting rot and letting fall away, and that's what I was talking about in The Sunday Times, that we need to capture that data about how many houses that we're letting fall obsolete, and get a strategy to reuse them, and to, kind of, bring them back to life.  Because not everybody wants a new building, and you can't rely on builders to build every new building, you know, all the new buildings we need.  So, we also need to sort of capitalise on our existing housing stock.

((WN))  And who do you think should be held responsible for fixing these dilapidated buildings?  Do you think it should be the private sector and the private people or the local government or the national government?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  I think it's not really a kind of a punishment exercise, if you know what I mean.  I think this is probably a situation where a lot of people will have, say, you know, an example, this area I'm in, there's a farm next door and they own this building.  Maybe they didn't have the money, maybe some farmers, maybe some people who own obsolete or derelict buildings don't have the money to do it.  So I think there should be probably a process whereby we can give them a grant, and help them bring the buildings back to use, and then, you know, over 40 years they can repay the loan or repay the grant or whatever.

But I think it can't be just a punishment, we can't just tax people for letting buildings fall out, I think we need to help them bring them back in use again, as well.  So, carrot and stick.

((WN))  You wrote again in The Sunday Times that September, and in fact, we've actually been talking a bit right now about, you know, Dublin and the cities, the government under the Taoiseach Enda Kenny has been focusing too much "on crowd-pleasing, anti-urban policies that can never work" with regards to its growth centres and housing supports.  What are some policy ideas you think could work in, you know, de-incentivising that sort of thing?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Yeah, so traditionally Ireland has been a fairly rural country, you know, and rural issues have dominated politics in Ireland for a long, long time.  We didn't have cities like they did in the UK, so we didn't have an Industrial Revolution.  Like, in the UK they were building big cities in the 1830s, 1840s, 1850s like Manchester, Leeds, Birmingham and, you know, London grew and all those kinds of places.  We didn't have any of that!  Now, Belfast did, which is like 150 miles up the road, because that was part of the United Kingdom and Belfast grew a Victorian, industrial city, but Dublin never did.

The Industrial Revolution bypassed us because we've had presidents and prime ministers who had no interest in cities.  We don't have an urban culture, you know.  We don't know how it is to manage a city, we don't even know what a big city really looks like, you know.  You come to Ireland and it's like, what we call cities, like, they're just towns, you know what I mean.  Like, the whole population of Ireland is just a suburb of somewhere in Singapore, you know what I mean.  The scale here is tiny, and we've never had an interest in, kind of, you know, in developing our cities and developing how they should work.  So, it's always been, kind of, the rural politicians have quite often got their way.

And not only that, the people we've had managing places like Dublin have often been rural people, people from a rural background.  So they're not even city livers or city dwellers: they weren't born in the city, they don't know how it is to live in the city.

So, you know, we've neglected our cities over the years.  And it's getting better, but we have neglected our cities over the years.  One of the things I think we could do is have directly-elected lord mayors, with powers over the police and over urban developments and things like that.  We don't do that, we don't do local government at all, and I think the most successful things, looking at European and international cities, is when they have strong local government, they have a directly-elected lord mayor, and if I don't like what the lord mayor has done in my city, I'm going to vote them out.  Whereas we don't have that here.  We have lord mayors, but they're nominal, they're kind of titular honorary kind-of positions; they have no power.  So, everything is determined by the civil servants, and quite often they are wrong.

((WN))  Going back to the whole housing supply [question], you know, do you think the government should focus on, you know, incentivising people to move out of Dublin, or starting new jobs outside of cities, or?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Yeah, I mean, for those who want it, absolutely.  I think we should, you know, if it takes pressure off big cities, absolutely help them, kind of, move.  But there's a caveat, and the caveat is: you don't let people move outside Dublin to live like where I am at the moment, which is a one-off house in the middle of the countryside, right.  And if I want to get a pint of milk or a newspaper, I have to get in my car outside, I have to drive five or ten kilometres to the shop, right, and then back here, okay?  That's crazy, it's not sustainable, you know, it's not economic, it's not clever.  So you can't let them do that, but I think if you let them move out of Dublin and into towns and villages, absolutely, why not?

Repopulate the towns and villages, rather than let people live all over the place.

((WN))  The Dáil Éireann voted recently for an amendment to a bill that would impose a 10% stamp duty rate on 'sale and leaseback' or 'cuckoo funds' with an exception if they were purchased for the purpose of social housing.  Do you think this will have a noticeable impact on the number of units available?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  That's a really interesting question, because I think the stamp duty rate, like exempting the funds from the stamp duty rate, is just nonsense, absolutely nonsense.  These funds make so much money that paying the stamp duty will have no effect because when they're renting to the state, the state is the equivalent of having, you know, a blue chip tenant in your property, okay.  The state isn't going to default on the rent, the state will look after the property et cetera et cetera.

So they're making so much money off the state, there was no need to cut the stamp duty.  Previously, nobody wanted the state as a tenant because they were like "poor people in houses, we don't want them."  Now, the investment funds have realised "actually, having the state, having the local authorities and councils as a tenant to take 300 of my properties, that's a brilliant thing!  Because they'll always be full, they're going to guarantee me 95% of market rent, and they're going to look after the properties and they will never default on the rent.  The state will not default on the rent, so therefore, it's brilliant!"

So as long as the state keeps doing the crazy stuff of renting properties rather than building properties, these funds will always come.  So [it] probably will increase supply, yeah, but it's a bonkers policy because it's like living on your credit cards, you know: you're constantly paying rent, and at the end of 25 years, you don't own the building.  So, it's kind of a crazy practice for the state to get into, but that's what they're into.

((WN))  What do you feel about such a large pre[valence] of international, or just large investment companies' presence in the Irish housing market, overall?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Yeah, I'm a bit worried about it because it's a smaller market, they have a disproportionate effect.  In a large country like Germany or, I don't know where you're from.  Where are you from?

((WN))  From [the United States of] America.

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  In [the United States of] America, a huge market, right?  Those funds are, like, so prevalent in the US and in Canada and places like that.  I'm quite concerned about them because they tend to have so much money that they can crowd out the small landlords.  In Ireland, the majority of our landlords are small landlords: ordinary people who happen to have a property that they rent out to somebody else.  Like 90% of our landlords are small, they're not these large funds.  I would be worried that these funds will come in, they'd crowd out the small landlords and they won't be competitive.

They won't introduce competition into the market because they're top-end, and they're only interested in the expensive product, and they won't bring down prices because they're not bringing in competition.  I would rather they were, like in other countries in Spain and places, they're not allowed to be involved in the residential market.  I think that's the correct approach, really.

((WN))  What are the features of a 'stable' housing market and 'optimal' buying conditions, in your opinion?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  To be honest with you, I don't think there's such a thing as a stable housing market really.  You know, I've never known a market that's 'stable', not in housing.  There's so many various things; housing's not like stocks and shares, you know stocks and shares, they're pieces of paper.  Housing is always changing.

The demand for housing is always fluctuating, the type of housing is always changing, our needs are always changing.  Other issues impact housing: employment, taxation, planning, zoning, that all impacts on housing.  So it's different to stocks and shares, which nothing affects really except the market demand.

So I've never known a stable housing market, to be honest with you, but one of the things that causes the greatest amount of instability is the idea [in] Ireland and other countries like us, like the UK and Australia; we have a system called asset-based welfare, and that really means that the government will help you buy your house, and then you're looking after yourself.  So, my house is my asset.  In Ireland, each man, woman and child is worth something like USD180 thousand each, something like that, alright?  More than half of that is in housing, in real estate property.  So we rely on our property for our wealth.  So when your parents die or when your parents want to send you to university, they can borrow against the value of their house and send you to university, to get a loan based on the value of their house.

So we're relying on our houses for our wealth.  In other countries, they rely on their housing for shelter.  Yeah?  I'm not talking about poor countries, I'm talking about a place like Belgium and things like that where the housing is not an asset, the housing is shelter, and like in time you sell the house, you don't make much money on it.  Here, we're constantly relying on making money from our housing, so in our heads we always want to see prices rise.  And that of course negatively affects everybody else, particularly young people who need to buy a house, so our approach to housing is one of, we know it's the wrong thing that we should be wanting our value [of] our property to rise, but yet, like, we all secretly want it because it means we're wealthier.

And of course, you're doing nothing.  Like, the price rises in housing are not anything I've done to my house, it's just because demand in my area has gone up, you know?  So, it's kind of non-productive wealth, and it's bad to rely on it because we're always looking for things that would keep prices high and not lower them.

((WN))  Do you think there's any country Ireland can look to as a role model?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Every country except Ireland, I think, and maybe not the US.  I think, like, no country has it perfect to be honest with you, and every country that I've looked at in, housing has good sides and it has flaws.  I think there's probably more cities than countries that have done so; Vienna does it very well.  The city of Vienna is really well involved in the delivery of seven thousand apartments every year for citizens of Vienna, and they get them at a subsidised rent and it's, you know, it's much more affordable.

Places like Copenhagen have also done quite well on housing co-operatives, where people get together to build their houses.  I think the Anglophone countries like Ireland, the US, Australia, New Zealand, we have a very similar system of asset-based welfare and that's totally unhealthy and that's why we have these booms and crashes and booms and crashes.  And unless we start taking the profit element or the asset element out of housing, we're always going to be like that.

So when you look at countries that don't have that kind of financialisation of housing, like the Danes and some of the Austrian cities, some German cities, some from the Swiss, you find a much more, this back to your previous question, a much more stable environment where the risks are in other parts of the economy, but not in housing.  Whereas with us, one of the major systemic risks to our economy is housing, and it shouldn't be.  Housing should be a given, housing should be just something that's there all the time like roads and electricity.  But in Ireland it's not, it's up and down and up and down and it's a major threat to the economy.

((WN))  Do you have any other comments on the state of the Irish housing market?

((Dr Lorcan Sirr))  Well, we often talk about the Irish housing market as being dysfunctional, right?  But I don't think there's any such thing as a 'functional' housing market.  There's just so many variables, there's so many human, you know, interactions with it.  The big variable now, of course, is the international money coming in that we can't control—well, we could control, but we're not controlling it.  So now not alone do we have supply and demand and wages and employment and planning and all those things affecting housing, now we can have Wall Street money coming in and effectively telling us what to do, and deciding rents, and so that's another, you know, it's part of globalisation, it's part of financialisation.

So, we're kind of constantly leading ourselves down a path which is really hard to get out of.  And really what it's creating is kind of social inequity, because if you're a homeowner, you are increasingly getting more and more advantages over people who don't own homes, and of course homeownership perpetuates homeownership because, you know, when I die or when I'm older I'll be able to get a deposit together and help children buy their house, and they'll be able to help their children buy their houses.  Whereas if you're never a homeowner, you can't do that.  So [it] perpetuates social [in]equality.

So, we need to look at housing in a much broader way than just economics and money, we need to look at housing much more holistically in terms of society, planning, demographics and so on.


Transwiki:Technological University Dublin senior lecturer Dr Lorcan Sirr speaks to Wikinews on housing market in Ireland


Technology giant Microsoft completes acquisition of GitHub

On Friday, US-based technology giant Microsoft confirmed acquisition of software code hosting and version controlling website GitHub. The announcement was made by Microsoft via their official blog, which also mentioned Nat Friedman was to become new Chief Executive Officer of GitHub.

Microsoft had announced plans to acquire GitHub for a price of 7.5 billion US dollars (USD) on June 4. On October 19, the European Union's regulators approved the acquisition. According to the June announcement, Microsoft was to pay the amount in stock.

After Microsoft made the announcement, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella tweeted, saying, "I'm thrilled to welcome GitHub to Microsoft. Together, we will continue to advance GitHub as a platform loved by developers and trusted by organizations."

In a GitHub blog titled "Pull request successfully merged. Starting build...", Nat Friedman said making the platform "accessible to more developers around the world" as well as "[r]eliability, security, and performance" were in "top of mind for" them. He also stated, "GitHub will operate independently as a community, platform, and business" and "will retain its product philosophy",  keeping "its developer-first values". He also wrote today was to be his first day as GitHub's CEO.

Friedman was previously the CEO of Xamarin, a software company that allows developers to create native iOS, Android and Windows phone applications written in the C# programming language. Microsoft acquired Xamarin in 2016.

According to Friedman's blog, GitHub is used by more than 31 million developers worldwide. Technology giants including companies like Airbnb, Apple, Google, Facebook and Microsoft itself have been using GitHub for their open-source projects. However, on May 31, days before Microsoft announced plans for GitHub acquisition, desktop environment software GNOME completed moving from GitHub to GitLab, another software code sharing, hosting and version control providing website, a competitor of GitHub.


Microsoft completa la adquisición de GitHub

El viernes, la compañía tecnológica con sede en los Estados Unidos Microsoft confirmó la adquisición del sitio web GitHub, plataforma de alojamiento de código y control de versiones. El anuncio lo realizó mediante su blog oficial, en el que también mencionó que Nat Friedman será el nuevo director ejecutivo de GitHub. El 4 de junio, Microsoft anunció sus planes de adquirir el sitio web por un precio de 7500 millones de dólares estadounidenses.

El pasado 19 de octubre, los reguladores de la Unión Europea aprobaron la adquisición. De acuerdo con el anuncio de junio, la empresa tecnológica pagaría la suma en acciones. Luego del anuncio, el director ejecutivo de Microsoft, Satya Nadella aseguró vía Twitter: "Estoy encantado de darle la bienvenida a GitHub a Microsoft. Juntos continuaremos potenciando a GitHub como una plataforma amada por los desarrolladores y de confianza para las organizaciones".

En un blog de GitHub titulado "Pull request successfully merged. Starting build...", Nat Friedman aseguró que entre sus prioridades están hacer la plataforma "accesible para más desarrolladores en todo el mundo", así como su "fiabilidad, seguridad y desempeño". También indicó que "GitHub operará de forma independiente como comunidad, plataforma y negocio" y que "mantendrá su filosofía de producto", conservando los "valores originales de los desarrolladores". Por otro lado, detalló que este lunes (29 de octubre) fue su primer día como director ejecutivo de GitHub.

Previamente, Friedman se desempeñaba como director ejecutivo de Xamarin, una compañía de software que permite el desarrollo de aplicaciones móviles nativas para Android, iOS y Windows Phone escritas en lenguaje de programación C#. Microsoft adquirió la compañía en 2016. Según el blog de Friedman, GitHub es utilizada por más de 31 millones de desarrolladores en todo el mundo. Compañías tecnológicas como Airbnb, Apple, Google, Facebook y Microsoft la han ocupado para sus propios proyectos de código abierto. No obstante, el 31 de mayo, días antes de que Microsoft anunciara sus planes de adquisición, GNOME, un software de entorno de escritorio completó su traslado de GitHub a GitLab, otro servicio web de control de versiones y desarrollo de software colaborativo, competencia de GitHub.


Microsoft przejmuje serwis Github

Microsoft przejmuje serwis GitHub.

Amerykańska firma Microsoft potwierdziła przejęcie hostingu kodu oprogramowania i strony kontroli wersji (Git) - GitHub. Informacja została wydana za pośrednictwem ich oficjalnego bloga, który także wspomniał, że Nat Friedman został nowym dyrektorem naczelnym serwisu.

Microsoft ogłosił plany nabycia GitHub za cenę 7,5 mld USD w dniu 4 czerwca. 19 października urzędnicy Unii Europejskiej zatwierdzili przejęcie.

Po tym jak Microsoft to ogłosił, dyrektor generalny firmy, Satya Nadella, powiedział: „Cieszę się, że mogę powitać GitHub w Microsoft. Razem będziemy kontynuować rozwój platformy GitHub jako platformy kochanej przez programistów i cieszącej się dużym zaufaniem przez różne organizacje”.

Na blogu GitHub zatytułowanym „Pull request successfully merged. Starting build ...”, Nat Friedman powiedział, że platforma będzie „dostępna dla większej liczby programistów na całym świecie”, a także dla nich „niezawodna, bezpieczna i wydajna”. Stwierdził również: „GitHub będzie działać niezależnie jako społeczność, platforma i biznes” oraz „zachowa filozofię swojego produktu”, zachowując „swoje pierwsze wartości dla programistów”. Pisał także, że 28 października jest jego pierwszym dniem jako dyrektora generalnego GitHub.

Friedman był wcześniej dyrektorem generalnym Xamarin, firmy programistycznej, która pozwala programistom tworzyć natywne aplikacje na urządzenia z systemem operacyjnym iOS, Android i Windows napisane w języku programowania C#. Microsoft przejął tę firmę w 2016 roku.

Według blogu Friedmana GitHub jest używany przez ponad 31 milionów programistów na całym świecie. Giganci technologii, w tym firmy Apple, Google i Microsoft, używają go do swoich projektów open source. Jednak w dniu 31 maja, kilka dni przed ogłoszeniem przez Microsoft planów przejęcia GitHub, środowisko graficzne GNOME zostało przeniesione z tego hostingu na GitLab, kolejny tego typu serwis, konkurent GitHub.


Tens of thousands of workers demonstrate in Ljubljana, Slovenia

Despite heavy snowing, tens of thousands of workers and supporters marched today in Ljubljana, Slovenia in the largest demonstration since the country's independence in 1991 to protest against the government programme of economic reforms, including privatisation of public services, tax cuts for businessmen and the abolition of the lower value added tax rate for items like food and books.

The protests, jointly organized by several trade union federations and attended by representatives of almost all Slovenian trade unions, began with an hour-long march from Ljubljana's Tivoli park to the Congress Square (Kongresni trg). Workers and trade unionists were joined by supporters from Croatia, Italy and Austria, as well as students, anarchist groups, and general population. Several politicians from the opposition Liberal democracy and Social democrats were seen in the crowd. Noisy protesters armed with whistles, rattles and even some flares, marched through the snow waving trade union flags and carrying banners denouncing government policies. There were even a couple of old socialist flags with red stars. Riot police were seen on side streets and guarding accessess to government buildings, but they did not intervene.

The protest continued at the Congress Square with speeches of the representatives of trade unions and student organizations who denounced the government policy as leading into greater inequality and decreased standard of living for ordinary people. The loudest boos of the audience were drawn by the remarks about blaming the unemployed for being unemployed, introduction of university fees, and government's waiving of taxes and health and pension fund contributions for church officials. The speeches were followed by a musical program, but the crowd soon started dispersing to escape the weather. Trade unions organized transport for 40,000 people to attend, but many buses were stuck in traffic jams on snowy roads and arrived too late for the protest. The police estimated the number of protesters to 25,000.


Miles de trabajadores protestan en la capital de Eslovenia contra las políticas gubernamentales

A pesar de la intensa nieve, decenas de miles de trabajadores y simpatizantes marcharon este sábado (26) en Liubliana, Eslovenia, en la mayor manifestación realizada desde la independencia de la ex república yugoslava en 1991, para protestar contra el programa gubernamental de reformas económicas, incluyendo la privatización de los servicios públicos, recortes de impuestos para los hombres de negocios y la abolición de los impuestos al valor agregado de menor porcentaje para artículos como alimentos y libros.

Las protestas, organizadas conjuntamente por varias federaciones sindicales y a las que asistieron representantes de casi todos los sindicatos de Eslovenia, comenzaron con una marcha de una hora desde el parque Tivoli hasta la Plaza del Congreso (Kongresni trg) de la capital eslovena. A los trabajadores y los sindicalistas se unieron simpatizantes provenientes de Croacia, Italia y Austria, así como estudiantes, grupos anarquistas y pueblo en general. Varios políticos liberal demócratas y socialdemócratas de la oposición fueron vistos entre la multitud. Algunos ruidosos manifestantes, armados con pitos, matracas y hasta bengalas, y cargando pancartas que denunciaban las políticas gubernamentales, marcharon sobre la nieve mientras agitaban banderas sindicales. Incluso se vieron algunas viejas banderas socialistas con estrellas rojas. Policías antimotines hicieron presencia en las calles vecinas y en los accesos a los edificios gubernamentales, pero no intervinieron.

La manifestación prosiguió en la Plaza del Congreso con discursos de los representantes sindicales y de las organizaciones estudiantiles que denunciaron que las políticas gubernamentales conducen a una mayor desigualdad y a un descenso en el nivel de vida de la gente común. Los abucheos más fuertes de la audiencia se los llevaron los comentarios que culpan a los desempleados por estar sin trabajo, la introducción de cuotas en las universidades y el deseo del gobierno de prescindir de los impuestos y las contribuciones de salud y pensiones de los oficiales eclesiásticos. Los discursos fueron seguidos de un programa musical, pero la multitud comenzó a dispersarse para escapar del mal tiempo. Los sindicatos organizaron el transporte de 40.000 personas para que asistieran al evento, pero muchos buses quedaron atascados en los trancones en las carreteras cubiertas por la nieve y llegaron tarde a las protestas. La policía calcula que hubo cerca de 25.000 manifestantes.


Des dizaines de milliers de travailleurs ont manifesté à Ljubljana (Slovénie)


Tiotusentals demonstrerade i Ljubljana

26 november 2005 Tiotusentals människor i Ljubljana i Slovenien trotsade det ymniga snöfallet för att demonstrera sitt missnöje med regeringens ekonomiska reformprogram. Reformen syftar till privatiseringar, skattesänkningar och att avskaffa den reducerade momsen på varor som mat och böcker.

Demonstrationen som arrangerats av ett antal fackföreningar inleddes med en marsch från Tivoliparken till Kongresstorget i Ljubjana. Bland demonstranterna fanns representanter från i princip alla slovenska fackföreningar, arbetare, studenter, anarkistiska grupper och den breda allmänheten. Många hade rest från Österrike och Kroatien. Politiker från den liberala och socialdemokratiska oppositionen syntes också i demonstrationen. Demonstranterna bar fackföreningarnas flaggor, plakat och markerade sitt missnöje med visselpipor och trummor. Kravallpolis övervakade demonstrationen på avstånd men nöjde sig med att övervaka tillfartsvägarna till olika regeringsbyggnader.

På Kongresstorget höls tal av fackföreningsrepresentanter och studentorganisationer där reformerna sas leda till ökad ojämlikhet och sänkt levnadsstandard. Talarna sa att skulden inte kunde läggas på de arbetslösa, protesterade mot införandet av en avgift till universitetet med mer och demonstranterna svarade med burop. Manifestationen avslutades med musikuppträdande som på grund av vädret få stannade för att se.

Fackföreningar hade organiserat busstransport för omkring 40 000 personer, men snöovädret gjorde att många fastnade i trafikkaos och missade själva demonstrationen. Polisen uppskattade antalet demonstranter till 25 000.


TEPCA protests the Taiwanese government on WiMAX in Taiwan

Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association (TEPCA), an environmental organization set to promote environmental hazard warnings on electromagnetic radiation, protested over the potential health impact of electromagnetic radiation as Ying-jeou Ma, President of the Republic of China, visited this show on the 2nd Day of 2008 WiMAX Expo Taipei (June 3).

"Base stations of WiMAX are unnecessary in Taiwan! The governmental people didn't care about the living and health of the public!" strongly stated Jiau-hua Chen, Chairman of TEPCA during the protest.

The on-site rate of electromagnetic radiation was firmly higher than the international standards as some experts examined at the showground, according to the Taiwan Hakka Television. In addition, the TEPCA strongly appealed the governments and organizers to announce the place of base stations for health and safety issue.

As a result of the protest, not only the information security, but also environmentalists disputed the future of WiMAX.


2008台北WiMAX展 民間團體抗議健康疑慮問題

日前，2008年台北WiMAX展已在台北展演二館正式開幕，但在開幕期間，台灣電磁輻射公害防治協會（Taiwan Electromagnetic Radiation Hazard Protection and Control Association，簡稱TEPCA）趁著馬英九參與行動台灣主題館開幕時，進行抗議。

TEPCA的理事長陳椒華，在抗議示威中向路過的群眾聲明：「台灣不需要WiMAX基地台，那些政策根本就是罔顧小老百姓的生命！」儘管台北市電腦公會理事長，也是宏碁的董座王振堂，在連兩天，不同的開幕典禮中，向業界宣誓WiMAX將為台灣帶來產業的優勢。

另外，台灣客家電視台也指出，利用檢測儀器測出的電磁輻射，在展場確實已經有超過標準值的一半以上，而TEPCA也表示，主辦單位並未明確公布展覽期間架設的基地台位置，等於是嚴重忽視人民知的權利，因此，不只資安產業質疑WiMAX的未來，民間團體也已經展開行動，呼籲政府在推展政策時，必須顧及人民利益，否則將招致災禍。

【2008年6月5日讯】


The 24th Shin Kong Life Tower Run Up will promote Bananas of Taiwan

The 24th Shin Kong Life Tower Run Up, the oldest building run up competition in Taiwan, organized by Shin Kong Life Insurance Co., Ltd., will be held on July 28, 2007 and promote "Bananas of Taiwan" as its main theme.

At noon of July 11, the main organizer held a pre-match conference and invited well-known Taiwanese delicatessen connoisseur Hong Chen to demonstrate two creative cooking by using bananas and other fruit.

Chen mentioned that lots common people in Taiwan lost the best origins due to pursuing new or fashion things, as they don't know the values of nutritions of bananas in Taiwan. As a living people in Taiwan, we can apply bananas from the other way like cosmetic or a perfume.

"Earlier, Shin Kong Financial Holdings Co., Ltd. also held a series of environment movie seminar to encourage people the importance of saving energy and using it appropriately. As now, international oil price raised, 'greenhouse effect' continued, everyone should concern about our environment for a better next generation." Shin Kong Financial president Frank Cheng said, after this press conference.


第24屆新光登高 台灣香蕉將成主題

已有十三年二十三屆歷史，並且是台灣最資深的登高賽─「新光摩天大樓登高大賽」，將在7月28日，正式進入第二十四屆，主辦的新光人壽為了要推展台灣「香蕉王國」的美譽，特別將主題訂為「為台灣香蕉而跑」，並且，新光金控也以「真心相交（香蕉）、愛心無限、關心蕉農」的活動口號為主題，藉由採購與拓展台灣香蕉，作為對於台灣果農的實質鼓勵與支持。

為了推展台灣香蕉，主辦單位在今天（7月11日），於新光人壽摩天大樓舉行賽前記者會，會中更邀請台灣知名美食達人陳鴻，與新光金控鄭弘志總經理、許澎首席經理、新光人壽潘柏錚總經理、新光銀行李增昌總經理，共同示範創意香蕉料理，讓精采程度增添一番。

受邀的台灣美食達人陳鴻表示，台灣曾經擁有的香蕉新樂園，卻因為現代人的觀念漸漸消失，當人們追求著新的事物的同時，可能卻因此失去原有的，就像台灣的香蕉，有一定的價值，但卻沒有被重視，而讓人覺得可惜。另外，新光金控鄭總經理也表示，現在的物價持續飛揚，國際油價也在漲價，如果人們不再重視與珍惜現有資源，到時將會產生無法挽救的後果，新光集團一直持續地舉辦「不願面對的真相」電影欣賞講座，也就是希望呼籲國人，應將現有的能源善盡其用，而不要過度地浪費，才能為下一代造福好的未來。

主辦單位表示，當天除了正式的登高比賽，另外也會舉行Wii保齡球大賽等系列活動。而這次比賽的報名期間至7月18日截止，參賽者可以依照年齡與組別，親臨新光摩天大樓或新光銀行進行報名程序，比賽預計將以團體組、個人組、親子組等方式進行，最年長者與最幼小者，也會依照性別給予特別表揚。


The Bahamas halt all new applications for oil exploration

The government of The Bahamas have announced that they have stopped accepting any new applications for oil exploration off their shores. The decision was made by the Ministry of The Environment.

The Ministry released a statement saying "The Ministry seeks, by this decision, to maintain and safeguard an unpolluted marine environment for The Bahamas, notwithstanding the potential financial benefits of oil explorations." They also said that they were reviewing all current licenses. The decision has come after the Gulf of Mexico oil disaster.

Environment Permanent Secretary Ronald Thompson said that while the ministry had yet to draft the necessary safety protocols, government would frame its future policies around existing ones from other countries.

The announcement has come as a disappointment to several oil exploration companies including BPC. BPC already hold five licenses for exploration around The Bahamas but were hoping to seek for another one. Chairman of BPC, Alan Burns released a statement saying "Whilst we note this short term situation, there are exploration activities including drilling, proceeding in adjacent Cuban waters and significant previous drilling within the company's current license areas that we believe we do not face the same geological risks as those encountered in the US Gulf of Mexico. We enjoy a good relationship with Bahamian authorities and are confident that this situation will be resolved quickly."

The Italian government recently set up an exclusion zone around their shores to stop oil exploration.


Bahamy přestaly vydávat povolení k hledání ropy

Vláda Baham oznámila, že přestává přijímat žádosti o povolení hledání zásob uhlovodíkových paliv u svých břehů. Rozhodnutí vydalo Ministerstvo prostředí.

To vydalo prohlášení uvádějící: „Ministerstvo se snaží tímto rozhodnutím zachovat a ochránit Bahamám neznečištěné mořské prostředí navzdory možným finančním výhodám z hledání ropy.“ Součástí rozhodnutí, které je reakcí na nedávnou ropnou havárii v Mexickém zálivu, bude také přezkoumání stávajících povolenek. Ty se zatím týkaly jen průzkumů, žádné povolení k ropným vrtům vláda doposud nevydala.

Podle Stálého sekretáře pro prostředí Ronalda Thompsona ještě ministerstvo nenavrhlo konkrétní bezpečnostní protokoly, ale vláda se hodlá inspirovat v předpisech již existujících v jiných zemích.

Oznámení je zklamáním pro několik firem zabývajících se hledáním ropy. Jedna z nich, BPC, má v současnosti pět licencí k hledání a doufala získat šestou. Vydala vyjádření, v kterém uvádí, že podle ní nehrozí v zkoumaných lokalitách rizika podobná těm v Mexickém zálivu a že se těší z dobrých vztahů s bahamskými úřady a doufá, že se situace brzy vyřeší.

Tato zpráva byla založena zčásti nebo zcela překladem zprávy The Bahamas halt all new applications for oil exploration na anglických Wikizprávách.


Thomson Corporation and Reuters agree to merge

The Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group PLC announced Tuesday that they have agreed to combine the two companies. The boards of both Thomson and Reuters will recommend the merger to their shareholders.

The Canadian Thomson-family holding company Woodbridge, which controls 70% of Thomson, has agreed to vote in favour of the deal and the Reuters Founders Share Company, which controls a special share in Reuters, will also support the merger.

Based on the TSX CA$46.36 closing share price of Thomson on May 14, 2007, each Reuters share would be valued at 691 pence and, therefore, the full capital of Reuters valued at approximately £8.7 billion. Cash requirements for the deal are to be provided by Thomson. Woodbridge will own approximately 53 percent of the combined company, other Thomson shareholders 23 percent and Reuters shareholders about 24 percent.

The merger arrangement will leave two separate companies that will be operated as a single entity. The boards of the two companies will be identical as will the senior executive management team. Thomson will be renamed to Thomson-Reuters Corporation, and will be listed on both the TSX and the NYSE. Thomson-Reuters PLC will list on the London Stock Exchange and the NYSE.

Reuters current CEO, Tom Glocer, will become CEO of the combined company while Thomson President and CEO Richard J. Harrington will retire at the completion of the merger.

Thomson has currently 32,000 employees worldwide, with operations in 37 countries and  revenues of US$6.6 billion in 2006. Thomson's major business operations centre around financial information and legal services, with smaller ventures in tax accounting, health care, and the scientific field. Thomson is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, in the United States.

Reuters is one of the world's largest news agencies, with a total of 16,800 staff in all divisions, but derives more than 90 percent of its revenue from its financial service business. It is the merger of Thomson and Reuter's financial services divisions that may have been the genesis of the talks. It has been suggested that both companies wanted a better economy of scale to compete with Bloomberg, the American financial services giant.

"We are enormously proud of the evolution of The Thomson Corporation and the value it has created for all our shareholders," said David Thomson, Chairman of Thomson. "We recognize the rich history of Reuters and are committed to uphold the Reuters Trust Principles."

The chairman of Reuters, Niall FitzGerald, expressed his satisfaction with the merger. "The shared expertise and complementary strengths of these two companies makes for a strategically compelling and financially attractive combination," said FitzGerald in a joint press release. "I am especially proud that Reuters journalism will continue to be governed by the powerful Reuter Trust Principles of independence, integrity and freedom from bias."

The new company is projecting efficiencies of greater than US$500 million per year, by the end of the third year after closing the deal.

Criticisms were raised by Reuters journalists, who voiced concerns in an open letter to the Reuters Founders Share Company. They worried whether or not "a reconstituted Reuters would maintain the high standards of journalism and the integrity, independence and freedom from bias that have shaped the company's 156-year-old reputation."

It is expected that the merger will draw the attention of regulators due to the size and nature of the transaction. "Antitrust authorities in Europe and the U.S. are almost certain to apply a more detailed and lengthy review of the acquisition than is typical, because of the limited number of companies that supply prices, data, news and financial tools," said Simon Baker, analyst, Credit Suisse in London.


Le groupe britannique d'information financière Reuters pourrait être racheté par son concurrent canadien Thomson

Le premier groupe d'information financière au monde devant l'américain Bloomberg, qui détient 33 % du marché, pourrait voir le jour très prochainement. En effet, le groupe britannique Reuters vient d'accepter d'être acheté par son ex-concurrent canadien, The Thomson Corporation, pour la somme de 8,7 milliards de livres (environ 12,8 milliards d'euros). La Reuters Founders Share Company a en effet donné son accord pour cette vente : disposant d'une minorité de blocage de 30 % des voix pour assurer l'indépendance éditoriale du groupe, son approbation était indispensable. Cette acquisition devrait être financée par Thomson par la vente de son secteur de publication éducative pour 7,75 milliards USD.

Le nouveau groupe Thomson-Reuters, qui contrôlerait 34 % du marché de l'information financière, devrait être coté à la fois à la bourse de Londres et à celle de Toronto.

Il convient de noter que ce rachat, couplé à la vente de son secteur éducation, confirment le tournant pris par la compagnie canadienne vers un désengagement du monde de l'édition pour « saisir des occasions cadrant mieux avec sa stratégie de croissance et son modèle d'affaires ».


Thousands march in London calling for David Cameron's resignation over tax affairs

Thousands of demonstrators marched in London today over the tax affairs of Prime Minister David Cameron which were revealed as part of the leak of the Panama Papers.

The protest started around 11:00 local time (UTC+1) on Whitehall opposite the police-guarded entrance to Downing Street, the Prime Minister's official residence. Just after 11:00, protesters blocked traffic on the northbound carriage in Whitehall. At 11:20, the police asked the protesters to move back on to the pavement, stating that they needed to balance the right to protest with the traffic building up. Around 11:29, the protest moved up Whitehall, past Trafalgar Square, along the Strand, passing by Aldwych and up Kingsway towards Holborn where the Conservative Party were holding their Spring Forum in the Grand Connaught Rooms hotel.

The protest was organised after it was revealed that David Cameron has profited from offshore investments held by his father, Ian, that were organised in part by Mossack Fonseca, the Panama-based law firm whose communications were recently published.


Amasa surstrata protesto en Londono petas la rezignon de David Cameron

Miloj marŝis surstrate en Londono okaze de la impostparadiza skandalo de la ĉefministro David Cameron, rivelitaj kadre de la tralikiĝoj de Panamaj Paperoj.

La protestoj ekis proksime de la 11:00 atm laŭ loka horo (UTC+1) sur Whitehall antaŭ la police gardata enirejo al Downing Street, la oficiala rezidejo de la ĉefministro. Ĵuse post la 11:00, protestintoj blokis la trafikon en la norda parto de Whitehall. Je la 11:20, la polico petis la protestantojn retroiri ree en la trotuaron, dirante ke necesis ekvilibri la rajton protesti al la rajto libere cirkuli veturile. Ĉirkaŭ la 11:29, la protesto ekiris laŭ, pasante Placon Trafalgar, ĝis Kinsway, kie la Konservisma Partio estis okazigante sian Printempan Forumon en la hotelo Grand Connaught Rooms.

La protestoj estis organizataj de post la malkaŝo ke David Caeron profitis de impostparadizaj investoj de sia patro, Ian, aranĝitaj de Mossack Fonseca.


Centenas marcham em Londres pedindo ao David Cameron que renuncie devido ao escândalo fiscal

Londres, Inglaterra

Milhares de manifestantes marcharam em Londres hoje sobre os escândalos fiscais do primeiro-ministro David Cameron que foram revelados como parte do vazamento da Panama Papers.

O protesto começou por volta das 11 horas (hora local, UTC+1) em Whitehall em frente à entrada guardada-polícia para Downing Street, residência oficial do primeiro-ministro. Apenas depois das 11 horas, os manifestantes bloquearam o tráfego na carruagem norte em Whitehall. Às 11:20, a polícia pediu aos manifestantes para voltar para a calçada, afirmando que eles necessário para equilibrar o direito de protestar com o tráfego edificação. Por volta das 11hs29min, o protesto subiu Whitehall, passado Trafalgar Square, ao longo do Strand, passando por Aldwych e até Kingsway em direção Holborn, onde o Partido Conservador estavam segurando seu Fórum Primavera nos quartos do Grand Connaught.

O protesto foi organizado depois que foi revelado que David Cameron lucrou com investimentos no exterior, realizada por seu pai, Ian Cameron, que foram organizados em parte por Mossack Fonseca, o Panamá baseados empresa de lei cujas comunicações foram publicados recentemente.


Tony Blair speaks in Canada

Tony Blair, United Kingdom's former Prime Minister, made his first public appearance since stepping down as PM yesterday at a speech entitled Global Relations: A Conversation with Tony Blair to an audience of about 2,400 in Calgary, Alberta from noon to 2:30 p.m. in the Telus Convention Centre, sponsored by Toronto-Dominion Bank (TD Canada Trust).

Lunch was served with an authentic Alberta beef steak. Alberta premier Ed Stelmach, Calgary mayor Dave Bronconnier, and other public officials were there. "Congratulations on winning a third term. As a three-term prime minister I can tell you that's when things get rough," Blair told Bronconnier.

During the speech he talked about Canada on the world stage, the controversial military role in Afghanistan, defending the country in war-devastated places, as well as other large issues facing Canada.

Blair said it's not about being on the left or right side of politics, it's about being open or closed.

"If we want to win, we can't just be for democracy and freedom. We have to be for justice and fairness," Blair said to the audience that paid CA$400 to attend the event. "It's a battle of ideas."

"If we're going to fight this terrorism off, we're going to have to show them we're as tough as they are ... and stay the course." Blair said even though it'll be a long-road in the war it's important to not give up the fight against "the forces of extremism."

Blair is an Envoy in the Quartet on the Middle East, which is involved in mediating the peace process in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He become Envoy the same day he stepped down as PM.

"This morning I looked at your local papers and saw 'Premier Under Fire'. And I thought, 'Oh God, why, what have I done now?' before realising that I wasn't PM anymore. I'm still adjusting."

He also commented about Alberta's oil and gas royalty dispute saying, "I'm just glad it's not my decision," and after three terms of being PM he's "learned when to keep my mouth shut." Alberta has the second largest oil reserves in the world and Abu Dhabi National Energy Co. recently made their third offer for $5-billion to buy Alberta-based company Prime West Energy Trust. In relation to that, Blair said, "Calgary is not only the new centre of Canada or North America, but a global centre for the world."

"I often say to people, Canada will become one of the most powerful nations in the world." He also pointed out, "As power grows... so does more responsibility. What you need to do is carry with it your optimistic spirit. You're a country that can easily play as large a role as anyone else."

"Optimism is something you get very easily when you come to Canada," he said relating to Canada's strong alliances with other countries. He said Canada has a "can-do" attitude.

After, he sat down with former premier of New Brunswick Frank McKenna, now TD Bank's deputy chairman, in green armchairs, part of TD's advertising campaign, and had a Q&A period.

Journalists were not allowed to use cameras or recording devices during the event as ordered by Scotland Yard, the Globe and Mail reports, who were told by event organisers.

Blair also praised Canada's wine, "This is a secret you've just got to get out."


Tony Blair habla en Canadá

27 de octubre de 2007Calgary, Canadá —

Tony Blair, antiguo Primer Ministro del Reino Unido, habló durante un discurso titulado Global Relations: A Conversation with Tony Blair (en español, Relaciones Globales: Una Conversación con Tony Blair) a una audiencia de 2.400 personas en Calgary, Alberta, Canadá, ayer durante el mediodía. El evento tuvo lugar en el Telus Convention Centre.

El almuerzo consistió en un tradicional plato de Alberta, bife de vaca. El premier de Alberta, Ed Stelmach, el alcalde de Calgary, Dave Bronconnier, y otros oficiales públicos asistieron al evento.

"Felicitaciones por ganar un tercer periodo. Como primer ministro de tres períodos puedo decirle que es cuando las cosas se ponen complicadas", dijo Blair a Bronconnier.

Durante su discurso, Blair habló sobre Canadá en el mundo, el controversial rol militar en Afganistán, defendiendo el país en sitios devastados por la guerra, y asimismo habló sobre grandes problemas que afronta el país norteamericano. El ex primer ministro además afirmó que no se trataba de derechas o izquierdas políticas, sino que se trata sobre ser abierto o cerrado.

"Si queremos ganar, no podemos simplemente ser democracia y libertad. Tenemos que tener justicia y equidad", exclamó Blair en la audiencia que pagó CAD$400 para ir al evento. "Es una batalla de ideas."

"Si vamos a luchar contra el terrorismo, tendremos que demostrarles que somos tan fuertes como ellos", aseguró Tony Blair, quien también dijo que aunque sería un largo camino en la guerra, es importante no rendirse frente a las "fuerzas del extremismo".

Actualmente, Blair es el enviado del Cuarteto para Medio Oriente, que actúa de mediador en el proceso de paz entre Israel-Palestina. Tony Blair fue apuntado como enviado el mismo día que Gordon Brown le sucedió en el puesto de Primer Ministro, en julio de 2007.

"Esta mañana vi sus periódicos locales y leí 'Premier En Llamas'. Y pensé, 'Dios, ¿qué habré hecho ahora?' antes de darme cuenta que ya no soy PM. Me sigo ajustando."

Blair también comentó sobre la disputa en Alberta por gas y petróleo, diciendo que "estoy contento que no sea mi decisión", y luego de tres periodos como Primer Ministro, "he aprendido cuando callarme". Alberta alberga la segunda mayor reserva de petróleo en el mundo. En referencia a esto, Blair dijo que "Calgary no es el nuevo centro de Canadá o Norteamérica, pero un centro global para el mundo".

"A veces le digo a la gente: Canadá se convertirá en una de las naciones más poderosas del mundo." También señaló que, "mientras más crece poder... también lo hace la responsabilidad. Lo que necesitan es llevarlo con optimismo. Son un país que puede tomar un rol tan importante como cualquier otro".

"El optimismo es algo que se obtiene muy fácilmente cuando se viene a Canadá", dijo en referencia a las sólidas alianzas canadienses con otros países.

Luego se sentó con el ex premier de New Brunswick, Frank McKenna, y comenzó un periodo de preguntas y respuestas.

Blair también elogió el vino canadiense. "Este es un secreto que deben filtrar."


Toyota recalls 1.7m cars after new concerns

Car manufacturer Toyota is to recall almost 1.7 million cars in two simultaneous recalls, that include the Toyota Avensis and Lexus IS 250, after concerns over fuel systems, which, if combined, amount to the biggest Toyota recall for six years.

Japan's transport ministry stated it was possible for slight cracks to appear in fuel pipes in Avensis models, which may widen if the cars continue to be used. In the United Kingdom, Toyota GB are offering free repairs, which are expected to take around four and a half hours each. The Lexus IS 250 is involved in a separate recall, with around 280 thousand models outside of Japan being recalled over a faulty fuel pressure sensor, which can possibly come loose, causing a fuel leak.

The Managing Director of Toyota GB stated "We are committed to putting the customer first and have a total focus on the quality of all our products. We will liaise with our customers to carry out the repair procedures as efficiently as possible, with minimal disruption".

Toyota has recalled over 16 million cars globally since late 2009.


Újabb 1,7 millió autót hív vissza a Toyota

A Toyota 1,7 millió Avensis és Lexus IS 250 modelljét hívta vissza karbantartásra, ezúttal az üzemanyag-rendszer problémái miatt. Ilyen méretű visszahívásra hat éve nem volt példa a gyár történetében, noha a Toyota 2009 vége óta 16 millió autót rendelt vissza.

A japán Közlekedési Minisztérium tájékoztatása szerint az Avensis modellek üzemanyagcsövein hajszálrepedések keletkezhetnek, és ezek idővel kitágulhatnak, ha az autót tovább használják. A kérdéses csövek cseréje hozzávetőleg négy és fél órát vesz igénybe; a brit Toyota-képviselet ezt igény esetén ingyen elvégzi. A Lexus IS 250 esetében egy hibás üzemanyag nyomásérzékelő miatt hívnak vissza 280 000, Japánon kívül értékesített járművet: a szenzor hibás működése üzemanyag-szivárgáshoz vezethet.


Toyota to suspend sales of Lexus GX 460 over new safety fears

Japanese auto maker Toyota is to temporarily suspend sales of its luxury Lexus GX 460 SUV following an unfavorable verdict from Consumer Reports, which concluded "Don't Buy: Safety Risk," the first such warning in almost a decade.

After conducting its standard emergency handling tests on the 2010 version of the Lexus GX 460, Consumer Reports became concerned that the rear of the vehicle had a tendency to slide out, which in real life situations could lead to rollovers. However, the consumer organisation is also unaware of any such incidents with the 5000 GX 460s sold since its launch three months ago.

Already embattled with ongoing safety issues with its vehicles, Toyota has been quick to act, though it did claim that the car was safe to drive and that it had passed internal safety standards. According to Toyota, "Lexus' extensive vehicle testing provides a good indication of how our vehicles perform and we are confident that the GX meets our high safety standards."


A Toyota felfüggeszti a Lexus GX 460-as forgalmazását

A Toyota azután döntött így, hogy a Consumer Reports nevű fogyasztóvédelmi lap az egyébként luxuskategóriájú Lexus GX 460 SUV modellt veszélyesnek ítélte és egy írásában eltanácsol a típus vásárlásától.

A cikk írói egy minden, általuk vizsgált autón elvégzett tesztnél azt tapasztalták, hogy a kocsi hajlamos a kifarolásra, s ez könnyen boruláshoz vezethet. Mindazonáltal a lap tudomása szerint a modell 3 hónapja történt bevezetése óta hasonló baleset nem történt, pedig azóta már 5000 darabot értékesítettek belőle.

A Toyota a közelmúltban több típusát is visszahívni kényszerült különféle hibák, elsősorban a pedálok beragadása miatt. A cég ezúttal gyorsan lépett az ügyben, bár közleményükben hangsúlyozták, hogy a szigorú gyári próbákon a modell átment és azt biztonságosnak tartják.


Turbolinux adopted by China's largest bank

The Turbolinux operating system, a variety of GNU/Linux free/open source software, has been chosen as the in-house server software for the front-end banking operations of China's largest bank, replacing SCO Unix.  The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) announced the migration on Thursday, April 28.

The announcement is significant in terms of the sheer size of the bank.  "This is the biggest Linux implementation in China," said General Manager Claude Zhou of Turbolinux China.  The ICBC serves more than 108 million customers and manages their combined assets of US$640 billion (5.3 trillion renminbi).  Its 390,000 employees are scattered across 20,000 branch offices throughout China.  The planned deployment will be undertaken in steps and is estimated to take three years.

Zhou described the reasons for the planned migration as the stability and security of Linux.  Nielse Jiang, an analyst at IDC, also attributed the switch to insufficient support by the SCO Group.  "In China, SCO Unix offers very weak support for customers; they have so few employees," Jiang said.

ICBC selected Turbolinux over its various competitors, including Microsoft Corporation, in part because of its need to maintain its custom-written Unix-based software.  The increasing scalability and stability of Linux also were factors in the decision.

Turbolinux has been China's number one source of Linux for the past 4 years.  In 2004, Turbolinux held 62.0% of the Chinese server market, and also had 24.9% desktop market share, a much larger portion of desktop share than GNU/Linux holds in the United States.

Turbolinux is an Asian-Pacific distribution of Linux with its corporate headquarters located in Tokyo, Japan, and offices in China and the United States.  Turbolinux claims that its "Turbolinux 7 Server was the first-ever to conform to Internationalization standards to help simplify development of applications that require multiple language support — a critical requirement for software distributed globally," and supports the use of its software in the Japanese and Chinese languages.

Turbolinux was also used as the operating system of choice for China's recent supercomputer, the Dawning 4000A.  With its unveiling on November 15, 2004, China became the third country, after the U.S. and Japan, to surpass the 10 teraflops level of performance in a single machine. The computer, located in Shanghai Supercomputing Center, contains 2,560 64-bit Opteron processors from AMD, each running at 2.2 GHz, and at its introduction was the 10th fastest computer in the world.

Turbolinux is being spread throughout China, both throughout government and the business sector, in key areas such as transportation and telecommunications.  In December 2004, ZTE Corporation, the largest telecommunications manufacturer in China, partnered with Hewlett-Packard and Turbolinux to bring the benefits of GNU/Linux software to that industry.

The other three largest banks in China have either already announced plans for major migrations to GNU/Linux servers running various distributions, or are expected to do so later this year.


El mayor banco de China adopta Turbolinux

El sistema de operación Turbolinux, una variante del software abierto Linux, fue escogida como servidor interno para las operaciones bancarias del banco más grande de China, en remplazo de SCO Unix. El Banco Industrial y Comercial de China  (ICBC) anunció la migración el martes 28 de abril.

El anuncio es de importancia significativa dada la magnitud del banco. "Este es el sitio más grande de China con Linux" explicó el gerente general de Turbolinux China, Claude Zhou. El ICBC atiende a 108 millones de clientes y maneja activos por 640.000 millones de dólares (5,3 billones de renminbi). Sus 390.000 empleados están repartidos en 20.000 oficinas regionales por toda China. La instalación del nuevo sistema se realizará en varios pasos, y será completada en tres años.

Zhou describió las razones para la migración en base a la estabilidad y seguridad de Linux. Nielse Jiang, un analista de IDC, también atribuyó la medida a deficiencias en el soporte ofrecido por el grupo SCO. "En China, SCO Unix ofrece un soporte deficiente a sus clientes; tienen muy pocos empleados," según explicó Jiang.

ICBC seleccionó a Turbolinux sobre sus diferentes competidores, que incluían a Microsoft Corporation, en parte debido a su necesidad de continuar corriendo su base de aplicaciones basadas en Unix, desarrolladas específicamente para el banco. Otro factor importante en la toma de esta decisión fue la capacidad de crecimiento y estabilidad de Linux.

Turbolinux ha sido la versión más instalada de Linux en los últimos 4 años en China. En 2004, Turbolinux dominaba 62,0% del mercado de servidores y 24,9% del mercado de estaciones de trabajo, una proporción mucho más alta que en los Estados Unidos.

Los otros tres grandes bancos de China ya han anunciado planes de migración hacia servidores GNU/Linux en varias distribuciones o se espera que hagan anuncios durante el presente año.


Maior banco da China adota Turbolinux

O sistema operacional da distribuição Turbolinux, uma variante do software livre Linux, foi escolhido como servidor interno para as operações bancárias do maior banco da China, no lugar do sistema SCO Unix. O Banco Industrial e Comercial da China (ICBC) anunciou a migração  terça-feira, 28 de abril.

O anúncio é de importância significativa dada a magnitude do banco. Este é o maior lugar  da China com Linux,  explicou o gerente-geral da Turbolinux na China, Claude Zhou. O ICBC atende a 108 milhões de clientes e maneja ativos por volta de 640 bilhões de dólares. Seus 390 mil funcionários estão repartidos em 20 mil  escritórios regionais, por toda China. A instalação do novo sistema se realizará em vários passos, e será completada em três anos.

Zhou descreveu como  razões para a migração: a estabilidade e a segurança do Linux.  Nielse Jiang, um analista de  IDC, também atribuiu a medida a deficiências no suporte oferecido pelo grupo SCO. "Na China, a SCO Unix oferece um suporte deficiente a seus clientes. Têm muito poucos empregados,"  explicou Jiang.

O ICBC selecionou o Turbolinux entre  seus diferentes competidores, que incluíam a Microsoft, em parte devido a sua necessidade de continuar a executar  aplicações baseadas em Unix, desenvolvidas especificamente para o banco. Outro fator importante na tomada desta decisão foi a capacidade de crescimento e estabilidade de Linux.

A Turbolinux foi a versão mais instalada de Linux nos últimos 4 anos na China. Em 2004, o Turbolinux dominava 62% do mercado de servidores e 24,9% do mercado de estações de trabalho, uma proporção muito mais alta do que nos Estados Unidos da América.

Os outros três grandes bancos de China já anunciaram planos de migração para servidores GNU/Linux de várias distribuições.


TWTC Nangang is constructed in Taipei, Taiwan

Larger and bigger than the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC), the Taipei World Trade Center Nangang Exhibition Hall (TWTC Nangang) was finally completed on December 24.

According to the hall owner, Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), TWTC Nangang owned 2650 booths twice larger than current TWTC (1300 booths), several companies from different industries wanted to exhibit in TWTC Nangang by participating in some international shows, but the competition was apparently intensive because of limitations on booths and scales.

Recently in a press conference, Minister of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China Steve Ruey-long Chen said to media: "After the TWTC Nangang was finished its construction, it will bring on opportunities for companies from different industries including exhibition industry."

TAITRA also announced that some international shows will be moved to Nangang including the Taipei Cycle, Taipei PLAS, TAITRONICS and Food Taipei. COMPUTEX Taipei will exhibit in not only TWTC Nangang but also TWTC Hall 1 & 3, Taipei Show (formerly known as TWTC Hall 2), and the Taipei International Convention Center to challenge the largest scale in June, 2008.

Companies wanted to exhibit in the TWTC Nangang, but due to the construction of Neihu Line of Taipei Metro, it is still in process, and shows with similar industries will be exhibited in the same schedule respectively at TWTC Hall and TWTC Nangang, the traffic will increase on those two exhibition centers after TWTC Nangang will be launched on March, 2008. TAITRA currently considered moving important trade shows to Nangang rather than domestic market shows.


台北世貿南港館竣工 將影響會展產業發展

在台北市，比台北世貿中心大出一倍的「台北世界貿易中心南港展覽館」，24日正式宣告竣工，擁有雙層展館，2650個攤位的規模，不但有預定的大型會展，出現一位難求的情形，經濟部長陳瑞隆也樂觀地表示，南港館在明年啟用後，將帶動會展產業與台灣廠商的商機。

根據貿協的消息指出，明年由貿協主導的大型國際會展中，目前將會有自行車展、國際電腦展、國際電子展、食品展等展覽，已經確定會在南港進行，另外，國際電腦展將有可能透過南港加上世貿一、二、三館及國際會議中心的多重展館模式進行展出，來挑戰世界第一的規模。

雖然各國廠商踴躍參展的情形非常明顯，但因為捷運內湖線仍在施工，加上部分同性質產業的展覽，採世貿與南港館同步展出的方式進行，因此南港館的交通，將有可能引發南港館的交通問題，對於位在信義區的世貿一、二、三館與國際會議中心來說，不免會受到一定的衝擊，有鑑於此，貿協目前也宣布，南港館將暫時讓國際展覽優先進駐，國內展覽則要視情況再行考量。


U.S. manufacturer General Motors seeks bankruptcy protection

United States automobile manufacturing firm General Motors filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 11 protection from its creditors at 12:00 UTC Monday, in a Manhattan, New York federal bankruptcy court. This was the largest bankruptcy filing for a U.S. manufacturing company, and with declared assets of $82.29 billion and a debt of $172.81 billion, and the fourth largest bankruptcy filing in recent U.S. history — after the bankruptcies of {{w|Lehman Brothers|| ($691.06 billion), Washington Mutual ($327.91 billion), and WorldCom ($103.91 billion).

The filing, expected to be the first of many, was for a New York GM affiliate, Chevrolet-Saturn of Harlem Incorporated.  Numbered 09-50026, it named GM as a debtor in possession, and was filed before judge Robert Gerber.

GM is to be represented throughout the filing process by Weil Gotshal & Manges, a New York law firm specializing in bankruptcy.

The chief restructuring officer, named in the filing, is to be Al Koch, a managing director at AlixPartners LLP in New York, who will report directly to Fritz Henderson, the Chief Executive Officer of General Motors.

In its bankruptcy petition, GM listed its primary creditors as:

The amount owed to UAW excludes "approximately $9.4 billion corresponding to the GM Internal VEBA".  USD22,760 millions are owed to bondholders.

Analysts have observed that the effect of the bankruptcy filing on the U.S. economy is not expected to be as major as it once would have been.  One such voice, Mark Zandy, an economist at Moody's Economy.com, commented that "Bankruptcy now is irrelevant in terms of the economic consequence of what’s happening to GM."  Such analysts believe that the economic impact of GM's problems has already been felt, with its effects on parts suppliers and employment.  They also believe that GM's programme of accelerated payments, and its participation in a U.S. Treasury program to ensure prompt payments to parts manufacturers, will have cushioned the effect of the bankruptcy itself.

Speaking on Bloomberg Radio, David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, stated that the fragility of the parts suppliers, the loss of whom would threaten the entire automobile manufacturing industry, was of more immediate concern than the GM bankruptcy.

Also filing for chapter 11 protection today were Saturn LLC and Saturn Distribution Corporation, subsidiary companies of General Motors.

As a consequence of the bankruptcy, General Motors Corporation (GM.N) was removed from the Dow Jones Industrial Average, and was replaced by Cisco Systems (CSCO.O), these changes scheduled by Dow Jones & Company to take effect from the opening of trading on June 8.


General Motors se place sous la protection de la loi sur les faillites

L’ancien numéro un mondial de l’automobile, General Motors (GM), a déposé lundi matin son bilan devant un tribunal fédéral des faillites de New York, ce qui lui permettra de procéder à une vaste refonte de ses opérations avec l’appui de l’administration Obama. Il s’agit du même tribunal qui s'est occupé du dossier Chrysler, après le dépôt de bilan du troisième constructeur américain le 30 avril.

GM va bénéficier de la protection du chapitre 11 du code américain des faillites,qui permet à une entreprise de se restructurer à l'abri de ses créanciers, sous la supervision d'un juge.Il s’agit de la plus grosse faillite du secteur industriel dans l'histoire des États-Unis. Mais le président Barack Obama s’est dit optimiste.

« En coopération avec mon équipe spéciale pour le secteur automobile, GM et ses investisseurs ont produit un plan réalisable, exécutable qui donnera à ce fleuron de l’industrie américaine l’opportunité de reprendre son essor », a déclaré le président Obama.
La Maison-Blanche a précisé que GM bénéficiera d’une aide additionnelle chiffrée à $30 milliards pour financer sa restructuration. La société avait déjà touché $20 milliards sous forme de prêts d’urgence en début d’année.
En d’autres mots, le contribuable américain devient le principal actionnaire de GM. Mais la Maison-Blanche espère que ce sera pour une période aussi brève que possible. La multinationale va suivre une procédure de redressement judiciaire accélérée, l’administration souhaitant que sa mise en faillite et restructuration se fassent dans des délais aussi rapides et aussi efficace que possible, pour lui permettre de se désengager rapidement quand la compagnie sera viable.
Plus précisément, le processus envisagé est que GM reste sous la protection du tribunal pendant 60 à 90 jours. Vu la taille du géant mondial de l’automobile, on s’attend à ce que la procédure soit plus longue et complexe que la mise en faillite de Chrysler Corporation.
L’administration avait imposé la date limite du 1er juin à GM pour négocier des accords avec ses détenteurs d’obligations et syndicats. Les parties n’ayant pas réussi à s’entendre, le dépôt de bilan était inévitable mais d’après le président Obama, le plan de relance envisagé devrait donner un nouvel élan à la société.

« C'est un plan adapté aux réalités du marché de l’automobile actuel. Un plan qui place GM sur la voie de la rentabilité même si notre économie prend plus longtemps que prévu pour se rétablir complètement. Et c'est un plan qui tire parti des progrès récents de GM dans la fabrication de meilleures voitures » a expliqué le chef de l’exécutif américain.
M. Obama a reconnu que de nombreux emplois seraient perdus, alors qu’à une époque, General Motors était le principal employeur des États-Unis, et l'un des piliers de l’indice Dow Jones à la bourse de New York. Son slogan, « What is good for GM is good for America » — « Ce qui est bon pour General Motors est bon pour l’Amérique », était connu de tous les Américains

La société avait été fondée en 1908 par William Crapo Durant, à l’époque où les fabricants de carrosses et chariots faisaient alliance avec les inventeurs pour construire les premières automobiles. Le successeur de Durant, Alfred Sloan, allait faire de GM le plus grand fabricant automobile au monde dès la fin des années 1920. A coup de fusions, moteurs innovateurs et modèles dynamiques, le constructeur s’était hissé rapidement au sommet du secteur. À une époque, GM employait plus de 300 000 personnes.

Mais pour acheter la paix avec ses syndicats, General Motors a accepté de verser à son personnel des salaires généreux, une couverture médicale de plus en plus coûteuse et une large protection sociale pour ses retraités. Ce qui allait fragiliser ses finances alors même que la compétition mondiale se faisait de plus en plus féroce. Le constructeur n’a pas réussi également à s’imposer dans le secteur des petites voitures économes en essence, secteur qui allait permettre aux géants asiatiques tels que Honda ou Toyota de s’imposer sur le marché américain.

Le dépôt de bilan de General Motors sera ressenti non seulement par le secteur automobile, mais à travers tout le pays, avec comme conséquence, signalent les analystes, la possible disparition de centaines de milliers d'emplois directs et indirects qui viendront s'ajouter aux millions déjà supprimés du fait de la crise économique et financière. Entretemps, l'indice Dow Jones n’a pas attendu pour s’ajuster. Peu après l’annonce de la mise en faillite de GM, le Dow Jones a annoncé que deux nouvelles valeurs, le fabricant de routeurs Cisco et l'assureur Travelers, allaient faire leur entrée en bourse à la place de deux anciens numéros un mondiaux déchus: General Motors et la banque Citigroup.


General Motors ogłosił bankructwo

Centrum motoryzacji zmienia swoje położenie. Na miejscu Ameryki pojawią się Chiny. Powodem jest upadłość Generals Motors i Chryslera.

Koniec historycznego GM to największa porażka Ameryki. Lecz ikona amerykańskiego przemysłu nie zniknie na dobre. Ma szansę odrodzić się przy pomocy głębokiej reorganizacji spółki. Dzięki pomocy rządu GM może wyjść na prostą. Póki co jeden z większych koncernów - Toyota już zastanawia się nad kupnem fabryk GM. W obce ręce ma zostać oddany również Chrysler.

Dzięki upadkowi giganta w tym roku z Chin wyjedzie więcej aut niż produkuje się w USA czy Japonii. Liczba wyprodukowanych samochodów sięgnie ponad 10 mln.


U.S. minimum wage gets first federal boost in a decade

A federally mandated minimum wage increase for U.S. workers goes into effect today. The 70 cents per hour increase, from US$5.15 to $5.85, is the first hike since 1997.

The increase, which was approved by Congress in May, is the first stage of a 3-step increase over the next two years. Next summer, the minimum will increase by another 70 cents per hour, followed by another bump of 70 cents in the following summer, bringing the minimum wage to US$7.25 an hour by 2009.

The increase is aimed at helping minimum wage earners keep above the poverty level. The United States Department of Health and Human Services considers anyone who earns less than $10,210 per year to be in poverty. At the previous minimum wage level, a person working 40 hours a week would only exceed this by $500 a year.

As many as 20 states took the initiative to raise minimum wages before this federal government action became effective. Those states will only be affected by the new law if they fall beneath the new federal mandate.

By comparison, today's current minimum wage for adults in the United Kingdom is equivalent to almost $11.50. As of 2005, Mexico's minimum wage was Mex$4.50. The lowest minimum wage in Canada is C$6.50 in New Brunswick. The highest in Canada is in Nunavut, C$8.50 or US$8.15.

Many countries in Europe, such as Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, and Cyprus have no minimum wage laws, but rely on employer groups and trade unions to set minimum earnings through collective bargaining. As of December 2006, the Australian standard federal minimum wage is A$13.47 per hour, equivalent to US$11.90.


Mindestlöhne in den Vereinigten Staaten: erste große, landesweite Erhöhung des Jahrzehnts

Washington D.C. (Vereinigte Staaten), 26.07.2007 – Eine landesweit beschlossene Anhebung der Mindestlöhne für Arbeiter in den Vereinigten Staaten trat am 25. Juli in Kraft. Die zusätzlichen 70 Cent je Stunde von 5,15 auf 5,85 Dollar, auf die nochmal 70 Cent im nächsten Sommer folgen, sind die erste Erhöhung seit 1997.

Der Anstieg, dem der Kongress im Mai zugestimmt hatte, ist die erste Stufe eines dreistufigen Anstiegs über die nächsten zwei Jahre. Nächsten Sommer kommen, wie schon erwähnt, weitere 70 Cent hinzu, und im Sommer darauf nochmal 70 Cent. Im Jahr 2009 beträgt dann der Mindestlohn 7,25 US-Dollar.

Der Anstieg soll den Mindestlohn-Verdienern helfen, oberhalb der Armutsgrenze zu bleiben. Das United States Department of Health and Human Services betrachtet jeden als arm, der weniger als 10.210 US-Dollar pro Jahr verdient. Beim bisherigen Mindestlohn hat ein Mensch mit einer 40-Stunden-Woche dieses mit gerade einmal 500 US-Dollar je Jahr überschritten.

Ganze 20 Staaten benötigte die Initiative zur Erhöhung der Mindestlöhne, bevor diese Aktion der Regierung Gestalt annahm. Die Staaten werden von der neuen Regelung nur dann betroffen sein, wenn sie die bundesweiten Vorgaben bisher unterschritten.

Zum Vergleich beträgt der Mindestlohn im Vereinigten Königreich für Erwachsene umgerechnet 11,50 US-Dollar, der in Mexiko betrug hingegen 4,50 mexikanische Peso. Die niedrigste Mindestlohn in Kanada beträgt 6,50 kanadische Dollar in New Brunswick. Der höchste in Kanada ist in Nunavut, 8,50 kanadische Dollar oder 8,15 US-Dollar.

In vielen Ländern Europa, beispielsweise Norwegen, Schweden, Finnland, der Schweiz, Deutschland, Österreich, Italien und Zypern gibt es keinen gesetzlichen Mindestlohn; stattdessen werden die Mindestverdienste dort zwischen Vertretern der Arbeitgeber sowie Gewerkschaften in Form eines Tarifvertrages ausgehandelt. 2006 betrug der Mindestlohn in Australien 13,47 australische Dollar pro Stunde; dies entspricht 11,90 US-Dollar.


U.S. willing to sell F-16s to Pakistan, India

The United States announced that it will be willing to sell F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan on Friday. U.S. State Department officials said that the sale would improve regional security.

A senior U.S. official, speaking to AFP on conditions of anonymity, reportedly said that the amount of planes which will be sold to Pakistan is "relatively small," although he said that" there is no set limit on what the United States is going to be willing to sell."

Pakistan reportedly wants 25 of the planes, which have a maximum range of over 2,000 miles and are capable of being used for ground or air attacks.

President Bush personally telephoned Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to inform him of the new developments before the announcement, according to White House officials.

According to a spokesman for Singh, the Indian prime minister expressed "great disappointment" and said that it could have "negative consequences" for the security of India.

The senior U.S. official also said that "we don't see any impact on the relevant military balances in the region." He added that the United States would be willing to sell both F-16 and more technologically advanced F-18 fighters to India, if India desired them.

New Delhi Television reports that the offer "has been welcomed" by India's Ministry of External Affairs. Xinhua has stated that India is seeking a new contract for a purchase of 126 fighter planes.

The announcement was also welcomed by the Pakistani government. "We welcome this good gesture and it shows good friendship between Pakistan and the United States," Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid said.

Xinhua reported that potential sales could benefit US aerospace giant Lockheed Martin, which hopes to fill "looming gaps in the production line."

The company "has not been officially notified by the U.S. government of any agreement", Lockheed spokesman Tom Jurkowsky told the Washington Post. The Bethesda-based company said that it would have to close its production line in Fort Worth, Texas if it does not receive additional orders by this fall.