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Saturday, June 2, 2012
Friday, June 1, 2012
Euro structure is 'unsustainable,' ECB chief warns
President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi drinks as he reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
President of the European Central Bank Mario Draghi smiles as he reports to the Economic Committee, in capacity as the head of the European Systemic Risk Board, at the European Parliament in Brussels, Thursday, May 31, 2012. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) ? The head of the European Central Bank warned Thursday that the euro currency union is "unsustainable" without stronger political and financial ties, and called for a new course to save it from a crippling debt crisis.
Mario Draghi heaped criticism on European political leaders for being slow to respond to the 2?-year crisis, saying delays and half-measures had only made the situation worse.
Speaking to the European Parliament in Brussels, Draghi said the central bank has done what it could to fight the problems by reducing interest rates and giving $1.2 trillion (?1 trillion) in emergency loans to banks. Now, he said, it is up to the 17 member countries to devise a broad vision for the future.
The ECB cannot "fill the vacuum of the lack of action by national governments," he said, urging sweeping reforms to spur growth, reduce deficits and create a Europe-wide banking regulator.
Beyond that, the euro needs a fundamental reworking of its rules and management, he said, calling the current structure "unsustainable unless further steps are taken."
Europe's leaders need to "clarify what is the vision ... what is the euro going to look like a certain number of years from now? The sooner this has been specified, the better," said Draghi, a plain-speaking Italian and MIT-trained economist.
"What we are saying is to dispel this fog."
The blunt diagnosis from the ECB chief came as the eurozone enters another tumultuous period of financial and political instability. Investors are worried that recession-hit Spain will be unable to prop up its banks burdened by toxic bad loans ? and that it will follow Greece, Portugal and Ireland in asking for an international bailout the eurozone can ill afford. These jitters have sent Spain's borrowing costs soaring and stock markets plummeting.
And in just over two weeks Greece returns to the polls with the real possibility that it might elect a government that rejects the terms of its multibillion-dollar bailout. This could force the country out of the euro, irreparably fracturing the eurozone and further roiling markets.
Perhaps the clearest sign of danger is the state of the euro itself: It is at a two-year low against the dollar, as investors pull money out of euro countries.
Olli Rehn, the European Commission's top financial and monetary affairs officer, echoed Draghi by calling for a "long-term road map." He said there was "no easy fix" if EU leaders "want to avoid the disintegration of the eurozone and instead make the euro survive and succeed for its member countries, and especially its citizens."
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, himself a Yale-trained economist, added his voice to calls for an overhaul in the way the eurozone is managed. Speaking to an economic forum in Brussels on Thursday, he warned his fellow EU leaders that they face a backlash at the polls if they do not stop the crisis of confidence from spreading throughout the rest of the region.
"I think Europe should accelerate its efforts in order to limit the contagion, not simply because a huge financial contagion and crisis would be a frightful event, but even more because this would dismantle support for sustainable fiscal discipline," he said.
Draghi's latest comments highlight the problems at the very heart of the eurozone. The euro was set up back in 1999 as a single currency with a singe central bank, the ECB, to issue the currency and set interest rates. But the different national governments continued to set their own budgets and manage their widely different economies. The currency union was unable to prevent some countries from running up huge debts.
And whereas recent measures such as the fiscal pact have helped strengthen rules against piling up too much debt, more wide-ranging measures ? such as a common finance ministry or shared borrowing through so-called eurobonds ? have not found agreement.
Draghi told European Parliament leaders on Thursday that a first step to solve these problems would be to impose tighter central control over banks. The banking industry has been a key part of Europe's government debt crisis. Bailing out the banks is a huge burden on financially shaky governments, and weak government finances in turn hurt the banks that hold those governments' bonds.
Most powers to regulate banks have been left with national authorities, who have been seen as protective of their domestic financial services industries. The EU's regulator, the European Banking Authority, has limited ability to intervene.
Draghi added his voice Thursday to calls for a central authority that could take over the burden of bailing out banks and also force them to overhaul their finances. The European Commission announced plans for such a "banking union" on Wednesday.
Bailouts for Bankia in Spain, and before that Dexia in Belgium, only highlight how reluctant national regulators are to admit the extent of troubles at home, Draghi said. That in turn has raised the end costs of rescuing the banks and undermining trust and transparency, he said.
"What Dexia shows ? and Bankia shows as well ? is that whenever we are confronted with the dramatic need to recapitalize, if you look back, the reaction of the national supervisors ... is to underestimate the problem, then come out with a first assessment, a second, a third, fourth."
"That is the worst possible way of doing things, because everybody ends up doing the right thing but at the highest possible cost and price," Draghi said.
Spain said last week that it would need to put $23.63 billion (?19 billion) into Bankia to rescue it from losses on real estate loans ? money that investors worry Spain does not have. The company made a successful stock market flotation only last year but has since had to restate earnings and be taken over by the government.
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Beyonce Cast As Queen Tara In 3-D Animated Film 'Epic'
Colin Ferrell, Amanda Seyfried and Aziz Ansari join Bey in the film, due in theaters May 2013.
By James Montgomery
Beyoncé
Photo: Kevin Mazur/ WireImage
For a while now, folks have been referring to Beyoncé as a queen ... but now, she's going to make it official. On the big screen.
According to Deadline.com, Beyoncé has been cast as Queen Tara in the upcoming 3-D, CGI-animated film "Epic," a 20th Century Fox film from the makers of the hits "Ice Age" and "Rio."
The film reportedly tells the tale of a teenage girl transported to a secret universe, where she finds herself dropped square in the middle of a battle between the forces of good and evil. She joins forces with "a rag-tag team of fun and whimsical characters" to save the world. "Epic" is slated to hit theaters on May 24, 2013.
It's the first confirmed role for Beyoncé since she took time off for maternity leave, though she's also slated to star in the Clint Eastwood-directed remake of "A Star Is Born."
Starring alongside Bey in the movie are the likes of Colin Farrell, Amanda Seyfried, Aziz Ansari and a pair of her fellow musicians, Pitbull and Aerosmith frontman/"American Idol" judge Steven Tyler. Johnny Knoxville, Jason Sudeikis and Judah Friedlander round out the cast.
Josh Hutcherson is also set to appear alongside Beyoncé in the film. He's currently riding high off the massive success of "Hunger Games," which is tied with "Bridesmaids" for the most nominations at the 2012 MTV Movie Awards, which will air Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET/PT from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Universal City, California.
Head over to MovieAwards.MTV.com to vote for your favorite flicks now! The 21st annual MTV Movie Awards air live this Sunday, June 3, at 9 p.m. ET.
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Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol F1 review
What is a DJ? Everyone who considers him or herself one can probably give you a unique answer. Is everyone with a music collection and a sense for good timing a DJ, or does their music collection have to exceed a certain number of gigabytes or slabs of vinyl to be in the club (no pun intended)? Audio playback devices are certainly getting more plentiful and powerful on a large scale; anyone who's played with an iOS DJ app can tell you that. In the deeper end of the DJ pool, things aren't expanding at such a frantic pace. But every once in a while a new toy crops up that adds depth and breadth to the way music nerds play back music. Native Instruments' just-released Traktor Kontrol F1 is a blinking slab of rainbow-tinged hardware with an intense devotion to manipulating samples. While boxes from Roland and Akai have been defining genres for decades, this 16-pad add-on takes the sampling game to a new arena. Will DJ's want it? We feel it's safe to say they will. At $279, should they buy it? That question's a little more complicated.
Continue reading Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol F1 review
Native Instruments Traktor Kontrol F1 review originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 31 May 2012 17:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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Thursday, May 31, 2012
Car insurance and winter driving | Auto Car Design
For example, did you prepare your vehicle for facing bad weather conditions? After all, it?s predictable there will be snow and ice in winter. So did you fit new tires so you would have the maximum possible traction in slippery conditions? Or did you remember to put chains in the trunk so that, when the snow gets deeper, you can still drive reasonably safely? We all know the risk of sliding or skidding out of control. Why then do we fail to take action to protect ourselves and other road users? There are probably several reasons, not the least of which are that this means spending money on buying the chains, some think it inconvenient to fit them, and you cannot drive fast when you have them fitted. The fact local governments may require chains to be fitted as a condition to using the roads in some areas is not considered a reason for action (curiously, there are no chain laws in Florida and Missouri ? strange oversight).
Then we come to all those routine maintenance tasks like adding antifreeze and retuning the engine so it?s more likely to start when the temperature drops. Did you fit new blades on the windshield to give you better visibility when there?s snow fall or a blizzard? And then we come to all the steps to protect you should your vehicle break down or be involved in an accident. Do you have an emergency bag packed with warm clothing and blankets should you need to keep warm while rescue comes? You did remember to charge your cell so you could call for help? If you are making a trip cross-country where signal strength may be low, did you tell people when you were expected so they could send out search and rescue teams?
All these things are basic common sense yet, when the first snows hit, we seem to have forgotten to prepare. If accidents are more likely because of this failure and it?s shown to be a regular failure, your car insurance rates will rise. If you have been making claims, the car insurance quotes coming in from other insurers will not be welcoming. No insurer wants to take on someone who fails to prepare in the face of obvious dangers. That?s why insurers in the states where the weather is worst offer discounts for drivers who go on defensive driving courses and learn how to drive more safely. Your choice!
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Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass
Details on Google's Project Glass haven't been the easiest thing to come by since the wearable computing effort was announced earlier this year, but Google execs have been getting a bit more talkative and eager to give demonstrations as of late. You can now add product lead Steve Lee to that list, who's given a fairly wide-ranging interview to Fast Company on the project's origins and its future. Not surprisingly, he confirmed that the early prototypes were a fair bit bulkier -- starting a laptop in a backpack -- and that even the current prototypes are still "very early," although they do handle more than just photos (he gives Maps as one example). Lee does see photo-taking as a "key aspect" to the device, though.
He also cast some doubt on initial reports that the devices would be available this year for between $250 and $600, saying that would be "pretty aggressive timing," but he also noted that he "wouldn't be on this project if it was like a five-year endeavor." As for the future, he says that contact lenses with the technology is a natural evolution but a definite "long-term thing," and that a nearer term goal is to "serve everyone and make this is a universal device," adding that they've "prototyped lots of different form factors to accommodate all those folks." All of that comes just from the first part of a two-part interview, though -- the rest is promised later this week.
Google's Steve Lee talks about the history and future of Project Glass originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 30 May 2012 16:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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