The US government to wind up bail-out programme soon
Sunday, 22 November 2009
Fazle Rashid
Setting all speculations to rest 27-member European Union (EU) the other day unanimously elected Herman Van Rompuy, currently prime minister of Belgium, as its first president. Britain's Lady Ashton, Union's trade commissioner for a year was elected to the all important office of the foreign minister. The EU finally settled the issue after a decade of wrangling over how to make its presence felt on the global stage.
Both are relatively unknown on the international stage. EU picked "consensus builders rather than star names." Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who was initially front runner for the office of the President fell from grace for his controversial involvement in the Iraq war. The selection of such low profile figures seemed to highlight Europe's problems, instead of its readiness to take a more united and forceful place in world politics, the New York Times (NYT) reported.
Europe will need a more strident voice to make its presence felt now that the question of G2 (the US and China) is gathering momentum. The election was described as a " minimalist solution" by foreign minister of Sweden and expressed fear it would reduce EU's voice. EU is still more of an economic union rather than a political one and looks to remain so, the NYT asserted.
And in the United States in a dramatic move the House of representative panel permitted the Congress to carry out sweeping new oversights of the Federal Reserve's policy decisions and operations. The new measures, if enacted as laws, would allow the US Congress to order audit of all Fed's lending programmes as well as of its basic decisions to set monetary policy by raising or lowering interest rates Tim Geithner, the US treasury secretary, also made an important announcement the other day, saying the government would wind up as soon as possible its $700 billion bailout programme and a part of it would be used to lower the Federal debts.
The question of China keeping its currency undervalued again came to the fore. Senator Charles Schumer severely upbraided the treasury secretary saying today millions of Americans are out of work because the Chinese are manipulating their currency and urged the administration to impose trade sanctions on Chinese products.
Meanwhile, growth in the world's industrialised economies has resumed after the most virulent recession for decades, Organization for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD) said. But it said like the US the unemployment is set to continue to rise well into 2010.
In another development, AOL, the mega online US company announced the other day that it would eliminate 2500 jobs. The AOL's merger with Time Warner made a big news. So is its separation. Job cuts will help AOL to save $300 million a year.
The company will first make the offer of "golden hand shake", but if it fails it will resort to lay off China, ahead of India in all aspects, once again humbled India in boasting of its English knowing (English speaking) population.
The British Council which conducted a survey recently said China may already have more English speakers than India.
The standard of English, both verbal and written, in India, according to many experts, was second only to Britain itself. China is training 20 million people to speak English every year.
Setting all speculations to rest 27-member European Union (EU) the other day unanimously elected Herman Van Rompuy, currently prime minister of Belgium, as its first president. Britain's Lady Ashton, Union's trade commissioner for a year was elected to the all important office of the foreign minister. The EU finally settled the issue after a decade of wrangling over how to make its presence felt on the global stage.
Both are relatively unknown on the international stage. EU picked "consensus builders rather than star names." Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair who was initially front runner for the office of the President fell from grace for his controversial involvement in the Iraq war. The selection of such low profile figures seemed to highlight Europe's problems, instead of its readiness to take a more united and forceful place in world politics, the New York Times (NYT) reported.
Europe will need a more strident voice to make its presence felt now that the question of G2 (the US and China) is gathering momentum. The election was described as a " minimalist solution" by foreign minister of Sweden and expressed fear it would reduce EU's voice. EU is still more of an economic union rather than a political one and looks to remain so, the NYT asserted.
And in the United States in a dramatic move the House of representative panel permitted the Congress to carry out sweeping new oversights of the Federal Reserve's policy decisions and operations. The new measures, if enacted as laws, would allow the US Congress to order audit of all Fed's lending programmes as well as of its basic decisions to set monetary policy by raising or lowering interest rates Tim Geithner, the US treasury secretary, also made an important announcement the other day, saying the government would wind up as soon as possible its $700 billion bailout programme and a part of it would be used to lower the Federal debts.
The question of China keeping its currency undervalued again came to the fore. Senator Charles Schumer severely upbraided the treasury secretary saying today millions of Americans are out of work because the Chinese are manipulating their currency and urged the administration to impose trade sanctions on Chinese products.
Meanwhile, growth in the world's industrialised economies has resumed after the most virulent recession for decades, Organization for Economic cooperation and Development (OECD) said. But it said like the US the unemployment is set to continue to rise well into 2010.
In another development, AOL, the mega online US company announced the other day that it would eliminate 2500 jobs. The AOL's merger with Time Warner made a big news. So is its separation. Job cuts will help AOL to save $300 million a year.
The company will first make the offer of "golden hand shake", but if it fails it will resort to lay off China, ahead of India in all aspects, once again humbled India in boasting of its English knowing (English speaking) population.
The British Council which conducted a survey recently said China may already have more English speakers than India.
The standard of English, both verbal and written, in India, according to many experts, was second only to Britain itself. China is training 20 million people to speak English every year.