SNPL pilots and key union hostess and stewards have launched a strike notice for four days starting Monday. They oppose a bill to impose a minimum service in the air during a strike. Of passengers at the information board on flights at Charles de Gaulle

French unions aviation, including pilots of SNPL and the main organizations of hostesses and stewards, confirmed Friday their strike call from 6 to 9 February to oppose a bill regulating the right to strike in this sector.

In addition to the pilots and flight attendants, federations FO, CFDT, UNSA and CGT have the air, after an inter-union, called the staff of companies and their service providers to mobilize. The bill "has been hardened to the Assembly and the government does not want to negotiate, the National Council of SNPL therefore confirmed the strike on Friday from 6 to 9 and decided it would be renewable, either directly after 9, or at another time, "he told AFP Yves Deshayes, national president of the SNPL, the main pilots' union, super-majority at Air France.

"At the Inter, after our board meeting, it's the same with a strike from 6 to 9, and a few different versions according to the unions," said Yves Deshayes. "The three main trade unions of PNC (flight attendants), the SNPNC, the Unac and UNSA also call from 6 to 9, "said the driver. "The strike is held from 6 to 9," also said Franck Mikula, president of the Unac (CFE-CGC) at the conclusion of the Inter.

The SNPL said that among the ground staff would go on strike and some others would be "in action via other means." "We call for the strike in all French airlines, in metropolitan and overseas territories" , said Yves Deshayes.

Cash advance is meant to provide short term relief to borrowers. Since these loans charge high interest rates, rolling over the loan may not be very easy.

Registrations of new cars in France fell by 20.7% in raw data in January to 147,143 units, said Wednesday the Committee of French Automobile Manufacturers (CCFA), con ; frequency of the economic climate and comparative unfavorable early 2011. Working day adjusted, in January 2012 with 22 working days counted against 21 in 2011, registrations of new cars in France fell by 24.3% last month. In 2011 and 2010, they had declined by 2.1 and 2.2%, supported by one after the scrappage scheme introduced to the crisis that struck the area in late 2008 and whose effects were felt until the first quarter of 2011. The PSA Peugeot Citroën registrations fell 23.1% last month while those of the Renault Group (Renault and Dacia brands above) decreased by 26.1%. In contrast, sales of Volkswagen in the Hexagon increased by 16.2% (23.2% just for VW).

The European Commission estimates that the pooling of borrowing countries in the euro area could quickly alleviate the current crisis. The counterpart would be a strengthening of fiscal discipline. The President of the European Commission Jose Manuel Barroso (here at a press conference in Brussels April 13, 2011)

The European Commission Wednesday will propose the creation of eurobonds, a system seen by its promoters as a means of achieving sustainable solutions to the debt crisis, but that divides Europeans and has as its corollary a strengthening of fiscal discipline. In a "Green Paper" seen by AFP, the European Commission considers that this pooling of borrowing countries in the euro area could "rapidly reduce" the current crisis.Countries that need external assistance, as now Greece, Ireland and Portugal, should be subjected to "enhanced monitoring", argued Mr Barroso.

The Commission proposals provide for such a development also for the states under the excessive deficit procedure against the limit of 3% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) set by the Stability Pact. Today, almost all EU countries are concerned. Europe may well require them to review their copy if the budget passed by their parliaments become too lax compared to the common rules of discipline. A proposal that is likely to generate heated debate in national parliaments.

Paris and Berlin have developed a second summit, in addition to Sunday, to prepare a "comprehensive and ambitious répnse" to the crisis in the eurozone. President Nicolas Sarkozy meets with German Chancellor Angela Merkel Tuesday, August 16 at the Elysee Palace (both here in Berlin July 20, 2011)

Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel will meet again Saturday night in Brussels on the eve of the European summit to prepare an "ambitious and comprehensive response" to the crisis in the euro area whose elements will be adopted at a second summit "at the late Wednesday ", they announced Thursday in a joint statement. In this paper circulated by the Elysee Palace, Paris and Berlin have also called for "immediate negotiations" engage with the private sector "to reach an agreement to strengthen the sustainability" of the Greek debt.

The statement said the French president and German chancellor, who have been in Frankfurt on Wednesday night for an "informal meeting" Thursday had a telephone conversation during which they "expressed their full agreement to provide a comprehensive and ambitious "to the crisis in the months since the euro area.

This response will include "the operational implementation of new forms of intervention EFSF, a plan to strengthen the capital of European banks (and) the establishment of economic governance in the euro area and the strengthening of economic integration ", they repeated. The two countries "agreed that all elements of this ambitious and comprehensive response will be discussed in depth at the summit on Sunday in order to be finally adopted by the Heads of State and Government at a second meeting at the late Wednesday. "

A summit of heads of state and government of 27 EU countries is scheduled Sunday in Brussels, followed on the heels of another top 17 members of the euro area. Prior to confirmation of Paris and Berlin, a diplomatic source had raised the possibility of a second peak of the euro area, noting the differences that continue to oppose the countries of the European Group on how to strengthen the Fund European Financial Stability (EFSF). Long opposed, the two largest economies in the euro area ultimately reached a common position but "n'enthousiasme not" some of their European partners, acknowledged Wednesday the Secretary of State for Finance Steffen Kampeter.

"We have made enormous progress but not enough to make final decisions on Sunday.In some areas, we agree (between European partners), in others we are on track, "said Thursday night a spokesman for Mrs. Merkel, Steffen Seibert. Mr. Seibert also suggested that the second summit was necessitated by considerations of internal politics in Germany. "The participation of the German parliament is essential," he said.

"The challenges we know are also in negotiations related to the requirement of the German Members to be consulted," confirmed to AFP diplomatic source in Brussels. In their statement, France and Germany finally, once again, urged Greece to "make ambitious commitments to address the situation of their economies as part of a new program." At a meeting with Merkel in Berlin on October 9, M.Sarkozy had promised "sustainable solutions, comprehensive and fast" to resolve the crisis, at least before the G20 summit expected in Cannes on November 3 and 4.

Fraud within UBS is eerily similar to a tarnished Societe Generale in 2008. The similarities of the two cases in seven points.

Two traders on the same table market

Jerome Kerviel and Kweku Adoboli worked on the same type of position, the Delta One desk. A table where one does not exchange single stocks or bonds but derivatives. The operations are relatively simple and often reserved for novice traders. They also specialize in ETFs (exchange traded funds), financial products that mimic the performance of an index, upward or downward. Easy to use, they can diversify their portfolio by buying such contracts backed by a stock index or industry (eg commodities). The ETF market is booming, the stock reached 300 billion euros in Europe, according to Aurel BGC.Moreover, the two traders were very familiar control procedures. They made a passage through the back office, the administrative body of the bank that controls the regularity of operations, before moving to trading.

Adoboli / Kerviel: profiles of "good friends"

Friends, neighbors, co-workers paint a Kweku Adoboli, 31, "very nice, very polite." Like most young traders of his age, he earned a very good living (300,000 pounds per year) and took the opportunity to do great celebrations in her apartment. Jerome Kerviel was considered "quite normal, no gambler," by his former colleague Valérie Rolland, as shown by his remarks during the trial of former trader. He lived comfortably but did not have an extravagant lifestyle. The financial police who investigated him about a man with "no extravagance of any kind."He earned 48,000 euros per year in 2007, a year before the outbreak of the scandal.

The concealment of large-scale risky operations

For Kerviel, 50 billion euros of positions (or 25,000 times the average risk that a trader takes …), Adoboli for "only" $ 10 billion (7.2 billion euros), "in various futures indices – S & P 500, DAX and EuroStoxx – over the last three months, "the statement said UBS. The principle of hiding two traders was the same. The internal control system did not see anything because the positions were "in our systems offset by fictitious positions on ETF cash settlement futures, allegedly executed by the broker," according to UBS.Clearly, the screens showed the supervisors of the total amount of exposure much lower than was the actual exposure of the two "rogue traders".

Moreover – as Kerviel – the "unauthorized trading" of Kweku Adoboli does date back a long way. The trader UBS would have made some operations since October 2008. In 2005 and 2006, Kerviel had "led" by taking 100 to 150 million euros in positions on the action Solarworld listed in Germany, according to the report of the Inspector General of Societe Generale.

The unwinding told in a hurry to star trader

Upon discovery of the scandal UBS warned regulators in Switzerland and Britain, and launched in parallel to his cell house, "the bronze project" designed to perform the operations of unwinding.This difficult task was assigned to one of the best traders of the bank's derivative, Jason Barron. At Societe Generale, the unwinding took place January 21, 2008 after the discovery of the fraud, by Maxime Kahn, 39, an experienced trader in the bank. Management has told the Financial Markets Authority and the Governor of the Bank of France, but she preferred to keep out of the palace secret. In the recent book "Sarko kill me," Daniel Bouton said he did not call the Elysee Bercy or because "the ability of a cabinet to hold confidential information is very limited in all cases long. It's structural. And if I notify the department, I'll have to deal with the Minister (Christine Lagarde) while I have other things to do. " The Ministry of Finance was informed two days after the first operations of unwinding.A secret which has not failed to Nicolas Sarkozy in a rage before claiming the head of the CEO …

A boss in the hot seat?

The CEO of Societe Generale, Daniel Bouton, was forced to leave office in April 2009, under pressure from President Sarkozy, despite the support of major shareholders and employees. "The goal was to physically pay button" recently said the former CEO in "Sarko kill me." At UBS, the boss seems so far spared even though it is very weak. In an interview with Swiss newspaper Der Sonntag Gruebele Oswald said he was "responsible but not guilty." He even said that when someone decides to act criminal, "you can not do anything." The boss of UBS feels may be spared a major shareholder of the bank.The Swiss weekly NZZ am Sonntag quoted a member of the Board of Directors of UBS who says Oswald Gruebele still has the support of the Singapore investment fund GIC.

A scandal comes at a very wrong time

UBS has revised this weekend losses from fraud of $ 2.3 billion, against 2 billion originally announced. The profit of about one billion Swiss francs which the bank expected the third quarter could turn into a loss of 500 million francs. And while the group hoped to finally settle its costly setbacks resulting from the subprime crisis and conflict on the banking secrecy with the United States. He had announced in August a new savings plan that provides 3,500 job cuts and savings of 2 billion Swiss francs (1.8 billion euros). And he was preparing, according to the Swiss press, cutting heavily in its investment bank.

A Société Générale scandal happened in the subprime crisis, while the bank was about to announce 2.6 billion loss because of its exposure. The bank then red and black then launched a capital increase of EUR 5.5 billion, and managed to save many takeover rumors that hovered above his head.

Banks that do not listen to warnings

The many similarities between the two cases raise questions about banks' ability to truly control their traders. Yet they have spared no efforts in security after the Kerviel affair. "For the Societe Generale, one can even the number in the hundreds of millions of euros," said the Liboux and Tangi, an analyst at Aurel BGC. This did not prevent the inspection bodies to point out the dangers of risky products.The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) British recalled at the outbreak of the UBS case, have warned against the dangers inherent in the ETF. According to the Office of fight against financial crime in the UK, the risk of major accidents was high mainly because of their lack of transparency. But this is not a systemic problem as Manoj Ladwa, an analyst at ETX Capital in London. Those responsible for risk control at UBS "did not realize quite quickly that this trader had taken huge positions in a very short period." The problem, according to Frederic Boulier, an expert on financial fraud in Nice Actimize is that banks are primarily focused on the safety of other financial products."It is true that as these traders are working on relatively simple products, some banks have chosen to focus their efforts on control tables are traded market where more complex products." From there to imagine that a fraud on banks ETF splash soon again? "It is impossible to say today that a similar accident could not happen again one day," said Liboux The Tangi, an analyst at Aurel BGC.

PSA Peugeot Citroen and General Electric announced Wednesday it had signed a business cooperation and technology in Europe around the electric vehicle.

The automaker and the U.S. giant has said in a statement that the agreement was not exclusive to work together including the deployment of a commercial offering combining the electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

New offerings destined for the corporate customers will also be developed.

General Electric is committed in this context to purchase up to 1,000 electric vehicles to PSA by the end of 2015.

PSA remember launched in late 2010 electric vehicle Citroën "C-ZERO" Peugeot and "ion".

The Federal Reserve is actively preparing for the possibility of default of the United States a few days of the date by which Washington would be in this situation, said Wednesday the president of the Philadelphia Fed.

Charles Plosser said the U.S. central bank has worked closely with the U.S. Treasury in recent months to determine what to do in case of failure of the world's largest economy on August 2 next.

He also said Reuters had "deeply convinced" that Barack Obama and Congress reached an agreement to meet in time the authorized debt ceiling, currently set at 14,300 billion.

He said that in case of default, the Fed is responsible for ensuring the financial stability of the country, would feel compelled to act as creditor of last resort if the markets were in panic.

The Fed chairman Ben Bernanke had said last week that a default on U.S. debt would be devastating."It would be a disastrous outcome," he said.

"This would create a severe financial shock that would impact not only on the U.S. economy but also on the global economy."

Charles Plosser also believes that the Fed may have to tighten monetary policy later this year.

He expects U.S. economic growth between 3% and 3.5% annual rate in the second half of 2011, and an unemployment rate down to about 8.5% by the end of the year.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, announced Sunday the full support of U.S. efforts to Greece to overcome its financial crisis, saying that Athens was taking difficult but necessary measures to restore growth.

"The United States fully support the government (Prime Minister George) Papandreou's efforts to adopt the reforms necessary for re-railing of Greece, financially, and to make the Greek economy more competitive," she said.

"Greece has inspired the world in the past and I have every confidence in the fact that you will do it again," said Hillary Clinton after a meeting with Greek Foreign Minister, Stavros Lambrinidis to Athens.

The leaders of the euro zone must hold a special summit in Brussels Thursday to discuss how to set up a second plan for financial assistance to Greece, the background risk of contagion from the debt crisis in countries like Spain and Italy and a risk of leaving the euro area for some members of the European Union.

For Clinton, the austerity plan adopted by the Greek Parliament, politically painful, is like a "chemotherapy", but it will eventually bear fruit.

"I'm not here to minimize the challenges that stand because they are real. But I am here to say that we believe strongly that this (the austerity plan) will give Greece a very strong economy, for move forward, "said Clinton.

Italy continues to face risks related to its massive public debt despite the adoption of new austerity measures, said Friday Standard & Poor's.

In a statement, the rating agency said that the risks are mainly due to the low growth prospects of the third largest economy in the euro area.

The Italian government approved on Thursday an austerity plan intended to protect the country from a spreading crisis of the Greek debt and eliminate the budget deficit in 2014.

The package, which represents a $ 47 billion, must be approved by parliament within sixty days.

"In light of the slow growth of Italy, in our opinion, other macroeconomic and microeconomic reforms are needed," said S & P said in a statement.

For the agency, there are approximately one in three chance that the note she attributes to Italian sovereign debt is lowered in the next 24 months.

Italian growth increased by only 0.1% in the first quarter of 2011 and the last three months of 2010, contrasting with the recovery shown by the other major economies in the euro area.

Some analysts believe the economy could even transalpine easily revive the recession.

S & P believes that the austerity measures were announced by Rome as a whole, credible, particularly those related wages in the civil service and pensions.

The agency considers however that the Italian government showed too optimistic about its ability to fight against tax fraud.

Italy has escaped the most severe shocks in the markets since the bursting of the debt crisis of the Greek, with a prudent fiscal policy, low household debt and a relatively solid banking system.

But the country remains vulnerable due to a massive public debt which represents approximately 120% of gross domestic product (GDP) and a chronically low growth – the softest in the euro area over the past decade.

Baroin, Bruno Le Maire and Valerie Pécresse compete for the portfolio of the economy. Arbitration should be made after the Council of Ministers on Wednesday. The Economy Minister Christine Lagarde and Budget Minister Baroin presented Wednesday, Sept. 29 at Bercy the draft budget law in 2011.

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Fillon began work Tuesday night at cabinet reshuffle made necessary by the appointment of Christine Lagarde at the IMF, a complicated task in the view of some officials of the UMP, which will delay the announcement until Wednesday.

Tuesday night, the two heads of the executive have kept about twenty minutes, shortly after the announcement from Washington of the appointment of Christine Lagarde to succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn to head the International Monetary Fund. This announcement heralded an imminent reshuffle. But, tired, at 9:15 p.m., this perspective has moved away.

The Elysee Palace announced that Christine Lagarde attend the Council of Ministers the following day. In all likelihood, the announcement of the reshuffle should take place after the weekly meeting with the government's head of state, and before leaving in the evening Mr Fillon in Cambodia and Indonesia.

According to several officials and members of the UMP contacted by AFP, the delay caused by fierce competition for the post of Economy and Finance between Baroin Lagarde, Minister of Budget and spokesman for the government, and colleague of Agriculture, Bruno Le Maire.

Both ministers have claimed, according to these sources, the prestigious position of Mme Lagarde and key at this time of the French Presidency of the G8 and G20, and threatened, and the other one, to resign if they did not successful.

Both heirs of Jacques Chirac, they had, until recently, as the "Musketeers" with the Secretary General of the UMP Jean-Francois Cope, and the leader of the UMP, Christian Jacob.

In addition to those of MM. Baroin and Le Maire, the name of Valerie Pécresse, Minister of Higher Education and Research, was also named to succeed Ms. Lagarde. But when she was the favorite until last weekend, Ms. Pécresse suffered, according to a source close to the government, a strong barrage of François Fillon.

Bruno Le Maire, who seemed to write off Bercy due to agricultural crisis and reform the common agricultural policy to manage, then tried his luck, according to a UMP. Until Tuesday morning, the Minister of Agriculture seemed to hold the rope. But in the day, Baroin regained the lead.

At ten months of the presidential election, the head of state could also benefit from this remodeling imposed to bring the centrist government, the attempts to disrupt the presidential nomination of his former minister for Ecology Jean-Louis Borloo. Among the candidates mentioned included the Secretary General of the UMP and Marc-Philippe Daubresse UMP vice president of the National Assembly Laffineur Marc, a former UDF as well.

The Veterans Affairs has been vacant since the redesign of November, and Georges Tron has not been replaced with that of the Public Service since his resignation on May 29 after it was involved in an investigation for sexual assault and rape.

Ministers candidates for Senate in September, Gerard Longuet (Defence), Chantal Jouanno (Sport) and Maurice Leroy (City), would not, themselves, affected by this redesign, according to a source close to the government.