World & Politics
Puerto Rico to Exchage Senior Notes - 07/13/2015
Government Development Bank of Puerto Rico said that it could sell the senior notes in the amount of $ 4 billion. This way, the Commonwealth tries to restructure its debt of $ 72 billion, according to a letter sent to the regulator. The document states that it includes cash and securities or a combination of both. The bank president Melba Acosta said that local banks are major holders of these...
Iran & the Big Six Negotiations: Patience Wears Thin - 07/10/2015
Journalists, covering the negotiations of Iran and the Big Six, which are conducted in Vienna at the highest level for two weeks, demolished a metal detector. The construction could not stand the onslaught of the press, pouring from a huge white tent where the media work, on the street, hoping to learn the details of the discussions from the Foreign Minister of Iran Javad Zarif. Operators on duty...
Jihadists Extend the Zone of Influence in Tunisia - 07/08/2015
ISIS terrorists in Tunisia are competing with al-Qaeda, trying to expand the area of influence. The attacks are one way to agitate supporters of radical Islamists. Fear and distress, which Islamic State militants carry with them, are spread increasingly – recently, Northern Africa has been touched too. Shortly after the horrific terrorist attack on the beach of Sousse, which resulted in the...
What is Alexis Tsipras strategy so as to extract maximum mileage out of the Greek Financial Crisis? - 07/08/2015
While Alexis Tsipras and his finance minister turned up at an emergency meeting without any written proposals for reform, a senior EU official thinks that this is probably a strategy to gauge the mood of its creditors. On his part Tsipras seemed pretty clear: although he knows reforms will invariably be painful, for which he needs to move fast, so as to stop any possible revolt against it....
Media Learned About the Mechanism of Lifting the Sanctions Against Iran - 07/06/2015
If one of the permanent members of the UN Security Council has a doubt that Iran does not adhere to the agreements, they will be able to veto and block the extension of the lifting of sanctions. The point of a multi-year negotiating process to resolve the Iranian nuclear issue should be put on the meeting of heads of the six international mediators’ diplomatic missions (the five permanent UN...
France Rebuffs Assange - 07/03/2015
France has refused Assange’s request of political asylum due to the absence of danger to his life, and the warrant for his arrest. France on Friday, July 3, refused a request of the founder of Wikileaks Internet platform Julian Assange to grant him asylum. According to the administration of the French president, "there’s no direct threat to the life of Mr. Assange's". Also, the European warrant...
Bankruptcy in the Italian Style - 07/03/2015
In medieval Italy, when a trader did not repay debts, his stall got destroyed so hard that he could no longer do business. The word "bankruptcy" came from the Italian expression banco rotto, or "destroyed shop." Modern bankruptcy law in Italy is not so cruel (although until 2006, the debtors lose the right to vote, and liquidators read all their mail). However, this procedure is painful and slow,...
Islamic State gaining local support in Gulf Arab States. - 07/03/2015
With VISA free travel in between Gulf States, officials worry that the local bombing could be used a model for other wannabe suicide bombers. When a wanna-be Saudi Arabian suicide bomber flew in to Kuwait to carry out one of the worst militant attacks on innocent and disarmed civiliants, sympathisers to the Islamic State had made preparations such that a driver and car to pick him up and take him...
Varoufakis: Greece Has no Printing Presses to Issue Drachmas - 07/02/2015
Greece cannot return to print drachmas, as the country no longer has relevant printing machines, said Finance Minister Janis Varoufakis. According to Varoufakis, in 2000, when Greece joined the euro area, the authorities were quick to get rid of the print machines, because they were convinced that now the country will always be in the back of the single European currency. - We destroyed all the...
American Greece - 07/01/2015
Not everyone in Europe knows that US has its own Greece. In the words of economist Rudiger Dornbusch, "the crisis matures for much longer than you think, and much faster than you could imagine ... He approaches forever, and happens overnight." So the Puerto Rican crisis is. It has been ripening for a long time, but its scale reached the Americans over the weekend, when the governor of Puerto...