BRUSSELS — Don’t be fooled by Angela Merkel. The German chancellor may be the most powerful leader in the European Union, but she hardly paints a true picture of the place of women in EU politics.
EU leaders meet on Saturday to divide top jobs for the next half-decade, and after years of paying lip service to increasing equality between the sexes, the problem of inequality is still plain for all to see.
“If you look at the family picture of these European summits for the past few years, there always is this blot of gray men in look-alike suits and the color of only a few women,’’ said European political science professor Hendrik Vos of Ghent University.
Within the EU’s bureaucracy, Baroness Catherine Ashton now is the most recognizable woman among the EU officials.
She is leaving, and whether she will be replaced by another woman is one of the key questions for the government leaders at this summit, which was called because a first attempt to divvy up the 30-odd jobs among nations, political affiliations — and gender — ended inconclusively.
There were nine women on the outgoing team of 28 leaders and only five nations — Sweden, Bulgaria, Italy, Czech Republic, and Slovenia — have committed a woman as their designated commissioner.
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Who cares? It's not race, gender, or gay that's important; those are all devices used by the 1% mouthpiece to divide the rest of us. It's cla$$ that is what's important; either you are a member of the club, or you are not.
Two of the most powerful women in the world:
"IMF chief Lagarde under investigation in France" by Lori Hinnant | Associated Press August 28, 2014
PARIS — Christine Lagarde, the chief of the International Monetary Fund, was put under official investigation for negligence in a French corruption probe that dates back to her days as France’s finance minister.
So why does she need dispatching? That's the only time they set you up for a fall.
After a fourth round of questioning before magistrates Wednesday, Lagarde said she was returning to her work in Washington and called the investigation ‘‘without basis.’’ She is the third IMF managing director in a decade to face legal troubles.
After Strauss-Kahn and Wolfowitz, right?
Lagarde and her former chief of staff have faced questions about their role in an arbitration ruling that handed $531 million to a French businessman with a checkered past.
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Under French law, the official investigation is equivalent to preliminary charges, meaning there is reason to suspect an infraction. Investigating judges can later drop a case or issue formal charges and send it to trial.
Defense lawyer Yves Repiquet said the negligence claim was “paltry,” “extremely minor,” and “unfounded” and said investigators could not make a valid case for tougher penalties. He said he will file a motion to have the preliminary charge dismissed.
‘‘There was no reason for her to resign,’’ Repiquet said by phone. Lagarde will not be required to answer questions for the case for months at the least, he said, insisting it will have no effect on her ability to do her job.
The charge could bring up to a year in prison and a fine of 15,000 euros.
‘‘We’re nowhere near that just yet,’’ lawyer Christopher Mesnooh of Field Fisher Waterhouse said. ‘‘This will probably not go to any kind of a trial or a next stage until next year at the earliest.’’
‘‘It’s a very complicated matter, with enormous political and legal ramifications.’’
The $531 million payment was awarded to Bernard Tapie, a flamboyant and high-profile businessman, in a dispute about the sale of his majority stake in sportswear company Adidas nearly a generation ago.
Something $tinks in that bed.
Tapie sought to sell his stake in the mid-1990s, asking bank Credit Lyonnais to handle the deal. He felt the sale was mishandled and sued the bank, which at the time was owned by the French state.
At the heart of Lagarde’s questioning was her role in the unusual decision to handle the case by private arbitration, rather than through the French legal system.
Critics say the case should not have gone to arbitration because state funds were involved. Many also felt the deal was too generous and was symptomatic of the cozy relationship between money and political power in France.
It's not just France where that happens.
Lagarde became finance minister in 2007 under then-President Nicolas Sarkozy, the first woman to hold the post in a G-7 country. Tapie was a prominent supporter of Sarkozy. Before buying control of Adidas, Tapie had been embroiled in several scandals, including match-fixing in the early 1990s that led to an eight-month prison sentence....
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At least the Federal Reserve is a fair-minded employer:
"Fed chair Yellen’s assets up 8 percent during 2013" by Martin Crutsinger | Associated Press August 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen’s assets rose in value by at least 8 percent during 2013....
Yellen’s assets have likely been driven up in value by a rebounding economy and a rising stock market....
So those printing pre$$es she kept running that showered money on Wall Street was very $elf-$erving, huh?
Her husband, George Akerlof, a Nobel Prize-winning economist, is serving as a visiting scholar at the International Monetary Fund in Washington.
Among the stocks listed on the disclosure form were shares of Conoco Phillips, DirecTV, DuPont, Office Depot, Pfizer, Raytheon, Phillips 66, Norfolk Southern and 21st Century Fox. The disclosure form showed that Yellen held a mix of company stocks and investment funds.
WTF, Globe?
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Yeah, thank God women are in charge, 'eh?
"US bank earnings up 5.2 pct in 2Q" AP August 29, 2014
WASHINGTON — Banks’ earnings rose 5.2 percent in the April-June quarter from a year earlier as they cut expenses and lending registered its fastest pace since 2007.
Data issued Wednesday by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. showed a robust picture as the industry continues to recover from the financial crisis that struck six years ago. The improving economy has brought greater demand for loans.
Like they have been suffering the last six years after bailouts!
They have been making record profits!!
The FDIC said US banks earned $40.2 billion in the second quarter, up from $38.2 billion a year earlier.
I don't know if earned is the correct term. Stole is more like it.
The number of banks on the FDIC’s problem list fell to 354, the fewest in more than five years and down from 411 in the January-March period.
The FDIC said 57.5 percent of banks reported an increase in profit from a year earlier, and only 6.8 percent of banks were unprofitable — down from 8.4 percent.
Banks cut expenses by setting aside less in reserves to cover bad loans and making smaller payrolls.
See: Banks Reserve Profits For Themselves
FDIC chairman Martin Gruenberg said the industry continued to improve but ‘‘challenges remain’’ as revenue is chipped away by lower income from mortgages.
Look at the mouthpiece telling you how much banks love you.
Total loan balances rose by $178.5 billion, or 2.3 percent, from the first quarter — the biggest quarterly rise since the fourth quarter of 2007.
‘‘The improvement in loan balances has now been sustained over time,’’ Gruenberg said, adding that the key will be for the trend to continue.
Last year, the number of bank failures fell to 24. That is still more than normal. In a strong economy, an average of four or five banks close annually. But failures were down sharply from 51 in 2012, 92 in 2011, and 157 in 2010. So far this year, 14 banks have failed.
Everything's all right, everything's fine, the bubble is about to burst right in sight.
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I can't $ee my way to continuing with this $hit. Sorry.
