Dear all out there, Today we may have witnessed an historical day, comparable maybe only to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 or 9/11. I stated both these events on purpose, as we do not yet know if this will turn out to be an historical good or an historical bad day in the history books of the future. My guess: it will be more comparable to 9/11 than to the Berlin Wall. Already, a lot of right-wing leaders within the EU announced that similar referendums should be held in their countries, and an independent Scotland willing to…

Hello everybody, Today’s topic is the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (short: TTIP): Basically, it is an agreement between the USA and the EU regarding lifting some obstacles that appeared when selling from the USA to the EU or vice versa. On the whole, one should think that this is a good idea. Well, maybe it is, who knows? Nevertheless, there are some points, that made me thinking: Politicians (even the ones in the EU, that we did not actually vote for) are working for the people. So I do not understand, why these negotiations have to be so secretive,…

Hi, Well another topic where Europe is currently failing:  Asylum seekers. There is no question, that it is somehow in our genes to be careful when dealing with something new, hence I can fully understand, that there is some doubt about taking up a lot of asylum seekers. On the other hand: Only a few decades ago, a lot of Austrian/European Continental people were very happy when they were taken up by UK or USA to be able to flee from World War II. Therefore, I see it as our duty, now to help people as well. What the EU…

Hi everybody, Long time no see :-). But then again, a lot has happened, Greece is in or out of the Eurozone (who knows?). I really wonder, what the European countries are thinking that they are doing currently. What will happen to most of the money they get the next time? Actually, most of it will probably go back immediately to the IMF or some banks or other countries… So, I do not think that the money will help the Greek people. What Europe should really do is set up a long-time plan, where money goes directly to the people…

Hi all, Last week, the European Central Bank cut the interest rates for loans from them to 0.25 % (from 0.50 %). Do the really think that this is a good idea? I realise that they want to raise inflation, however, flooding the market is not the right tool for this any more – instead of raising inflation they are raising stock exchange indexes. If we want to raise inflation, we have to give money to the people who really need to buy something from the real economy – the poor ones. So, instead of flooding the markets with more…

Hi there, About a week ago the annual Life Ball took place in Vienna – besides a lot of celebrities, there also was presented an initiative called ‘The Girl Effect’, which, in my opinion, is quite worth sharing. Actually, it seems to be quite easy: If you improve the life of 12 year old girls, the chance is quite high that our world is becoming a better place within the next 50 years, as it will not only affect the girls, but also their children. It was presented as part of the initiative ‘Zero’ about no new HIV infections. Part…

Hi folks, Politicians in Europe are quite proud at the moment that they saved Cyprus… have they? Imagine… You have a bank account, savings account – whatever. It has about 2,000 EUR on it. On first sight, be happy, you are quite far below the 30%-extra-tax-value of 100,000 EUR. But then you begin to think ‘This was only the first round’ and remind yourself that it took several steps to save Greece (if it has already been saved!). That’s why you start to think about the next steps, the European politicians could think, if the first step was not enough….