NUTRITION LABELS GIVE BRUSSELS INDIGESTION // Financial Times

REVIEW
Category:	Other

At a recent lunch debate in Brussels, the question of the day for assembled pundits was this: How many servings does a bag of biscuits contain?

That question lies at the heart of one of the fiercest debates in Brussels these days – over the creation of a new Europe-wide system of nutrition labels for food. A proposal to reshape the system for the first time in more than a decade faces a key vote in the European parliament on Tuesday.

The debate may not carry the weight of the Greek debt crisis, which could re-shape the European Union. Nor does it have the urgency of the Copenhagen climate talks.
  But nutrition labels would represent one of the most visible and enduring consumer measures by a bureaucracy generally dismissed by its subjects as remote and unintelligible. The fight is also a reminder of Brussels’ complicated love of labels. In the last year, the EU has considered new labels for energy efficiency, tyres, and organic produce. New labels to denote heritage sites are in the works.

To politicians, labelling schemes offer a simple response to the regulatory challenges of an increasingly confusing and uncertain world. Yet they tend to carry unintended consequences that make their implementation agonising.

The recent overhaul of energy efficiency labels is a case in point. It was held up for months amid fights over such questions as what shade of green to use on a colour spectrum, and whether to keep the existing “A to G” efficiency scale or broaden it with new “A+”, “A++”, and “A+++” designations. Companies such as Siemens demanded the pluses so that the next generation of appliances would not relegate today’s refrigerators and toasters to “B” or even “C” status. They hired lobbyists and public relations firms to make their case.

Yet the passions unleashed by energy efficiency pale in comparison to the battle over nutrition labels, which were drafted with the salutary goal of giving Europe’s increasingly obese and diabetes-afflicted consumers a quick and easy way to understand what they are eating.

They have since descended into a wrestling match between industry, politicians and consumer groups about the proper font size and location on a package, what information labels should include, and how far they should go in terms of interpreting nutritional information.

“It’s become a free-for-all,” said one operative from the CIAA, a food industry trade group that includes such members as Coca-Cola and Nestlé. BEUC, a European consumer organisation, has called for colour-coded icons – red, amber and green – on the front of each package to inform consumers how much fat, saturated fat, sugar and salt it contains per 100g.

Predictably, most food companies, who would rather greet shoppers with an appealing logo than a health warning, want to relegate all but the number of calories per serving to the fine print on the back of the package. The mere mention of so-called traffic lights gives them indigestion.

“Are you going to put a red light on panettone in the Christmas season?” expostulated one Italian food executive, touching on the inherent sensitivity of developing a system for a 27-nation bloc with diverse eating cultures.

Yet the essential question in the debate is what constitutes a serving? While it may be easy to determine with a can of soda or a ready-made meal, it is less obvious for, say, a packet of biscuits. Depending on how it is measured, of course, a portion makes all the difference between a responsible snack and a red light. “It certainly should be possible by one means or another to come up with an agreed portion size,” Geoff Thompson, a Danone executive, said recently.

But industry has squandered its credibility after tricks such as presenting a 100g chocolate bar as two portions and not one. Nor is science much help. Barbara Livingstone, a professor at the University of Ulster argues that portion size is in flux, and even changes depending on the “context” in which consumers eat – at home, for example, as against a restaurant.

“I think we’re only beginning to appreciate that consumers’ behaviour in relation to portion size is very complex,” she says, raising the question of whether Brussels’ labellers had again bitten off more than they could chew 

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>


Written by JOSHUA CHAFFIN in Brussels
Published: March 15 2010 19:03 | Last updated: March 15 2010 19:03
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2010 at:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/a0b3f988-3063-11df-bc4a-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss&nclick_check=1


Picture: It is a paint from Lee Woods ( from Cornwall, U.K.) and it's called
"Science and Progress in the Auvergne" © by Lee Woods

Book: „The Soros Lectures at the Central European University" by George Soros

SOROS WOULD MAKE IT HARDER FOR PEOPLE LIKE HIM TO MAKE BILLIONS

By Mark Memmott

The man who famously "broke the Bank of England" in the early '90s by playing within the regulatory system of the time to make $1 billion as the pound sterling crumbled, continues to make the case for better regulations that would make it much harder for people like him to make so much money.

Billionaire George Soros has been advocating for, as he wrote recently at TheMotleyFool, regulations that are "international in scope."

In a conversation earlier today with Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep, readily admitted that "it would have denied me some opportunities for making money" if rules and regulations had been tighter over the years.
Soros has just published a new book, The Soros Lectures, which spells out his thinking on "finance, capitalism and open society." 

This video offers a taste of what those lectures were like: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1125995047?bctid=49755285001

Sources: 

1.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2010/03/soros_would_make_it_harder_for.html

2. http://www.georgesoros.com/books/detail/the_soros_lectures_at_the_central_european_university/

here you can load the second lecture as well  which is named  "Financial Markets". This book  is published in 2010.

Recession spurs ‘lipstick entrepreneurs’- Financial Times

REVIEW
Category:	Other

By Brian Groom, Business and Employment Editor

The recession is accelerating growth of a generation of “lipstick entrepreneurs” who will reshape society and change the way people work, according to a report published on Tuesday.

http://link.ft.com/r/ZE9K33/E7YIS/DX7V7/BM5BXF/1T8HV/VU/h

Very interesting article about new tendences at work's world

Foto from Domenicosavioboy a member from MPY as well.

Italien: Banken akzeptieren Parmesan als Kredit-Sicherheit // Italia: los bancos aceptan el Parmesano como garantía crediticia.

Wer in Italien weder Schmuck noch Immobilien als Sicherheit für einen Kredit zu bieten hat, kann bei ein paar Banken im Norden des Landes auch Parmesan-Käse beleihen. In der Emilia Romagna akzeptieren vier Geldinstitute den beliebten Hartkäse als Sicherheit. Allein das Bankhaus Credito Emiliano hat nach eigenen Angaben 400.000 Parmesan-Laibe ihrer Kunden eingelagert. Die jeweils 40 Kilogramm schweren Käseräder werden demnach mit je 300 Euro bewertet.

Die Bank betreibt für den Käse ein eigenes Lagerhaus, den zweijährigen Reifeprozess überwacht für das Geldhaus William Bizzarri. Zahlt ein Kunde seinen Kredit nicht zurück, werde dessen Parmesan verkauft, erzählt Bizzarri. Die Bank geht dabei kein Risiko ein: Sollten die Parmesan-Preise gefallen sein, fordert sie die Differenz vom Kreditnehmer zurück. Diese kann mit Geld beglichen werden oder mit Parmesan. Das Finanzierungssystem geht auf die 50er Jahre zurück. Es hilft den Käseherstellern, während der zweijährigen Reifezeit des Parmesan finanzielle Engpässe zu überbrücken.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Quien en Italia no tenga ni joyas ni patrimonio immobiliario para ofrecer como garantía de un crédito bancario, puede en el norte del país ofrecer queso Parmesano. En Emilia Romagna hay cuatro bancos que aceptan el apreciado queso como seguridad crediticia.

Según propias referencias solamente el Banco de Crédito Emiliano tiene 400.000 quesos parmesanos almacenados. Cada queso, que pesa unos 40 kilos, está valorado en 300 €.

El banco tiene un almacén propio, el proceso de maduración está a cargo de William Bizarri. Cuando el cliente no paga se vende su parmesano cuenta Bizarri. El banco no corre ningún riesgo ya que si el precio del Parmesano baja, el banco exige la diferencia resultante al tomador del crédito. Esta se puede abonar con dinero o con Parmesano. Este sistema financiero tiene su orígen en los años 50 y ayuda a los fabricantes del queso durante los dos años de maduración del mismo en fases de escasez financiera. 

Quelle: 
http://de.news.yahoo.com/2/20090814/tts-italien-banken-akzeptieren-parmesan-c1b2fc3.html

Traducido del Alemán al Español por mi.

Bericht und Maßnahmenpaket der Europäischen Kommission zur Unterstützung der Entwicklungsländer

REVIEW
Category:	Other

Autorin: Eloise Todd 


Am Mittwoch, den 9. April, stellte die Europäische Kommission ihren jährlichen Bericht darüber vor, wie die EU-Geberländer dabei helfen, die Millennium-Entwicklungsziele zu erreichen. Dieses Jahr nutzten Kommissionspräsident Barroso und der Kommissar für Entwicklung und humanitäre Hilfe Louis Michel die Gelegenheit, um wichtige Neuigkeiten zur Ausweitung von Entwicklungszusammenarbeit mit afrikanischen Ländern zu anzukündigen. - Das die Leitung der Kommission Entwicklungspolitik so viel Bedeutung beimisst ist großartig. Nicht einmal eine Woche nach dem Gipfel von London skizzierte die Kommission drei Wege, über die sie den Entwicklungsländern helfen wird, die Folgen der Finanz- und Wirtschaftskrise zu bekämpfen:

1. Die Regierungen der EU-Mitgliedsländer sollen noch stärken dazu gedrängt werden, ihr Zusagen einzuhalten und dabei Wirksamkeit von Hilfe die größtmögliche Priorität einräumen. Louis Michel machte deutlich: „Wir wissen, was zu tun ist: unsere Ziele erreichen, unser Geld so einsetzen, dass es dann die größte Wirkung entfaltet, wenn es am meisten gebraucht wird, unsere bestehenden Programme im Lichte der Krise neu ausrichten und dann dafür sorgen, dass jeder Euro zählt.“
2. Die EU schlägt vor, für die ärmsten Länder mehr Geld auszugeben, um ihnen zu helfen einige der durch die Rezession entstandenen Finanzierungslücken zu schließen. Das €1 Mrd.-Finanzierungsprogramm für Nahrung sollte eigentlich über drei Jahre laufen – jetzt aber hat die Kommission versprochen, €800 Mio. davon noch in diesem Jahr auszugeben, um so dringend benötigtes Geld in die Landwirtschaft der Länder, die für ihre Bauern die meiste Unterstützung benötigen, zu bringen. Gigantische €3 Mrd. sollen für die Regierungen der afrikanischen, karibischen und pazifischen Staaten aufgebracht werden; sowie weitere €500 Mio. für Gesundheit, Bildung und andere notwendige Sozialausgaben.
3. Wirksamkeit von Hilfe hat zu guter Letzt Priorität für die Kommission. Als Louis Michel davon sprach, „dafür zu sorgen, dass jeder Euro zählt“ bezog er sich auf eine Studie, die er in Auftrag gegeben hatte. Diese hatte herausgefunden, dass durch bessere Zusammenarbeit allein die Europäische Kommission und die 27 Mitgliedsländer unglaubliche €7 Mrd. im Jahr sparen könnten – die dann wiederum genutzt werden könnten, gerade in Zeiten wie diesen Leben zu retten. Die Kommission verlangt bessere Koordination zwischen den Gebern: dass nicht jeder Geber in jedem Sektor eines Landes tätig werden sollte, sagt eigentlich schon der gesunde Menschenverstand. In Zukunft sollten wir mehr davon sehen, dass Geberländer ihre Stärken ausspielen und so in den Empfängerländern auf ihrem Spezialgebiet die Führungsrolle unter den Gebern übernehmen.

Insgesamt waren die Ankündigungen vom letzten Donnerstag ein guter Schritt in die richtige Richtung – sie zeigen, dass die EU-Kommission das G20-Kommuniqué nicht nur gelesen und ihm zugestimmt hat, sondern dass sie, was selten genug geschieht, auch schnell reagiert und Vereinbarungen in die Tat umsetzt. Wir hoffen, dass dies andere Regierungen dazu bringt, ähnlich zu verfahren und schnell zu handeln – wir sehen da insbesondere dem Frühlingstreffen von IWF und Weltbank entgegen, um mehr Mittel für Afrika in Form von Darlehen aufzubringen; dabei sollten jegliche Darlehen zu besonders günstigen Bedingungen vergeben werden, damit sie nicht eine neuerliche Schuldenkrise auslösen.

Natürlich gibt es auch besorgte Äußerungen zu den Ankündigungen: Werden die Regierungen die Mittel wieder auffüllen, wenn nächstes Jahr nicht genug im Topf ist? Ironischer Weise: Wenn nur die EU ihre Versprechen zu Zahlungen Entwicklungszusammenarbeit für 2010 halten würden, würde dies zusätzliche €20 Mrd. für Entwicklungszusammenarbeit über die nächsten zwei Jahre bedeuten. Also ist die Botschaft eigentlich einfach: Die Ankündigungen sind begrüßenswert – unter der Bedingung, dass sich die EU-Mitgliedsstaaten an ihre Versprechen halten.



Quelle: http://one.org/de/news/?p=434#more-434

Dieser Beitrag wurde vor am Dienstag, 14. April 2009 um 19:28 Uhr veröffentlicht

BRANDS TAPS INTO OLD AND NEW VALUES

REVIEW
Category:	Other

By Jenny Wiggins
Published: February 24 2009 22:42 | Last updated: February 24 2009 22:42



Women who eat McDonald’s hamburgers are groovy: they skateboard, play electric guitars and wear thick blue eyeshadow. Men who drink Chivas whisky are chivalrous: they carry women across muddy fields in the rain, and push-start broken-down cars. And teenagers who drink Coca-Cola are cheerfully content, as they chance upon their soulmates in the library.

©Lee Woods,  Ferryman on ther Mosel / Acrylic on board

Or so the consumer goods companies behind these brands would like you to think. Once preoccupied with encouraging people to show off through lavish consumption, they are now depicting people engaged in activities that reveal them to be rich in a personal life as well as in material goods.

One advertisement from the “This is the Chivas Life” campaign that began in 2003 showed men drinking whisky with their pals while fishing off an iceberg. In contrast, the television advertisement for the new Chivas campaign, “Live With Chivalry,” which started in China in October and will be run globally, opens with a picture of a sad-looking, black-suited man being jostled by crowds as he walks along a grey city street. “Millions of people, everyone out for themselves. Can this really be the only way?” the advertisement asks. “No,” viewers are told as they are shown pictures of men jumping out of aeroplanes and riding horses along beaches. “Here’s to honour, and to gallantry, long may it live. Here’s to doing the right thing, to giving a damn.”

The chivalry campaign is about “the good guys who give something back”, explains Martin Riley, chief marketing officer at Pernod Ricard, the French group that owns Chivas.

‘Putting things in perspective is one of the things our brand can do. We can’t start talking about something new right now ... people are looking for familiarity’

When the drinks group researched the chivalry idea, it hit a nerve, he adds: “People are questioning a certain level of values that have taken the world to where it is right now...the individual getting ahead at any price.”

Other companies say consumers are expressing similar sentiments.

In France, McDonald’s has begun a new marketing campaign called “Venez comme vous êtes” (“Come as you are”) amid concerns that the company’s global “I’m lovin’ it” slogan is considered arrogant.

Grégoire Champetier, who runs marketing communications for France and southern Europe, says the chain is trying to return to the image it promoted when it opened its first restaurant in France, in Strasbourg 30 years ago.

At that time, casual restaurants where people could eat with their fingers and let their kids run around were rare, and the chain had a campaign called “Ça se passe comme ça, chez McDonald’s” (“This is the way it is”).

Now the French are familiar with McDonald’s, he wants to remind them that as well as somewhere to eat cheaply it is a place to be informal with other people. “This campaign is not an answer to the [economic] crisis, but came at the right time,” Mr Champetier says.

McDonald’s is running four commercials on French television, each showing someone expressing different aspects of their personality. If successful, it will extend the campaign to other countries in Europe.

Coca-Cola is also revisiting past campaigns that accented being positive and optimistic, in an attempt to connect with consumers, some of whom it has lost in recent years as people ditched its fizzy drinks for less sugary alternatives. The soft drinks giant, which ran a campaign called “The Pause That Refreshes” during the Great Depression, and another called “Have a Coke and Have a Smile” during a period of high inflation in the late 1970s, is now going with one called “Open Happiness”.

Shay Drohan, global vice-president of Coca-Cola’s sparkling brands, argues that the company is in a good position to “comfort” people because its brand is well-established. “Putting things in perspective is one of the things our brand can do,” he says. “We can’t start talking about something new right now...people are looking for familiarity.”

Another brand capitalising on its longevity and familiarity is Guinness, the Irish stout. In Ireland, where it is celebrating its 250th anniversary, it is rerunning television advertisements from the 1950s and 1970s, including one showing a sea lion balancing a pint of Guinness on its nose. “People are searching for security and trust,” says Brian Duffy, the global brand director for Guinness. “I don’t think you can invent a warm and attractive past – you’ve got to have one.”

Younger brands are taking a more modern approach, but sticking to the same theme. Absolut Vodka, conceived as a brand in its current form in 1979, this month placed an advertisement called “Hugs” during the music industry’s Grammy Awards. The advertisement, which shows strangers hugging and kissing in offices, buses and fish shops to the sound of Louis Armstrong’s “A Kiss To Build A Dream On”, has already received more than 1.2m views on YouTube.

The campaign with the most ambitious goals is PepsiCo’s “Refresh Everything”. Its US television commercial, which displays the phrase “It’s time for optimism” on the screen before flashing words like “joy” and “love”, is about the power of being positive, says Frank Cooper, PepsiCo’s vice-president for brands. “People that embrace optimism are able to move forward.”

Mr Cooper argues that there is a new “cultural movement” afoot. “People feel empowered and feel like it’s their right to participate in and effect change.”

This was the movement that President Barack Obama tapped into in his presidential campaign, he adds. “It’s like the 1960s...we all sense that something will be fundamentally different five years from now.”





 



SOURCES:

The Financial Times Limited 2009

FOTO: "Ferryman on ther Mosel" by Lee Woods // Acrylic on board
http://www.leewoods.com/originals.html

Los Amos del Mundo ( Arturo Pérez Reverte)

REVIEW
Category:	Other

Author: Arturo Pérez Reverte

"Usted no lo sabe, pero depende de ellos. Usted no los conoce ni se los cruzará en su vida, pero esos hijos de la gran puta tienen en las manos, en la agenda electrónica, en la tecla intro del computador, su futuro y el de sus hijos. Usted no sabe qué cara tienen, pero son ellos quienes lo van a mandar al paro en nombre de un tres punto siete, o de un índice de probabilidad del cero coma cero cuatro.

Usted no tiene nada que ver con esos fulanos porque es empleado de una ferretería o cajera de Pryca, y ellos estudiaron en Harvard e hicieron un máster en Tokio -o al revés-, van por las mañanas a la Bolsa de Madrid o a la de Wall Street, y dicen en inglés cosas como long-term capital management, y hablan de fondos de alto riesgo, de acuerdos multilaterales de inversión y de neoliberalismo económico salvaje, como quien comenta el partido del domingo.

Usted no los conoce ni en pintura, pero esos conductores suicidas que circulan a doscientos por hora en un furgón cargado de dinero van a atropellarlo el día menos pensado, y ni siquiera le quedará a usted el consuelo de ir en la silla de ruedas con una recortada a volarles los huevos, porque no tienen rostro público, pese a ser reputados analistas, tiburones de las finanzas, prestigiosos expertos en el dinero de otros. Tan expertos que siempre terminan por hacerlo suyo; porque siempre ganan ellos, cuando ganan, y nunca pierden ellos, cuando pierden.

No crean riqueza, sino que especulan. Lanzan al mundo combinaciones fastuosas de economía financiera que nada tiene que ver con la economía productiva. Alzan castillos de naipes y los garantizan con espejismos y con humo, y los poderosos de la tierra pierden el culo por darles coba y subirse al carro.

Esto no puede fallar, dicen. Aquí nadie va a perder; el riesgo es mínimo. Los avalan premios Nóbel de Economía, periodistas financieros de prestigio, grupos internacionales con siglas de reconocida solvencia. Y entonces el presidente del banco transeuropeo tal, y el presidente de la unión de bancos helvéticos, y el capitoste del banco latinoamericano, y el consorcio euroasiático y la madre que los parió a todos, se embarcan con alegría en la aventura, meten viruta por un tubo, y luego se sientan a esperar ese pelotazo que los va a forrar aún más a todos ellos y a sus representados.

Y en cuanto sale bien la primera operación ya están arriesgando más en la segunda, que el chollo es el chollo, e intereses de un tropecientos por ciento no se encuentran todos los días.

Y aunque ese espejismo especulador nada tiene que ver con la economía real, con la vida de cada día de la gente en la calle, todo es euforia, y palmaditas en la espalda, y hasta entidades bancarias oficiales comprometen sus reservas de divisas. Y esto, señores, es Jauja.

Y de pronto resulta que no. De pronto resulta que el invento tenía sus fallos, y que lo de alto riesgo no era una frase sino exactamente eso: alto riesgo de verdad. Y entonces todo el tinglado se va a tomar por el saco. Y esos fondos especiales, peligrosos, que cada vez tienen más peso en la economía mundial, muestran su lado negro. Y entonces -¡oh, prodigio!- mientras que los beneficios eran para los tiburones que controlaban el cotarro y para los que especulaban con dinero de otros, resulta que las pérdidas, no.

Las pérdidas, el mordisco financiero, el pago de los errores de esos pijolandios que juegan con la economía internacional como si jugaran al Monopoly, recaen directamente sobre las espaldas de todos nosotros. Entonces resulta que mientras el beneficio era privado, los errores son colectivos y las pérdidas hay que socializarlas, acudiendo con medidas de emergencia y con fondos de salvación para evitar efectos dominó y chichis de la Bernarda.

Y esa solidaridad, imprescindible para salvar la estabilidad mundial, la pagan con su pellejo, con sus ahorros, y a veces con sus puestos de trabajo, Mariano Pérez Sánchez, de profesión empleado de comercio, y los millones de infelices Marianos que a lo largo y ancho del mundo se levantan cada día a las seis de la mañana para ganarse la vida.

Eso es lo que viene, me temo. Nadie perdonará un duro de la deuda externa de países pobres, pero nunca faltarán fondos para tapar agujeros de especuladores y canallas que juegan a la ruleta rusa en cabeza ajena.

Así que podemos ir amarrándonos los machos. Ése es el panorama que los amos de la economía mundial nos deparan, con el cuento de tanto neoliberalismo económico y tanta mierda, de tanta especulación y de tanta poca vergüenza."




Artículo de Pérez Reverte publicado el 15 de noviembre de 1998 y encontrado en el blog:

http://padronel.net/2008/10/20/se-los-amos-del-mundo-arturo-perez-reverte/