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In early summer, flower festivals all over France. There's something for everyone: music, theater, dance, street arts. Each year, nearly 1800 festivals are produced in France. But what about the funding on which these events? In general, most of them, as for many cultural events offered to the public, funded by local authorities: municipalities, counties, regions, and by the state. However with the local government reform and the removal of business tax, budgets tend to decline. Communities are sometimes forced to focus on skills required, even reduce subsidies (skills volunteers) given to various cultural events, including festivals.The rest of the budget usually comes from the box office, private partnerships and to a lesser extent revenue appendices: restaurants, bars, official store.

A springboard for young artists

"You have to be inventive, succeed in expanding the public school, the rural," said Olivier Desbordes, artistic director of festivals Figeac (Gers) and St. Cere (Lot), organized in Midi-Pyrenees. Half of the funding comes from government grants, the other own revenue. The organizers of the event lotoise dedicated to opera, manage to get aid directly come from the state for their work for young singers. Indeed, performances are produced and assembled with new talent in order to occur several times during the festival, but also on other occasions during the season.This is considered a springboard for young artists, a space of experimentation and risk taking. What matters is to "give to be demanding," says artistic director. With tickets sold from 10 euros to 25 euros and Figeac in Saint Cere, both events are intended to be accessible and this is an essential for the maintenance of own revenue.

Moreover, the authenticity card is sometimes unsheathed loyalty to the public. "We prefer a human-size festival, which brings together around a cultural melting pot," says Lionel Niedzwiecki, communications director of Arte Flamenco festival held each year in July in Mont-de-Marsan, and has been for 23 years. This event does include specificity, it is fully established by the General Council of the Landes.But even then, the participation of the community decreased by 10% in 2010 and the organizers wish to develop patronage to collect the 600,000 euro budget required.

Government grants, a base life

The private sponsorship, "is a work in progress, more complicated," says François Floret, director of the Route du Rock festival held in St Malo of August 12 to 14, and whose art is precise. François Floret and it is argued that "this is what makes the strength of this festival," twenty years old. In fact, provide programming consistent with the reputation of the festival breton allows retention of the public … and therefore a continuation of ticket sales.Cash flow from operations represents 67% of the total but the public aid granted by the city of St Malo, St Malo town, the General Council of Ille-et-Vilaine, Brittany, SACEM (Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers Music), the National Variety (CNV), the Regional Direction of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) of Britain and the Ministry of Culture is a "vital base," says François Floret, 21% of Finance of the event .

"The amount of subsidy to the council for cultural and sports associations were down 20% compared to last year," says the artistic director of the Route du Rock.Moreover, "the marks are often reluctant to invest in culture, particularly music," notes Francois Missonnier, director of Rock en Seine. Whose Buget $ 6 million in 2011 for three days of concerts on four stages. He said attitudes are not yet well positioned in this regard and it is a challenge year after year. In the case of Rock en Seine, 17% of the budget comes from grants (1 million euros still in 2011) against only 10% of private partnerships such as with SFR, Kronembourg, Suez Environnement …

Here then the reasons why certain festivals sometimes struggle to gather the necessary budget. The Furia Sound Festival is one of them. For two years, the difficulties are such as to cause the cancellation of the festival.In any case, what we understand from reading his site that refers to "a ticket that has not fulfilled its promises in spite of quality programming and the defection of some partial public partners" in a message posted June 7, 2011. Despite the best efforts of the association live fast, the event had to be canceled unexpectedly, four days of festivities were to take place on 11 and 12 June in Franconville, in the Val-d'Oise. In 2010 already, the Furia was canceled due to disagreements with the community of Cergy-Pontoise, where he was to take place.

At the height of summer, the aircraft could remain grounded. Indeed, the union of airline pilots SNPL filed a strike notice for all French airlines from 5 to 8 August, the Tribune writes. And the movement could continue since the strike, which could cause the return and departure on vacation, is renewable.

According to business daily, pilots require completion by the end of July the draft decrees for the reform of the pension fund of the crew (CRPN), an independent fund shared among pilots and cabin staff (hostesses and stewards), for implementation on 1 January 2012.

The cabin crew could go on strike

The reform, which will allow the survival of CRPN, was passed in the Board without ever being implemented by the government.The state favors a lengthening of the contribution period and higher pensions. Requirements that triggered a standoff between the crews and pilots: the first estimate that drivers will see their pension rise sharply, an argument rejected by the pilots. For them, these changes would lead to equality between high and low wages.

Thus, one side drivers are calling for the implementation of the reform and the other cabin crew does not want the government gives faxless pay day loans. Both threatened in February to a strike notice for failure to meet their interests. A new text prepared by the Department of Labor has obtained the approval of the riders but not the Department of Transport, representing the interests of the cabin crew. A new agreement must be found and time is running out and the approach of the great mass of the summer holidays.

EasyJet: strike call

The British low cost airline EasyJet, for the first time in France, is facing a strike call on Tuesday and Wednesday in the middle of summer, from the union of flight attendants Unac claiming including better compensation for sick leave.

Several rounds of negotiations between management and the Unac (Union of Seafarers of Civil Aviation), the third union to the company, on remuneration and compensation for illness or accident, have unsuccessful.

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In 2008, Eric Woerth, Minister of Budget, launched an offensive against tax havens. The highlight of this battle, he unveiled in August 2009 Bercy that had a list of 3000 people with hidden accounts in Switzerland at the bank HSBC. Obviously, this policy is scary for taxpayers. According to a Ministry Budget that has acquired Le Figaro, 75,468 tax households reported having one or more foreign accounts on their 2009 tax return, made in 2010, against 29,612 two years earlier!

Households are allowed to have accounts outside of France provided the report to tax authorities. The list has also pushed HSBC taxpayers with assets hidden abroad to regularize the cell set up by Bercy between April and December 2009. Again, the effect was especially chilling.For among the taxpayers from 4725 to the cell, only 68 were on the list HSBC, according to the latest report by Gilles Carrez, the UMP rapporteur of the Budget to the Assembly. With this cell, the state has already collected 1.1 billion euros.

In general, the tax audit is a profitable business for the public finances in 2010, it reported 16 billion euros, according to Bercy. According to the same note of the Directorate of public finances, external tax audits is to say the controls with the company or visiting private homes, which go beyond the simple controls on the record, have alone generated 7 no fax pay day loans.95 billion euros in tax adjustments. It's a bit more than in 2009 (7.61 billion), while the number of external controls is stable.The yield has increased slightly.

A "nice" business

Last year, the IRS has managed a "good" case, in retoquant a large company. Result, adjustments to corporate tax (IS) following an external audit were $ 3.4 billion in 2010, instead of the 2.5 billion each year usually found. And the SI exceeded last year's VAT as the main source of recovery. As in previous years, the income tax accounted for only 9% of restatements. It is true that external controls on 51,572, just over 3800 concerned individuals. The IRS focuses primarily on businesses.

The adjustments made by the tax authorities are not synonymous with immediate revenue for the state. End of 2010, 49% of adjustments prepared in 2008 had been recovered.In 2010, 981 cases of restatements resulted in complaint for tax evasion, actionable corrections. 29% of these cases involved the building. This is slightly less than in 2008 (34%) but this sector is over-represented.

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The U.S. stock markets, should open up to Thursday. Future of Standard & Poor's 500 and Nasdaq 100 0.29% advance respectively to 1339.70 points from 0.32% to 2382.75 points. Wednesday, after long hesitation, the New York Stock Exchange ended in the green. The Dow Jones gained 0.45% to 12,626.02 points, the Standard & Poor's 500, 0.10% to 1339.22 points and the Nasdaq rose 0.29% to 2834.02 points.

Caution should however remain in force before the publication tomorrow of official employment figures. Job creation in the U.S. private sector were significantly higher than expected in June, which should bode well for the official employment figures expected on Friday. At 14:30 investors will read the weekly claims for unemployment benefits.The weekly inventory of crude oil will be announced at 16h30.Les markets also await the opening of the interim results season. As usual the aluminum giant, Alcoa will open the show these ads on Monday.

The crisis of public finances in Europe also continues to produce its harmful effects. The rating agency Moody's announced Thursday it had lowered the ratings of four Portuguese banks, relegated to the category of investments "speculative", having four notches gradient of Portugal. German and Greek Ministers of Finance estimated that Athens has more support economic growth, if Greece wants to find a balanced budget, during a dinner in Berlin on Wednesday night.Investissurs in Europe will have their eyes Surla monetary policy decision of the European Central Bank has operated as expected an increase of 25 basis points from its key interest rate to 1.50% after the first increase in nearly three years in April, to continue the fight against inflation to be too high in the euro area to 2.7% yoy in June.

On the foreign exchange market, the euro has stabilized against the dollar. Around 11:00 in Paris, the single European currency was worth 1.4318 dollars against 1.4314 dollars late Wednesday.

The side of values, the shareholders of NYSE Euronext must vote on the proposed merger with Deutsche Börse.The transaction is expected to be adopted by majority vote.

The U.S. investment fund Blackstone is negotiating with the specialist techniques of healing (Kinetic Concepts) a buyout for "about $ 5 billion," according to the Wall Street Journal faxless cash advances. Other groups may compete with the investment company, the newspaper said, noting that Blackstone is the head of a fund that has "recently reached $ 16 billion."

Also note, the U.S. central bank (Fed) announced yesterday the details of one of its emergency assistance programs that allowed Goldman Sachs to borrow $ 15 billion to 28 days at a rate of 1.16 % during the financial turmoil of late 2008.Investment banking and appears to have been the financial institution to have borrowed the most in a single operation with the Federal Reserve as part of this support for specialists in government securities. The Fed had to publish this data in accordance with the law on freedom of information, following a request from the financial news agency Bloomberg. They confirm that Goldman Sachs was in dire need of cash in late 2008, like all its competitors.

In the same area, the brokerage firm Smith Barney Morgan Stanley announced it had lost during a shipment to the administration, two CD-ROMs containing the data of 34,000 customers with their addresses, social security numbers and accounts, the agency said Dow Jones.

Preparations for the release of the iPhone 5 accelerating.Suppliers Apple would begin to assemble the aircraft in August for a sales target raised to 25 million phones by the end of the year, according to the Wall Street Journal. The latest smartphone to be released by Apple late September. Moreover, the battle between Apple and rival South Korean Samsung has further escalated, the first requiring U.S. authorities blocked the import of smartphones and tablets of the second. The two companies accused each other since April to copy and to violate patents, increasing the number of complaints to both United States and South Korea, but also in Japan or Germany.

For its part, the group announced that Internet Amazon offered a temporary flat rate for their service online music store launched in March, now compete with offerings from Google and Apple.

The new Minister of Economy wants to appease the spirits. After the severe damage on Tuesday night, the note of Portugal by Moody's, Baroin assured Wednesday morning on Europe 1 radio that France had confidence in Portugal, where there is a "national unity" and a "change of government ". "For our part, we trust in Portugal to set the calendar in the objectives, and with the method used and accepted by the Portuguese, the place of these measures should help in 2013 to return to a deficit level up 3%, "he said.

"It's not the look of a rating agency that will solve the case of the tension of sovereign debt and budget crisis," said Baroin. This Wednesday is held precisely in Paris a meeting of creditors in Greece.Chaired by the Institute of International Finance (IIF), the meeting in Paris on Wednesday of major banks and international insurance companies will give rise to a new debate on the modalities of their participation in the new plan to support Athens guaranteed unsecured personal loan. But no decision should be Cohosh now or in the coming weeks.

The second aid plan, up to 110 billion euros, should be ready "in September," said Baroin. "We have cleared the crossing of the fifth tranche of support for Greece was 12 billion. In the coming weeks we will start discussing the next plan of support to Greece. "

Baroin wants to work on it together with Germany.It will bring up the subject with his German counterpart, Wolfgang Schäuble, tomorrow, on the occasion of their first meeting to be held in Berlin.

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Real treasures. According to a team of Japanese geologists, whose works are published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the funds of the Pacific Ocean full of "rare earth", these metals are essential in the manufacture of high technology products. The deposits are located underwater at depths of 3500-6000 meters and spread over 11 million square meters. According to an estimate by Professor Yasuhiro Kato, University of Tokyo, they contain some 80 to 100 billion tons of these metals, or 1000 times that found on land.

Authors of this discovery, researchers at the University of Tokyo and the Japan Agency for Marine Science and Technology and ground taken and analyzed over 2,000 samples of marine sediments in much of the Pacific Ocean.The team found that some sites, especially in the eastern North Pacific Ocean and central Pacific Ocean south, have a high concentration of rare earth elements including yttrium, to produce displays, hard drives, MP3 players or electric cars and washing machines.

A weapon for Beijing

While Professor Kato says it can not estimate when the sampling could begin, the discovery falls conveniently for Japan. The import of rare earth is indeed a valuable weapon used against him by China, which produces 97% of rare earth and holds 55 million of 110 million tonnes of known reserves in land area according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Beijing has reduced its exports to the archipelago in the fall of 2010, right in the territorial disputes between the two powers.Since then, despite the protests of its customers, including Japan, China pursues a policy of stricter export quotas leading to a rise in the prices of rare earths.

With the discovery of new deposits in the Pacific, the monopoly of Beijing could be seriously undermined. "We believe that one square kilometer area surrounding one of the sampling sites could satisfy itself of the fifth annual global consumption of these items," the researchers write. They add that the "rare earth" would be easily extracted using an acid bath. According to Professor Yasuhiro Kato, this technique is not hazardous to the environment, which denies an oceanographer at the University of Hawaii, Craig Smith, quoted by the website of the journal, Nature News."Ecosystems in the seabed cold regenerate very slowly, says the site, so it would take decades or centuries to repair any damage caused by mining (metals)."

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To the Governor of the Banque de France's fundamental reforms undertaken by Greece will require eighteen months to take effect, requiring the donor countries to consider an extension of the duration of their funding. It demolishes the idea that to get out of Greece must leave the euro area.

LE FIGARO. – Is it realistic to think that Greece will really pay off debts?

Christian Noyer. – Absolutely. The effort to reduce deficits should be continued. The remediation plan is credible, it is the Greek government to find a balance between increased revenue and reduced spending. There is room for maneuver: to improve tax collection and initiate privatization, which is the quickest and least painful to reduce public debt.Last year, the government has cut the deficit to 5% of GDP which proves that it is possible with determination, to get quick results.

Is not it a shame that the plan agreed with the IMF and Europe is primarily financial and does not propose economic strategy for growth?

I disagree with this criticism. The expected reforms have two aims: improving the public accounts and strengthen the growth potential of the Greek economy, make it more competitive.

But it is impossible to rely on the devaluation of the currency. Is not that a handicap?

No, because you can get the same result by reducing production costs and nominal wages.On the surface this may seem obviously more complex than a depreciation of the exchange rate, but in reality, we avoid the perverse effects of the devaluation, which increases energy costs, the cost of raw materials and results in a higher cost of debt when it is denominated in foreign currencies. Overall, a modest reduction in income yields the same economic effects that a significant devaluation.

Why must now implement a second remediation plan, a year after that of summer 2010?

The original plan, decided in an emergency, assumed that in 2012 Greece back in the financial markets. It was clearly too optimistic. The fundamental reforms will require more than eighteen months to produce their effects and restore confidence.A three-year horizon seems justified, and that is the average duration of IMF programs.

The facts do not they give reason to Eurosceptics who the countries in the euro area are far too dissimilar to live with the same currency and the devaluation is the way?

Certainly not! Eurosceptics believe that the devaluation could make a country competitive and give sound public finances. Wrong. And the French experience has shown us. In thirty years, and many devaluations, we have never posted a budget surplus and so we were never able to reduce our debt stock! What brings the competitiveness, it is a sound public financial management, careful monitoring of production costs and structural reforms conducive to long-term growth.Moreover, being dissimilar in the same currency area is not necessarily a handicap, as shown in the American example. But it is clear that we were not vigilant enough about the differences in competitiveness, which have widened within the euro area. When a country has increased productivity by 1% to 2% per year and that his wages rise from 7% to 8% per annum, it is sure that it is untenable after ten years. As central bankers, we will be more critical and will not hesitate to publicly condemn such abuses.

A single currency and a market without trade barriers can they be sufficient to constitute an integrated market, while tax and social security are very different?

You're right, we must go further and further integration for a functioning monetary union. The European Commission is currently working.Similarly, we must return to a single banking market. Before the crisis, with the ECB, financial institutions in the euro area benefited from refinancing conditions identical, making a single market. But with the crisis and massive government intervention in favor of their banks, the markets have held that the bank credit ultimately depends on the state, rating agencies have correlated the ratings of banks with those of sovereign states in which they operate. It's a real problem.We must return to a single European banking market and create such a federal system that can manage the deposit guarantees and bank crises in Europe.

What do you think of the device proposed by the French banks?

This solution has the advantage of being on a voluntary basis – since it is the banks themselves who have proposed – and is attractive for all financial actors, pension funds and insurance … In particular, the formula provides investors with a guarantee of repayment of the principal holders can then consider that it's more interesting to come to a scheme such as staying with the debt they are today.It is a development that I welcome, though some technical issues remain to be resolved and accounting.

You yourself have referred to "horror scenario" …

Yes, because the restructuring would be a disastrous solution. Greek debt is owned primarily by the Greek economy, banks and pension funds … A Greek default on its debt immediately would mean serious problems for Greek banks. The state would then be forced to bail out its banking system. And overnight, no one would lend to Greece. The country would be forced to post a budget surplus, a surplus in its balance of payments in order to pay its civil servants, social security spending, etc.. Such a scenario would require an adjustment to ten times and with minimal delay.This is absolutely dramatic, hence the term "horror scenario".

We often speak of a "plan B" for Greece, in case it would be in default. What do you mean by this term?

There is no plan B. Greece must bring this plan to completion to find a healthy sustainable economy.

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