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From our correspondent in Washington

Barack Obama1 already talking about Ben Bernanke2 to imperfect. It gave the President of US3 during a television interview signal, in addition to other evidence upon which to conclude that the mandate of the head of the Federal Reserve could not be renewed in January. The news is much more important than EDF4 is preparing to negotiate a difficult corner: if growth continues unabated too, we see the U.S. central bank by winter, or by the fall, mitigate gradually exceptional measures to support the supply of credit agreed last year. This perspective makes extremely nervous markets.

"Ben Bernanke has done an extraordinary job … he's already stayed up longer than it wanted and he was supposed to stay" Barack Obama dropped in response to the question of whether he would propose that the man who runs the Fed since 2010 is appointed for a third term.

The first indication of an intention to depart from Ben Bernanke fell several weeks ago when he said he would not attend the symposium in Jackson Hole, "high mass" of central bankers held in late August in Wyoming. Moreover, for months, the American press reported that Janet Yellen are favorites to succeed him. If this information was not accurate in the White House would have found channels to deny. But she did not.

Manage the "exit"

Janet Yellen, 66 years old, is already Vice-Chair of the Board of Governors of the Fed. Economist graduated from Yale, the disciple James Tobin was originally part of the framework of the Fed, before serving as an advisor to President Clinton, and then return to the central bank as president of the District of San Francisco personal business card. It is made out by warning his colleagues, in 2007, against the dangers of the real estate sector was running the financial system and the economy. She vigorously defends the inclusion of historically high unemployment as a factor justifying the continuation of unusually generous monetary policy today. If his candidacy to head the Fed was introduced in the Senate by Barack Obama, elected Republicans already critical of zero interest rates and purchase of debt charged by the Fed, would not fail to be moved.

In March, Ben Bernanke stated to have "a little" talks about his future with the U.S. President. "I do not think the only person in the world who can manage the exit," he had argued. "The Exit" is the term chosen by the professionals of monetary policy to describe the gradual dismantling of extraordinary and unprecedented measures implemented in the emergency since 2008 by the Fed to limit the effects of the financial crisis and to stimulate a rebound in demand.

Following a two-day meeting, the Monetary Committee of the Fed will release Wednesday a highly anticipated release. In the wake of Ben Bernanke will hold a press conference to explain the intentions of the Fed. It will certainly be questioned on this occasion his desire to remain in office.

Appointments made, appointments due. Tired of waiting in vain for patients who do not bother to cancel consultations they do not honor, doctors display their pissed. Chassang Michel, President of the CSMF first union of liberal France physicians, proposed yesterday in Le Parisien-Aujourd'hui en France, to pay for these missed appointments by patients who do not fulfill their commitment. "When you buy a ticket and you cancel, you pay! A doctor would be less respectable than aviation company? "Protested the practitioner who also plans to suspend or remove the card from CMU beneficiaries offenders. These proposals are in response to the recent publication by health professionals of the Franche-Comte region, a study revealing the extent of phenomenon1 electronic check payday advance.

The doctors would lose an average of two hours a week because of appointment not honored, not canceled. For 1900 practitioners from the region that is lost 500,000 consultations per year. Returned to the national level by INSEE, it would be more than 28 million medical appointments missed the equivalent of 8,433 doctors work each year (4% of the national workforce). Michel Chassang estimated that at least 15% of its agenda become rabbits. That besides the loss of time and money involved in the disruption of care and longer wait times for appointments.

While the Franco-German couple is going through a serious crisis, exacerbated by the release of a document on PS1 vitriolic Angela Merkel2 François Hollande 3a tense Thursday, a pole to the latter: it offers the Chancellor an "initiative Europe "at four points, which includes, for the first time, a chapter on political union, so dear to Berlin.

"The Germany4 is ready for political union, well, France5 is ready to give content to this political union and she gave two years to get there," said the Head of State. "We are not afraid of the political union," he assured. "But we want content that shows Europe6 can bring benefits to citizens."

This is the first time that Francois Hollande says the following about the political union. Angela Merkel who has been waiting almost a year its response to German proposals can only welcome this step. "In Europe, Angela Merkel is ready to compromise. (…) We will reach an agreement before the German elections, "says the French president. "We must get Europe out of its languor," he insisted. "If Europe does not advance, it falls, it is erased from the map of the world, the imagination of the people," he added.

On the bottom of the political union, however, a difficult discussion. "Europe is not only the reduction of deficits," warned Francois Hollande, without renouncing its promises of "serious budget." His four-point plan presented at the press conference 7inclut two subjects that annoy the Germans: "The common fiscal capacity" and "common bond." Dear Francois Hollande, the two themes are synonymous, the Rhine, unacceptable financial transfers without a real "fiscal union" that would put state finances in the euro area – and their reform agenda – Trust Brussels, thus indirectly Berlin cash till payday.

This is where the shoe pinches. Other points of the plan are more consensual Holland with Germany. Strengthening the governance of the euro area, with "monthly meetings around a President" is accepted by Germany, it is clear that the independence of the European Central Bank is not threatened and if it can contribute to building a better economic policies, so structural reforms. These meetings would be conducted at the level of ministers in charge of economic portfolio (Finance, Labour, Social Affairs, etc..).

a "New Deal" for employment in Europe

In its offensive in four points, the French president also called for a rapid release of funds from the EU budget for the unemployed youth. Some € 6 billion was budgeted for the EU over seven years. It proposes to accelerate the payment under a "New Deal" for use in Europe, negotiations between Paris and Berlin.8 fourth point: the revival of "European Energy Community" on expensive in Paris and Berlin. This is an ambitious project at half years, as large states, including France and Germany, have consistently refused to cede sovereignty on this strategic issue. For François Hollande, who had raised the issue last September at the conference environment, we must "define a strategy together, help each other on the energy transition, and make an effort to promote renewable energy." A subject on which Angela Merkel agrees, especially if it is done on European funds …. On the issue of renewable energy, however, Germany has a length ahead of France: 25% of its electricity production is based, against 12% in France, which is dominated by nuclear energy.

One hundred and sixty-five years after the abolition of eclavage, the Representative Council of Black Associations (Cran1) demand accounts Caisse des Depots (CDC). On the occasion of the Day of Commemoration of the Abolition of Slavery, the Cran announced Monday that it will file a writ of summons to the CDC and two of its subsidiaries. At issue: the sums paid by Haiti in exchange for its independence, the CDC has collected for years. "The CDC is complicit in a crime against humanity," and said Louis-Georges Tin, the president of Cran, accusing the state bank to have played "a significant role in slavery."

Campaign more comprehensive repair

The case dates back to the nineteenth century, when Haïti2 gained its independence against the troops of Napoleon Bonaparte (1804). About fifteen years later, France agreed to recognize the sovereignty of the island by drying a financial toll to compensate its settlers. From 1825 to 1946, Haiti is paying "amounts equivalent to $ 21 billion," according to Louis-Georges Tin, according to which "the ransom in Haiti precipitate a downward spiral of instability and poverty." CDC, public financial institution created under Napoleon, then in charge of collecting these benefits. The director of Cran therefore hope that this money be returned to the Haitian people. Counsel for the Board, Mr. Norbert Tricaud, intends to apply to the CDC "to abound by at least 10 million endowment fund to finance research" on slavery. Friday, it was returned to the Treasury, which collects money paid to the CDC after 30 years. "Legally, the amounts are recorded in the Deposit shall be refunded to the Treasury after 30 years," a spokesman insisted.

The action taken by the Representative Council of Black Associations is part of a more comprehensive approach to reparations, which could then be extended to private banks or sugar groups no faxing 1 hour payday loans. "If we do this assignment is to contribute to the debate," said the lawyer Norbert Tricaud, rejecting any desire for revenge. In January, Cran, created in 2005 to "fight against the discrimination faced by black people in France," had supported a descendant of slaves who wished to assign the state to court to obtain compensation for the damage caused by the control of a grandfather. A first in France. At present, however, the assignment has not been filed.  

An Ifop poll commissioned by the Cran says that 63% of people overseas departments are in favor of repairs, "whether moral or financial." "Without a political solution, we conduct the debate on the legal," said the president of Cran, although its position is not shared by all the descendants of slaves.

The "can not repair" according to Holland

François Hollande3 however implicitly imposed a fine of not receiving requests from Cran. In a commemorative speech on Friday, the president spoke of "the impossible repair." "The only choice, the most worthy, the largest, is the memory, alertness and transmission," he said. Jean-François Copé4, president of the UMP, said on RTL radio that it was "difficult to speak of material compensation" of slavery as "so many centuries have passed," but "in contrast, duty of memory is essential. "

"Any crime called repair, and when the repair is denied is that denies that there was truly crime. We need a comprehensive repair: moral, cultural, financial, symbolic, material, "responded Louis-Georges Tin.

The patriarch of one of the most important families of Italian fashion, Ottavio Missoni, died today at his home in Sumirago in the Lombardy countryside. Born February 7, 1921 in Yugoslavia, this former Olympic athlete – he attended the London Games of 1948 – had co-founded the Missoni home with his wife Rosita, heir to a family of textile industrialists. In the 1950s, the couple away the use of machines to make shawls and created a line of knitwear motley, the famous multicolored zigzags, winning the favor of the press. They set up their factory Sumirago in the late 1960s and soon the small artisan label knits international fame. Missoni is a classic ready-to-wear Italian, develops accessories, fragrances, beachwear, sign line design decorates hotels and multiplies co-brandings (Converse, the American brand Target brand Bugaboo). Their daughter Angela is currently artistic director of fashion. In January, the family had been under the spotlight when the plane carrying the eldest son of Ottavio, Vittorio (General Manager marketing of the house) and his wife had gone off Venezuela1. Ottavio Missoni was 92 years old, he published his memoirs in 2011 in Italian, Paolo Scandaletti under the title A Life on the yarn (Ed. Rizzoli).

Thunder in Saint-Nazaire! The Korean group STX Offshore and Shipbuilding 1a Friday in Seoul that it plans to sell its shipyards in France, Finland and China in the debt-reduction plan of the parent STX Corp.. "We are currently reviewing the structure of our society to focus on the domestic shipbuilding," said a spokesman for the South Korean group. "In this context, we are considering the sale of foreign assets to raise new cash."

So, these are the former sites of the Atlantic are found in unstable equilibrium. Indeed, STX Offshore controls 66% stake in these projects, with the remainder held by the French State. STX France officials refused to comment Friday evening on a possible sale of these assets. These financial problems are not a surprise to the employees of the Group to the extent that the need to restructure its debt was public knowledge. In fact, STX Corp has been weakened by the slowdown in global shipbuilding market.

The Government assures steps follow the situation of shipyards in Saint-Nazaire "close." This Saturday, the Minister of Economy, Pierre Moscovici, reiterated his "commitment to the Atlantic Yards" and its intention to "keep the job and excellence." "We will always" turn, assured the minister. Then it was Arnaud Montebourg, Minister of Productive Recovery, which states that nationalization without control would be useless. "Nationalization is a pragmatic, not ideological tool," said the World Arnaud Montebourg, recalling that the working tool of these projects is "efficient", but the main problem remains the lack of orders.

Unions expect an increase in the participation of the state in yards beyond the 33% it currently holds. The Socialist Senator de la Loire, Yannick Vaugrenard, had also requested the government side now organize a round table with French manufacturers who might be interested in a possible takeover. According to STX, potential buyers have already come forward to take over a part of its shipyards in Europe. "We will see more in the second half of this year," said a spokesman.  

The staff refused to time to sink into pessimism, since STX France recorded in December a historical control nearly one billion euros for a ship commanded by an American company, Royal Caribbean International. This debt reduction, if it is started, should not deprive the shipyards in Saint-Nazaire fighting regularly to get orders.

The final agreement reached at the end of last year even led to a skirmish between France and Finland2. The Finnish government, the shipyards were in competition with those of Saint-Nazaire for the construction of a giant cruise ship for Royal Caribbean Cruise Line owner, went to ask the European Commission to determine whether the rules competition had been met.

The European Commission on Thursday ordered the SNCM1 (Societe Nationale Corse Méditerranée) to reimburse the French State € 220 million of public aid found to be incompatible with European competition rules, bad news for the shipping company difficulties financières payday loan lenders.Dans the same time, the Commission has recognized the public service mission of service to Corsica by SNCM from Marseille. "Part of poker around the company SNCM2" Storm Warning for SNCM3

The textile industry is a mea culpa. Two signs are committed Monday to pay compensation to the victims of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Dhaka, Bangladesh. One of the first to be confirmed working with garment factories destroyed, the British Primark, said in a communiqué1 his local team "working on the establishment of an immediate and sustainable assistance to disaster victims." Specifically, the group made contact with a local NGO to provide "emergency food stocks' families and account" payment of compensation ", the amount is not disclosed. These funds will be paid to "children who have lost their parents," the "wounded" and "families of deceased workers."

While a demonstration was held in front of one of its stores in London 2dimanche, Primark will not pay alone. The group urged other retailers who use subcontractors collapsed building "unfold and offer their help." In the process, Loblaw first food retail group in Canada, recognized to be related to the accident through its subsidiary cheap Joe Fresh clothing and promised financial support to victims. "We are in the process of finalizing the contours," he says in a communiqué3. Like Primark, the Spanish retailer Mango admitted view past orders for 25,000 items from suppliers Rana Plaza in the early hours of the tragedy, but added that they were samples. According to the Clean Clothes Campaign4 Association, based in Amsterdam, the British and Spanish Bonmarché Corte Ingles also revealed their links with these workshops. Other companies that were suspected weekend5 including Carrefour brand Tex, C & A, Benetton or Wal-Mart, but denied.

The financial challenge of responsible production

While the drama was over 380 dead and thousands injured, about 3,000 people employed in the building, the pressure rises on the western textile giants. They are charged to enjoy a local labor at low cost without always ensure checks (security, social and production) on site cash advance flexible payments. In Bangladesh, where wages revolve around 30 euros per month, the union of textile workers (National Garment Workers' Federation) launched a petition 6to force the industry – and spéficiquement Primark, Matalan and Mango – to compensate victims. The text has collected nearly 64,000 signatures to date. "The negligence must stop. The deaths of these workers could have been avoided if these groups had taken the protection of workers seriously, "says Amirul Haque Amin, president of the union. The collapse of the Rana Plaza is the latest in a long list of industrial accidents that have killed more than 1,000 workers in Bangladesh since 2005, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) 7, which had a mission support at the scene of the disaster.

Most multinationals have yet signed codes of conduct intended to ensure that their products are made in responsible and ethical conditions, both on the front of the environment on the working conditions of employees. Primark, for example, is a signatory to the Code of Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) 8, an alliance of companies, NGOs and trade unions which also counts among its members the names of other clothing and Distribution: C & A, River Island, Stella McCartney, Inditex (Zara), Gap, Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Sainsbury's, etc.. The challenge for companies beyond the marketing pitch. With the emergence of a global market for socially responsible investment (SRI) in recent years, the non-financial criteria are increasingly taken into account by financial players who invest in companies. At the end of January 2013, the global market for responsible investment reached 13.600 billion (more than 10,000 billion), or 21.8% of assets under management, according to the World Alliance of responsible investors (GSIA) 9. SRI in France weighed € 149 billion in 201210, up 29% compared to 2011.

A first step. Friday evening, the Cypriot Parliament adopted the first steps of Plan B, which must avoid the collapse of the economy of the island. If the tax on bank deposits, point of contention between Brussels and Nicosia, has not yet been adopted, the Parliament voted to restructure the banking system.

The two major banks and will turn into "bad banks", deposits and house the more than one hundred thousand euros and loans at risk. "Good bank" will be created in parallel, in the ocurrence National Bank of Cyprus, or be based deposits of less than one hundred thousand euros and non-risky loans. The second measure adopted for the freezing of funds. Requested by Brussels, it aims to prevent a massive flight of capital to the banks reopened Tuesday. The debates in Parliament are currently suspended until further notice.

Saturday afternoon, Nikos Anastasiades, the Cypriot president and the leaders of political parties in the country will travel to Brussels to negotiate with European partners. A council of the Eurogroup Meeting will be held late Sunday afternoon, in the presence of Christine Lagarde, IMF Managing Director. On the table, the thorny issue of the tax credit, unanimously rejected by MEPs on Tuesday. This time, it would be to cut 15% to 25% deposit of more than 100,000 euros. The political class remains divided on the subject, but will answer to the dilemma of saving or capital of the country by Monday.  

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The pound continues to slip. Tuesday, it fell below 1.4877 dollars, its lowest level against the U.S. dollar since June 2010. The book is depreciated by 8.3% against the dollar this year and 7% against the euro, which makes it the currency of the worst performing developed markets in 2013, after the yen.

It is disappointing that manufacturing production has plunged the British pound. Against all odds, the figure stood down in January. This bad start of 2013 has revived fears of recession entry into the United Kingdom, as growth contracted in the last quarter of 2010 and unless outstanding performance in the service sector beginning of this year, growth could be negative in the first quarter of 2013. The UK could then face its third recession since the Great Depression of 2008!

The prospect is worrying investors, who were anyway not expected industrial production to drop sterling "There is definitely a momentum against the pound, said Derek Halpenny at Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in London, and markets seize any excuse. Low statistics in the UK suggest a new quantitative easing, and this is a recipe to reduce the book. "

"Shock Treatment"

Indeed, unlike the United States where improved data suggests that the Federal Reserve may have less need to support the economy, the Bank of England could reinforce its action plan guaranteed pay day loans. Last week, the Bank of England is holding its goal of redemption of 375 billion pounds, but strategists await the next BoE meeting in early April, knowing that some of its members are in favor of a more flexible quantitative, with 25 billion pounds new employees to support the British economy. In fact, many economists believe that the March 20, Chancellor George Osborne could announce within the next budget, new powers of the Bank of England to give him more leeway.

But the Minister of Economy should go further by employers. This week, John Longworth, Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce (IWC) has proposed a "shock treatment." According to him, "If within six months, there is still no prospect of growth, it will consider the option to borrow more money." The solution would be, he says, to reduce some welfare and invest the money in activities that doperaient growth. Areas selected should be those that "forgive markets", that is to say infrastructure.

It seems unlikely that the government reverse its fiscal policy immediately. Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron has explained that if Downing Street came back on drastic cuts in place, the country would plunge into the abyss.

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