Une attaque #224; main arm#233;e a #233;t#233; commise mercredi matin dans une banque ING situ#...img width='1' height='1' src='http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/864/f/11087/s/27f31b6/mf.gif' border='0'/br/br/a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853565902/u/89/f/11087/c/864/s/41890230/a2.htm"img src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/25853565902/u/89/f/11087/c/864/s/41890230/a2.img" border="0"//a

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/73947?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Interest+rates+tumble+around+the+worldch=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Interest+rates+%28Business%29%2CInterest+rates+%28Money%29%2CBusiness%2CMoney%2CBank+of+England+%28Business%29%2CEconomics+%28Business%29%2CGlobal+economy+%28Business%29%2CGlobal+recession%2CWorld+news%2CUK+newsc5=Personal+Finance%2CCredit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Ratesc6=Justin+McCurry%2CAshley+Seagerc7=2008_12_04c8=1128514c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Interest+ratesc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FInterest+rates" width="1" height="1" //divpCentral banks in the Asia-Pacific region today kicked off a wave of interest rate cuts around the world, part of a week of coordinated action designed to breathe life into the global economy./ppSweden also unveiled an emergency cut, slashing its interest rates by almost half, with a record cut of 1.75 points to 2%, far bigger than had been expected. Sweden's central Riksbank said it expected rates to remain at the lower level over the coming year./ppEarlier today, Indonesia's central bank surprised the markets with a cut of 25 basis points, to 9.25%, its first reduction for a year, while New Zealand slashed rates by a record 1.5 percentage points, to 5%./ppThe Bank of England is expected to cut rates by at least another percentage point today, while the European Central Bank looks poised to make a cut of 50 basis points to 2.75%./ppThe Bank of England's rates decision, which will come at midday, comes after evidence yesterday of the slump in the services sector pointed to a dramatic deterioration in the economy./ppIf the Bank's monetary policy committee cuts rates to 2%, as is widely expected in the City, that would be the lowest rate since late 1951, itself the lowest since the Bank was founded in 1694. If it cuts by more than 1%, as some predict, then rates will be at an all-time low./ppYesterday's monthly snapshot of the dominant services sector - which includes businesses from banks to airlines and hairdressers - hit a record low. The poor economic outlook saw the pound fall sharply to its lowest for 13 years against a basket of major currencies. It dropped to below $1.47 and to just above €1.16./ppThe services sector survey's purchasing managers' index, which measures everything from output to orders and jobs, tumbled to 40.1 last month, the lowest since the report began in 1996. As the figure is far below the 50 level that divides expansion from contraction, the survey suggests that the sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, is contracting rapidly./ppRoy Ayliffe, of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, said: "Purchasing managers in the services sector reported record falls across activity, new business and employment as the economic climate continued to worsen."/ppHe said optimism had turned to pessimism for the first time in 12 years of the survey. Financial services, restaurants and hotels were particularly badly hit./ppSimilar surveys of the manufacturing and construction sectors this week also showed record drops./ppJames Knightley, of ING Financial Markets, said: "Given the weakness across all purchasing managers' indices, it looks as though we could see the economy contract by close to 1% in the fourth quarter./pp"The first quarter of 2009 is likely to be similarly weak given the long lead times before the policy stimulus we have seen can take effect. This will put pressure on the BoE to continue delivering aggressive monetary easing and we expect to see a further 100 basis point [one percentage point] of rate cuts. Rates are then expected to fall to 1% early in the new year."/ppHoward Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "This is a desperately worrying survey given the importance of the dominant service sector to the UK economy. The heightened financial sector crisis has obviously taken a particularly heavy toll on the services sector, while the deep housing market downturn and markedly reduced consumer spending on services is also hitting the sector hard."/ppConsumer spending has been hard hit as well. Nationwide said yesterday that its monthly index of consumer confidence fell again to the lowest since its survey began in 2004. The index reading of 50 for November compares with 56 in October and 83 in November last year./ppFionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "Reports of job cuts have almost certainly impacted on sentiment about the employment situation, causing purse strings to tighten further."/ppA similar survey yesterday of the services sector in the eurozone was equally weak, leading analysts to predict another interest rate cut from the European Central Bank today. Eurozone rates are at 3.25% and analysts expect the ECB to cut them to 2.5% or even lower./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/interestrates"Interest rates/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/interestrates"Interest rates/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bankofenglandgovernor"Bank of England/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics"Economics/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/globaleconomy"Global economy/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/globalrecession"Global recession/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/oLsNoxF25Ombn0g-qBCvWrwR9uw/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/oLsNoxF25Ombn0g-qBCvWrwR9uw/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/83042?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+Poor+outlook+for+services+sector+raises+likelihood+of+big+interest+rate+cutch=Businessc3=The+Guardianc4=Economics+%28Business%29%2CInterest+rates+%28Business%29%2CBank+of+England+%28Business%29%2CCredit+crunch+%28Business%29%2CRetail+industry+%28Business%29%2CCurrencies+%28dollar%2C+pound+etc%29%2CManufacturing+sector+%28Business%29%2COil+and+gas+companies+%28Business%29%2CBusinessc5=Credit+Crunch%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Ratesc6=Ashley+Seagerc7=2008_12_04c8=1128392c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Economicsc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FEconomics" width="1" height="1" //divpThe Bank of England looks likely to slash interest rates by at least another percentage point today after evidence yesterday of the slump in the services sector pointed to a dramatic deterioration in the economy./ppIf the Bank's monetary policy committee cuts rates to 2%, as is widely expected in the City, that would be the lowest rate since late 1951, itself the lowest since the Bank was founded in 1694. If it cuts by more than 1%, as some predict, then rates will be at an all-time low./ppYesterday's monthly snapshot of the dominant services sector - which includes businesses from banks to airlines and hairdressers - hit a record low. The poor economic outlook saw the pound fall sharply to its lowest for 13 years against a basket of major currencies. It dropped to below $1.47 and to just above euro;1.16./ppThe services sector survey's purchasing managers' index, which measures everything from output to orders and jobs, tumbled to 40.1 last month, the lowest since the report began in 1996. As the figure is far below the 50 level that divides expansion from contraction, the survey suggests that the sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, is contracting rapidly./ppRoy Ayliffe, of the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply, said: "Purchasing managers in the services sector reported record falls across activity, new business and employment as the economic climate continued to worsen."/ppHe said optimism had turned to pessimism for the first time in 12 years of the survey. Financial services, restaurants and hotels were particularly badly hit./ppSimilar surveys of the manufacturing and construction sectors this week also showed record drops. /ppJames Knightley, of ING Financial Markets, said: "Given the weakness across all purchasing managers' indices, it looks as though we could see the economy contract by close to 1% in the fourth quarter./pp"The first quarter of 2009 is likely to be similarly weak given the long lead times before the policy stimulus we have seen can take effect ... This will put pressure on the BoE to continue delivering aggressive monetary easing and we expect to see a further 100 basis point [one percentage point] of rate cuts tomorrow. Rates are then expected to fall to 1% early in the new year."/ppHoward Archer, economist at IHS Global Insight, said: "This is a desperately worrying survey given the importance of the dominant service sector to the UK economy. The heightened financial sector crisis has obviously taken a particularly heavy toll on the services sector, while the deep housing market downturn and markedly reduced consumer spending on services is also hitting the sector hard."/ppConsumer spending has been hard hit as well. Nationwide said yesterday that its monthly index of consumer confidence fell again and to the lowest since its survey began in 2004. The index reading of 50 for November compares with 56 in October and 83 in November last year./ppFionnuala Earley, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "Reports of job cuts have almost certainly impacted on sentiment about the ... employment situation, causing purse strings to tighten further."/ppA similar survey yesterday of the services sector in the eurozone was equally weak, leading analysts to predict another interest rate cut from the European Central Bank today. Eurozone rates are at 3.25% and analysts expect the ECB to cut them to 2.5% or even lower./ppThere was also gloomy news from the US, where a survey of services also hit a record low last month, while other figures showed that private-sector employers slashed an unexpectedly high 250,000 jobs in November. The world's biggest economy was confirmed as being in recession this week and yesterday's data showed things are getting worse./ppThe Institute for Supply Management said its non-manufacturing index came in at 37.3, the worst in the gauge's 11-year history and below October's weak 44.4. It was also much worse than expected./ppPierre Ellis, senior economist at Decision Economics in New York, said: "The severe damage to the service industry is another indication of the extraordinary force of this recession." /ppEvery major category in the ISM survey hit a record low, which is particularly bad news for the US, where 80% of the economy is driven by the services sector./ppThere was some good news, as oil prices fell to their lowest level in three and a half years. US light crude futures fell to $46.78 a barrel, their lowest since May 2005 and more than $100 a barrel below the all-time high reached in July. That is likely to lead to further drops in petrol prices at the pump, though for British motorists the effect of lower oil prices is blunted by the drop in the pound's value against the dollar, in which oil is priced./ppStephen Schork, an oil analyst, said that the trend in prices was still down. "Just because we are nearly as close to $40 as we are to $50 does not, in and of itself, mean we are near some theoretical bottom."/pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics"Economics/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/interestrates"Interest rates/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bankofenglandgovernor"Bank of England/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/creditcrunch"Credit crunch/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/retail"Retail industry/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/currencies"Currencies/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/manufacturing"Manufacturing sector/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/oilandgascompanies"Oil and gas companies/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9-qJLtTXT1PC23k_Ie5HDgIyUGs/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/9-qJLtTXT1PC23k_Ie5HDgIyUGs/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

Oneof the coolest games on Android right now is a little game called Amazed developed by Hands-On Mobile. Its kind of like a less complex, 2D version of Marble Madness from back in the day, but the only way to control the marble is by tilting the screen and letting “virtual gravity” roll the ball to its destinatio.
The application was written by Jason Tomlinson and not only is it free on the Android Market right now, but it was also open sourced and the code is available on apps-for-android. Jason took a few minutes on the Android Developers Blog to talk about the game, using the accelerometer and the Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile game for Android which is in development now.



Pretty good stuff. We’ll be looking out for big things from Hands-On Mobile when paid applications and games become available in January.
[Via ADB]


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pimg class="float_right" src="/~~/f?id=4857a9de796c7a80007c378cmaxX=214maxY=214" border="0" alt="goldmansachs.jpg" title="goldmansachs.jpg" width="214" height="214" /Wall Street investment firm Goldman Sachs (GS) will probably post a $2 billion loss this quarter, due in part to the tumult of world markets./p pIn order to seek more stability, the bank is considering opening an online branch so it can offer more stable savings products such as certificates of deposit./p pOne of Goldman's options for opening such a bank could be acquiring one. a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122827665438875247.html?mod=rss_whats_news_technology"Reports the WSJ/a:/p p style="padding-left: 30px;""This move is pretty much the polar opposite of what you think about when you think about Goldman Sachs," said Glenn Schorr, an analyst at UBS AG. "But one of the keys to their future is being able to fund their balance sheet, and if they and others can't do it in traditional ways, it makes complete sense to explore other avenues."/p p style="padding-left: 30px;"Goldman will face competition ranging from traditional banks a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djnsymbol=bac"Bank of America/a Corp. and a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djnsymbol=c"Citigroup /aInc. to ING Direct, a unit of a href="http://online.wsj.com/public/quotes/main.html?type=djnsymbol=ing"ING Groep/a NV that does much of its business online. Meanwhile, the banking industry's hunger for stable funding sources has sharply increased the rates paid on deposits, squeezing profit margins./p p style="padding-left: 30px;"Goldman executives haven't ruled out acquiring a bank with substantial retail operations, according to people familiar with the discussions. But the firm's decision to seek a state banking license in New York is a sign that expanding across state lines is a low priority. Regulators approved the license last week./p pstrongSee Also:/strong a href="http://clusterstock.alleyinsider.com/2008/11/goldman-gs-successfully-raises-5-billion"br /Goldman (GS) Successfully Raises $5 Billion/a/p h1/h1 pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4g58KOFOAqY2MmNmuI-k0-PweZI/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/4g58KOFOAqY2MmNmuI-k0-PweZI/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/pdiv class="feedflare" a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=htSYN70w"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=htSYN70w" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=whLGnwyE"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=52" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=508sYUWZ"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=80" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=H2bxOi7q"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?i=H2bxOi7q" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=KyBsQorP"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=131" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=jrsR4CcO"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=336" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=RxBDFN7Q"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=41" border="0"/img/a a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?a=6mxZCzqg"img src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~f/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider?d=50" border="0"/img/a /divimg src="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider/~4/5wl7M4UPcMk" height="1" width="1"/

divimg alt="" src="http://hits.guardian.co.uk/b/ss/guardiangu-feeds/1/H.15.1/22569?ns=guardianpageName=Business%3A+UK+service+sector+declining+at+record+ratech=Businessc3=guardian.co.ukc4=Recession+%28UK%29%2CEconomics+%28Business%29%2CBank+of+England+%28Business%29%2CInterest+rates+%28Business%29%2CBusiness%2CUK+newsc5=Credit+Crunch%2CNot+commercially+useful%2CBusiness+Markets%2CProperty+Mortgages+and+Interest+Ratesc6=Ashley+Seagerc7=2008_12_03c8=1127934c9=articlec10=GUc11=Businessc12=Recessionc13=c14=h2=GU%2FBusiness%2FRecession" width="1" height="1" //divpBritain's dominant services sector is shrinking at a record pace, a new survey showed this morning, suggesting the economy is heading into a deep recession./ppThe CIPS/Markit monthly snapshot of the sector showed that the purchasing managers' index, which measures everything from output to orders and jobs, fell to just 40.1 last month, the lowest since the survey began in 1996./ppAs the figure is far below the 50.0 level that divides expansion from contraction, the survey suggests that the sector, which account for about two thirds of the economy, is contracting rapidly./ppThe data come as the Bank of England's monetary policy committee gathers for its monthly two-day interest rates meeting, at which it is widely expected to slash another one percentage point off Bank rate, taking it to a joint all-time low of just 2%./ppThe news also sent the pound down sharply on the foreign exchanges, to below $1.47 and to 1.16 against the euro./ppThe services PMI came on the back of similar surveys of the manufacturing and construction sectors this week, both of which also showed record drops in activity./pp"Given the weakness across all purchasing managers' indices it looks as though we could see the economy contract by close to 1% in the fourth quarter," said James Knightley of ING Financial Markets./pp"The first quarter of 2009 is likely to be similarly weak given the long lead times before the policy stimulus we have seen can take effect, especially since the monetary policy transmission mechanism is not functioning properly. This will put pressure on the BoE to continue delivering aggressive monetary easing and we expect to see a further 100bp of rate cuts tomorrow. Rates are then expected to all to 1% early in the New Year."/ppA similar survey of the services sector in the euro zone was equally weak, leading analysts to predict another interest rate cut from the European Central Bank on Thursday./pdiv style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"ullia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/recession"Recession/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/economics"Economics/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/bankofenglandgovernor"Bank of England/a/lilia href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/interestrates"Interest rates/a/li/ul/diva href="http://www.guardian.co.uk"guardian.co.uk/a copy; Guardian News Media Limited 2008 | Use of this content is subject to our a href="http://users.guardian.co.uk/help/article/0,,933909,00.html"Terms Conditions/a | a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/webfeeds/1,,1309488,00.html"More Feeds/a pa href="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Bw8jeSGR5X6VieUF1rDI_XW6sYo/a"img src="http://feedads.googleadservices.com/~at/Bw8jeSGR5X6VieUF1rDI_XW6sYo/i" border="0" ismap="true"/img/a/p

pChristine Lagarde s’est livrée, tout à l’heure, à une belle tentative d’intoxication. Lors de la conférencea href=http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/02/cf4d73168be011dc898811358f84b847.jpg onclick=window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=493,height=277,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return falseimg width=345 height=193 border=0 alt=Cf4d73168be011dc898811358f84b847 title=Cf4d73168be011dc898811358f84b847 src=http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/coulisses/images/2008/12/02/cf4d73168be011dc898811358f84b847.jpg style=margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right; //a de presse clôturant le conseil des ministres de l’Économie et des Finances (Ecofin) qu’elle préside, elle a froidement expliqué que la Commission avait décidé de mettre entre parenthèses le droit de la concurrence en matière d’aide d’État aux banques, ce qui laisse entendre que Paris a obtenu gain de cause dans son bras de fer avec Bruxelles sur son plan d’aide aux établissements français. em« Mme Kroes (la commissaire chargée de la concurrence) a accepté de (...) tenir compte de l’urgence et de la nécessité de faire passer les impératifs du financement de l’économie devant les impératifs de règles absolues de droit de la concurrence ». « Le problème n’est pas aujourd’hui de s’inquiéter du respect d’une saine concurrence entre les banques, mais de sauver le système bancaire »/em, décryptait un diplomate européen de haut rang cité par l’AFP (sans doute un Français...)./p p En ces temps de sauve-qui-peut général, tous les pays, et pas seulement la France aimeraient bien se débarrasser de règles jugées trop contraignantes afin de pouvoir aider leurs entreprises nationales comme ils l’entendent, sans se préoccuper des effets chez leurs voisins. Le ministre allemand des finances, le social-démocrate Peer Steinbrück, n’a pas hésité à accuser la Commission d’agir de façon trop em« bureaucratique »/em : em« il ne faut pas réagir à une telle crise financière d’une façon aussi bureaucratique »/em, a-t-il lancé à l’issue de la réunion d’aujourd’hui. Pour rappel, l’Allemagne n’a jamais aimé la politique de concurrence qui a été notamment pensée au lendemain de la Seconde Guerre mondiale pour briser les Konzern allemands qui avaient fait la puissance des Reich... Son collègue suédois, le libéral Anders Borg, n’a pas voulu être en reste en s’en prenant aux em« légions de bureaucrates » /emqui examinent les aides d’État :em « nous avons besoins de rétablir les canaux du crédit. La Commission n’a pas été constructive »/em. À gauche ou à droite, le discours est donc le même./pblockquoteblockquotepÀ Bruxelles, on prend ces critiques avec philosophie, les hurlements des politiques étant une constante : em« on a l’habitude »,/em soupire un fonctionnaire de la Commission, em« les politiques sont dans le très court terme et refusent de voir les conséquences à long terme »/em. On se souvient encore des engueulades entre le chancelier Helmut Kohl et le commissaire à la concurrence Karel van Miert à propos de Volkswagen ou du statut des caisses d’épargne des Länder... /p/blockquote/blockquotepa href=http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/02/20080930_banque_10.jpg onclick=window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=300,height=418,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return falseimg width=300 height=418 border=0 alt=20080930_banque_10 title=20080930_banque_10 src=http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/coulisses/images/2008/12/02/20080930_banque_10.jpg style=margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px; float: left; //a Reste que, cette fois, Christine Lagarde a été un peu loin dans le em« mensonge »/em, selon le mot d’un diplomate qui n’en est toujours pas revenu. Car elle a présenté ce qui est en réalité une communication que la commissaire à la concurrence a faite aux vingt-sept ministres des Finances ce matin, lors d’un petit-déjeuner, comme le résultat d’une négociation ayant abouti à la capitulation en rase campagne de la Commission. Lagarde a même affirmé que les nouvelles lignes directrices (après celles adoptées le 13 octobre) en matière d’aide d’État au secteur bancaire seraientem « soumises »/em au Conseil européen des chefs d’État et de gouvernement des 11 et 12 décembre. C’est d’autant plus gros que, la Commission, dans l’exercice de ses compétences en matière de concurrence, agit comme une autorité administrative indépendante qui n’a de comptes à rendre qu’à la Cour de justice des communautés européennes !strong Bref, à l’en croire, c’est à un véritable coup d’État auquel on aurait assisté ce matin.../strong/p pIl n’en est évidemment rien, a href=http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/08/757amp;format=HTMLamp;aged=0amp;language=ENamp;guiLanguage=encomme le montre son discours disponible sur le site de la Commission/a. Elle y explique les raisons et les principes qui ont conduit la Commission à approuver vingt plans nationaux d’aide aux banques en deux mois et à émettre des réserves sur d’autres.nbsp; Son but : em« appliquer les règles sur les aides d’État pour soutenir la stabilité financière »/em tout en évitant que em« les mesures nationales n’aggravent la crise en exportant les problèmes vers les autres États membres »/em. Il n’est donc pas question que la Commission renonce à assurer le respect d’une concurrence libre et non faussée au sein du marché unique. La problématique, désormais, a changé de nature a-t-elle souligné : il ne s’agit plus de sauver des banques menacées de faillites, mais d’éviter un assèchement du crédit (« credit crunch »). D’où l’annonce de nouvelles « lignes directrices » (« guide lines ») afin de guider les États dans le choix de leur plan./p pstrongEn effet, comment s’assurer que cette aide bénéficiera bien à l’économie réelle et ne finira pas dans la poche des actionnaires ? Comment éviter qu’elle fausse la concurrence en permettant aux banques aidées de proposer des crédits à des taux très bas afin de faire main basse sur le marché ?/strong Pour Kroes, qui reconnaît que l’exercice est délicat, il faut d’abord que l’aide de l’État soit justement rémunérée. Il faut ensuite que des mécanismes soient prévus pour inciter les banques à rembourser l’État dès que les conditions du marché seront revenues à la normale, par exemple en demandant une forte rémunération ou en suspendant le versement des dividendes aux actionnaires. Enfin, elle veut des engagements fermes des banques que l’économie réelle profitera bien de ces aides d’État. em« Les aides d’État ne sont pas faites pour accroitre le profit ou perturber la concurrence »/em, a-t-elle répété à plusieurs reprises. Bref, la Commission se veut « pragmatique » et est prête à accepter toutes les solutions qui garantiront que les contribuables ne seront pas les dindons de la farce./p pC’est pour toutes ces raisons que la Commission se fait tirer l’oreille pour accepter le plan d’aide à laa onclick=window.open(this.href, '_blank', 'width=583,height=547,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0'); return false href=http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/2008/12/02/banques_2.jpgimg width=233 height=218 border=0 src=http://bruxelles.blogs.liberation.fr/coulisses/images/2008/12/02/banques_2.jpg title=Banques_2 alt=Banques_2 style=margin: 0px 0px 5px 5px; float: right; //a Commerzbank, la seconde banque privée allemande (8,2 milliards d’euros de recapitalisation et une garantie sur les nouvelles dettes de 15 milliards d’euros). Neelie Kroes exige ainsi que le versement des dividendes aux actionnaires soit gelé pour une période supérieure aux deux ans prévus dans le plan allemand de crainte que l’aide tombe en réalité dans la poche des actionnaires (ce plan prévoit par ailleurs une rémunération de l’État d’au moins 10 %). De même, il n’est pas question que la commissaire à la concurrence accepte le plan français en l’état qui présente l’inconvénient em« de mettre les banques dans une position artificiellement avantageuse »/em, comme on le dit à Bruxelles. En marge du Conseil Ecofin, Lagarde et Kroes ont d’ailleurs continué à négocier. Cette dernière exige des engagements précis sur le montant des prêts qui seront accordés à l’économie réelle ainsi qu’une incitation plus forte des banques à rembourser dès que possible l’aide de l’État, soit par un gel des dividendes, soit par une augmentation de la rémunération, soit em« par tout autre mécanisme ». « Par exemple, plus ING, la banque néerlandaise, versera de dividendes à ses actionnaires, plus la rémunération de l’État augmentera »/em, explique un fonctionnaire de la Commission. /pblockquoteblockquotepBref, on est loin, très loin d’une capitulation comme a voulu le faire croire Christine Lagarde qui semble vouloir faire feu de tout bois pour sauver son plan. Cette crise montre surtout tout le pragmatisme de la Commission, contrairement à ce qu’affirment ses détracteurs, et l’extrême malléabilité des règles de concurrence européenne. Lorsque les conditions changent, il faut s’adapter./p/blockquote/blockquote

Ed. Note: The following is Boing Boing guestblogger Clay Shirky's first post. Clay's traveling today, so I'm posting this one on his behalf. Image above: "Don't believe the Devil, don't beLIEve his book," a CC-licensed photo by Celeste, a Flickr user in Buenos Aires - Argentina. --XJ Every now and again, there is an essay that is so well written, so cleanly expressed, and so spectacularly wrong that it clarifies something you previously understood only dimly. James Gleick's recent advice to the publishing industry, How to Publish Without Perishing, was that for me. Gleick's thesis is that publishers are people who sell objects, and he means this not just as a description of their past, but as strategy for their future as well. He makes much of the book as a thing, noting that we talk about "book lovers", but never "CD lovers", he writes of books in terms of possessing them, and his advice to publishers is to cede speed, relevance, and even popularity to digital businesses, and to shift publishing into reverse: Go back to an old-fashioned idea: that a book, printed in ink on durable paper, acid-free for longevity, is a thing of beauty. Make it as well as you can. People want to cherish it. This proposed Ye Olde-ing the industry makes the choices faced by publishers suddenly seem more urgent. There are book lovers, yes, but there are also readers, a much larger group. By Gleick's logic, all of us who are just readers, everyone who buys paperbacks or trades books after we've read them, everyone who prints PDFs or owns a Kindle, falls out of his imagined future market. Publishers should forsake mere readers, and become purveyors of Commemorative Text Objects. It's the Franklin Mint business model, now with 1000% more words! In the same way the internet has forced newspapers into a 'news vs. paper' moment, the publishing world is in a 'readers vs. book lovers' moment. In this environment, the single most important choice anyone in publishing has to make is this: "How many generations do I want to be in business?" Because hawking Ye Olde Codices to aging connoisseurs is a one-generation business. Businesses don't survive in the long term because old people persist in old behaviors; they survive because young people renew old behaviors, and all the behaviors young people are renewing cluster around reading, while they are adopting almost none of the behaviors tied to cherishing physical containers, whether for the written word or anything else. Can you imagine a 25-year-old telling a publisher "To get my business, you should stick to a single, analog format? Oh, and could you make it heavy, bulky, and unsearchable? Thanks." From Aldus Manutius until recently, book lovers have been the most passionate readers. Now they are mostly just the oldest readers. Thanks to digital data, there is a fateful choice to be made between serving lovers of the text and lovers of the page; I think even Manutius would have sided with the readers over the collectors. I hope today's publishers do as well. Previously: Here Comes Clay Shirky (The Changing of the Guestbloggers)...br style="clear: both;"/ a href="http://www.pheedo.com/click.phdo?s=1453de22556064e7a74ac0c73c7a4a5cp=1"img alt="" style="border: 0;" border="0" src="http://www.pheedo.com/img.phdo?s=1453de22556064e7a74ac0c73c7a4a5cp=1"//a img src="http://www.pheedo.com/feeds/tracker.php?i=1453de22556064e7a74ac0c73c7a4a5c" style="display: none;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt=""/