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This is the axis of the policies of Nicolas Sarkozy: officials fewer but better paid. In principle, state officials are granted wage increases in half of the savings generated by the non-replacement of retiring in two in their own departments. Problem: once again, this rule was not followed in 2010.

According to the rapporteur UMP budget to the Assembly, Gilles Carrez, it is actually two-thirds (67.3%) of savings were spent on categorical measures. Specifically, the 31,013 job cuts in 2010 were 808 million savings to the state. But 544 million is left up wages.

Results vary from one department to another. The rate of return to public officials is low for Foreign Affairs (42%), Agriculture (41%), Education (37%) and consistent with the defense (54%).However, it exceeds the target for the Budget, the Economy (64%) or culture (68%). Worse, wage increases were higher than the economies of Ecology (24.7 million against 21.9 million), Labour (16.3 million against 13.9 million) and especially the Interior (149 million against 116 million)! Gilles Carrez even noted that the departments that make the least effort on their staff are often those where economies are most reassigned officers cash advance no faxing.

Good and bad students

Example: "Culture is the department in which the application of the rule of one in two is less strict, while the cost of measures categorical 68% savings." Conversely, "the ministries for which the rule is stricter, such as Foreign Affairs, Agriculture and Health, are those for which the categorical measures are less than 50%. "In short, there are good and bad students. These slips will pay dearly as they explain the fact that retirements have been less than expected, the increase in the payroll of the state in 2010. The latter (82 billion) grew by 0.7%. To achieve its goal of reducing by 2012 the state will give less to their agents …

The Court of Auditors in a report that pointed the slippage of the wage bill, advocated a strict framework for categorical measures and a freeze of the index point (which is the basis for the remuneration of officials) until 2013 included.

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SFR launched Tuesday its new line of mobile phone plans. With two major innovations. On the one hand, the possibility of a subscription without changing phone. In return, the package price would drop, drop up to 35% or 45%. An operation by which shock SFR is preparing for the arrival of Free, who has promised to halve the bill of a mobile home.

It is also a break with current trends in the mobile consumer, where the majority of subscribers are systematically changing phone – even if they still works – as soon as they leave for a new package of 12 or 24 months. Environmentally unfriendly habit while recycling is cumbersome to organize and costly for operators heavily subsidize the purchase of the phone.

The operators seem determined to break this vicious circle."Until now, subscribers have paid for urban subscribers of fields, those who do not change their mobile paid for those who changed all the time. Today, someone who does not change his mobile will pay less, "said Frank Cadoret, managing director of consumer and professional SFR La Chaîne Techno. Numericable and La Poste, which both come to embark in Mobile, made the telephone subsidy packages without the spearhead of its strategy to offer aggressive pricing packages paperless payday loans.

Bill Lefebvre

One way to take the lead for several months while the regulator (Arcep) wants to clarify the grant of the mobile.And it is also an objective of the Secretary of State for Consumer Affairs, Frédéric Lefebvre, who introduced his bill on consumer protection, on 1 June

The question remains whether consumers will be seduced, while, in turn, device manufacturers continue to offer ever more innovative models, adding 4G, 3D, contactless payment technology and other discovery.

Another new SFR must formalize its agreement with the online music site Spotify announced in Le Figaro (our editions of May 14). Like with Deezer Orange, SFR will offer several packages including mobile phones with unlimited Spotify. One way to consider another major change current practice: the decline of the voice and the booming exchanges of data, whether text messages, emails, web, video or music files.

The alleged sexual assault case that led to the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn is also a blow to the institution he heads the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Sunday night, the institution announced that, as required by procedures, number two, John Lipsky, will assume the duties of general manager for the duration of the absence of DSK. The board of directors of the fund must hold a special meeting Sunday evening, "informally," says the institution. So John Lipsy who will chair the meeting.The IMF can initiate disciplinary proceedings against the Director General in case of "serious breaches" of the code of conduct for officials of the institution.

"This case is bound to tarnish the image of the institution, which, however, by the voice of its director general had managed during and through the crisis, to find a proper place in the regulation of globalization and stand at the heart international monetary system, "said Hassim Mounis, professor at Sciences Politiques in Paris.

"Dominique Strauss-Kahn is a Managing Director of IMF that will be remembered most," says the economist. "It will mark the spirits because he has temporarily disrupted the guidance of the IMF's role by requiring the state to support the economy, which is in total contradiction with the previous liberal policy of the institution," said it.DSK is known to have handled the economic crisis and financial crisis by bringing a Keynesian response … measured, however: in the emblematic case of Greece, the IMF forced the government to drastically reduce public spending and operate a process of privatization.

The IMF is "operational," Greece continues its reforms

Greece precisely, it ensures that the events that challenge the IMF does not change the government program to revive the economy. "The government is pursuing the reforms required by the Fund," said George Petalotis Sunday, his spokesman. DSK would have had to go in Berlin on Sunday and meet Angela Merkel to discuss a possible new aid to Greece, which had gained support in spring 2010 of 110 billion euros, 30 billion from the IMF.This meeting was to take place on the eve of a meeting of the Eurogroup, the Monday night and Tuesday in Brussels, with the main discussions at the agenda of the financial problems that resurface Greece for several days and that plague the markets. It is the deputy general manager of operations, Nemat Shafik, who will attend the Eurogroup meeting.

The IMF meanwhile assured that it remains "fully functional and operational." The Washington-based institution to ensure and maintain its role in the issue of European sovereign debt. "It seems impossible that the case could impact the DSK button timing and responsablités IMF, the stakes are too great," says an economist based in Paris.There was a pre-DSK IMF, there may be an after-DSK.

Who might succeed him at the IMF?

Since Bretton Woods in 1944, which devoted a share of the world between Europe and America, the custom was established to appoint a European to head the IMF and an American to head the Bank World. But in recent years, global economic governance has, too, internationalized: emerging countries like China and Brazil now have a bigger role, like the G7 became the G8 and G20.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who became the tenth Executive Director of the IMF on 1 November 2007, has himself advocated the continuation of the reform of the institution, and wanted a person from an emerging country for the succeeding fall 2012 . But the events that shook the Fund could also shake up the program.If DSK had to leave the branch, a new early election should take place. The voices, weighted by the amount of quotas, have been reallocated on March 3 after a major reform of the representation of the 187 IMF member countries. The reform has enabled the transfer of 6% of the votes of over-represented countries to benefit from emerging countries. Nevertheless, the IMF is likely to adopt a tougher stance vis-à-vis Europe under the leadership of a new management team.

"DSK is a former economics professor and renowned former Minister of Economy and Finance. He has a real economic role at the operational level to the IMF. In France, too, has played its role, "insists Mounis Hassim, comparing his skills to those of Raymond Barre.Under Jospin, DSK, then Minister of Economy (1997-1999), had participated in the launch of the euro.

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If humanity continues its momentum, it will consume in 2050 three times more raw materials than today. "Far beyond what is bearable." The warning is clear. And it does not derive from Lester Brown, president of Earth Policy Institute, which multiplies the books for decades on the depletion of the planet or the WWF or Greenpeace, but the UN.

In forty years, some 9 billion people consume 140 billion tons of minerals, hydrocarbons and biomass (wood, crops, livestock), as reported by the UNEP (United Nations Environment). Or 16 tons of natural resources swallowed each year by each person on the planet."Policymakers and the general public are still not convinced of the absolute physical limits on the amount of resources available to humanity," the authors note, a dozen experts led by an Austrian and a South African.

Doing more with less

To avoid shortages and social tensions and geopolitical they would generate, the world must "do more with less." Sustained growth requires massive investment in "technological innovation, financial and social." One difficulty lies in the considerable disparity in the exploitation of raw materials. An inhabitant of an industrialized country consumes an average 16 tons per year, four times more than Indian.

In rich countries, the differences are equally impressive.A consumer of Qatar, Australia and the United States swallows 40 tons of natural resources per year when a French, a German or an Italian uses about 15 tons. These figures do not reflect the reality only partially, note the rapporteurs of the UN. For a tonne of copper extracted in Chile will be charged to the consumer in their calculation Chilean even if it is used to manufacture a product sold in China or Europe. These methodological weaknesses therefore do not change the risk of global depletion of natural resources. Even if industrialized countries were able to halve their consumption of raw materials by 2050, not living to 8 tons, and that developing countries joined this level without exceeding the total amount to 70 billion tons, or 40% more than today.This scenario (No. 2 in the graphics) would be accompanied by a doubling of greenhouse gas emissions, a path inconsistent with the objectives of the international community in the fight against global warming.

Amid these grim prospects for the environment, the UN report uncovers some reasons not to despair. The global trend towards urbanization is paradoxically supports better use of natural resources. A densely populated area per capita is more economical building materials, energy and transportation, the experts argue.

Another reason for optimism, emerging skip some stages of development by adopting technologies directly or models that consume less raw materials, how they embraced the mobile phone have not finished building the fixed telephone network.

For the second consecutive year, neither the first nor May 8 to do the bridge in 2011! Labor Day and the commemoration of the armistice of 1945 had fallen on Saturdays last year and this time it's a Sunday.

The timing, thus depriving the French of long weekends or days off, he is at least good for growth? "Sure, in theory, the more days worked, the more activity, purchases, consumption, etc.. There is an effect on the raw data, "said Vladimir Passeron, Division Chief of the quarterly to the INSEE. In fact, France will work more during the month of May, which did not include bank holiday week, the production system will run more than a year so classic.

But it will not be visible in the figures for second quarter growth to be published this summer.Because the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies anticipates and smooth the data "in the discipline of working days" and structural effects, says the expert.

Three Saturdays worth a weekday

This correction is not performed when calculating annual growth. Therefore, the sum of the quarterly is not equivalent to the annual accounts! However, it should not be a macroeconomic impact on GDP 2011, relative to GDP 2010. Last year there were 254 days of the week (Monday-Friday) working, there will be only 253 this year. But if the May 1, 8 May 2011 and Christmas fall on a Sunday, the holiday fell on a Saturday in 2010. Gold worked three Saturdays "compensate" a weekday break, says a study by the INSEE.

The timetable "should not impact the annual growth between 2010 and 2011," concludes INSEE.At best, it would have a positive impact of 0.06 percentage point of GDP, at worst a negative point of 0.06. Only the thickness of the line!

Nevertheless, there are years when the holidays can impact less significant. "The growth differential can be up to 1 tenth of a point or more, is Nicolas Bouzou, economist at Asterès. We also know that the years with few working days result in distributional effects across sectors, to the detriment of the industry by example and benefit from tourism. "That will not happen this year.

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The order of keys on computer keyboards is now the last vestige of the era of typewriters. In India, the last factory in the world still producing the devices on which generations of typists have damaged their nails, just down the curtain.

The Daily Star has revealed that, without controls, the group Godrej & Boyce, based in Bombay, not surprisingly, decided to cease production after more than half a century of production.The fault, of course, the irresistible rise of the computer, which has reduced from 50,000 units in 1990 to only 800 in 2010, the number of units produced annually by the conglomerate of the subcontinent.

The Indian government has given the coup de grace by deciding to gradually move to IT, to the chagrin of officials who say old type faster on a machine.

To liquidate the latest machines in stock, Godrej & Boyce shakes the rope speculation. "This is the last opportunity for fans of typewriters," said the Indian press one of the leaders of the group.

Accuracy before rushing to Mumbai: Most of them are intended for texts in Arabic.

Whether employers or unions, the measure does not satisfy anybody! As for companies with more than 50 employees, there is consternation: the premium required will be "a further complication for companies that create jobs in France", do we denounce the MEDEF. Where there is no lack of argument: "Businesses from 50 to 500 people are those shareholders who need to grow, it is firms that are missing in France, it is companies that need capital to pay."

The president of CroissancePlus Frederick Bedin, think "good on the merits, not the property on the form" of the measure, which denotes him as a "simplistic view of the company." It would be far "more beneficial for the development of growth, the State engages in a genuine and lasting reduction of payroll taxes, which would favor an increase in net wages of employees."

Conversely, in smaller companies, where the premium will not be binding, but rather relief. CGPME even speaks of "good news" while deploring that "a small business of 51 employees distributed dividends is subject to the same constraints as a global company in the CAC 40!".

As usual, the unions showed their displeasure – with varying degrees of virulence, however. Francois Chereque, secretary general of the CFDT, called a "mistake" the principle of a mandatory premium in large firms, certain that it would "divide the employees, limiting wage increases, and constitute a" gift, a windfall "to the employers who receive relief cash advance. His counterpart at FOR, Jean-Claude Mailly, spoke of a "announcement effect", lamenting a "gas factory" even though "full of employees will have nothing.""The smartest bosses may repurchase shares to avoid n'augmentent dividends," he said on LCI.

"No obligation of result"

CGT denounced "improvisation" and "attempts electioneering" government facing a "real problem of purchasing power." She also regrets that there is "no obligation of result" of negotiations.

The CFTC has "welcomed" the Government's concern for an "equitable sharing of the wealth produced in the business," but hoped that "all companies" are concerned. As for the CFE-CGC, she has "taken note of the will" of the government, preventing it deems appropriate time the effects of this "yet another mechanism that can be used to plug the holes in the racket of sharing value added. " He concluded: "Nothing replaces the perennial wage measures".

This is a first in the middle of the car. Citroen has launched this week the first site of services for organizing trips run by a manufacturer. Citroen named Multicity, this site allows you to organize the weekend and stay long term, buy a ticket or train and book a hotel. Not to mention renting a vehicle anywhere in France for a period ranging from several hours to several days.

The site has nothing to envy to the travel-sncf.com or Expedia.fr. The manufacturer has indeed relied on industry experts as GoVoyages and lastminute.com to set up his project. Result: the services provided are as complete as those of operators."Whether it's a journey of everyday life, a professional meeting or organize your holiday in France or abroad, with Citroen Multicity build your route from door to door and book immediately" Can we read in the section of the site presentation.

Competitive Rates

From bus to subway, boat to the aircraft via the bike, Citroën offers a search engine to find the best route "custom tailored to your budget and your schedule." The manufacturer also promises very competitive rates for car rental (from 22 € per day and for only 14 euros, our valet pound down to you "). Train tickets are those of the SNCF, Eurostar or Thalys trains and flights covering 1000 destinations. For hotels, the offer is very wide, with 60,000 establishments proposed worldwide.

The brand customers enjoy perks such as buying online mapping to update their GPS or download a map of speed cameras.

Operation Diversification

With this remote reservation terminal, Citroën is clearly the turn of diversification. This strategy had already materialized with the launch of a site rental vehicles in September. But a few months of summer vacation, the manufacturer has chosen to go further: "Today, travel is not always easy and it requires a good knowledge of the various means of transport possible to achieve these trips, "says the manufacturer in the columns of Le Parisien on Saturday.

Citroen still promises to expand its range "in time" to "promote mobility. Objective: to become profitable within two years to come. "

Pressure is mounting on motorists: Never pump prices have been near record levels in June 2008 when a barrel familiarly the bar $ 150. According to the latest statistics of the administration, the super unleaded 95 (SP 95) averaged at 1.467 euros per liter, 2 cents of the historic peak of 1.488 euro. The diesel has a little more leeway: it now stands at 1.284 euro, against 1.438 in 2008.

These prices can be surprising because the Brent crude in London is changing these days around $ 100, far below the peaks here are two and a half years. However, in the meantime, the dollar has appreciated against the euro, highlighting the pump the impact of soaring crude prices. Over the next few weeks, most experts believe that prices could still rise.They are based primarily on the wave of tensions in the Middle East set to continue.

For now, fuel consumption, which covers about half the French demand for oil has not yet been severely impacted. According to figures released Friday by the French Union of Petroleum Industries (Ufip), it rose 0.2% last year, the increase in diesel sales (+2.1%) to address the decline in supplies Gasoline (- 6.2%). It is the fruit of dieselisation French fleet, with more than 70% of new registrations.

After two losses, the Detroit show this year symbolizes the victorious return of the Big Three, the Big Three U.S. automakers. In 2009, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have been brought to its knees by the financial crisis, after years of abysmal losses. Two of them, GM and Chrysler, have gone through a bankruptcy and owe their salvation to the billions of dollars in aid the U.S. government.

This year, the mood should be much more festive in Detroit, as reasons to be optimistic are real. After collapsing in 2009 to its lowest level since 1983, the U.S. car market is again on the rise for the first time since 2005: 11.6 million cars were sold last year, a rebound 11%.In 2011, experts predict volumes between 12.5 and 13.5 million cars, far, however, nearly 17 million copies in 2005.

Factories closed, wages reduced

GM has made for his return to Wall Street, in November, the most spectacular IPO in history, raising more than $ 23 billion. Photo credits: David Zalubowski / ASSOCIATED PRESS