Angela Merkel to hold the said it is preparing to receive the head of state in Europe who feel most attached to the euro. If it should remain a single country in the single currency – strange paradox – it would be France. While London bookmakers have stopped betting on an output of Greece, both in their likelihood seems strong (4 against 1), France is the country where the probability of abandonment of the single currency seems most low, with a score of 20 against 1. Our risk of secession is smaller than that of Germany (14/1) and a fortiori of Spain (12/1).

Without being scientific opinion of the bookmakers perfectly expresses the historical reality. It was François Mitterrand, who had pressured Kohl to waive its Deutsche Mark, symbol of German success, and not vice versa. And now the fear of Germany going it alone is not negligible.

The Judgment of Solomon

This is certainly not an asset but to enter a negotiation being as attached to the object of bargaining. In the judgment of Solomon, the true mother would rather give up her child rather than see it cut in half as we offered him. Lionel Jospin had experienced to his cost in June 1997, when he requested a trustee appoint a growth component in the Stability Pact. This was done in terms of the Treaty of Amsterdam – the city from the top – where you added "and growth", a mere rhetorical flourish. And a few months later, when a new record for employment in Luxembourg, the "socialist left" vain declare that "social Europe deserves a euro crisis," the threat was empty guaranteed cash advance.

This time the chances of reaching a "compromise" in the words of Pierre Moscovici, the campaign manager Francois Hollande, are much greater. Unlike the summer of 1997 where she had already begun a recovery, the European economy is in recession. Face a fundamental problem that it does not deny, Angela Merkel has also taken the lead. Of the six points it offers (see above) are the "projects bonds" financing investment projects. The kinship is more than semantics with the "Eurobonds", aimed at pooling, in part, public debts … and that excludes Berlin.

In the French camp, Michel Sapin, a bright future ministry, just recognized the dangers of renewed worsening deficits and debt. This concession to the Chancellor will she meet up at any price schedule of deficit reduction, or do we give to the freeze?

At stake is the reputation of a "Holland, Roosevelt again for Europe", the socialist economist Thomas Piketty, apostle of tax benefits, strives to accredit Urbi et Orbi. But do not forget that New Deal also includes structural reforms. This component is part of the negotiation that engages in Europe, as evidenced by the fact-finding mission that has just visited Brussels to Paris, as well as in eleven other European economies face obvious problems of competitiveness. Its findings will be formally presented on May 30

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The tone has hardened in the conflict between marine companies between Corsica and the mainland. The strike called by the CGT Wednesday to demand the application of the same social laws to all shipping companies, including foreign competition, making these runs was repeated on Sunday. This movement was caused Saturday "anger" of the direction of SNCM (Société Nationale Corse Méditerranée), 66% subsidiary of Veolia Transdev. The South (ex-CMN) is also affected by the strike. The movement "is followed at 28% to SNCM, a little more to the CMN, but enough to prevent smuggling," said the leadership of SNCM.

The nine SNCM ships and the South (ex-CMN) assigned to services between Marseille, Nice and Corsica are therefore remained docked for the fifth consecutive day, some 13,000 passengers were affected since the conflict began. Many of them have changed their return by traveling on ships of the private company Corsica Ferries, Italian flag, which normally circulate. SNCM has expressed "outrage" because "this movement supposed to fight our competitors strengthens the contrary, beyond their expectations." Moreover, the director of the company for Corsica, Pierre-André Giovannini, expressed his "regret for the inconvenience to our customers, passengers and cargo carriers, and this new blow to the island economy." He said over the weekend of May 8 Bridge is "one of the most important pre-season tourist" for Corsica.

Political parties challenged

The striker will meet again on Monday to decide on the following movement. "So is the future of thousands of jobs in our profession," says the union in a statement savings account payday advance. The strike comes as the ferries market suffered the turmoil of the crisis in recent years. Thus, since its passage in the private sector in 2006, SNCM has almost always been in the red. She was accused of operating losses of 15 million euros last year. Especially, the CGT sailors had already scored a major coup a year ago by stopping work for 47 days, never seen to SNCM. If it were to get bogged down, however this new strike is unlikely to change the trajectory of the group. The direction of the SNCM instead reiterated its "determination to rapidly modernize and evolve the company, in all areas." Last March, the chief executive, Marc Dufour, warned that SNCM would have to separate at least two car ferries and 800 employees in 1617.

The case quickly took a political turn. Friday, a trade union delegation was received in Paris by representatives of different parties, including the national secretary of the PCF, Peter Lawrence. His party has tabled in the Senate on March 22 a bill to require all companies operating in France the first entry in register of ships, making them subject to French social laws. Sailors CGT also met the spokesman of the Socialist Party, Benoît Hamon, who is, according to the union, "clearly in favor of the adoption of this law," and a consultant Francois Hollande. In Marseille, finally, a delegation was received by the federation UMP.

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The Japanese video game just accused its first loss since its IPO. Nintendo has been hit by a sharp decline in sales of its game console Wii aging room, to 9.8 million units, against 15.1 million for the previous fiscal year, ended March 31, 2011. In addition, sales of handheld 3DS are slightly below expectations at 13.5 million copies. Especially to reach this level of sales, a net reduction in price has been paid on this handheld that broadcasts stereoscopic images without needing to wear glasses. The free 3D has not generated the expected benefits. Instead, it was the source of problems.

In total, sales fell 36% to € 6.4 billion for fiscal year 2011-2012, which just ended. And the operating loss of 37.3 billion yen (370 million) over the period.

Recover the revenue, and return to profitability

Nevertheless, Satoru Iwata, Nintendo's CEO, is betting on a recovery in activity. Performance should not regain their 2010 level, however: the turnover is expected to rise by 26%. In addition, the group is betting on a return to profitability.

The key to the recipe for recovery is called "Wii U", the new generation of console gaming lounge, which combines a touch screen console. It should be presented in its final version in June, at the show E3 video games in Los Angeles. Combined with the lower prices of 3DS allegedly curbed by lower production costs, the group should reach nearly 200 million net profit for the fiscal year that just started.

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The CEO of Geodis would flip-flop. According to Libération on Monday, the freight subsidiary of SNCF should ultimately maintain its takeover offer Sernam. "I say again very clearly that we have made an offer with the intention to resume Sernam. [...] We will present in court Tuesday, "assured the head of Geodis, Pierre Blayau.

These comments contrast with those held this weekend in the columns of the Sunday newspaper. Pierre Blayau there considered "not dramatic" the hypothesis of a carrier's bankruptcy. And remember that Geodis accompanied its takeover offer on two conditions.

The first, on the € 642 million illegal aid demanded by Brussels, has been fulfilled. The European Commission agreed Wednesday that the buyer does not inherit Sernam the repayment obligation. But the second, concerning the financial health of the carrier and the state of its cash, however would default. Geodis claimed that Sernam to work only for 30 to 45 days, which would require a cash of about 30 million euros.

Government pressure

Earlier in the week, Pierre Blayau, who considers the financial position of Sernam very poor, had signified to the unions that the recovery was compromised. "It made us realize that it will not be able to maintain its offer," explained Alain told AFP Wednesday Delpuech CGT carrier. According to Libération, Pierre Blayau has even said that the resumption of Sernam could "endanger jobs at Geodis."

For the newspaper, citing several sources, only pressure from the government would explain the reversal of Geodis. "The Elysee has called this weekend for Blayau maintains its offer," says a source close to release the file.

The transport minister, Thierry Mariani, has so far invested actively in this matter. The effect of the liquidation of an enterprise of 1441 employees on the eve of the presidential election is considered disastrous. The Commercial Court of Nanterre travel Tuesday its decision on the future of Sernam.

Groupama, Peugeot, Veolia … Many major brands have recently announced a willingness to reduce or completely cut their investments in sports marketing. Yet this phenomenon remain marginal. This is certainly what seems to believe Sporsora, the association of those involved in sports economics, which will publish March 29 at the second conference of the economy of Sport *, the results of its study on the sponsorship of companies.  

Dubbed "Sport in corporate strategy: vision and perception" and carried on the Internet in February 5000 with a major French advertisers file, it brings together the experiences of sponsoring 150 largest advertisers in the Hexagon.

The confidence shown by the marks in the virtues of sports marketing is clear: a large majority of them (68%), in the sponsoring of a component as "full" of their business strategy, and 80% a specific budget dedicated to the promotion of their fame. Better: in times of crisis, and at the hour of streamlining budgets, 61% of advertisers are predicting an increase or stability of these budgets, and 66% of those who already use these modes of communication they retain their confidence, despite the crisis pay day advance.

Distinction sponsorship and patronage

Two thirds of respondents say also that in times of difficulties, it is important to maintain or strengthen sponsorship and patronage. Indeed, 76% say that these channels are different from other types of expressions. Last important lesson of the study, at a time when the concept of return on investment becomes more important as advertisers well distinguished sponsorship sponsorship. For 60% of respondents, the first concept is clearly seen as a mode of communication, and for 62% of them, patronage is identified as an expression of citizenship.

* Dedicated to "The economics of sport in times of crisis, to new growth models." March 29 from 8:30 to 16:30 at the MEDEF headquarters in Paris.

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The main presidential candidates did not wait for the election to take one of their promises. Determined to fight for the Made in France, they sent their activists dressed in Finistere. In January, the campaign manager Francois Bayrou has commanded Armor Lux 5000 T-shirts.

Since then, Young Pop, the UMP and, more recently, the PS bought at MSY Finisterian its famous knitwear knitted cotton. In total, 17,000 Armor Lux has sold T-shirts in the colors of political parties. "From the mesh knitting, dyeing, through cutting and making up the printing of the logo, everything is done here in Quimper," said Jean-Guy Le Floch, CEO of the SMEs of 550 employees, which distributes its products under the Armor Lux, Land and Sea and Bermuda.

Riding this wave of local purchasing, the leader readying ammunition for the coming weeks. He launched the production of gray fabric needed to manufacture 100,000 pieces. "Until the second round of the presidential election, our online t-shirt will turn right", says he. The price difference is however quite sensitive: depending on the model, Armor Lux sells between 7 and 5.50 euros each, while made in China is on the market at around € 1.20.

60% of production is delocalized

In 2011, the company achieved a turnover of 82 million euros, against 75 the previous year. "We develop our downtown retail network a hundred square meters, and around the stores between 700 and 1 000 m². Undoubtedly, consumers want authentic products, "said Jean-Guy Le Floch. On the first two months of the year, sales to the public increased by 12%. Armor Lux has forty outlets and will open in the second half of four new stores, including one of 1,500 m² in Plaisir (Yvelines). A test for the Breton brand, wishing, after creating three stores in Paris, make its products known to Parisians.

This growth in business volume also comes from major public commissions won by the manufacturer. After the Post Office in 2003 and Aéroports de Paris and SNCF, the national police, the Regional Council of Brittany and Truffault Armor Lux entrust today to achieve the work clothes of their employees. Result: this sector represents 40% of the activity. But the logic of increasing prices dragged down leads Jean-Guy Le Floch to outsource nearly 60% of production in Morocco, Tunisia, Romania and Bulgaria. The presidential candidates are notified.

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One of two blast furnaces Site Florange ArcelorMittal, stopped for two months, should eventually go back soon. According to Nicolas Sarkozy, invited this Thursday morning France Inter, the steel group had decided to resume its activity in the second half of 2012. "Florange is 2667 employees including 500 in a situation of losing their jobs" if the second blast furnace will not restart, said the head of state.

The Chairman of ArcelorMittal, Lakshmi Mittal, Nicolas Sarkozy met yesterday for "a long working meeting," would also committed $ 17 million in Florange, two million for the restart of the site and 15 million for its modernization. "Seven million euros will be invested in a new gasometer and eight million to develop new products in Florange, for without going into detail, the auto market," said Nicolas Sarkozy. ArcelorMittal has confirmed this information in the morning, however, suggesting that restart "from the perspective of an economic recovery."

Chain liquid always threatened

The Indian group has repeatedly in recent weeks that the closure of the Florange was only temporary, and will ensure "maintaining activity in Lorraine." In a context of declining demand for steel, the group's director in France, Hervé Bourrier, however, lamented last week that the Florange site is less efficient than those of Fos or Dunkirk. And stated that even if you restart the site in the coming months whether to continue or not the activity would be reviewed each quarter, "depending on the backlog."

The new announcement leaves employees skeptical. "Nicolas Sarkozy announces investment for cockerie, which feeds the Dunkirk site, and for automotive production. But these two pathways are not endangered, unlike the liquid stream, "says Patrick Auzanneau CFDT union delegate. Questioned by AFP, MP PS Moselle, Michel Liebgott, advanced further than the two million investment announced for restarting the blast furnace were already known. "They were negotiated by the state in compensation it pays partial unemployment since the beginning of the year," said MP.

Ulcos project

The announcement last week of a state investment of 150 million euros was not better received. "This is something that has already been said for months, it's related to Ulcos project", explained to AFP Wednesday an official of the CFDT. The salvation for over 2600 employees, however, could come from this project, whose objective is to produce steel with less CO2. With a total cost of around 600 million euros, its viability depends on the decision of the European Commission for its funding. Arbitration should not take place before September.

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This is the new sensation of the Web. Pinterest is a social network dedicated to the passions of its users. Launched just two years ago in California, the service meets today nearly 12 million unique visitors per month according to Comscore. He topped the 10 million users faster than any independent site before him. This performance earned him today to have the attention of technophiles warned, brands and websites.

Atypical among rising stars in the Web, they are housewives, brides and others have cross stitch who rushed on the first Pinterest. Its advantage: a simple and aesthetic. Its members "pin on" a click of fashion images, decorating and cooking, gleaned from the Web, on a "virtual corkboard". Clicking on the picture, the user is returned to the original site. These collections can be shared with other users who sign up as a Twitter following. In short, the Twitter blog simplified by reducing the notes to short messages of 140 characters and Twitter today Pinterest simplifies by replacing the text and images.

The founders of Pinterest, Ben Silberman, Evan Sharp and Paul Sciarra, is "to connect the world through the objects they find interesting." While services like Facebook play on social ties between people, the founders of Pinterest believe that "a book, a toy or a recipe may be a common bond between two people." The two services are complementary, Pinterest offering content to share with relations built on Facebook paydayloans. Since the launch of an application for Facebook in January, Pinterest saw its daily audience from Facebook to rise by 60%.

15.8 minutes per day

Above all, playing the card of interests, Pinterest wowed an audience engaged and quality. A study by the agency Modea, two thirds of users are women. 28% of members belong to a household whose annual income exceeds $ 100,000. They spend an average of 15.8 minutes per day on Pinterest, is already more than Facebook (12.1 minutes).

For brands, this is a gold mine. Overseas, more than a hundred have created a page on Pinterest. They will present fashion collections (Gap), recipe ideas depending on the season (Whole Foods) or albums more unexpected, like the collection of "literary tattoos" assembled by the publisher Random House. In referring to commercial sites, collected images generate sales and, potentially, affiliate income for Pinterest. This is the strategy already chosen by the competitor Pinterest, TheFancy.com.

Revenue side, there is no urgency for Pinterest which raised $ 27 million in October 2011, bringing to $ 37.5 million in funds raised since its inception. These rounds were an opportunity to enter the capital of eminent members of the "PayPal mafia" like Max Levchin, the cofounder of the online payment service, and Kevin Hartz, one of its investors.

New episode in the folder Veolia Environnement. Its CEO, Mr. Frérot, is on trial. Borloo could indeed take control group of utilities and largest private employer in France. According to Les Echos, hostilities between the former boss of Veolia now head of EDF, and the runner Proglio Antoine Frérot, arrived at the helm of Veolia end of 2009, could be decided during the next meeting of the Board of Directors on February 29. Following this meeting promises to be choppy, several administrators of the group would seek a dismissal of the CEO. Conducted by a sling Proglio which intends to show that he still holds the strings of the group he led for many Annes before moving to EDF. According to Liberation, Proglio have discussed the replacement of Mr. Frérot by Borloo with Nicolas Sarkozy on February 12 when the two men met to discuss the rescue by EDF of Photowatt. The daily added that "history seems to have really played Tuesday, Feb. 14, on the plane. Proglio and Sarkozy publicly come to seal the resumption of Photowatt. The company is saved and Isère Proglio intends to turn the matter Veolia on the carpet. "

"I am driven by two major groups"

However, the facts disputed by the Minister for Ecology Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet. "I was on the plane, there were no apartments and there is no discussion on this topic. So that's false, "she said. But surrounding the ouster of Mr. Frérot to head the group, the spokesman of the candidate Nicolas Sarkozy, however, said she could not "confirm or deny" the information.

For its part, Borloo does not dispute some meetings with "people of Veolia," said Liberation. The daily notes that "at least five members of the board, fully identified, reportedly met Borloo, Thursday and Friday." The applicant further states that the daily Veolia is "a company that I know well as a former minister. They have problems and if I believe what is said, there are a number of shareholders who believe the group needs a class to his head. " The question is whether Borloo could be this character. For now, the former minister is cautious and says that "the only thing I can say is that now I am driven by two major international groups that are not Veolia. And contacts with them are very advanced. "

Other names circulating

But other names than that of former Minister of Ecology would be approached to head the former Generale des Eaux: Augustin de Romanet, CEO of the Caisse des Depots, "but denies the entourage contact, "according to Les Echos, Jacques Veyrat, the former head of Louis Dreyfus and Daniel Bouton, former CEO of Societe Generale.

The poor performance of the group explain, in part, the disallowance of certain directors of the group. Last year, Veolia has indeed passed successively two profit warnings and should show a loss of 200 million for fiscal 2011, according Challenges. The plunge on the stock exchange, which has lost nearly 60% of its value in one year, also feeds the sling administrators. This morning, the title company specializing in water, waste treatment and transport loses more than 4% to about 9 euros, the biggest drop in the CAC 40. The flagship index of the Paris ahead of his 0.6% to 3455 points.

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Visa Europe and MasterCard compete imagination to make their cards more attractive. Thus, Visa deploys a program of benefits for some 4.2 million Visa cardholders Prime. They now benefit from price reductions in a list of partner stores (Sephora, Lapeyre, Opinion …) by simply presenting a coupon to download on the Internet (visa.fr). April 1, this program will be expanded to Lenotre, ready-to-wear or Bensimon to Nature and Discovery. "Historically, the world of credit cards was rather that of the travel and leisure. Now the goal is to approach the everyday consumer, "says Catherine Soubirou, partnership manager at Visa Europe. MasterCard, meanwhile, has developed an online shopping mall which also offers discounts to holders of the Gold card.

But for the most prestigious cards, these benefits are not enough. The 150,000 holders of a Visa Infinite card will then be offered, to April 1, new services very chic. As Jet Taxi, which for 2200 euros an hour, take four people in Le Bourget to the destination of their choice. Or the opportunity to attend events are difficult to access (the Grand Prix of Monaco Formula 1, the Cannes Film Festival …).

Extensions guarantees

Open doors to places or events was the confidential trademark of the very VIP Centurion Card from American Express. The same idea will wow now the holders of other cards. MasterCard has already embarked on this path, imagining private parties for its Platinum card holders who dream of visiting a quiet art exhibitions or attend concerts circle Payday advance. A taste for the Parisians, what awaits them when Paris will join the Priceless Cities program, launched by MasterCard in New York last summer and launched from London and Toronto. It offers cardholders Platinum – but for some offers, a Gold – privileges: previews or priority seating for events to, in the highest rated restaurants

.

"Exclusive offers, which consumers aspire today," says Francois Gandon, marketing manager of MasterCard France. Thus, the card interest is not limited to insurance they offer … even if they are perfected. Visa is for example to review his.  

The foreign assistance was not playing in the event of natural disaster? This exclusion has been removed. Children of divorced or separated parents received guarantees only if the parent traveling with the cardholder? They are now protected even if they move without him. "The goal is to avoid maximum disappointment of our customers, guarantees on misunderstood or exclusions that surprise them," says Emmanuel Robert, head of product offers from Visa Europe France.

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