Europe

We tend to over-emphasize personalities in our politics especially in Presidential campaigns. It matters who's President, of course, but our national elections are the product of much larger economic and social forces. more »

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Robin Hood popped up all across America last week. more »

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Europe's in crisis. Unemployment is at a fifteen-year high after climbing for ten straight months, thanks to the austerity measures imposed on it by conservative leaders in France, Germany, and the international financial community. more »

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“EMPLOYEES OF U.S. SUBSIDIARIES OF GERMAN COMPANIES, ESPECIALLY T-MOBILE USA, SHOULD BE ABLE TO EXERCISE THEIR UNRESTRICTED RIGHT TO OPT FOR ORGANIZED REPRESENTATION IN THE COMPANY WITHOUT FEAR.”

In an ad in the NY Times yesterday, 11 leading German legal scholars and politicians called on Deutsche Telekom and other German companies to stop using American-style union-hating tactics at their American subsidiaries. In particular they asked these companies to “end all collaboration with U.S. consultants who advise employers how to fight employee representation.”

Remarkable

What is remarkable about this letter is the difference between European and American attitudes toward working people and labor rights. In Europe it's just a given that working people have dignity and respect. To Europeans it is shocking to see a company try to fight against its own workers! In the US working people face an atmosphere of constant intimidation, always pushing for lower wages, cuts in benefits, longer working hours, and subservience.

The letter speaks for itself, please read it: (click for original)

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Conservatives just hate Europe. They think the U.S. should be less like Europe. It's a thing with them.

So, following along with this, there was a big headline over at the conservative website Drudge Report the other day: "Even Obama's New $100 bill looks European". more »

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2009 marks the third year of industrialisation and growth for the nascent offshore wind sector, with a lot more to come:

Source: EWEA - The European offshore wind industry
key trends and statistics 2009 (PDF)

With just under 600MW installed in 2009, this is just under 10% of the wind capacity built in Europe in the year, but it's a sign of things to come as 3.5GW are already in construction and another 16GW are fully permitted.

More below [with specific comments on the US situation added]. Part of the Wind power series.

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