The Central Election Commission confirmed Saturday that Navalny had registered as a mayoral candidate. Navalny has been nominated by the opposition Republican Party of Russia (RPR-Parnas). On Friday, he was chosen as the only candidate from the party with 88 voices out of the party’s 98 Moscow delegates. As Navalny will be balloting as a party member, he won’t be obliged to collect 73,000 voters’ signatures, but will have to obtain the signatures of 110 municipal deputies of the City of Moscow. The opposition blogger has become the sixth candidate for Moscow mayor. Among the first five there are several businessmen, lesser-known politicians and a rock musician. Leading Russian economist Sergey Guriev, a former dean at the New Economic School who fled the country in April, has agreed to write an economic program for mayoral candidate Navalny. In his keynote speech Navalny maintained that decentralization of public authority is priority task of his program. He also promised to fight inappropriate spending of budget funds and to increase the quality of the municipal health program. In addition, he also promised to further develop housing and communal services and to achieve “the real solution to migration problems.” Anti-corruption blogger Aleksey Navalny is currently attending court hearings, charged with embezzling state funds. He has pleaded not guilty, claiming the case is “politically motivated.” The early Moscow mayor elections will take place on September 8, while previously they were set for 2015. Acting Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, appointed to the position by then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in 2010, resigned on June 5 in order to force an early election, with hopes to return to the post as an elected, not appointed, mayor. President Vladimir Putin accepted his resignation and appointed him interim mayor. Sobyanin is considered the leading candidate for the election. … Read More
Obamacare to increase healthcare premiums in California up to 146 percent
New data shows that premium rates would only decrease for small employer plans, but that the rates charged to individuals will increase, according to Peter Lee, the executive director of the Covered California, the state’s new health insurance exchange. State officials last week boasted that its version of Obamacare would serve as a “home run for consumers in every region of California,” Lee explained. But the numbers generate a different narrative – one that depicts the flaws of the Affordable Care Act. Due to its overwhelming number of regulations and mandates, Obamacare may increase the cost of health insurance for those who purchase it on their own, argues Forbes contributor Avik Roy. A 25-year-old non-smoking male, for example, is given only the catastrophic healthcare plan as the cheapest option. This Covered California plan has monthly premiums averaging $184. The second-cheapest plan, called the “bronze” plan, costs $205 a month. In comparison, the median cost of the five cheapest healthcare plans for the same individual was $92 per month in 2013. For the typical 25-year-old Californian male buying his own insurance, premiums will be 100 to 123 percent more expensive when Obamacare is fully implemented, Lee told Forbes. Californians over the age of 30 do not have the option to acquire the cheapest plan, and must instead purchase the “bronze” or more expensive packages. A non-smoking 40-year-old on the “bronze” plan will on average be required to pay $261 a month. Overall, individual-market premiums would increase by 64-146 percent, and an average of 116 percent. The numbers starkly contradict the statements made by state officials and President Obama himself. Earlier this month, the president said that “whenever insurance premiums go up, you’re being told it’s because of Obamacare – even though there’s no evidence that that’s the case.” Economist Paul Krugman, a New York Times columnist, on Monday published an op-ed in which he insisted that premiums in the Golden State would decline in 2014. “Well, the California bids are in — that is, insurers have submitted the prices at which they are willing to offer coverage on the state’s newly created Obamacare exchange,” he wrote in the Times. “And the prices, it turns out, are surprisingly low. A handful of healthy people may find themselves paying more for coverage, but it looks as if Obamacare’s first year in California is going to be an overwhelmingly positive experience.” The Covered California exchange data contradicts the statements made by Obamacare supporters who believe premiums will not increase. In a press release from last week, Covered California wrote that “it is difficult to make a direct comparison of these rates to existing premiums in the commercial individual market.” But if the analysis made by Lee and Forbes author Avik Roy are true, then healthy Californians obtaining their own health insurance could see heightened costs, especially in the San Francisco Bay Area, San Diego and Orange counties. … Read More
Russia’s leading economist explains he fled the country after being investigated
Guriev, 41, left Russia on April 30 and is currently in Paris. Earlier in the week he resigned from his job as Head of the New Economic School. For the first time since his exile, the prominent economist spoke about the reasons behind his decision in an e-mail interview with The New York Times published on Friday. He said that after law enforcers searched his office and home and demanded that he handed over loads of documents and 5 years-worth emails, he was worried that they were preparing to prosecute him. “I won’t go back even if there is a small chance of losing my freedom. I have not done anything wrong and do not want to live in fear,” the newspaper cites Guriev as saying. The economist explains the investigation centres around a 2011 report he co-authored, which contained criticism of Mikhail Khodorkovsky’s trial. The expert opinion was requested by the then President Medvedev. Investigators allege authors of the report might have received funding from a company established by Yukos, the company once owned by Khodorkovsky. News of Guriev’s flight from Russia raised speculation that the investigators’ special attention towards him could be inspired by his support of the opposition. President Putin’s press office dismisses any such rumors, saying the Kremlin never wanted to put pressure on the economist. “He is a well-known economist in Russia and enjoys well-deserved recognition… He criticizes many of the things done by the government, some of the economic policies, but as a scientist and an economist he has every right to do that,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary said as cited by Kommersant daily. Guriev’s departure is regretted by Aleksey Kudrin, Russia’s ex-Finance Minister and long-time Putin ally. “If Sergey Guriev leaves New Economic School and does not return to Russia, that would damage the country’s economic science as well as Russian civil society,” Kudrin said on Twitter. Guriev filed his resignation from New Economic School earlier this week. The School’s board of directors announced his resignation on Thursday. The fugitive economist has left Moscow for Paris, where his wife and son have been living for several years. Guriev says he will be a visiting professor in the economics department at the Parisian Institut d’Etudes Politiques. On May 31, Guriev was re-elected to the board of state-controlled Sberbank. … Read More
Global markets fall on news from Fed, China PMI
The Nikkei turned out to be Thursday’s negative trendsetter leading the downward tendency in Asia. Weak Flash China PMI released on Thursday by HSBC and indicating a contraction in China’s manufacturing as well as late Wednesday’s remarks from the Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on the US bond buying program disappointed not just the Asian markets.Other major indicators in Asia fell as well with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng losing 2.5 percent, and South Korea’s Kospi dropping 1.2 percent. Markets in Australia, Thailand, Taiwan and Singapore also fell.European stocks traded significantly lower on Thursday, also reacting to the disappointing data from China and comments from the US Federal Reserve. The Stoxx Europe 600 index slid 1.9 percent to 304.65, deflecting down after closing at the highest level in five years on Wednesday.Russian markets are also sharply in the red on Thursday. MICEX is losing as much as 2.93 percent, while RTS is down more than 3.5 percent. This is also due to the steep fall in the oil prices. Chinese government’s attempts to boost domestic consumption in the world’s second biggest economy has finally caught up with recession-hit Europe, uncertainty in the US and deflation-driven Japan.HSBC said its Purchasing Managers Index fell to its lowest level since October slipping below analysts’ expectations to 49.6 in May from 50.4 in April. Figures below 50 points indicate that activity is contracting. Analysts forecast a decline to 50.3.”It’s no secret. The true picture is that China’s export sector is slowing down, and its manufacturing sector is also slowing down. That means the trade surplus is almost gone,” Francis Lun, chief economist at GE Oriental Financial Group told the BBC.Wednesday’s testimony by the Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke added to the negative sentiment after the US central bank chief said the Fed could decide on pulling out of its bond buying program over the next few meetings should the US job market shows “real and sustainable progress”.The minutes of the Fed’s last meeting revealed that “a number” of officials’ support pulling out of the Quantitative Easing efforts as early as June. The Federal Reseve will hold its next meeting on June 18-19. … Read More
‘Lean hospital a sign of Swedish welfare reform’
A Stockholm hospital saved from closure by private health care providers has been hailed by the Economist as one of modern’s Sweden public-private success stories. … Read More
ECB to become chief euro bank supervisor
The European Banking Authority was set up in 2011 to integrate rules across the EU and has secured a new supervisory function. “We want to know what kinds of banks we supervise,” Joerg Asmussen, an ECB executive board member said. Draft legislation says the ECB must conduct a “comprehensive assessment, including a balance-sheet assessment,” of any banks it will directly supervise. By gaining a new supervisory role, it consolidates more influence in lending decisions, which could make loans more subjective than objective. Chief economist of the IMF, Oliver Blanchard, has long warned against the danger of central banks becoming too powerful. Blanchard, and others, warn the more power the central banks wield, the more difficult it will be to separated from politics. “Being supervisor allows the ECB to discriminate between zombie banks and those that are sound and make sure that its lending targets those banks that lend to the economy – not to the zombies,” said Daniel Gros, from the Center for European Policy Studies, Reuters reported. Since the recession, the roles of major central banks, including the ECB, the US Federal Reserve, and the Bank of England, have greatly increased in providing banking supervision and oversight and been an anchor of recovery. The ECB foots the bill for a large portion of the European financial system, last year it provided 1 trillion euros of cheap three-year loans to struggling banks.Stress test delays The new supervisory role will delay planned banking regulation stress tests, which evaluate and diagnosed the capabilities of lenders. The last stress test was performed in 2011, and were highly criticized for not properly identifying non-robust lenders. Eight banks failed the examination in 2011 with a combined deficit of 2.5 billion euros ($3.2 billion) according to Bloomberg. … Read More
June 6-9: Bilderberg Meeting behind Closed Doors. On the Agenda: Domestic Spying, Diffusing Social Protests, War on Syria and Iran
Once annually they meet face-to-face. They plot strategy to exploit the world’s riches. They want them for themselves. … Read More
