Cumbre volcano, in the Galapagos Islands, spewed rivers of lava and sent columns of steam seven kilometers (four miles) into the air on Friday, officials said.
Cumbre is on the unpopulated island of Fernandina, one of the Galapagos Islands, 1,000 kilometers (625 miles) off the coast of Ecuador, which are a major tourist attraction. The volcano is 1,483 meters (4,865 feet) high.
Lava rushing into the sea generated plumes of steam, according to Hugo Yepes, director of the Ecuador Geophysical Institute.
"We are watching the direction of the lava flow to determine if there is any threat to tourist areas," Yepes told Radio Quito.
"A visible column of steam, ash and gasses is rising about seven kilometers high and two km wide and because of the northerly winds is being pushed toward the volcanoes of Isabel Island," he added.
He said the most recent eruption in the Galapagos was in 1998
#1
Another volcano has started erupting, this one is on the South Sandwich Islands. You are forgiven for not knowing they lie between the Falklands and Antartica.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/15/2005 15:32 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ask and ye shall receive:
BRUSSELS--Is the European "social model" doomed? It's a question that comes up with increasing frequency as unemployment across Western Europe has climbed into the double digits and economic growth has ground to a virtual halt across much of the Continent.
Updated GDP figures for the euro zone came out last week, and growth in the first quarter was a disappointing 0.5%. Last month both the European Commission and the European Central Bank cut their annual growth forecasts for the euro zone to 1.6% from 2%, and that ugly word recession is in the air.
The European Union's much-ballyhooed "Lisbon Agenda"--which was supposed to revive growth in Europe--was really not an agenda for reform at all. It was, instead, simply a statement of nice things the EU would like to see happen to the European economy to help it compete with the U.S.--such as raising employment levels, increasing R&D spending, and so on.
Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, almost none of those things have happened, and halfway through the 10-year timetable of "Lisbon," the European economy is in at least as bad a shape as it was when Lisbon was announced in 2000.
Given that Europe's streak of economic underperformance can now be measured in decades, perhaps a better question to ask is: Why does anyone think that a system of generous welfare benefits, high taxes and harsh restrictions on hiring and firing would ever produce anything like a dynamic, growing economy? Why does anyone assume that there is such a thing as a "European model," rather than just a collection of ill-conceived policies having a predictably depressing effect on the economy and job creation?
Of course, Europe did have growth, once. Indeed, for 25 years or so after World War II, European growth was something of an economic miracle, bringing countries like Germany out of hyperinflation and poverty into the first rank of world economies. Along with Germany, Britain, France and Italy rank among the world's biggest economies; and the European Union, considered as a whole, rivals the U.S. for the title of the world's largest economy.
In other words, per the conventional wisdom, Europe had low unemployment and high growth in the past, so it can again. Unfortunately, the argument is wrong. A fundamental change occurred in Europe between the salad days of the 1950s and '60s and today, and Europe never recovered. In a word, the 1970s happened.
In 1965, government spending as a percentage of GDP averaged 28% in Western Europe, just slightly above the U.S. level of 25%. In 2002, U.S. taxes ate 26% of the economy, but in Europe spending had climbed to 42%, a 50% increase. Over the same period, unemployment in Western Europe has risen from less than 3% to 8% today, and to nearly 9% for the 12 countries in the euro zone. These two phenomena are related; in a country with generous welfare benefits, rising unemployment increases government spending rapidly.
But here a third element enters the picture, creating a feedback loop that explains why the Continent will never regain the halcyon days of postwar growth. As spending goes up, higher taxes must follow to pay for those benefits. But those taxes, usually payroll taxes, must be collected from a shrinking number of workers as jobs are cut. This in turn increases the cost of labor and decreases the benefit of working rather than collecting unemployment or welfare checks. As Martin Baily, a former head of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers, has described, this can lead to a spiral of rising taxes and falling employment, especially when welfare payments are high, as they are in most of Western Europe.
The result is predictable--more jobs are lost, the tax base shrinks, and taxes must go up further to pay for yet more welfare benefits, making work less attractive and not working more attractive.
In the 1970s, unemployment went up everywhere in the developed world. But on the Continent, it never went down. Britain and the U.S. both saw major economic reforms in the early 1980s and subsequently recovered from the '70s. The Continent did not, and it's endured the pain of that lost decade ever since. As the nearby chart shows, growth has gone up a little at times, then back down, but unemployment in Continental Europe has remained stuck in a narrow range for three decades.
Western Europe jumped the track and fell into an economic ditch in the 1970s along with the rest of the world. But the Thatcher and Reagan reforms that pushed Britain and the U.S. back onto the rails were never tried on the Continent, and most of those countries have been spinning their wheels ever since.
Rather than ask whether the "model" is doomed, it would be better to question how it ever attained the status of a model at all. The welfare state worked in Europe for two decades because so few people needed it; growth was strong, employment high and actual benefits paid were low. When the world economy hit a speed bump following the collapse of the Bretton Woods arrangement in 1971, both government spending and unemployment went up, and the system of incentives and benefits now enshrined as the "European model" was tested and found wanting. The result is permanently higher unemployment and taxes, a nasty mix.
In the U.S. and the U.K., a combination of tax cuts, labor-market reforms and deregulation starting in the 1980s broke the downward spiral in which the Continent still finds itself. In the 1990s, the U.S. added welfare reform to the mix. Unfortunately, the prospects for Europe are not particularly bright right now. German unions--and even some members of the German government--have in recent weeks taken to denouncing American capitalists as "locusts" and "bloodsuckers." Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, perhaps the only politician in Europe who counts Ronald Reagan as a hero--and admits it--just had his coalition emasculated by special interests at home.
Sadly, it appears as if Europeans will be watching reruns of their own version of "That '70s Show" for years to come.
Mr. Carney is editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2005 15:36 Comments ||
Top||
#3
btw - I've never had any problems with WSJ/OP registration coming back to bite me in spam, etc.....
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2005 15:43 Comments ||
Top||
#4
Hmmm, '70's, high inflation, high unemployment, malaise - no wonder the Euro's like Jimmy Carter!
#5
Europe, or as the reality shows it already by Eurasia, will continue to falter and recede economically until or unless a more free market system is implemented. The welfare state is so entrenched in the Europe mindset that it will take almost a major catastrophe, either an economic downturn (recession/depression) or a terrorist strike on the order of 9/11, to give the people/peasants enough courage to demand a major change.
Europe is dying in demographic terms. With birthrates well below replacement, and combined with large immigration flow from Islamic countries, Europe will cease to be Western in very short number of decades (20 - 30yrs). The only hope is for the populations of these countries to demand their leadship develop some backbone and deal with the facts that are so plain to see...End welfare as they know it...
#6
(http://bugmenot.com/ is just the ticket. Quick and easy to use, usually gets you in, anon, in under 15 seconds.)
As far as the European economy goes, their troubles are even deeper than socialism, and go to the very root of their legal system: Roman (and Napoleonic) Law instead of Common Law. In this case, the assumption that "unless something is authorized by law, it is illegal", is just the opposite of the Common Law assumption, and just destroys innovation and initiative--two things growing economies need. Take something silly, for example, Pet Rocks. No law against them in the US, so if people want to buy them, okay. So hundreds of people are employed in finding them, packaging them, shipping them and processing payment. For rocks. But there is no way you could do that in continental Europe. The government would never *permit* you to sell rocks to people--it is nonsensical. So you would never hire hundreds of people and make millions of dollars, half of which is paid in taxes. Because some bureaucrat thinks it is a silly idea, *you* can't do it. Which kills many small businesses before they even start. Britain, on the other hand, has a leg up on the continent, since they are still to some degree under Common Law. So what holds them down is Brussels and Socialism alone, which is why they are doing better than most.
#9
The WSJ is wrong both on the cause of the Euro-malaise and when it started and frankly I'm surprised RBers would buy this piece of socialismisthecause PCism. The reality is that socialism (more properly welfarism) works (sort of) in small cohesive societies that characterised Europe until recently. One has only to look at Sweden over the last 50 years to know this is true. Up until the early 1990s Europe was achieving similar and many cases better productivity growth than the USA. Things started to go wrong about 10 years ago. While European 'harmonization' has increased in that period there hasn't been a significant increase in socialism. More socialism is clearly not the cause.
What changed was that their societies became progressively less cohesive as immigrant levels increased. Rather than the societies turning the immigrants into model Europeans. The immigrants are turning the societies more Algeria-like or where-ever else they came from. This is the cause of Europe's decline over the last 10 years or so.
Well, another problem that socialism has, even in small cohesive countries, is that it increases economic inertia. The transition from the industrial age to the post industrial age has been a real bummer for the Euro zone and for Japan for that matter (many parts of the US are having problems with it as well).
That's what we were handed for providing the defense of western Europe for 50 years. We subsidized non-defense efforts of the Euros and we got more non-defense efforts. If any real threat shows up, they no longer have either the resources or the will to face it. The French government talks tough about a European alternative, but the budget numbers never show up, nor will. Good luck boys, bye bye.
#12
phil_b: the deception of Sweden was that it was a country with not one economic system, socialism, but with socialism and capitalism. The socialist side kept spending more and more money until it could no longer support itself, even with obscene taxes, then it began to squeeze the capitalist side, that is, the Swedish armaments-export side, who had been exempt from the socialist tax structure. But the socialist side kept demanding more and more resources, until finally they decided to kill the golden goose by nationalizing the arms industry. This was the brainchild of Olaf Palme, who shortly thereafter discontinued that proposal with a bullet to his head. And though the official investigation proved it was a lone, madman assassin, others are not so sure. In any event, socialism has been on the decline in Sweden ever since, though leaving them, relativistically speaking, one of the poorest nations in Europe.
#13
IIRC, didn't Sweden's Volvo plants have something like 13% absenteeism every day for a while? Why bother to show up when your job's secure and you won't see much of your check anyway?
#16
This report clearly shows a trend reversal in the mid-1990s in productivity in Europe versus the USA. Since then Europe has got steadily less productive relative to the USA. The overalll EU figures mask the fact that this has occured almost exclusively in western European economies as the new EU economies to the east has got more productive. If socialism is the cause then we should find more socialism since the mid-90s. As Moose points out the trend has been away from socialism. If this trend is socialism related then we have to conclude less socialism causes declining productivity and hence wealth. Clearly the cause lies elsewhere.
#17
Contemplate these two contributing factors:
Germany: Reunification, since 1990.
France: Jacques Chirac, since 1995.
Posted by: Tom ||
05/15/2005 20:53 Comments ||
Top||
#18
phil b: the decline in socialism, more than anything else, has been a recognition of its failure and a stated desire to change. However, actual change has been very sluggish, as both the German and French leaders have been savaged for even their modest changes. Western Europe is still rife with socialism, and dreads competition with the East, where such things as the flat tax, limited worker compensations and loose regulation put intense pressure on the less efficient western economic regimes. You'll also note the unwillingness of the Frankenreich to submit to the economic controls they had earlier agreed to, wanting to continue spending beyond their means. But I agree that while socialism is a pestilence, it is just a symptom of a deeper philosophical problem that will hunt the continent for a long time, perhaps even dragging Britain down with it. That is the unwillingness of the elites to accept the notion that their power is derived from the governed--the people. The very idea that they *are* elites must be disposed. The EU Constitution is no place for petty bureaucratic rules, it should be a document of the people. Brief, concise and understandable by the man on the street. Rules for society that he can take home and post on a wall in a frame. Rules that do not define what government does, but what government is *forbidden* to do. Only when a man of humble origins, not just a Polytechnic graduate, can become a major political leader in Europe, will Europe really ever prosper. Imagine the outrage if such a proletarian tried to do that today.
#1
I usually stop reading about the point I see "echoes of Nazi..."
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2005 13:54 Comments ||
Top||
#2
I actually waded through it, and it's not as bad as the headline says. Although it doesn't say it in so many words, it puts the Nazis on the Left, where they belong, and notes the continuum of their propaganda with that of the current SDP/Green/[whatever the KPD renamed itself to].
WARSAW - Dozens of leaders from across Europe begin a two-day "Summit of European Unity" on Monday in the Polish capital to chart the future of the continent's oldest political organisation, the Roman Senate Council of Europe.
Since the end of the Cold War the main job of the Strasbourg-based councilhas been to act as a human rights watchdog for Europe's post-communist democracies while helping them carry out political, legal and economic reform. The 46-member council, including countries 21 from central and eastern Europe, is distinct from the 25-member European Union although all EU member states belong to it. Its legal arm is the European Court of Human Rights.
Another stunning success in irrelevance.
"The summit is about the Council of Europe's orientation over the next few years, about establishing what to do now that (EU) expansion is almost finished," the council's secretary-general Terry Davis said earlier this year.
On the agenda will be relations between the council, which was founded in 1949, the EU, which last year took in 10 mostly former communist states, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "I hope that we will clarify our relationship with other organisations such as the OSCE, the European Union and the United Nations," Davis said.
Among the issues expected to be debated at the summit are trafficking in human beings, terrorism, money laundering, organised crime, minorities' rights and violence against children. Conventions on human-trafficking, prevention of terrorism and the financing of terrorist acts are expected to be signed by leaders at the summit.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/15/2005 00:14 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#2
No that was the all EU Gig Conference. They settled on no more than 3 chines on the gig unless it was in French swampland in which case only bats would be allowed between October and July 14th.
DIE WELT: When George W. Bush visited Europe a few weeks ago, he spoke of a new era of transatlantic relations. Many Europeans were skeptical, suspecting more style than substance. Is this mistrust justified?
Kissinger: Anyone familiar with President Bush knows that he means what he says. This differentiation between style and substance is out of place. Bush made an honest attempt to improve transatlantic relations. Now the ball is in the court of the Europeans. A true partnership can only develop if both sides are willing to scrutinize their own positions and make concessions. But many Europeans in fact continue to insist that the US president demonstrate his good will every day - without themselves saying what they are willing to do in exchange.
DIE WELT: Why do Europeans dislike Bush?
SNIP
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2005 00:11 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[2 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Henry Kissinger resurfaces from his rock like a bad penny to pontificate on world affairs? What a joke. Christopher Hitchens, liberal turned hawk, does a fine characterization of Prince Machiavelli in The Trial of Henry Kissinger. Many fine US soldiers lost their lives due to the ego and arrogance of Kissinger. He should be tried as a war criminal. Loser.
#2
So, once again, our Beloved Commander in Chimp(tm) has stymied and confused the subtle Euro-Nuancers by telling them in plain, simple English what he thinks and intends to do.
Maybe GW could get them all out of our hair by appointing Bill Clinton as Ambassador to Europe and they could all sit around debating what the meaning of 'is' is.
#3
Clinton and the Bush Family are close chums these days, all the oligarchs stick together don't you know? I wouldn't be surprised if Billy Boy gets some blue ribbon ambassador position from GWB- they're like brothers - Barbara calls Billy Boy a "son." There's no left or right-there's just oligarchs and plebians. GWB says what he's told to say by his oligarch elders.
#8
I can't believe that anyone once thought this guy was smart. The time we following the kind of policies he espoused was when the US had its greatest failures in international relations.
Democrats, looking to reverse their fortunes after two straight White House defeats, met Saturday to hear competing proposals to revamp the election calendar used to choose a presidential nominee every four years.
The three major proposals would focus on regional primaries. Two of those proposals would allow Iowa and New Hampshire to retain their leadoff roles in the candidate selection process.
A third plan, offered by Michigan Democrats, would create a rotating series of six regional primaries. A different region would launch each presidential nominating season.
*snip*
Yeah, that's the ticket. Go for it!
Apparently there's a 2-for-1 special on deck chairs at Bloomingdales.... ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/15/2005 17:01 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
lovely. I hope they have a nice time trying to convince the "grass roots" to STFU
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2005 18:48 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Actually, this is probably a more sane way to do things, if the Republicans would agree to do the same. It galls to have some pissant small State determine who the major candidates are going to be, sucking down vast amounts of money for what amounts to a "moral" victory. A rotating regional primary would both be powerful enough to matter, too important to ignore, and let the candidates limit themselves to a 10-or-so State junket at a time. They could really hobnob in each State and even have time for primary debates in two or three. Also, by rotating which region kicked it off would help insure that State parties would periodically get "refreshed" by their national, along with their congressmen and senators.
TEHRAN: Archaeologists at a dig on a farm in western Iran have uncovered a skeleton with a solid gold mask in a bronze coffin in what could be the first of a fresh wave of Parthian-era discoveries. "This finding is without precedence in our province," the head of the Lorestan cultural heritage organisation, Sirous Ebrahimi, told AFP. "We were told by locals that some people were searching the area with metal detectors, so we rushed to the area, and sealed it off," he explained. He said the coffin, found near the city of Khoramabad, dates back to between 1,700 and 2,200 years.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/15/2005 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[5 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
This should have been called, "Digging for bodies and found gold" or "Digging a pit to bury hide the new WMD and found gold" Damn the luck.
Posted by: 49 pan ||
05/15/2005 9:11 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Get 'em outta there boys! I claim this grave for me and ....... you there!
Posted by: Lee ||
05/15/2005 13:03 Comments ||
Top||
Very cool: using beta-radiation decay to power stuff for a long, long time.
Posted by: Steve White ||
05/15/2005 00:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[0 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Will this mean I can finally get rid of my NiCad batteries/chargers? :-D
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/15/2005 15:30 Comments ||
Top||
#2
no - "Mr. Happy" still takes 2 "D" cells :-)
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2005 15:34 Comments ||
Top||
#3
Any reason they couldn't also make regular batteries using this technology, Frank?
I'm always having to change batteries in the radio & need to switch to fresh batteries every duty night as well. Not to mention the AA's for the clickers. Yeah, NiCad's cheaper in the long run than alkaline, but it would be nice to reclaim the top of the chest where all the chargers sit.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/15/2005 15:40 Comments ||
Top||
#4
no reason - I was just teasing ya
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/15/2005 15:41 Comments ||
Top||
#5
Oh. Sorry. Running on not enough sleep - we got rousted out at 2 am for a drunk. :-(
It would be cool to have 12-year batteries for my flashlights & radio, though. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
05/15/2005 17:18 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Where's that 10 ft. solar powered pole? It was right here somewheres....
#2
They use the junk science of global warming for their change of mind. These people should should leave the conversation about energy. Its way over their heads. They just need to go find a tree to live in.
#3
"Several of the nation's most prominent environmentalists have gone public with the message that nuclear power, long taboo among environmental advocates, should be reconsidered as a remedy for global warming."
Whatever.
We need to do this becuase its the right thing to do. Build the safe reactors, stop burning coal, and save all the oil for petrochem use, drop our imports. And do one thign the Enviros willnot agree to: start drilling off the coasts of CA and Florida, as well as inland areas.
There is enough oil there to make us fully independant if we go for nukes for electricity, and push hybrids to be better so they are more salable.
#4
The important thing here, the element that the debate needs to focus on, is that nuclear energy is not just a single technology, any more then there is only one kind of steam engine. For example, while there is a general familiarity, for better or worse, with large scale "wet" and "dry" reactors, most people are unfamiliar with the "pebble" reactor of the type that the Chinese are planning to build by the dozen. They also are unaware of small reactors, about the size of a trash dumpster, that can power several city blocks of high-energy consumption businesses, and whose fuel cannot be used for most nefarious purposes, developed by the Japanese and South Africans. Reactors will continue to get smaller and cleaner, being essential for extended space missions and undersea purposes, not to mention emergency power to places devastated by disaster. Eventually there will be very small reactors, perhaps the size of a vehicle engine block, that will combine a nuclear reaction with conventional engine technology to create a hybrid capable of exotic performance curves.
#6
The addition to the McCain-Lieberman bill, which is being circulated in draft form, would codify a new political bargain. Conservatives would support emission controls in return for liberal support for a new generation of nuclear power plants, a shift that could reshape the existing alignments on these issues.
Naturally, the Libs will insist on legislation to mandate the emission controls, while simultaneously insisting that THEY can be TRUSTED to support nuclear power WITHOUT comparable legislation.
The Bush Judicial nominee scandal is recent enough to make me unconvinced that they have the depth and quality of character necessary to keep any promises they make to non-Democrats. Sorta similar to the way Muslims regard agreements with Non-muslims.
#7
If anyone thinks that a natioanl nuclear program will be initiated without the greens totally f*cking it up with their agenda, you need your head examined.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
WARSAW - Dozens of leaders from across Europe begin a two-day "Summit of European Unity" on Monday in the Polish capital to chart the future of the continent's oldest political organisation, the 
