Moscovici, the specialist for Europe Bercy

 

In 2008, he cherished the hope of becoming the first secretary of the PS. But he had finally lined up behind the candidacy of Bertrand Delanoe. In 2011, he thought he could be a candidate for the Socialist primary. Then he threw in the towel, choosing to support Dominique Strauss-Kahn, then rallying to Francois Hollande not without obtaining the position of campaign manager. Pierre Moscovici, 54, has learned to give up. Here he is rewarded. He is back in force since the government assigned the Ministry of Economy, Finance and Foreign Trade. Certainly it does not get the Quai d'Orsay, which he dreamed, Laurent Fabius was preferred to him. But he inherited a portfolio to match its ambitions. And thereby in passing some disappointed, Michel Sapin in mind. "Mosco" consensual socialist, social democrat, is now a heavyweight team Ayrault, number five in protocol order.

It is he who will be at the forefront of the debt crisis. There is no shortage of assets since knows the workings of Europe. He was, for five years, from 1997 to 2002, Minister Delegate for European Affairs in the Jospin government. At the time, the rise of the Express near the then prime minister, who had just been elected deputy of the Doubs for the first time, had been criticized. But he will prove himself. Former MEP, a graduate of Sciences Po and ENA, he will prepare no quack the French presidency of the EU, negotiating the Treaty of Nice and the European Constitutional Treaty. During this period of cohabitation, he managed also to find his place against Jacques Chirac. In fact, the President of the Republic and the Socialist Minister for European Affairs are of course in these five years: Chirac taking the young minister with no experience under his wing, even to comfort him when he doubted. An agreement with Lionel Jospin was annoyed.

After the failure of the left in 2002, Moscovici was defeated in the parliamentary elections in the Doubs. A year earlier, he had already failed to municipal Montbéliard. Without parliamentary seat, without mayor, he tried his luck with the 2004 European and found his seat in Strasbourg. In 2007 he was again legislative candidate in the Doubs. This time he wins.

Pierre Moscovici, tried by the Revolutionary Communist League when he was young, joined the PS in 1984. He was close to Michel Rocard, Jospin and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, his former professor at the ENA. He is the son of a social psychologist Serge Moscovici, who was a member of the Romanian Communist Party and fled his country in 1947. Pierre Moscovici was the first to openly criticize the Socialist Francois Mitterrand and his relationship with Rene Bousquet. "What shocks me, he said, is that he can spawn with someone who has been a tool of the state anti-Semitism and an accomplice of the final solution of the Reich." … …..

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Free Mobile has recruited 2.6 million customers

 

In the wake of its entry in the booming mobile market, Free Mobile revealed it had won 2.6 million customers in late March, while Orange was losing 615,000, 620,000 SFR and 89,000 MVNOs. "Never an operator has won as many customers in as little time," said Xavier Niel, founder and owner of Free.

The small sign operator and a great commercial success and won the bet he had set himself. Indeed, he won 4% market share on the mobile in 80 days. Its goal is eventually to have 25% market share.

Satisfaction is complete for Xavier Niel, especially as Free has received the "halo of mobile" on its activities as a fixed, where it now exceeds 5 million subscribers: he recorded a 50% market share recruitment broadband in the first quarter of 2012 and its activity is fixed in 9.8% growth over the quarter. Leaves to change operator in the mobile, and to benefit from even better prices, some customers were quick to switch their internet subscription and exchange their old box against a Freebox.

Impact difficult to quantify

Remains now is whether this success will continue over time, while competitors such as Orange, SFR, Bouygues Telecom and Virgin argue that the bleeding has stopped customers since mid-March and they recover even customers parties at Free.

Free, which shows a quarterly revenue up 29% to 656 million euros, did not give the average revenue per user (ARPU), a key figure in the telecoms field. He simply said that customers were divided "balanced" between the subscribers of a subscription to two euros and those who opted for a more profitable subscription to 19.99 euros a month.  

Therefore difficult to measure the impact of the launch of Free Mobile on the margins of the operator. "The quality of the distribution of offers within the mobile subscriber base is evidence of a sustainable business model and economics," Free said simply. In sales, the mobile has generated 97.5 million euros, of which 11.5 million euros from the sale of terminals and 86 million for the telecom services business. The set weighs about him almost 560 million euros.

Aviva's CEO resigns

 

The "Spring of shareholders" in the City made a victim. Andrew Moss, head of the British insurer Aviva, resigned Tuesday after suffering a historic setback against his compensation during the general assembly of the firm last week. He might himself have abandoned a planned increase of 4.6% of annual salary of 960,000 pounds (1.2 million), shareholders with 54% disavowed his remuneration package. Taking note of this humiliation, he chose to retire to try to appease the revolt. Aviva's action was immediately flown more than 5% at the London Stock Exchange.

The fat cats ("fat cats"), as they are called here, hug the walls in the European capital of finance. For months, wages at six or seven zeros and their bonuses are exponential in the hot seat. Shareholder activism, biased against remuneration unrelated to performance in crisis, the disapproval of public opinion and government voluntarism in this area combine to send the message to the bosses Taking arrived.

In the same day on Tuesday, the Chief of the bookmaker William Hill, Ralph Topping, has narrowly escaped facing a turbulent AG which voted 49.8% against the salary increase of 8.3% and a bonus of 1.2 million pounds. A small carrier angrily denounced "the feast of the last chance for CEOs who try to take as much as possible while there is still time."  

Last week, Sly Bailey, the leader of the newspaper group Trinity Mirror, has also resigned rather than having to face this Thursday the shareholder revolt over his salary of 1.7 million pounds, while the action of the company lost 90% of its value since she took control.

Bill

Friday, it was the turn of the leaders of energy giant Centrica to face the challenge of a package of 4.3 million pounds intended for his boss, Sam Laidlaw. This agitation is not the fact of radical activist shareholders. Large institutional investors now lead the protest. 32% of those of Barclays Bank have opposed or abstained on the 17 million pounds of CEO Bob Diamond and 2.1 billion of bonuses distributed in the house, three times the amount of dividends paid.

"The shareholders have lost patience exasperated, says Sarah Wilson, leader of the association of small shareholders Manifest. This is not a political movement but the requirement for better business performance. The occupation movement of the London Stock Exchange has legitimized the need for state regulation since the boards were not able to regulate itself. "

A bill will be presented precisely this Wednesday's Speech from the Throne. One of its most controversial provisions, however, may be abandoned: it planned to require the approval of compensation plans for a three-fourths majority of shareholders. But the law should make the vote binding general meetings so far merely advisory.

Meanwhile, the "Spring of the shareholders' only budding. The association of retired FairPensions has launched a campaign for all retirees, widows Scottish kind, make their voices heard against excessive compensation. English executive salaries jumped 49% in one year.

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The submarine curious for billionaires

 

Yesterday, James Cameron, Titanic director has given the private submersibles under the spotlight the feat by successfully exploring, alone in a small sphere, a site 10 kilometers under the sea off the Philippines.

Certainly, it is far from the submarine Phoenix, luxurious project of U. S. Submarines: $ 78 million and 65 meters long. It can cross the Atlantic in one go and has, height of chic, its own miniature submarine. Maybe he interested Richard Branson, the Virgin boss adventurous. It prepares to dive in the Puerto Rico Trench with its own submarine by 8600 meters of water in search of possible treasures.  

Competition is low: according to the manufacturer SEAMagine, only a dozen billionaires possess a submersible, but more often would welcome megayachts small submersibles one million dollars.

French side, the builder DCNS is on deck: its Nautile, the source of scientific submersibles, may well also realize the dreams of billionaires. Who can do more

.

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Orange said to be nothing in the failure of Free

 

Deal with failures and congestion at peak times on the network of Free Mobile, the regulator, Jean-Ludovic Silicani referred back to back and Free Orange mobile, connected by a roaming agreement. Result: Orange has threatened to suspend service if something goes wrong. Ultimately, consumers do not understand anything. UFC-Que Choisir has asked for an explanation and compensation for clients. Since Tuesday, the customer portal on its website, Free mobile communicates the reasons for the different reference technical problems and five failures, dated March 2 to 25. The operator foresees a gradual return to normal next week.

LE FIGARO – Specifically, what do roaming provided by Orange Free Mobile?

Jean-Luc Vuillemin – Orange has its network across France. Free Mobile has its own, but there are currently limited coverage. Simply allows Orange Free Mobile subscribers on its network to come when they are not covered by Free. This model, known as roaming, is very different from the MVNOs like Virgin Mobile, for example, that it is completely hosted on the Orange network. Virgin customers have own SIM cards but they only use the Orange network.

What causes the failures?

There are two types of failures. First, those related to the functioning of Free network. On the other hand, those who take part in defining the interconnection link between the network and our Free. In both cases, Orange is in no way responsible for malfunctions of Customer Freemobile. With regard to equipment malfunctions Free Mobile Network, it was concerned for the failure of 2 and 14 March, signaling transfer points that identify subscribers Freemobile where they are, what service they are entitled, and which are involved in each call from a client including Free when roaming on the Orange network, and the failure of 20 in a micro network Freemobile.

What causes congestion at peak times?

This is precisely the second category of dysfunction, related to the design of interconnection link between the network and Free Orange network. Orange provides Freemobile these interconnect links called BPN (primary digital block) based on traffic forecasts that Freemobile gives us. The size of this link interconnection is the sole responsibility of Free has underestimated its forecasts, which explains the inconvenience Online payday loans. Orange is the responsibility of its network is working, what is the case, since the beginning!

Are you responsible, at least in part, as suggested by the regulator?

In any way. And my teams who have at heart their operator business networks, have been married very amalgam of various statements in recent days suggesting that Orange Free mobile shared with the responsibility for these failures. Orange has no responsibility in incidents encountered by Free. We spend a lot of time designing and making our live networks. We, of course, anticipated that customers Free emerge from the old 2G handsets in their drawers … The terminal base is key for the network that we follow very precisely.

Orange is it affected by failures recorded on the Free Mobile?

The contract provides that if the Orange network was affected, we may suspend service to Free, the time it finds a normal operation. We are therefore protected and our clients have no reason to worry about the quality of service Orange. They can be fully reassured. We were ranked first network by ARCEP, and we intend to maintain this quality. My team includes 6,000 people who work day and night, 365 days a year on the network, to maintain quality.

A mobile network is it more complicated to manage than a landline?

Yes, it is undoubtedly more complex. First, because in a mobile network the subscriber is constantly moving and the network must constantly issue queries to see where he is. On the other hand, in a fixed network operator mastering the whole chain as it is he who provides the box at the customer's home. In Mobile, in the terminal end of the chain can be a 2G phone, 3G phone, smartphone Android, Apple, Nokia, or even a tablet. There are thousands of combinations which greatly complicates the task. Over time, Orange has gained a real expertise that a young operator, whatever, can not have. This is what makes all the difference. Launch a mobile operator is very complicated. It takes skills internally, and in sufficient quantity.

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Customers Free forgive "errors of youth"

 

Free Mobile customers retain a large majority, confident in their new operator. This is what spring launched a call for evidence on lefigaro.fr, which raised last week over 500 comments.

Two major trends. There are those for which the passage went smoothly and that no difficulty to make calls. "In Grenoble, it captures nickel without using the Orange network," says Andrei. "In some places, the coverage SFR does not allow me to capture correctly and to Free, in the same places, I get the network" welcomes Jules.

"Between 17 and 20 hours, it's hell"

Then there are those, more numerous, who see recurrent problems call for the evening, as well as cuts. "Between 17 and 20 hours, it's hell for making a call. It always fails on "network busy" and you have to try again twenty times to make a call, "says Emily. "Since March 5, the flow of Free Mobile 3G has enormously weakened and is very unstable", complete a resident of Lille.

Yet these customers often forgive the "teething problems" Free Mobile. "When I chose to come to Free, I knew there would be concerns, but I trust the professionalism of Free to solve these problems quickly," says Guy, Internet subscriber for ten years at Free. "At that price, I agree to some problems of network", abounds Paulo, who has spent her entire family at Free Mobile. Anthony, He remembers the difficulties encountered by the first mobile operators. "I suppose we must give some time to Free to upgrade," he considers.

Other customers are less forgiving. "I regret that I spent at Free! Customer service is saturated with calls. This is not a serious operator who was obviously not prepared enough to get into the mobile, "says Vince. "I just changed to B & You (the low-cost brand of Bouygues Telecom, Ed). There's no commitment so, who knows, I may come back when they are at Free at the point, "says Jordan.

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Google better understand the issues of Internet

 

The Wall Street Journal, Google will soon be able to understand the meaning of the words searched by the user and to provide "direct responses", in addition to the traditional ties linking to other websites. These responses, semantic analysis results, will be displayed directly below the search form, as is already the case during a search on the term "weather" for example.

With Answers service, closed in 2006, Google had already tried to semantic analysis by the only means then available: human responses. People were then paid to answer questions from users. Today, the issues will be analyzed directly by algorithms. To recognize the user's request, Google will index all the information available online, relevant to the topic, rather than just keywords. The Wall Street Journal takes the example of a search for "Lake Tahoe" that will display directly the characteristics of the lake at the top of the results. If the user wishes to know the ten largest lakes in California, Google will display the list of lakes in addition to simple links.

Keep users on Google

By posting relevant content directly on the results page, Google users will no longer need to visit the pages indexed. Specialized site for The Verge, "provide direct answers instead of links to other pages to meet the new Google strategy, which seeks to keep its users within its walls, as it does with Google + quick payday loans." Google's interest is to increase the visibility of ads by keywords on the pages of results. This activity represents "the majority of $ 37 billion in annual revenues of Google," says the Wall Street Journal.

This innovation features reminiscent of Wolfram Alpha, a search engine capable of aggregating and format of information available elsewhere on the Internet. Wolfram Alpha is at the heart of the wizard voice of the iPhone 4S, Siri, who can ask a question to his mobile and get an answer directly, without needing to click a link or to seek self- same information on a web page. To do this, the software combines speech recognition and semantic analysis to recognize the words of the user and the meaning of his question. Recently, Anthony DiClemente, chief of the division of Internet and media research at Barclays Capital was concerned about the impact of the Apple software on Google: "Siri can bypass traditional search engines and provide the user with responses that originally would have necessitated a search online. "

Google could also put this new feature to good use in Android mobile. According to TechCrunch, Google is preparing to launch in fact a competitor of Siri for Android, Google wizard.

Dexia Bank Belgium becomes Belfius

 

Belgium Yellow laughs. Dexia Bank Belgium, one of its major financial institutions, has been renamed Belfius Thursday. After five months of study and a budget of 35 million euros, advertisers have defended their choice: "Bel" evokes the flat country, the 100% owner of the house, "fi" suggests the financial sphere, and "us "English in the text, adds a touch of both collective and international. A cocktail effective in erasing the past. "The most romantic of us can not help but associate" nice "to beautiful, while the technicians will instead link" fius "and English" fuse "," has swept the direction the bank. The response has exceeded his hopes payday loans. The new name stoked passions throughout the country. On Twitter, users will give heart to joy for its proximity to the mock-rays or frozen yogurt. "I resisted the bank run of 2008 … the losses of 2009, I accepted Zean-Luc, supported the division of Dexia Belfius … but it is too," sighed a client. A poll in the daily Le Soir, the name Bebank have collected all the votes, but it masked the insurance business. After four years of financial crisis, which grounded the champions of the country, the Belgians pulled out their best weapons to protest: black humor and taste for the absurd.

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Ways to streamline housing assistance

 

The report by the Center for Strategic Analysis in a housing report released Wednesday is brutal: while the subject of aid mobilizes huge (37 billion euros) from the State and local governments, households the less fortunate spend more on housing. In 2005, they spent at this position 41.4% of their income against 25% in 1988.

To improve the situation of more modest in this area, the Center for Strategic Analysis made several proposals, focused on social housing. "First, it should be that only those who earn more than five times the annual rent for a dwelling may be candidates for living," Chriqui advance Vincent, general manager of that agency of the Prime Minister. A measure of common sense would settle with the current situation today, up 64% of households are eligible for public housing.

To reserve social housing for disadvantaged populations, some only dream of being able to expel those whose income has become, over time, well above the maximum income. This would call into question the sacrosanct principle of the right to remain in public housing, one of the cornerstones of the world HLM. Cautiously, the Center for Strategic Analysis does not follow that direction.

However, he has worked on a system where the rent paid by tenants would be modulated according to their income. "In fact, rents are nominally higher and tenants would receive a grant that would cover some of this burden, says Vincent Chriqui. The premium will be lowered when the tenant would see its revenues increase. "To avoid creating too strong reactions in a world quite restive HLM changes of this kind, this system would first be tested by some social landlords . If the Center for Strategic Analysis recommends this solution is that the devices require tenants whose incomes exceed the ceilings to pay additional rent malfunctioning. Normally, a public housing tenant whose remuneration exceeds 20% of the maximum income to pay a surloyer. "But it is a cumbersome process that requires to initiate proceedings," said Vincent Chriqui. Soft law passed in 2009 plans to evict a tenant of public housing for two successive years if its resources are at least two times higher than the ceiling. But we must wait three years after this observation that the measure could be effective. Result: more than three years after its adoption, the text has yet to produce any effects.

Statistical tool

Last priority recommendation of the Center for Strategic Analysis: Building a statistical tool that emphasizes respect for each program HLM, level of public support and the "discount" rent in the social housing compared to private apartments around the park. "By learning about government subsidies and the results they deliver, this should help to refocus the production of social housing where the need is greatest," says Vincent Chriqui.

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