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It is a non-final, which sounds like a challenge to international pressure: the Icelanders did not want to spend their lives to pay the bill left the bank Icesave. Saturday, they have rejected more than 93%, the repayment plan to Great Britain and the Netherlands for around 3.8 billion euros, lost in the collapse of Icesave, in October 2008. A firm that could pay off: yesterday, said London was ready to "be flexible" in the coming negotiations.

"There is every reason to congratulate the people of Iceland. The result was clear, "welcomed the President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson. In January, he had refused to sign the bill says Icesave, narrowly passed by Parliament. Under public pressure, he preferred to call a referendum."The public understands that we must be treated as a sovereign nation and not be intimidated by the British or Dutch," exclaimed Magnus Arni Skulason, founder of the movement indefence opposed to the agreement Icesave. For indefence it was deeply unfair to place too heavy a bill – 100 euros per capita per month for eight years – on the shoulders of a ruined country.

London said he was "flexible"

After a strange country where no one had called to vote yes, this result is "not a shock to the government," relativized the first Social Democrat Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir. Like several of his ministers, she herself had chosen to abstain … But such a tidal wave put the coalition into a corner cash advance america ."These results represent a serious warning to the government, says Olafur Isleifsson, professor of economics at Reykjavik University. By abstaining in the vote crucial to the nation, they showed that they were very distant from the people. "

Rejecting any possibility of resignation, Johanna Sigurdardottir said there was "(our) duty to resume negotiations" with London and The Hague. "It is important that we do so as quickly as possible," added the Minister of Finance, Steingrimur Sigfusson.It would be difficult (to reach an agreement) if we approached the elections too. "The elections are due in May in Britain and in June in the Netherlands.

To the President of Iceland, the ball is now in the court of London: "The main question now is: what will Gordon Brown?" The British finance minister, Alistair Darling, responded on Sunday: "We are prepared to be flexible "he admitted, noting that the reimbursement would require" many, many years. " As the government of The Hague, he assured to remain "involved in finding a solution."

Another failure of talks might push a little further in the Iceland crisis, delaying a bailout plan of 3.3 billion euros pledged by the IMF and Nordic countries.Some analysts say it could hamper his candidacy for the European Union, giving London and The Hague a reason to oppose it.

Finance ministers and central bankers of the G7 (U.S., Canada, Japan, Germany, France, Italy, United Kingdom) are found on Friday and Saturday in northern Canada (see below). As Barack Obama lashed out Wednesday at the undervaluation of the yuan, "matters relating to the Chinese currency (are) in all minds," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, suggesting that the subject would be treated by the G7.

Officially there is indeed no agenda, and contrary to tradition will be no statement issued after the meeting. "We want to rediscover the" spirit of Rambouillet "historic first G7 in 1975, and have a" chat by the fireside "freer," says one does in Paris.

There is also evidence that the G7 keeps all its usefulness, although the creation of the G20 seems to have finally stole the palm as an instance of global economic governance. The G7 countries are convinced that they have specific interests in common, as explained by a European central banker. "Our currencies are the only ones to be truly flexible, and also we can not forget that our economies have pushed capitalism to the brink!" Quipped the great European treasury.

Debt relief in Haiti

The G7 countries recognize the need to reorganize their respective banking systems, which – and alone! – Were behind the financial crisis of 2008.Mario Draghi, participate in debates with his two hats as governor of the Bank of Italy and Director of the Financial Stability Board, the international body created by the G20 to coordinate international regulation of all financial institutions, and not Only banks.

As for currencies, it is true that the G7 currencies are virtually alone, with few exceptions including the Swiss franc, which float freely, for better or for worse. The remarks made Wednesday by Barack Obama against the yuan, strangely overlapping language of Nicolas Sarkozy vis-à-vis the dollar. "The price of currencies and their accuracy is one of the challenges we face on the international level to ensure that the prices of our products are not artificially inflated and those of their equally artificially lowered," said U.S. President.

Even if the G7 should lead to no decision, according to a spokesman for the German Finance Ministry, announcements could be made regarding Haiti. The U.S. Treasury first raised the issue of debt relief for Haiti. Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the IMF managing director and Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank participate in the Canadian meeting.

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The meeting had yet begun in a friendly atmosphere, around a few cakes of kings. Tuesday morning, the eighth floor of the MEDEF, after an hour of quiet trade on the carbon tax and social negotiations, the clash occurred without anyone waiting on the highly technical issue tenders Association fund management integration of persons with disabilities. Clash between the two numbers 2 "tie" of the organization, Jean-Charles Simon and Helen Molinari, whose disagreement was notorious. For some, Jean-Charles Simon had treated Helen Molinari of "idiot" and "incompetent" before slamming the door. The person himself, swears that he kept his composure. "I said what she said was false then I left the meeting," he promises, that confirms a witness.

What does not yet know the participants is that they will never again see Jean-Charles Simon.For him, this incident is the straw that broke a vase too full for several weeks. The evidence was that Laurence Parisot, despite assurances that he swears that he obtained in December, no desire to change the allocation of tasks with Helen Molinari. Back down in his office, he sends his resignation by email to the president of MEDEF, asking not to his notice three months, and leaves the building. Definitely. This email, Laurence Parisot discovered in the early afternoon and will act without a call to his ex-delegate-general to understand the decision or seek to hold him.

Things might have stayed there and the MEDEF, after the resignation proved by Le Figaro, could minimize the event. But Wednesday morning, the machine goes.In a statement to AFP, Jean-Charles Simon recalls failures "in decision-making and organizational roles, ranging up to criticize" the professionalism of the leadership "of MEDEF. The employers' organization responds by accusing him, in a statement at your unusually steep "having conducted his own end after a spectacular incident," and provides "support to internal teams Medef that have been proven these unusual methods. " The break was complete.

Denis Kessler Photo credits: Le Figaro

L'Oréal is continuing its offensive to win the American hairdressers. The French group has just acquired two distributors of hair care products in the United States, Maly's Midwest and Marshall Salon Services, which carry a combined turnover of 130 million and provide 40,000 salons in the Midwest. These acquisitions bring to 80% coverage direct from the U.S. market by the firm, against 50% previously. They represent a continuation of the strategy number one global cosmetics to distribute his own professional products on the market, which weighed about 60 billion dollars (sales salons and spas in the U.S.).

Three years ago that L'Oreal has decided to take matters into their hands. In 2007 and 2008, he had already acquired Beauty Alliance, Maly's West and Columbia Supply to sell products directly to its range of L'Oréal Professional, Kerastase, Matrix and Redken.Objective: To monitor more closely a key market, which weighs one third of global sales of its professional division. This allows the giant of French industry in managing direct without intermediaries, thus controlling its margins at each stage of struggle against the flow of counterfeit goods, a widespread scourge in the United States and, especially, to develop direct relations with hairdressers.

Ensure fidelity of hairdressers is indeed a prerequisite for selling its products on the market very battle. Its subsidiary specializing SalonCentric Florida-based approach one by one the shows and their "designers" as they call them across the Atlantic. Specificity local hairdressers are in fact often self-employed who rent a chair in a salon. It is therefore necessary to convince individuals to use the group's products, while their neighbor salon can procure from a competitor."L'Oreal was founded more than a hundred years to serve and inspire the professional hair salons around the world," said Paul Sharnsky, President SalonCentric. This strategy should enable the French group to increase the efficiency of its business in the United States, where sales dropped by over 6% in 2008.