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Showing posts from October, 2015

Internet after Net Neutrality Regulation: The best is yet to come

  People argue. Some argue to prove that they are right. Others argue to make things right. For the time being, the argument about net neutrality is over. The Regulation does not go neutral all the way, but it would be  wrong to claim that this was a defeat for net neutrality   just for the sake of proving how right the advocates of harder net neutrality provisions were. In the days after, the Internet is full of panicky messages how terrible the Internet is going to become. How after the passing of the Regulation company such-and-such will now act so-and-so and this would be just terrible for everyone. The first thing to be said is that if the Regulation was rejected, company such-and-such could be doing so-and-so anyway. As they were able to do so before Tuesday. With the exception of The Netherlands and Slovenia,  protection of net neutrality in Europe is now stronger, not weaker . From here onward there are two options. 1) Activists can use the argument of company such-and-such as

Slovenia: Bad Bank Going Badder

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  In about tweet: Slovenia created a “bad bank” to solve the banking crisis. It hired Scandinavians to run it independently of old boys’ networks. They got too independent and were sacked. As a measure for saving its failing banking sector,  Slovenia in 2013 established a “bad bank” , officially called  Bank Assets Management Company  (BAMC). The BAMC purchased some 1.6B€ worth of non-performing assets from the banks which were also recapitalized by the government with some 4B€. Total cost of the operation is over 5.5B€ which is a lot of taxpayer money for a country with a population of only 2 million. In 2013 Slovenian government  hired few foreigners – independent of the local business milieu – to manage BAMC . Their independence proved unpleasant, to say the least. The next government lowered their salaries mid-term, hoping they would quit. They did not. Possibly they found other means to remunerate their work. Possibly not. Then BAMC was investigated by the local Court of Audit and