The scene is legendary: Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, eye to eye, to say goodbye. Then a detail: the famous American actor wears a trench coat of the British brand Burberry. It is this image of one of the last minutes of the film Casablanca, released in 1942, which is causing a standoff between the brand and the heirs of Humphrey Bogart.

They have filed a complaint this week against Burberry, alleging that it had used this image without their consent on Twitter and in the timeline of the brand on Facebook. "Burberry needed the permission of Bogart representatives to use the name of Humphrey Bogart," said the lawyer of the heirs, Michael O. Crain. The specific brand, meanwhile, have been contacted at least three times since last month by the heirs of the actor, who made a "significant financial request."

For Stephen Bogart, son of famous actor, Burberry has acted in a "disrespectful and incredibly disappointing cash advance no faxing." "They apparently believe that a shoe manufacturer has the right to make a commercial with Brad Pitt because he wears them when he made his mark jogging, (…) without asking, let alone obtain their permission." , is outraged he.

Burberry wants "to illustrate his story"

But Burberry defends itself and file its own complaint against the legatees of Bogart. She claims to have obtained permission to use the photo agency Corbis. Moreover, the image was not published in a context of "sale of goods," argued the brand, but "was intended to illustrate the long history, meaning and influence of Burberry clothes on society." Facebook page of Burberry and other rub shoulders with famous wore trench brand, like Robert Mitchum in Hang me high and short, George C. Scott Patton and Meryl Streep in Kramer against Kramer.

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Two figures sum up the vise where is Spain: 27.3 billion euros to make cuts in the 2012 budget, equivalent to about the burden of Spanish debt this year, namely 28.8 billion. The "most austere budget of democracy", according to Minister of Finance, is primarily designed to reward creditors, to recover "trust" markets. Since the presentation of the general budget last Friday, the heavyweights of government do not hide their discomfort. "The situation is limited," says the finance minister, Cristobal Montoro, while the public debt of Spain will increase from 68.5% of GDP in 2011 to 79.8% in 2012, its highest level for twenty -two years.

A lose-lose situation

The leader of the Conservative government, Mariano Rajoy, has been a little further on Monday during a speech to executives of his party. "If you do not pay back, nobody's ready again. It is not an academic exercise. Everyone knows what happened to some members of the European Union. For that one you must finance that we have confidence in you, in your ability to repay. This is what concerns us. "The allusion to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, within the scope of a plan to help Europe and the IMF, is barely concealed.

The Minister of Economy Luis de Guindos, drove the nail in an article published Tuesday by The Wall Street Journal. "From a fiscal perspective, the government faces a lose-lose situation. If you do not reduce the budget enough, the markets penalize you. But if you go too far, markets can also penalize you, "he said.

Reform of labor law applied

The dangers of austerity needed to restore the credibility of the accounts, but perilous for growth, are denounced by long-time economists. No minister, however, had also clearly expressed his dismay at this square the circle.

The government is now ready to laying bare the gravity of the situation. It is to accept unprecedented budget cuts, while unemployment continues to rise: 39,000 people lost their jobs in March, the first month of implementation of the reform of labor law, revealed Tuesday that the services of employment. A perilous exercise, the same day that unemployment figures are published, the executive announced that the funding policy for employment is reduced by 21.3%.

From the details of the budget presented Tuesday, the departments will have their expenses down 16.9% on average. A figure that masks important disparities. Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, for example, will accept reduced funding by 43.6%. At the other end of the chain, the Interior Ministry's efforts will be limited to 4.3%. Montoro said Tuesday its three priorities: "the deficit, the deficit and the deficit." Growth, she will wait.

Portugal: no second rescue, said Brussels

The reforms adopted by Portugal to consolidate its public finances are on track and the country should be able to borrow again in the markets in 2013, as planned, said Tuesday the Commission européenne.Le Portugal benefited from a bailout of 78 billion euros over three years allowed by the EU and the International Monetary Fund after seeing its rate bonds climb to an unsustainable level of debt for the country, whose growth is affected by a low competitiveness. This aid package was not fully reassured investors, some fearing that Lisbon does not follow the way of Greece requesting a new bailout that could mean losses for creditors of the private sector.

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The leaders of the Greek political parties, who complete their negotiations on forming a unity government, agreed Tuesday to name former Vice-President of the European Central Bank (ECB), Lucas Papademos, 64 at its head, according to a source close to the ruling Socialist Party. "Negotiations are being finalized with Papademos as Prime Minister. They discuss the final details, "the source said.

In the afternoon, the Greek government ministers had submitted their resignation at the request of George Papandreou, who, during an extraordinary cabinet meeting, said goodbye to his staff.

Negotiations behind the scenes

Behind the scenes, negotiations continued Tuesday for the second consecutive day between George Papandreou and the leader of the Conservative opposition Antonis Samaras to reach an agreement on power sharing and the appointment of a consensus prime minister. Sunday, the socialists of PASOK George Papandreou and the main opposition New Democracy had agreed to make way for a unity government after intense negotiations. George Papandreou was also committed to leaving office after two years in power.

For its part, the European Union on Monday called on Greece to write a letter committing to the implementation of the European rescue plan.

The G20 summit opened in Cannes on Thursday in an acute crisis. President Nicolas Sarkozy had to leave an extraordinary meeting of the euro area to hold under a rainy sky guests, leaders of 20 leading world economies.

The crisis in the euro area has so encroached on the official program that the French president had to cancel his meeting with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Sing. French President Barack Obama had previously met face-to-head and seems to have gained the support of the United States for its proposed financial transactions tax cash till payday.

The political changes in Athens have also punctuated the start of the summit. Returning to Greece after being scolded by Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel on Wednesday, Prime Minister George Papandreou is facing the sling of his own ministers.Rumors of resignation are insistent, despite denials from the Prime Minister.

On Thursday afternoon, the G20 countries were in flooring solutions to end the crisis, reform the international monetary system, and the increase of IMF funds. If the crisis in the euro area permits.

The absolute defense of the financial score

Do everything to prevent France to lose its "AAA" rating! Since the U.S. has been damaged on Friday by the rating agency Standard & Poor's, the pressure has increased dramatically over the last states still rated AAA in the world. Keep this precious document is now the major objective of the French government, for reasons both political and economic. A downgrade of France in fact lead to mechanically increase the cost of debt refinancing. But with 47 billion a year in interest payments, the debt burden is the second largest budget item in order of importance. At such high levels, any runaway deficit could swing into a downward spiral.

For now, however, there is no indication that France is threatened.On the contrary: since the beginning of the new crisis, two weeks ago, the rate at which the Treasury borrows on the markets – and ten years – fell by 3.44% to 3.07%, which is one point among the lows. In practice this means that investors continue to buy the French debt they still consider very safe. Moreover, Standard & Poor's, Moody's and Fitch have confirmed all three since the beginning of the week's AAA rating and France recalled that the note was accompanied by a "stable" outlook, that is, that they do not intend to revise the medium term. This does not prevent the wildest rumors running now in the trading rooms. Bercy had to lie to "formally" on Wednesday that France would be degraded."We want the managers of U.S. pension funds who question the quality of the French debt," says a French banker. To silence these questions that may to be growing, the executive is forced to accelerate its program of fiscal adjustment.

The unknown growth in 2012

Thursday morning, INSEE publish the number of French growth in the second quarter of 2011. Officially, the institute provides an increase of 0.4% of GDP. But economists expect a lower figure. Some do not hesitate to bet, even on a stagnation in activity between March and June After the strong rebound in GDP in the first quarter (+0.9%) consumption and industrial production have turned red, for technical reasons (end of scrapping, rising oil prices …) but also because global economy is now declining payday loans in one hour.The surprise meeting at the Elysee on Wednesday was probably meant to anticipate bad news ahead. "We have always said that the second quarter would be worse than the first and the activity will then return later this year," cautions there be in the entourage of Baroin.

A priori, the government should maintain its forecast of 2% growth this year, he still has a great chance to meet with the dynamics of the first month. However, doubt increases over the year 2012. Initially planned 2.5% growth for 2012 was revised down in May to 2.25%. This forecast now appears optimistic. Even before the storm in financial markets, experts Treasury recommended to display a more conservative figure of 2%."We want to be politically and economically credible our expectations: whether to revise downwards the growth we'll see," says one in the entourage of Valérie Pécresse.

More rigorous perspective

Baroin and Valerie Pécresse continue to hammer home: the objective of "intangible" is to keep the deficit reduction goals that provide for a deficit of 5.7% of GDP in 2011 and 4.6% in 2012. And that, "regardless of the level of growth," says one at Bercy. In other words, if the government is lowering its forecast for GDP in the coming days, they must be accompanied by such additional savings. For now, it is expected that the 2012 budget to be submitted end of September, involves three billion euros in savings on tax loopholes. It will probably do much more.Gilles Carrez (UMP), General Rapporteur of the budget in the Assembly, recommends at least 5 billion economy. If the amount is not yet determined the method, it begins to ripen. "It's likely that we proceed as in 2011," it says in the entourage of Baroin. This implies a general planing existing niches – "for everyone involved" – and a removal of devices deemed the most unjust. Companies are in the crosshairs this time, especially large compared to SMEs. Determine precisely the niches will be deleted at stake in the meeting of August 24.

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"One half of quite exceptional, which took place in an environment among the tightest we have known since 2008. "Pierre Mariani, the executive director of Dexia, planted at once the setting for the presentation of interim results. Marked by a historic loss, but expected four billion euros in the second quarter, the exercise was in fact a taste back in the worst days of the financial crisis. The acceleration of its financial restructuring, announced in late May, and participation in the Greek rescue plan increased the deficit of the bank.

The provision of 3.6 billion euros spent in these accounts to settle quickly the legacy of the past had been known since last spring.Powered by November 2008 at the head of the bank, just rescued from bankruptcy through a recapitalization of the French, Belgian and Luxembourg 6.4 billion, Pierre Mariani had discovered a bond portfolio of over 200 billion euros. One of his priorities was to isolate those assets and liquidating them bulky over water markets.

Under pressure from Brussels, who complained about the progress of the restructuring, management had decided a few weeks ago, to accelerate the movement. The U.S. portfolio of Financial Products, guaranteed by the shareholders of Dexia States, was almost completely sold. "A performance in the market environment in recent months," ruled the executive director.

Dexia had to abruptly move these toxic securities on its books to market value.A transaction motivated by the desire to reduce the exposure of the bank to the U payday loans.S. economy and solve its funding problems dollars. "We are immunized against the U.S. venture," says Pierre Mariani.

In parallel, the group sold in markets 15 billion euros of assets from its bond portfolio to a limited loss of 205 million euros. This weight loss program is accompanied by a decrease logic financing needs of the bank. In the short term, Dexia can now be financed with less than 100 billion euros each year, against 265 billion in the fall of 2008.

338 million for Greece

The participation of the Dexia bailout Greek did not help the overall picture: it results in a charge of 338 million euros. These cumulative losses do not undermine the solvency ratio of the bank, which is still above regulatory requirements.It must be said that for two years, the school had earned profits through its € 2.3 billion of regulatory capital. Beyond its financial restructuring, the activity of the bank has held pretty well. On its core businesses (local government finance, retail banking in the Benelux and Turkey, insurance and asset management), Dexia has made just under 400 million euros in pretax profits.

Pierre Mariani expects to return to profitability in the next quarter. He has no plans so far to take a dividend in 2012. Carried away by the pressure on sovereign debt, the title of Dexia gets closer to its historical lows. He lost over 80% of its value in three years.

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PhotoBox, the European leader in the development of images on the Internet, is expanding its universe. He acquired moonpig, the leading UK online sales of custom greeting cards. An Englishman sends on average 54 cards per year, against just 7 for the French!

Moonpig has shipped 12 million cards over the past 12 months, achieving a turnover of around 42 million euros. Photobox pays 136 million euros, provided by 83 different investment funds.

Photobox develops over a million prints per day and achieved a turnover of 80 million euros in 2010 cash advance flexible payments. The European market of the photo is estimated at 3 billion euros. The e-merchants hold third, and try to stand out from the mass distribution by customizing products."By combining these two profitable companies, leaders in their market, we reach a critical size in the custom publishing market," said Stanislas Laurent, CEO of Photobox.

Nicolas Sarkozy will spend a studious summer. A few months ago, he has charge of informal working groups on topics floor (education, territories and sustainable development, economy and taxation, sovereign issues, social and health) that make up the backbone of the UMP candidate in the election présidentelle 2012 – himself, most likely!

These groups of experts (government officials, economists …) come after the first step. Each placed under the supervision of a consultant or former consultant of the Elysee, they will submit their ideas before the summer break with Bruno Le Maire. Which will compile and groom work for what will happen to the presidential draft. The group "economy and taxation", under the leadership of the Economic Adviser to the Head of State, Emmanuel Moulin (and involving senior officials and former de Bercy or the Elysee), has completed its proposals.These, contained in a document 54 pages – a note and fact sheets – which has acquired Le Figaro, were particularly aims to make France "a land of output and growth."

What remains for now a discussion paper accepts some ideas: no increase in the tax burden, tax system more "tailored" to strengthen the competitiveness of the country and a crop of some mechanisms that have resulted in "abuse during the crisis. "To address these three issues, which could form the basis of the discourse on tax policy – and should be "accompanied by a clear discourse on respect for the path of public finances set after the crisis" – the group work presents a series of proposals.

To put the economy at the service of production, experts recommend a reduction in social contributions on labor, with a device resembling a social VAT.The prospective candidate will be "persist on rigorous economic solution, but unattractive in view of lower employer contributions and VAT hike" or "dress reform a measure of purchasing power" by lowering premiums weighing on employees – an option that would nevertheless "a risk of inflation due to wage claims."

Minimum Tax

The increase in VAT will it take several forms: a general increase in the rate of 5 points, "the simplest measure to the highest yield" and / or establishing an intermediate rate, 8% example, to submit to all goods and services today at the reduced rate of 5.5%. The document also discusses the creation of a higher rate for some luxury goods (high-end cars, some jewelry, horses, tobacco, etc.)..The measure "would be symbolic for many French and would develop a discourse on tax justice," it said. It would also have the advantage of being "tax on land still largely untapped by the current government."

On the front of a tax document refers to "measures of fairness" and "a contribution of all": the introduction of a minimum tax and / or arrow (which would allow taxpayers to "decide the allocation of a fraction of the tax "), measures antidélocalisations, a balance between large and small companies corporation tax, etc.. Dismissing any "big night" on tax loopholes, the task force recommends, however, to continue the grooming started by the government.

Incidentally, the document provides a trial incompetence of the left and list the arguments to counter the key measures of the economic program of socialism.Experts speak out against the merger including the income tax with the CSG, "contrary to our values ​​and irresponsible," and against the withholding.

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The world leader in dairy products was born in Parma on Tuesday, after the general meeting of the Italian group Parmalat, which was acquired by French Lactalis. After months of battle, even against some of Italy's political class, the Laval group, which owns the pie President, Roquefort Société, milk and mozzarella Lactel Galbani, took control of Parmalat (Sandalwood, Parmalat Omega 3 …), one of the jewels of the Italian economy. And he did not have to wait for the completion of its takeover bid on July 8.

Parmalat's shareholders, who have until July 5 to tender their shares to the offer of Lactalis, yesterday approved the new board. Nine representatives from Lactalis have entered. The other two seats returned to minority shareholders.The appointment of Francesco Tato, former head of energy group Enel and Lactalis candidate for the presidency, was approved by the Assembly. As the new Director General, he was appointed at the first board meeting. Antonio Sala, president of Lactalis Italy, Enrico Bondi is expected to succeed.

The "invader" French

The company that he has led for seven years carries 4.3 billion euros and employs 14,000 employees in 69 plants worldwide. Having built its success in the 1960s to the adoption of the system UHT long-life milk and have developed internationally through acquisitions, it survived in 2003 to one of the biggest financial scandals in Europe no fax cash advances.

Offensive Lactalis, which owns 28.9% for the time being the capital of Parmalat, is similar to an obstacle course. Six weeks ago, the board rejected the offer Italian of French.At a price of 2.60 euros per share, it was deemed "inadequate", below the 2.80 euros paid by Lactalis in March to get their hands on the 15.3% held by three investment funds. Lactalis should finally not have to raise its price. Because Parmalat was unable to assemble a consortium of Italian investors to make an against-offer.

The case also took a political turn. The government, to defend the "Italian character" of Parmalat, was to act by decree to postpone the general meeting held yesterday. Unions and politicians have, at first denounced the "invaders" French.Lactalis's offensive came after the takeover, friendly, Bulgari and LVMH in the face of rumors around Edison – coveted by EDF – or SAI Fondiaria (Groupama).

The discrete group of Laval, who directed last year a turnover of 10.4 billion euros, can not in uncharted waters. For the past five years and the acquisition of Galbani, the brand behind the second President, Italy became his second home. After months of battle, Lactalis – which weigh 14 billion euros in total turnover – will improve its image in the peninsula.

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