Viewing profile — thomascarney

I mean, I would agree. The EU courts have ruled pretty much every cross-border data sharing agreement with the US as illegal (e.g. Safe Harbour ruling eight years ago). The EU Comm…

Politically, stopping data transfers to the US is not viable, because it would impact the deal between the EU and the USA (US covers EU defence for access to the EU common market).…

In the case of health insurance, AFAIK the subsidies are the government paying on behalf of people who are insured but don't pay in (children, spouses out of the labour market, une…

We have get healthcare, disability pensions, pensions and care via insurance in Germany. They aren't provided via government budgets. If you earn enough or you are self employed, y…

I'm not sure what is dishonest about what I said. My point is that the German system is not a magical system of free healthcare. Rather, it's financially backed by charging a consi…

It's fairly good coverage without frills (i.e. you get a shared room in the hospital). Doctors tend to de-prioritize public insurance when giving appointments, because they earn le…

In Germany, my wife and I pay together about ~2,000 USD per month for public health insurance. It's not cheap!

SPD (center-left leaning party) has been junior partners in every one but one of those conservative governments. German politics are also very collaborative/compromise driven, so i…

Nuclear was 30% of the electricity generation back in 2000. The Nordstream projects were conceived to allow Russia to exert force on Eastern European countries without endangering …

I think mercantile is the more appropriate adjective. It was cynical politicians and industrialists who sold the population on a clean energy revolution, all while banking on cheap…

You can choose both the law and forum in many types of commercial agreements. Typically international contracts will choose English law as the governing law.

Ireland's first language is Irish, not English. Ireland has done pretty well embracing English as its operating language.

I think a broader question for the EU is whether ever greater integration is possible without some standardization around a common "admin" language. Having lived in several EU coun…

Even after 6 months, typical compensation for being fired is 2 weeks of salary for every year worked. For most startup employees, this won't be a huge amount, given they have often…

I would argue it's fair to say that the current regulations were formulated with the intent to restrict the activities of tech companies. At the same time, though, you might see th…

Germany still requires that you register your residence, name, age and religion within two weeks of moving to a new place. Often, you even have to provide proof from a landlord tha…

There's an expression to describe this growth (quite typical for SaaS companies): The Long, Slow SaaS Ramp of Death, coined by Gail Goodman here: http://businessofsoftware.org/2012…