A few years back I joined a seminar organised in the margins of a FCO Leadership Conference in London. The discussion focused on global trends. A striking observation was made: “in the past ten years or so we have seen one of the greatest changes in human history–a billion people […]
Walter Russell Mead pours out one fine article after another. Look at his blunt observations on the desperate situation in Rhode Island where years of not decades of public sector greed and a refusal by politicians and unions there to accept underlying financial realities (especially for pensions) is creating a […]
The FT’s distinguished columnists are fearing for the worst as they look at the Eurozone debacle unfold. And, of course, many of them had glowing words to say in favour of the whole idea when it was set up. Wolfgang Münchau gives more doom-laden analysis today (tuck’d away behind the FT […]
In case you haven’t seen it already, here is my latest DIPLOMAT article – this one on the flawed first principles underlying the EU’s current problems. It considers several basic principles of the way the EU works and notes that the current crisis is so painful because it is putting […]
Articles pour out about the mounting problems in Greece. Homelessness, drugs, shops shutting, psychological despair, political alienation, emigration, suicide, and the rest. Such as this one in the Guardian: A new underclass has appeared: in the homeless and hungry who roam the streets; in the spiralling number of drug addicts; in […]
Many of my loyal readers know a few things about the Balkans. Relax. That probably does not make you bad people. Here is a gripping analysis of the dreary political paralysis in Bosnia: In theory, Bosnia’s constitution treats Croats as one of the country’s three constituent peoples, entitling them to […]
Or is it Coup des États? Definitely one or the other. Let’s stick with the headline one. My latest Commentator piece is out, belabouring a theme familiar to regular readers here, namely the Limits of Trust: Once upon a time world leaders met only rarely if at all. They maintained […]
This is a sizzling and unremittingly pessimistic denunciation of European vaingloriousness: too many illusions crumbling all at the same time. Thus: In 1965, government spending as a percentage of GDP averaged 28% in Western Europe. Today it hovers just under 50%. In 1965, the fertility rate in Germany was a […]
Last week in the Krynica Economic Forum in deep Poland, a highlight was the exchange between former German President (and former IMF Director) Horst Köhler and Polish Finance Minister Jan Vincent-Rostowski. In essence, Kohler argued that the time had come to stop throwing good money after bad in the Eurozone – […]
There were 249 reported terrorist attacks in EU member states in 2010. Quite a lot. Who carried them out? Not who you might think (my emphasis): Islamist terrorists carried out three attacks on EU territory. Separatist groups, on the other hand, were responsible for 160 attacks, while left-wing and anarchist groups […]
