As readers here know, the Spiegel Online site is a fine way to find thoughtful pieces on the goings-on in Europe from a German perspective. Try these two for size. The first is an interview with Polish Central Bank Governor Marek Belka (who served for a while as a technocrat Prime Minister […]
Hurrah! You can fight back against burglars in England (as long as you act ‘instinctively’). So proclaims Minister of Justice Ken Clarke: In an historic move, Justice Secretary Ken Clarke yesterday announced a major strengthening of the rights of victims standing up to intruders in their property. It means anyone who […]
Most readers of this website are interested in one way or another in ‘foreign affairs’. As I have described on different occasions here, the heart of international diplomacy is the state. That idea in its modern form emerged from the Peace of Westphalia. Here are some passages from my 2009 […]
A reader steers me towards this energetic and well informed stream of consciousness account of the Eurozone deal, over at Midwest Musings: And speaking of insurance, one has to wonder what this does to the very active CDS market of very unhappy memory–AIG–as this supposed deal with the banks is […]
In 1969, in her seminal work On Death and Dying, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross eloquently detailed the five stages of dying – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and finally, acceptance. It remains one of the most important contributions to our understanding of the final phase of life and will do much to explain […]
Alert! Google! An email has arrived from someone claiming to be a "Google Accounts Trust & Safety Authenticator": We regret to inform you that, starting from November 2011, Your Account will no longer allow you to send or welcome messages, files and pages due to malicious and spy wares activities detected on […]
I thought I’d treat myself for Christmas and get one of these fine watches from Christopher Ward. Tragedy! It arrived but was just too big for my, ahem, delicate wrist. I promptly repacked the box and sent it back. They are promptly refunding both the cost of the watch and the […]
Wearing my ADRg Ambassadors hat I was in London on Tuesday to give a workshop to a prominent law firm on The Psychology of Negotiation. The people who attended spend much of their time drafting the legal clauses needed to give effect to deals already done or in prospect. They nonetheless […]
Update it is sobering to see a long line of comments after such an article in a national newspaper, many of them buzzing away about issues far from the immediate points I made. Lots of not altogether focused Euro-scepticism out there. But this one from damage124 caught my amused eye: Unless […]
How many times do I need to argue that the ‘basic’ problem with the European Union is a failure to accept certain Realities? If you’re sick of hearing it from me, as well you might be, listen to John Kay over at the FT (Note: it’s painful to pay (horror) for […]
