They will be able to say in South Australia that the assassination of a Premier was done without spilling blood. Rather than using a knife in the back while Mike Rann was off promoting his state in India the killers just knocked him out with a blow from a club to the back of the [...]
READ MOREJuly, 2011
So much for ratings agencies
As the ratings agencies keep bleating about the possibility that they will take away the AAA credit rating of the United States Government, those who use their money rather than their mouth to predict the future have been sending interest rates on US Government debt down. Whatever the consequences might be of the Congress and [...]
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Will saving tuna kill the whales?
The flagship of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, the Steve Irwin, is in danger of not being available to try and stop the next season of Japanese whale hunting in Antarctic waters. The boat is currently tied up in Shetland as legal action against the Society proceeds to recover damages of $US1.4 million after the [...]
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Questioning the questioner
Bagehot’s Notebook on the website of The Economist had this to say about Louise Mensch when commenting on the House of Commons select committee interviewing Rupert and James Murdoch: A few MPs asked good questions. The surprise star was a Conservative newcomer elected in 2010, Louise Mensch, also known as Louise Bagshawe (the author of [...]
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Using Ronaldo as security
From Spain comes the financial news that Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka have been put up as security by Spain’s struggling savings bank Bankia for loans from the European Central Bank. Moody’s rated the original loans to the Real Madrid football team by one of Bankia’s seven predecessor regional savings banks – the £80m paid Manchester [...]
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The gap is still widening
The financial pundits seem to think that the European community can cope – albeit just – in bailing out a bankrupt Greece and the financially wounded Ireland and Portugal while the real concern is that the much larger economies of Italy and Spain get into difficulties. Saving those governments from defaulting on their debts would [...]
READ MOREA thought to start the day
From Paul Krugman: What’s extraordinary … is the paralysis that has taken over essentially the entire advanced world. America is hamstrung by its crazy right; Europe by its single currency that can be neither abandoned nor accompanied by sufficient reforms to make it work; Japan by lousy demography and monetary timidity that is now deeply [...]
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Europe getting nervous again
The money men are getting nervous about Europe again. The euphoria that followed last week’s so-called action to save Greece from defaulting on its debts is disintegrating apace. The earn on two yer Greek bonds is now back over 30% Even more concerning are the renewed signs that doubts are increasing again about Italy. The [...]
READ MORERage is an effective emotion for allaying the sensation of terror
“I tried not to jump to conclusions. I remembered Oklahoma – those few hours (or was it days?) during which people thought that the blasted government buildings, its child-care centre littered with tiny corpses, was a Muslim crime scene.” Those are the opening words of an essay reflecting on 9/11 that I wrote for the [...]
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Chatting with the Chancellor
A little glimpse at political life is provided by the list made available yesterday of the UK Chancellor of the Exchequer’s meetings with newspaper executives since the election of May 2010.
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