Monthly Archives: June 2005

Too Hot to Change?

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The Cunning Realist takes a look at limits:

Since the bursting of the technology bubble in 2000, there have been four distinct periods in which the Fed has flooded the system with an extraordinary amount of liquidity in an effort to boost the stock market:

1. Immediately after 9/11.
2. During the second half of 2002 in response to widespread accounting scandals and the meltdown in the corporate bond market.
3. During the summer and fall of last year, just before the presidential election (draw your own conclusions).
4. The past two months.

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Too Hot For Blogging?

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“Southern Europe was on heat wave alert faced with baking temperatures and drought conditions…….”

“Despite refreshing morning rainfall in Madrid, much of southern and central Spain has been sweltering in temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) for weeks, though the weekend did bring some respite.”

Unfortunately I’m in Barcelona. The temperatures aren’t much cooler, but there’s no sign of the rain here. Fires, and dehydration victims are going to be the main problems. And, of course, lethargic bloggers :).

Sarkozy Favours Enlargement Freeze

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Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s current interior minister, and 2007 presidential hopeful has said he favours a freeze on future EU enlargement:

“We have to suspend enlargement at least until the institutions have been modernized,” Sarkozy said after talks with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on France’s role in Europe after voters rejected the EU constitution in a referendum on May 29. “Europe cannot enlarge indefinitely,” he said.

Promising Elections

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The Guardian today has a short profile on Angela Merkel, while the FT looks at some of the proposals which may well form part of the SPD campaign manifesto. Far be it from me to worry about ‘sting the rich’ tax proposals, but as far as I can see the main isssue is getting Germany back to work, and Schr?der’s time might be better spent adressing this issue.

Talking of which, this could be a good moment to mention the whacky world of Hans Werner Sinn.
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Dirty Deeds, Not Dirt Cheap (Reprise)

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For 19 American intelligence operatives assigned to apprehend a radical Islamic preacher in Milan two years ago, the mission was equal parts James Bond and taxpayer-financed Italian holiday, according to an Italian investigation of the man’s disappearance. …

During January 2003, they were regular patrons at the Hotel Principe di Savoia in Milan, which bills itself as “one of the world’s most luxuriously appointed hotels” and features a marble-lined spa and minibar Cokes that cost about $10. Seven of the Americans stayed at the 80-year-old hotel for periods ranging from three days to three weeks at nightly rates of about $450, racking up total expenses of more than $42,000 there. …

Hotel records show that all but one of the Americans allegedly involved in the abduction stayed in Italy for a few days afterward. Four of them checked into luxury hotels in Venice. Two others spent a couple of days in the Italian Alps before leaving the country.

On Negotiations

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A few days back I had a post, Iraq’s Legacy, which dealt with the issue of whether or not the continuing Iraq war was in fact serving to increase the level of international terrorism, and whether at the end of the day we might not be left with a bigger headache than the one we started out with. During the ensuing debate in comments we had a kind of guided tour round a lot of the associated issues, including the one of when you might, and might not, negotiate with terrorists. Well today we have this news, which also helps us put the heroic efforts of Spain’s current government to bring Eta to the negotiating table and away from guns into some sort of perspective. (Zapatero struggles on regardless, despite intense criiticism from the opposition Partido Popular, and despite the ongoing efforts of Eta itself to make life as difficult as it can for him).

Joseph Vissarionovich and the People Who Loved Him

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Because some of them undoubtedly did, even people who knew him quite well. In his heyday, millions professed their love, sang his praises. Even those he had condemned in show trials, or in no trials, wrote to him of their devotion, wrote of their faithfulness, wrote of their belief. Perhaps they meant it, perhaps it was the only hope they had to continue living.

One person who does seem to have loved him in something like the normal sense of the word was his second wife, Nadezhda Alliluyeva. Perhaps that is why she shot herself.
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CNOOC Bids for Unocal

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All those ‘O’s and ‘C’s, I just couldn’t resist it. So what the hell is this one about. Well, something quite important really. They are oil companies, and one of them is in China. Brad Setser has a great post on it. The issue is what China is starting to do with all those surplus dollars and euros she is accumulating:

“One of China’s largest state-controlled oil companies made a $18.5 billion unsolicited bid Thursday for Unocal, signaling the first big takeover battle by a Chinese company for an American corporation. The bold bid, by the China National Offshore Oil Corporation ( CNOOC), may be a watershed in Chinese corporate behavior, and it demonstrates the increasing influence on Asia of Wall Street’s bare-knuckled takeover tactics.

The offer is also the latest symbol of China’s growing economic power and of the soaring ambitions of its corporate giants, particularly when it comes to the energy resources it needs desperately to continue feeding its rapid growth.”