Well I got it wrong (or so it seems). Someone has ‘leaked’ to the FT the news that Italy will be ‘given two years grace’ on the deficit problem. If this is confirmed I suppose it shows that the Commission fears more the Italian voters than it does the international financial markets. Obviously a ‘to the letter of the law’ application of the revised SGP would present Italy with hard economic decisions (which she will face anyway), but not applying it tests yet one more time the credibility of the EU’s institutions. It depends I suppose which you think is more damaging in the long run.
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Two years ago today…
Hey, I know!
I just got the idea of starting a politics weblog with a bunch of euros (expats would be ok too.)
Brilliant, eh? Of course I’ve only thought about for five seconds.
Now I just have to find some reasonably smart and not too wingnutty people who’s interested?
Anyone up for it?
Update: Nah.
Update: Yes!
Posted by David Weman at 01:56 AM | TrackBack
I can’t really put my mind around the fact that it was two years ago today, or that afoe’s will soon have its 2nd anniversary. If I accomplish nothing else in life, well, this is… something.
Too Hot to Change?
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.
Too Hot For Blogging?
“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
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
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)
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
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).
Dirty Deeds, Not Dirt Cheap
Italian authorities said Friday they have issued arrest warrants against 13 American intelligence operatives, charging that they kidnapped a radical Islamic cleric as he walked to a mosque here two years ago, held him hostage at two U.S. military bases and then covertly flew him to Cairo. He later said he was tortured by Egyptian security police.
Joseph Vissarionovich and the People Who Loved Him
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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