With electioneering in full swing in the UK the following quote of Pericles' famous funeral oration as reported by Thucydides from Karl Popper's book The Open Society and its Enemies seemed quite apt : Our political system does not compete with with institutions which...
UK banks piling into Greek debt?
Whilst reading an article at FT Alphaville about todays downgrading of Greek debt by Standard and Poor's, the small table in the post showing European Bank's exposure to Greek debt caught my eye : You will notice that the total exposure has reduced from $272.4 billion...
Keynesian Nightmares.
FT Alphaville has a note from Bob Janjuah of RBS which neatly sums up everything our leaders have been telling us is needed to avoid monetary armageddon whilst giving his view on what they are actually doing and where it will end .. The Greece bail-out, the goings on...
Global Domination and the strategic arms treaty.
Over at Pravda (the Russian one not the BBC), an extremely interesting article by Dr. Peter Baofu on the potential implications of the strategic arms reduction treaty signed in Prague on April 8th : Contrary to the conventional spinning in mainstream mass media, the...
Rumours of Russian and Chinese interest in Greek assets.
Zero Hedge has an interesting rumour on why the Greek government is trying to move quickly to an IMF led bailout : Supposedly written by someone in the upper ranks of the Greek government, who will reveal himself when he resigns over this matter in the coming week. He...
Amusing exam answers.
For a few minutes amusement, you could do worse than head to Listvers for a browse through some (supposedly) genuine GCSE answers. As a taster : 1. Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics.They lived in the Sarah Dessert and traveled by...
Barack Obama’s grandfather ate a Polish missionary.
At least he did according to this article apparently attributed to a joke from Polands Foreign Minister : A political scandal is gathering pace in Poland. Officials of the Polish administration are accused of releasing racist statements against US President-elect...
Russia’s view of Nato.
From Pravda (the Russian one not the BBC) we have an insight into both Russia's view of the world as well as some blatant re-writing of history which even The Labour party would be proud of : NATO´s meeting this Thursday in the Estonian capital city, Tallinn, was a...
Mob morgue murder gang.
Whilst most people stick to a few paper clips and post-it notes from the stationery cupboard, from The Moscow Times comes this rather more inventive use of work facilities by a pathologist who recruited colleagues to cover up mobland killings : Leader of Morgue Gang...
More strikes and riots planned in Greece for April 27th.
Following on from the series of events highlighted in my post yesterday likening Greece to a cheap jelly, today's news of Greece asking for activation of the EU/IMF bailout wasn't really too surprising although they seem to have caught the EU Commission on the hop...