Was tempted to file this under "Seedy Politicians."
The unthinkable idea that the eurozone might break up is now being thought. And the version of break up gathering ground in people's minds is not that the poor, indebted countries would fall out -- they are prostrate and helpless -- but that Germany would rise up like Gulliver, snap the insubstantial euro-ropes tied round its body, and walk away. Offering a foretaste, a German stockmarket website called Borsenews has now started pricing shares in Deutschmarks as well as euros. Make of that what you will.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/20/2010 13:39 ||
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#1
There is no Deutschmark right now so 'pricing' is just a feel-good exercise. But it might not be a bad thing for Germany to have a regional currency that the stronger, northern European countries would either use, or peg their own currencies to, just as some countries peg their currencies to the dollar.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/20/2010 13:58 Comments ||
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Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
06/20/2010 16:09 Comments ||
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#4
Most Germans would bring back the DM in a heartbeat.
Unfortunately that wouldn't solve a thing since we'd still be forced to bail out the rest of Europe (until we go broke ourselves)
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/20/2010 16:32 Comments ||
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#5
Brits keeping the Pound - seems like it was a pretty smart idea, eh?
#2
Carter's presidency was given coherence and meaning by Nixon, Watergate, and without it that presidency seemed formless. Mr. Obama, in the same way, needs Mr. Bush standing in the corner like Boo Radley, saying "Let's invade something!" But Mr. Bush is wisely back home in Texas finishing a book, and the president never sounds weaker than when he suggests his predicament is all his predecessor's fault.
This has always been the sum and substance of Bambi's presidency ... blame someone else for his own failings/faults/inadequacies.
#4
It's not necessarily just luck. A big issue is the 'Disconnect'. Aside from being a family-man and his sneaking a smoke, there's nothing in the President's roster of faults and accomplishments for an average citizen to point to and say "he's got something in common with me".
That and treating his Office as if the U.S. were a university campus - but that'd suck up a lot of bandwidth.
#5
Snakebit? Think about it. Obamas a guy who cut his political teeth through the Chicago Machine and emerged without any significant taint. And its obvious that it didnt occur from any personal luck, intelligence, or sense of morality. Bottom line he was cultivated. He was never a doer or a fixer and certainly never a leader. He is a brand to be marketed. Pundits of all stripes are finally beginning to shift their criticism from his bad optics to his lack of accomplishment. Perhaps, the most surprising thing is it took this long. Remember, never hire a mechanic without a little dirt under his finger nails and never elect a Chicago politician without a little blood on his cuffs.
#8
More likely he is the snake. I mean, you have to wonder why we have first a preoccupation with appointing all kinds of politically motivated czars instead of trying to get the most competent people available to head up federal departments and agencies like the EPA. Then you have a massive oil spill and we find that, not only does nobody know what to do about it, but nobody took the most obvious steps that could have been take to prevent it. Instead of making rigorous inspections at the site they were looking the other way while BP broke all the rules. Then, just to make matters worse, you have a dawdling and incompetent response by the federal government. Finally, to tie it all together, you have renewed calls for cap and trade and other green boondoggles. Never let a crisis go to waste, you know. But it kinda makes me wonder, if a crisis doesn't just happen maybe it can be helped along a bit. Maybe I'm just paranoid but it's the same way I wondered exactly how it came to be that the mortgage meltdown happened just a few weeks before the 2008 elections. Coinkydinky? Well, anyway, it certainly was convenient for a certain party especially when it's completely unimaginable that they didn't see it coming. Sometimes you have to make your own luck but I'm wondering just how far these people will go to do that.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
06/20/2010 16:43 Comments ||
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#9
He's starting to look unlucky
Wonner how "lucky" he was in college? I guess we'll never know....smartest man in the world won't let us see courses take OR grades. We make our own luck... I thinks!
Light'em up if you've got'em Barry. Nothing sooths like a Lucky Strike!
#1
tipper, those of us who are not subscribers to the Wall Street Journal only get a two-paragraph preview, ever since Mr. Murdoch decided to increase the Journal's profitability. In the future, please either post the entire WSJ article, or give us the most important bits.
Thank you for all the interesting links!
-trailing wife
For Ibrahim Musliyar Bekal, a Muslim religious leader in Karnataka's Udupi District, the Muslim community is largely to blame for its poverty. After visiting ten families living in abject poverty, he said that some Muslim practices explain widespread underdevelopment.
Bekal, who is Qazi (Kadi, religious judge) in Udupi, said that it is very important to eradicate the dowry system and other such evils prevailing in the Muslim community', which undermine its overall development'.
The dowry system forces families to pay millions of rupees to the groom's family in order to take in their daughters in marriage. Even though the practice is illegal since the adoption of the Dowry Prohibition Act in 1961, it still shapes people's mindset and culture.
Another evil that burdens Muslims is the status of women who, after marriage, are not allowed to work. To illustrate his point, Qazi Ibrahim Musliyar Bekal mentioned the moving case of a family who had two female members become mentally ill after they were deserted by their husbands many years ago. Sadly, he said there are many instances of various forms of abuse that are inflicted upon unfortunate women who end up languishing at home without support.
According to Indian government figures, some 251 people lived below the poverty line in 2005. Of these, 31 per cent was Muslim even though Muslims represent only 13.4 per cent of the population.
#2
Muslims dont believe in material wealth so in UK are happy to collect welfare cqs and live in social housing.Also they tell me many workplaces dont provide places for prayer!
Posted by: Paul D ||
06/20/2010 11:27 Comments ||
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#3
It's more 'tribal' than 'Muslim' practices.
But even in laying blame, the religion takes priority.
#4
There might be some possibility for reform in this. One of Islam's big selling points was that it was better than tribalism. So the initial reform could be in ended repugnant tribal traditions--in the name of Islam.
Yes, I know, baby steps. But they have had some luck in phasing out female circumcision, which about everyone agrees is grotesque.
A young Iranian woman named Neda Soltan was brutally murdered on this date last year for doing nothing more than expressing her opinion along as other like minded people did that day.
No one has been caught. No one had been charged. We have seen a lot of posturing and we have seen fawning requests for picnics from our State Department, but no accountability and no compensation by the Iranian regime for the wanton murder of this individual.
Appropriately the first anniversary of her murder takes place on a Sunday, so that we can reflect on the small thing she did which brought her death.
If ever there was a case which calls out for justice it is the murder of Neda Soltan.
The latest news can be found here. I haven't fully checked out this organization so Caveat Emptor.
For my own purposes her photograph is on the main page of my personal blog and it will remain there until the person who pulled the trigger and the person who gave the kill order are charged tried, convicted and punished for Neda's murder.
Following are the most relevant links to story posted here that provide a chronicle of her death and the aftermath.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
A young Iranian woman named Neda Soltan was brutally murdered on this date last year for doing nothing more than expressing her opinion along as other like minded people did that day.
