The Closer
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ROUND-UP The S&P 500 followed global equity markets down, falling 1.71 per cent on the day as Spanish and Italian sovereign bonds sold off while yields on US Treasuries and...
Council of Europe commitment to human rights in doubt after ruling in Abu Hamsa case
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The European Court of Human Rights has cast the entire notion of a Council of Europe and what it stands for into doubt today with its controversial ruling that allows for sending people not char...
Some interesting German polling
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There has been some interesting polls done in Germany in the last few days. With important state elections coming up in Schleswig-Holstein and North Rhine-Westphalia and the Federal Elections next year. The first poll released on the 8th April by TN...
The Great Collision
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“If you accept the proposition that societies and economies are heading off the rails, then here’s my hypothesis: we’re about to careen into a Great Collision — people bumping up against the self-imposed perimeter of their own careful...
One cheer for slower earnings growth…
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Official earnings season in the US will kick off with Alcoa after the close of trading on Tuesday, and here’s one item that economy-watchers will be minding as companies...
On the Arrogance of Assumed Superiority: Assad of Syria
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One week after Assad’s Syrian government had agreed to a cease-fire with the state’s opposition, the government added further stipulations. First, it wanted “written guarantees” that rebels would stop fighting and lay down their weapons...
Santorum’s Out
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The Race for the Republican Presidential Nomination just became easier as Rick Santorum has pulled out of the race this evening. Santorum who was trailing Mitt Romney in the Delegate race for the nomination phoned Romney before making the announcemen...
Sanatorum Dropping Out
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It looks like Santorum is dropping out (finally). He had an interesting, crazy run, but it looks like Republicans finally accepted Romney. Now I’m wondering what Ron Paul will do, if anything. It will be interesting to watch it unfold. Gingrich...
This blog readopts its original title
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The Antitrust Hotch Potch was created several years ago by Nicolas Petit and myself. Three years ago, Nicolas created an excellent new blog "Chillin Competition" and this blog became became largely inactive under the name "Professor Da...
Spain takes centre stage
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It was a torrid day for Spain in the markets yesterday, borrowing costs soared (the 10 year topped 5.96% at one point) and the Spanish stock market plummeted. As we predicted last week, fears over the Spanish economy are beginning to crystallise in t...
Agressive Turkey: Warns Syria, Presses Case on Looted Antiquities.. A FP roundup
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Syrian border fire angers Turkey from BBC News | Europe | World Edition Turkey reacts angrily after Syrian fire across its border causes casualties, as a UN-brokered ceasefire plan looks increasingly in doubt. Turkey issues stern warning to...
1981-2009: 39% of EU Commissioners became private interest representatives
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In a paper titled “There is life after the Commission: An empirical analysis of private interest representation by former EU-commissioners, 1981–2009” (The Review of International Organizations, Issue 1/2012) Roland Vaubel, Bernhard Kl...
Greece: Abbot Released Over Ecclesiastical Real-Estate Scandal
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Mixed online reactions have met the news that Elder Ephraim, abbot of Vatopedi monastery on Greece's Mount Athos, who was implicated in a scandal arranging land swaps between Vatopedi and the state, has been released from jail after only four months...
A modern defenestration
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We can’t ignore the (extraordinary) latest on the fall of Bo Xilai. Probably nobody who follows China as a market can, we suppose.The Xinhua story on the arrest of Bo’s...
Cyberculture roundup: Proxy War Against The Pirate Bay; Facebook buys Instagram, Instagram alternatives emerge…
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Proxy War Against The Pirate Bay Heats Up from TorrentFreak by Ernesto Last October the Antwerp Court of Appeal ordered two Belgian ISPs to block subscriber access to 11 domains connected to The Pirate Bay. The local anti-piracy movement applauded th...
Smart Diplomacy: A French Presidential Candidate Vows to Valiantly Fight the American Empire and Bring the World Out From Under Its Domineering Shadow
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It's not much longer than a filler, but the Le Monde piece by Gilles Paris has a chilling description of the foreign views of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose "leftist" (communistic) front, le Front de Gauche, may surpass Marine Le Pen's Front National d...
Africa: Access to Water and Sanitation Services Still a Burden
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Babatope Babalobi, Secretary General WASH-JN [Water, sanitation and Hygiene journalists network (WASH)] discusses two meetings on water and sanitation held in Marseilles last month: “It seems that the organisers of the two events wrongly assume...
España en caída libre… de estado de ánimo
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Un día nos levantamos todos y se nos anunció que la cosa iba mal, que entrábamos en crisis. Las razones venían de lejos, del intrincado mundo de las finanzas made in USA convertido en un laboratorio de genética capaz de parir productos timo a gr...
Some thoughts on liberal universalism
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This entry was inspired by a coincidence of two pieces of writing that were published at more or less same time, late March-early April. David Goodhart’s essay on left and right appeared in Prospect, while Frank Furedi’s two pieces were part of h...
Hungarian NGOs Decry ‘Colonization through Capital’
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An association of Hungarian civil groups Tuesday paid a visit to the Budapest office of the International Monetary Fund to deliver a letter to the bureau chief, Iryna Ivaschenko. It demands fair treatment for the country in its effort to secure finan...
Is Osborne using tax avoidance as an excuse to target charities?
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The coalition are keen to be seen as clamping down on irresponsible tax avoiders, but George Osborne seems to be going after charities instead. The government have cited tax evasion as a reason for reducing tax reliefs in the budget – a move wh...
MAMA KAT BLUES: PROTECTING OUR BABIES' NAMES
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Image: anankkml / FreeDigitalPhotos.net This Kat has awoken from a long late winter/early spring nap to finally re-join her fellow Kat bloggers and bring the news of U.S. IP law to the world. She would further like to express her appreciate to...
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch
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I have just finished Philip K. Dick’s 1965 sci fi tour de force, The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch. Having finished the book, I went on the web and stumbled across a rather sniffy-with-hindsight review by another author I admire, Michael Mo...
Osborne’s ‘Casablanca’ moment: he’s shocked, shocked!
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I’m shocked, shocked! George Osborne has said he was “shocked” to discover that some of the wealthiest people in the country pay “virtually no” income tax. The chancellor said he had seen “anonymised” tax ret...
Osborne’s ‘Casablanca’ moment: he’s shocked, shocked!
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I’m shocked, shocked! George Osborne has said he was “shocked” to discover that some of the wealthiest people in the country pay “virtually no” income tax. The chancellor said he had seen “anonymised” tax ret...
Konferencja Fundacji im. K. Pulaskiego: „Wspolny europejski rynek uzbrojenia. Szansa czy zagrozenie dla bezpieczenstwa Polski?”.
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W dniu 3 kwietnia 2012 r. odbyla sie konferencja zorganizowana przez Fundacje im. K. Pulaskiego na temat: „Wspólny europejski rynek uzbrojenia. Szansa czy zagrozenie dla bezpieczenstwa Polski?” w której mialem przyjemnosc za...
We Can Learn from the Germans
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In more than one German State (Länder) that I’m familiar with, you need not just a phot ID to vote, but a photo VOTER ID to demonstrate you’re an eligible voter.In Obama’s America, though...:...
