Cold Spring and Adrian Ellis
NEW
No visit to New York would be complete without a trip up the Hudson River to Cold Spring to see my university contemporary and friend of thirty-six years’ standing, Adrian Ellis and his wife, Libby. Adrian has just finished a five-year stint...
‘If this is going to unravel…’
NEW
Oh, those international accounting standard-setters. Such drama queens.On Wednesday, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and its US counterpart, the Financial...
The Closer
NEW
ROUND UP Stocks continued to rally today, with the S&P 500 rising 0.27 per cent on the back of several upbeat corporate earnings reports (Financial Times).But there was downbeat...
When Ed met Guido
NEW
There was a new addition to this year’s guest list for Labour’s summer press reception, where the usual crowd of perpetually thirsty lobby hacks were joined by Messrs Paul Staines and Harry Cole of Guido Fawkes fame. Ed Miliband’s ...
Goodwill to all men, and Microsoft
NEW
Microsoft posted the first quarterly loss, of some $0.06 per share, in the company’s publicly-listed history on Thursday. Its flagged $6.2bn writedown of goodwill on the...
Politik in der Euro-Krise
NEW
Mit einer “Ausnahmesituation” begründete der Finanzminister heute im Bundestag die Milliardenhilfen für die spanischen Banken. Betrachtet man die letzten Monate der europäischen Krisenpolitik, drängt sich der Eindruck auf, in Euroland...
LSE, finally forced to look east?
NEW
After a day of roiling rumours, James Quinn and Ben Harrington at the Telegraph told us on Thursday that Singapore Exchange is in merger takeover talks with the London Stock Exchange....
Professor Stefan Wolff’s speaking notes of 6 July are now online
NEW
Professor Stefan Wolff has made his speaking notes available online. Wolff’s speech was delivered at the “HCNM 20 Years On”-conference in Flensburg on 6 July. Continue reading →...
Facing tragedy together, growing stronger together
NEW
Number of View: 216 A shocking tragedy happened yesterday in my native Bulgaria – a terrorist attack killed seven people, the majority of whom Israeli tourists, at an airport near the Black Sea. My condolences go out to the families of the victims,...
Case C‑138/11, Compass-Datenbank GmbH v. Österreich
NEW
Court further defines concept of undertakingThis reference for a preliminary ruling, which concerned the interpretation of Art. 102 TFEU, had been made in proceedings between Compass-Datenbank and Austria in relation to the making available of...
Case C‑138/11, Compass-Datenbank GmbH v. Österreich
NEW
Court further defines concept of undertakingThis reference for a preliminary ruling, which concerned the interpretation of Art. 102 TFEU, had been made in proceedings between Compass-Datenbank and Austria in relation to the making available of...
Holocaust defamation
NEW
OK, it's time to do some serious thinking about free speech and defamation. Who should prove what and how?Just a little bit of background, especially for the non-lawyers: I've been reading Deborah Lipstadt's book about the defamation suit brough...
Finland’s Spanish swap
NEW
Fresh from being debated in an extraordinary session of the Finnish parliament…Click for the letter confirming the terms of Finland’s deal for ‘collateral’...
Holocaust defamation
NEW
OK, it’s time to do some serious thinking about free speech and defamation. Who should prove what and how? Just a little bit of background, especially for the non-lawyers: I’ve been reading Deborah Lipstadt‘s book about the defamati...
Eurostat Weighs in on Bank Aid
NEW
Eurostat, the European Union’s statistic agency, has weighed in on the question of whether a government should still have to retain final liability for any losses that may arise from a “direct” recapitalization of its banks from the euro-zone b...
‘They only wanted Olympics contract’: G4S fail to deliver on kids sport
NEW
Promised £1m for kids judo ‘to win Olympics contract’ 750 places per year, but average 12 participated Hundreds of G4S judo suits remained unused in storage Security firm G4S have been accused of failing to deliver on a programme which t...
Capital One: Enter Ethicist
NEW
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announced in July 2012 findings that a vender working for Capital One “had pressured and deceived” credit-card customers into buying products “presented as a way to protect” the customers from identity...
The Foreign Policy Timeline on Facebook
NEW
The first comprehensive history of U.S. foreign policy on Facebook. The Foreign Policy Association is proud to announce the launch of the Foreign Policy Timeline on Facebook. Utilizing one of the latest tools offered by the popular social media site...
European Court of Auditors audits organic product control
NEW
The European Court of auditors published a special report (approved the 28th March) about its audit of the control system for organic products, whether they provide sufficient assurance that the key requirements for organic production, processing, d...
European Ombudsman Opens Public Consultation on Frontex and EU Charter of Fundamental Rights; NGOs and Public Invited to Submit Comments
NEW
Text of 19 July 2012 press release from the European Ombudsman: “The European Ombudsman, P. Nikiforos Diamandouros, has invited individuals, NGOs, and other organisations active in the area of fundamental rights protection to submit comments in h...
Who really runs the EU?
NEW
This post was prompted by a little debate I had on Twitter with my fellow euro-bloggers Ronny Patz and Jon Worth. The question being: What is the most powerful EU institution? In particular, I had criticized Der Spiegel for suggesting … Continu...
Without the EU, we're just Little England to Beijing and Delhi | Jonathan Todd
NEW
Britain is trading more with Asian markets. It's a net exporter of cars again. Great news – but we do all this as a European partnerBrussels cannot be bypassed via Beijing, contrary to the bullish claims of the Daily Express today. Instead, the qui...
Ye olde (ironic) collateral crunch
NEW
The Atlanta Fed has dredged yore (or at least some of it) to bring us a paper that goes to the Amsterdam Crisis of 1763 to find a shadow banking precedent for the collapse of...
Citing Mister Cuddles
NEW
They are fossils, these old-line Marxist-Leninist / Permanent Revolution type Trotskyite variants. They even fall for phony, concocted quotations from their heroes of the near distant ago as a kind of scripture. Here, one present day “revolutiona...
Today in Luxembourg
NEW
The final batch before the Court’s summer break:In anti-terrorism news, the Parliament lost its bid to get a say in asset-freeze decisions. According to the Grand Chamber (per Judge Rosas), Art. 215 TFEU is an appropriate legal basis, there is no n...
Polish band Klezmafour: ‘Holocaust has nothing to do with our music’
NEW
The Czapliński brothers - violinist Andrzej and clarinet player Wojciech - set up their five-piece after studying at the prestigious Chopin’s music academy in Lublin, eastern Poland, in 1999. The twentysomethings have gone on to release a self-tit...
Polish band Klezmafour: ‘Holocaust has nothing to do with our music’
NEW
The Czapliński brothers - violinist Andrzej and clarinet player Wojciech - set up their five-piece after studying at the prestigious Chopin’s music academy in Lublin, eastern Poland, in 1999. The twentysomethings have gone on to release a self-tit...
Libor and bezzles
NEW
At any given time there exists an inventory of undiscovered embezzlement in – or more precisely not in – the country’s business and banks. This inventory – it should perhaps...
Europe's democracy dilemma – how and when to step in? | Jan-Werner Mueller
NEW
As eastern European countries become more autocratic, Brussels must build a legal and political toolkit for interventionFirst Hungary, now Romania, and perhaps Bulgaria next: one eastern European country after another seems to be sliding backwards fr...
The Bright Future of Floating LNG Liquefaction, Regasification and Storage Units
NEW
Shanghai-based Wison Offshore & Marine Ltd. announced on June 1, 2012 that it had been awarded a contract by the Exmar Group for the engineering, procurement, construction, installation and commissioning of the world’s first Float...
Article: M Tondini, “The legality of intercepting boat people under search and rescue and border control operations with reference to recent Italian interventions in the Mediterranean Sea and the ECtHR decision in the Hirsi case”
NEW
A new article by Matteo Tondini, Ph.D., “The legality of intercepting boat people under search and rescue and border control operations with reference to recent Italian interventions in the Mediterranean Sea and the ECtHR decision in the Hirsi case...
How can Sicily cut the bloated budget that is dragging it down? | Alberto Nardelli
NEW
Organised crime recruits its disciples where there is poverty and a lack of security, so Italy's PM will have to tread carefullySicily is back in the news for the wrong reasons. On Tuesday the Italian prime minister, Mario Monti, raised concerns over...
Cold Spring and Nicos Agathocleous
NEW
In fact, we were hurrying along Fifth Avenue to get to Grand Central Station to catch a train out to Cold Spring where a friend and university contemporary, Adrian Ellis, has a house. I shall write more about Adrian and Cold Spring in my next post.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s New Challenges
NEW
In Egypt, it is hard to locate any sign of Islamist triumphalism. Yet, this apparent equilibrium is precarious, and can be disrupted by both alarmism and complacency.
Putin’s Pitiful Progress Report
NEW
Judging by his first 60 days in office, the Russian president could be turning into his own worst enemy...
Your comment...