2014

Saint turns sinner: Germany’s dubious crusade

The illusions of Germany’s alleged role as a strong, prudent and efficient anchor of the eurozone will be harder to maintain in the future. The country is no economic superman, and there are numerous economic problems boiling under the surface. [...]

Friday’s Top 10

As lawyers have known since Donoghue v Stevenson, producers should not add dead snails to bottles of ginger beer or they can be liable for neglecting their duty of care. As the Huffington Post reports, an American pimp serving a 100-year jail sentence is trying to add his own extended definition to tort law by suing Nike for US$ 100 million. Why? Because Nike failed to inform him that their shoes could be used as a weapon. [...]

Time for a rethink on monetary policy

For the past forty-odd years, since the US’ final departure from the Bretton Woods system and the last remnants of the link between the US dollar and gold, we have indulged in the idea that the old definition of money no longer mattered. We thought we could just declare what ought to count as money. The signs that this system of monetary ruthlessness and lawlessness has run its course are overwhelming. A world that cannot bear the thought of a return to normal is a case in point. [...]

Athens 2014 is not Sarajevo 1914

World War I cannot and should not be used as a justification for a European integration agenda that is visibly failing. Least of all should it be used in any discussion relating to Europe’s monetary problems. These are economic questions – and fortunately not questions of war and peace. [...]

Three big issues for 2014

Parliaments may get elected, ministers and prime ministers change, bills become law but at the end of the day we are left with the same problems we have been discussing for years, if not decades: [...]