The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: A New York City subway train holds 1,200 people. This blog was viewed about 6,900 times in 2011. If it were a NYC subway train, it would take about 6 trips to carry that many people. Click here to [...]
Today the Wall Street Journal published this article about an appearance by the new president of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi. It points out that there were only a few, 35 out of 736 MEPs at this meeting. Now when you think that the world’s banking system is on the verge of collapse because [...]
When the euro was created in 1999 the original eurozone members joined by exchanging their currencies at an exchange rate that would last forever. This was based on judgement and arm waving. Subsequently we have seen that because these countries have been restricted in exercising exchange rate flexibility, and interest rates their lack of competitiveness [.. […]
Germany has been the model of export-led economic growth, since 1875. But, since it joined the euro in 1999, something really spectacular has happened to its balance of trade. Why? Could it be that it joined at the wrong exchange rate? According to Wikipedia; The procedure used to fix the irrevocable conversion rate between the [...]
You can get a kitten if you write more than 100 words, so … The world is going mad. People are pretending it isn’t, but it is. It’s not only the weather, of course, that is always unknowable. Or the economy. There are other mad things which are unmanageable too. I’m thinking my mood is [...]
My glass Victorian rolling pin spontaneously shattered several months ago. It was sitting on the radiator, which was off, and decided to split into a few hundred pieces. I was less than happy. Since then I have been looking to replace it. There have been several contenders. None until today made the grade. Now this [...]