[Thanks to the links from Instapundit (Glenn Reynolds), Chaos Manor (Jerry Pournelle), and John C. Wright’s Journal (John C. Wright — what, you were expecting Karl Rove?). In fact, if you follow the link below to my 2008 post, you’ll see that I first read the poem over at Jerry Pournelle’s blog, Chaos Manor.] I posted this poem […]
With everything else going on — the election, the Chicago teachers’ strike, the upheaval and assaults in the Middle East — it’s worth keeping in mind the single biggest financial timebomb here in the US: underfunded pension obligations. This is, in my opinion, a more serious crisis than the massive unfunded Federal entitlement obligations for […]
There are arguments about who first said Après moi, le déluge (“After me, the Flood.”) and whether is was meant prophetically (“Things are going to get bad once I’m gone”) or dismissively (“I really don’t care if things go to hell once I’m gone.”). I’m not sure it matters. I think both apply to the […]
France’s future is cloudy. OK, OK, cheap symbolism, but that’s the best kind, for reasons that I’ll come with eventually. Meanwhile, in case you’re wondering about the strange post name, “Tour Eiffel” is French for “Eiffel Tower”, and yes, we went on a tour of the Eiffel Tower this morning. We had gone last year […]
OK, as mentioned below, I got a grand total of two man-on-the-street interviews today. I was probably lucky to get that, all things considered. Sometime early this morning, while thinking about my goals for this trip, I came to the conclusion that my probability of success was pretty low in doing cold approaches on strangers […]
I did get two interviews. In two hours. Plus one bit of pungent walk-by commentary. I’ll chronicle the whole effort later, but here’s the feedback from today. Thomas — in his 30s, and looking like a classic clean-cut-with-stubble French professional — described himself as ‘not a typical Parisian’, though he never quite explained what that […]
Tocqueville, we have arrived! I’m not sure what Tocqueville would have made of the Euromess, but I think it’s pretty easy to guess. On the other hand, I think I may have discovered part of the core financial problem here in France. Sitting in the lobby of our hotel, waiting for a room to become […]
OK, so we’re on the first leg of our flight to Paris, where I’ve found that my two French phrase books (the aptly-titled French Phrase Book as well as Just Enough French) don’t contain such handy questions as “What do you think are the possible sovereign consequences of replacing the European Financial Stability Facility with […]
Important events and circumstances have combined in such a way that in a few short hours I will be boarding an airliner on my way to the Continent, to witness first-hand the turmoil of fiscal and sovereign upheaval caused by the ever-imminent collapse of the Eurozone, and to report on it here to you. OK, […]
Next-to-the-last day of the cruise. Spent the whole day at sea today, on our way from St. Thomas to the Bahamas, sailing past and north of our previous stops at Puerto Rico and Grand Turk. This meant more panels and activities today, and some great panels they were, including one on the realities of political […]
