The American Century
has been the 20th century. But it need not necessarily have so turned out. A junior official in the American embassy in Moscow was struck by how Stalin had addressed an assembly at the Bolshoi and pointed out that capitalism would fail whilst communism would triumph. Eventually, he was shown to be wrong. However, it struck the junior official in the US embassy that this was not certain and he wrote back to various State Department officials expressing his reservations. There
8 hours ago1 min read
A VASTly improved prospect
A few weeks ago it did not look happy at VAST. But seemingly the stock returns to a London quote on 19th August and happiness reigns.
2 days ago1 min read
Chesterton's profile
Chesterton was a large man, standing 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m) tall and weighing around 20 stone 6 pounds (130 kg; 286 lb). His girth gave rise to an anecdote during the First World War, when a lady in London asked why he was not "out at the Front"; he replied, "If you go round to the side, you will see that I am."[30] On another occasion he remarked to Shaw, "To look at you, anyone would think a famine had struck England." Shaw retorted, "To look at you, anyone would think
5 days ago1 min read
Trump presses the greed button
by talking to Infantimo who fancies himself in the thinking department. However, the law itself seems plain in that the board of FIFA have a duty to look after the game as seen by the fans and not to yield to some fanciful theft plan. Trump decided to assist his son-in-law's brother by pointing out the chance of getting away with this form of theft. He would claim that he was merely dangling a carrot in front of the soft-headed Infantimo. No wonder Americans are increasingly
7 days ago1 min read
GCM (GCM)
Sheikha Hasina stopped GCM opening its Phulbari coal mine so that the coal had to come from India. This allowed Hasina to take a backhander. In the end she had to send in her troops to murder about 1,500 students who wanted a job in Bangladesh. Hasina was then rumbled and sentenced to death - by which time she had disappeared to India. But this suggests to me that coal will eventually come from Phulbari. And the question then arises: what is GCM worth? It is too early to say
Jul 281 min read
The American century
is the subject of a David Dimbleby series on Radio 4 each Tuesday at 9.00 a.m. (and presumably at other times when repeated). Today's effort kicked off with Bretton Woods, the 1944 conference attended by 700 delegates in New Hampshire. It is well worth listening to. Quite why Dimbleby calls the programme the American century is not explained given that Amercia may have been economically dominant but it has continued in exactly that role in the current century. I suspect that
Jul 281 min read
Barry Cryer strikes again
There are three parrots on a perch in a petshop. A man comes in and asks how much the first one is. '£100,' says the shopkeeper. 'What does it do?' 'It quotes Shakespeare,' says the shopkeeper. 'How much is the next one?' asks the man. '£200.' 'Why so much?' the man asks. 'It can squawk Bach, Beethoven and the whole classical repertoire,' says the shopkeeper. 'What about the last one?' '£500.' 'Bloody Hell. What can it do?' asks the man. 'No idea,' says the shopkeeper, 'but t
Jul 261 min read
