Economists, Like Royal Children, Are Not Punished

What Holds An Arab Leader In Power Is A Mixture Of Violence And Prestige. Both President Assad And King Hussein Were Felt To Have Defended Arab Interests Against The World. That, In The End, Is More Important Than What They Wear On Their Head.

For All Their Current Prestige, Osama Bin Laden And The Suicide Bombers Are Still Regarded In All But The Most Desperate Districts Of Gaza Or Peshawar As Romantics With Little Chance Of More Than Symbolic Victories, However Bloody And Brutal. That Gives Both The Middle East And The West A Small And Distant Hope Of Security.

One Of The Admirable Features Of British Novelists Is That They Have No Scruple About Setting Their Stories In Foreign Settings With Wholly Foreign Personnel.

Since The Attack On The United States On September 11 2001, And The Us Retaliation In Afghanistan And Iraq, There Must Be Few People Who Have Not Felt A Twinge Of Nostalgia For The Cold War.

At The Heart Of Banking Is A Suicidal Strategy. Banks Take Money From The Public Or Each Other On Call, Skim It For Their Own Reward And Then Lock The Rest Up In Volatile, Insecure And Illiquid Loans That At Times They Cannot Redeem Without Public Aid.