The decision made by the Fed to keep interest rates low until at least 2013 means a blow to the sovereignty of governments. National politics have this week been taken over by independent intitutions. Mr. Sarkozy and Mrs. Merkel don't have to be on a picture together anymore, giving the impression that Europe will do what the two of them think is best. Sarkozy and Merkel and all other European and American leaders are in fact out of a job. Major decisions about their economies are being taken by...

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Picture one: Hosni Mubarak laying on a hospital bed, behind bars, being interviewed by a judge. Picture two: two of his sons in front of the judge, behind bars. Picture three: smiling people in the streets of Cairo. The rulers, responsible for more than 800 deaths during the uprisings, and for thirty years of corruption and dictatorial behavior, are finally being punished. Most Egyptians cannot believe what they see.  They knew that the Mubarak family owned half of the national economy, including construction companies, car imports, banks and tourist facilities -...

Natuurlijk kun je niet tegelijk commissaris zijn van een beursgenoteerd bedrijf en columnist bij de Telegraaf. Die column gaat namelijk over de core business van Ajax, voetbal. Niet interessant of het direct of indirect over de tactiek, strategie of trainer van Ajax gaat. een columnist kan niet beloven dat hij bepaalde 'spelers' zal ontzien want dan is hij ongeloofwaardig. Gaat Cruijff schrijven (en zijn mond voorbij praten) combineren met zijn nieuwe baan, dan is hij ongeloofwaardig als commissaris. Bij de eerste de beste gelegenheid om solidariteit te tonen binnen de...

A 32 year old man executes more than 90 young people on an island in Norway. He says he isn't sorry. It was something he just had to do. After all, these youngsters had socialist sympathies and a heart for immigrants. The world, according to this cool killer, needs a shock. It needs to wake up. Enough tolerance! Enough empathy for the left, Muslims and all the other trash that invades pure Scandinavia and Europe in general. The man is convinced that we need a revolution to stop all the above. He...

Saving Greece has nothing to do with economical discipline within the euro zone, despite what bankers, politicians and analysts pretend. Nor is the consequence of  a gentleman's agreement made years ago to ignore the numbers give by Athens and to just say yes to the strategic importance of Greece as a military and political ally. Yes, we all knew the economical basics were lies. And yet we also knew that whatever it would take, a Europe without Greece is no Europe. Italy also knows: a Europe without Rome is unthinkable. But a...

Rupert Murdoch, you are or were the owner of 200 papers, amongst which the now defunct NOTW; you are the employer of 55.000 people who work for one of your businesses; you have handpicked managers like Mrs. Brooks; you know what your readers want (sensation, gossip, well packed insinuations, scoops) and that made you a rich man. Now you are just saying that you are sorry about what happened to all the victims of the hackers inside your papers? Your excuse is that you couldn't possibly know. Who cares if...

It took three years of patient waiting, but last Sunday we finally sat down at the table of El Bulli. We shook hands with Ferran Adria, the legendary master of new tastes, of decomposition and minimalism, who hugged us unexpectedly in warm gratefulness. We visited the cool and extremely neat kitchen, almost a laboratory, filled with plastic boxes, knives, machines of unknown beauty and above all, cleaner than an operation room. We watched the brigades work like disciplined robots, admired the view on the public beach (where life...

The Summit of the African Union in Malabo showed two clear points of view that must have disturbed diplomats in Europe and the US. One was the way the Western led intervention in Libya and Ivory Coast was analyzed as nothing more or less than neo colonialism under the not so clever leadership of France. The UN troops were accused of being a cover for French policy in Sub Saharan Africa.  And second, the way the International Criminal Court of Justice in The Hague was accused of hunting down...

Was er de laatste jaren iets treurigers op de televisie te zien dan het gezicht van Charlene Wittstock?  Twee uur lang keek ze gedwee maar vooral uitgespeeld om zich heen. Ze had nog geprobeerd te vluchten, maar, net als DSK, werd zij op het laatste moment uit het vliegtuig geplukt. Niet omdat zij Albert II van Monaco tegen diens zin had aangerand (dat lijkt geen enkele optie), maar omdat zij Monaco geen gezichtsverlies mocht bezorgen. Albert is al dik in de veertig en heeft ernstig behoefte aan een...