On Spain looking down the tunnel, is that the exit or just a train coming?

I am sorry, I know I am a voluntary expat, but Spain is just the land of the joke. Yesterday three things happened that made me corroborate as a right idea leaving the Peninsula.
1. The financial health The FT informs us that “Spain acts to help lenders”. Is this the same [...]

On what you cannot do in a public park, is general public madness taking over or what?

Remember when you use to through stones to each other in the fields and hope that “the enemy” wouldn’t catch you? Well, remember no more, I was peacefully strolling Hyde Park when I got to the Knightsbridge side and so this “peculiar” but serious poster:

Oh, Come on! What else? Is that what the Home Secretary [...]

On the end of the rule of law in the West, another case study: MPs expenses

I am growing more and more worried about the raising populist anger spiralling out of control.
First, it was the “outrageous” (but legally binding by contract) golden parachutes of failed investment banking executives.
It followed the popular clamour against sky-high (but legally binding by contracts) executive pay.
Then it came poor Sir Fred Goodwin and his pension (legally [...]

On Du-BAN-i, the new Gulf Emirate formerly known as Dubai. The party is over

Can’t stay away from the news these days, can you? A friend sends me a message forwarded to her from Dubai. She looked into moving down there as a Retail Manager for a fashion house down there, but the conditions where apocalyptic, lucky enough she had her father’s employer’s legal department have a closer look [...]

On Barclays profiteering from honest customers using their 24/7 rule and the ‘returned payment’ chain

Hobbes, seriously, the banking system in the UK get away with so much that once they put themselves in the spotlight as brainless individuals of dubious IQ as they have, we should move to regulators (SEC? FSA? even worse hollow heads than the bankers themselves), and then get rid of this politicians who, against public [...]

On politicians and voters not being on the same page, ‘Ireland does EU, the sequel’

It is just un-be-lie-va-ble. They will not accept a NO as an answer. Now I know how ladies feel when dealing with pushy guys.
I thought that the Irish were quite clear when saying No to the Lisbon Treaty. But as democracy in Palestine, voters decisions are as good as the ultimate intentions of the [...]

On things they make us think that are for everybody but they are not: Home owenership

Hobbes, I believe there is a misconception in Western societies. I guess that is my generation’s (early 30s, and working on a nice curvy stomach) fault.
We grew up on an ever growing GDP world. We grew to believe as rights thinks that older generations couldn’t even think of having one day. Over the years, I [...]

On Argentinians being the first ones to be ripped-off by their own government, who will be next?

Hobbes, forget the Falklands (Malvinas in Spanish), it seems that the Argentinian government has finally decided to follow the master and improve on it.
When you thought outrageous that Chancellor Gordon Brown (now British Premier) dipped into the private pension pot to cover current government expenses, last month President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner announced that she [...]

On multiracial being the new white, advising Obama

Waaaaw! Hobbes, this has been one looong election. About 2 years we’ve had of Romneys, Pauls, Clintons (who’s scariest anyway, Palin or Hillary?), McCains and Obamas. And finally, the marketing and media machine has convinced us all that Barack Hussein was the better option.
All together it reminds me of the spanking new ‘09 car model [...]

On Barack Obama, the (possibly) President Superstar

And here we go, Obamarama is getting it right. If Bloomberg bought out every single poster in NYC, and Berlusconi owns the media, Barack Obama owns the people.

Why don’t they just get over this expensive farse and give him the key to the oval office? And by the way… 8 years [...]