English: Robert B. Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a good article by Robert Zoellick, President of the World Bank Group in the FT. Check it out!
For me, it comes down to political leadership & in the last two years that has not been impressive but I remain an optimist for the medium term.
What do you think the alternative scenarios are likely to be?
Location of Procida in the Tyrrhenian Sea (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We are about to leave Sorrento and its peninsula after three enjoyable days, heading South for the Amalfi Coast proper.
When we left Umbria, it was raining heavily, and rain stayed with us until we were virtually in Sorrento. The worst time was a cloud burst on the motorways around Naples, which was quite stressful driving as we watched in amazement, the Italians zooming past us, as though only they had perfect x-ray visability of the road ahead! After clearing the Naples area, the SatNav (GPS) took us on some very twisty narrow roads, all in this heavy downpour. However, as we descended into Sorrento the rain stopped for us, which was a good sign.
We spent three days in a very nice family run hotel, high up in the hills, with stunning views of the Gulf of Naples. The owner of the hotel recommended that we explore the extreme West of the peninsular, following the coastal paths towards the headlands of Punta Penna and Punta della Campella (two kilometres from Capri). Twisty roads took us through the beautiful villages until we got to Nerano which is the closest Italian mainland village to Capri. We put on our hiking boots, packed the rucksack with water and set out to explore a narrow coastal path over the cliffs to the most Westerly point on the peninsular. It was hot and sunny but the slight breeze on the cliffs made it comfortable. With the most stunning views, including that of Capri, we completed the enjoyable circular hike in about three hours. We stopped in the next village of Termini for lunch and ate the best fish we have had since being away, the restaurant was perched on the cliff overlooking the Med, with wonderful views in every direction. Later in the day, we explored Sorrento, which is still a busy holiday destination after supporting tourists for many decades. We were surprised by the large number of Americans in the area – most were on tours, often from cruise ships, but we met a number of very pleasant Americans staying in our hotel who were independent travellers.
The highlight of the second full day was a trip to Capri. We took the local bus to Sorrento town centre with the hand-waving locals, walked down to the harbour and got the ferry to Capri. Arriving in Capri, we decided to start at the top and firstly went to Annacapri which is a quaint area, with lots of lovely shops and restaurants and finally took a chair-lift to the summit of the island. The views were spectacular in all directions, and we soon identified the Italian mainland where we had been hiking the previous day. After an hour at the summit, we descended to Capri town which is beautiful but extremely touristy. The bars and restaurants in the town square are nothing less than a total rip-off, i.e. 10 Euros for a glass of white wine! We escaped on a narrow path West out of the town and were rewarded with some lovely bars and restaurants, more competitively priced, with stunning views of the sea and the rugged vegetation. For us the afternoon, exploring this narrow path, with pleasant architecture and amazing views was the highlight of the day – we were also away from the crowds. Eventually, we back-tracked to Capri town, and descended on foot the twisty path to the harbour. Waiting for our ferry, we sampled some delightful homemade ice-cream. In the evening, we went back into Sorrento town for our last night here, and enjoyed a very nice restaurant sitting outside, and watching the people pass us by. We are now sad to leave, but know that the stunning beauty is about to continue in Amalfi!
This morning we head for the Amalfi Coast, the South side of the peninsular…
Coat of arms of Greece since 7 June 1975. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a good article from the FT. Check it out!
It looks like it will be too late for the next round of democratically elected politicians to save Greece. Sadly, it will be the Greek people that have triggered the end-game not the bankers.
English: The cathedral of Santa Maria dell’Assunta in Spoleto, Umbria, Italy. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For us, Umbria was a huge contrast to its neighbouring province of Tuscany which is known throughout the World for its art, architecture and red wine. Umbria boasts many famous towns perched on hills, including Perugia, Assisi, Todi and Spoleto, wonderful food with truffles seemingly added to everything except breakfast, more fish and wonderful white wines. So foodies who like red meat and red wine should target Tuscany and leave Umbria for white wines and truffles!
We based ourselves for a two night weekend in Spoleto, Southern Umbria, World renowned for its outdoor festival of performing arts, including music, dance and theatre. Just an hour from Rome, we noted that Spoleto was a favourite weekend retreat for Romans. Split into two levels, Spoleto abounds with Roman ruins, wonderful architecture and stunning views. We were staying in a comfortable and inexpensive hotel, adjacent to the famous Roman amphitheatre and the wall of the old city. Our first afternoon took in seeing a wedding at the beautiful cathedral, wandering the ancient hilly streets and alleys, climbing the hills to the castle and crossing the viaduct, taking hundreds of photos, and resting for a glass of the famous local white wine. With a thousand years of history, beautiful architecture, superb food and wine, and apart from the Spring arts festival, Spoleto is largely off the tourist radar – a true gem.
Sunday morning we set out for Assisi which we immediately noticed had more tourists than Spoleto. We arrived to the sound of the church bells. Apart from Italian families having a day out, we met Japanese groups, Americans and French. The old town, perched at the top of the hill is quite beautiful. We started our visit with a climb to the castle and stunning views of the Umbrian panorama. It was Sunday, so settled on a simple restaurant for lunch, popular with the locals, and tasted pasta with truffles and wild mushrooms. We had a pleasant conversation with a French couple at the next table from Toulouse, swapping travel tales. In the afternoon, the SatNav was being naughty and took the car around some dangerous mountain ledges, which was quite scary at the time but on reflection provided some wonderful and memorable views of Umbria.
Today we head South for the Amalfi Coast…..
Fiscal policy (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is a really interesting blog from the Economist. Check it out!
English: Paul Krugman at the 2010 Brooklyn Book Festival. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an excellent article and thoroughly recommended. The celebrated FT author Martin Wolf writes up his lunchtime discussion with Nobel-winning Paul Krugman.
Personally, I am a great fan of Paul Krugman. What do you think of the article?
English: Michelangelo’s David (original statue) Deutsch: David von Michelangelo (Original aus der “Accademia” in Florenz) Nederlands: David van Michelangelo (het originele beeld) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
For us, Florence will surely be one of the highlights of our “Taking the slow road to Cyprus” adventure.
There are two key reasons why Florence, one of the World’s most beautiful cities, attracts UNESCO millions of tourists annually:
Supporting attractions include restaurants, shops and markets.
The biggest attractions are probably:
One of the personal highlights for Marilyn was the Gucci Museum with its ninety year history of Gucci fashion.
The main downsides for Florence are probably the crowds and the costs.
We observed tourists from around the World and most noticeably Americans, Japanese, French, and Germans, plus, of course, Italians.
Personally, we stayed in a quite boutique hotel about twenty minutes walk South of the Old City. We were fortunate to find the delightful area South of the Arno River, to the West of the Old Bridge – this abounded with more competitively priced restaurants and bars. Be warned that North of Arno River, near the major tourist attractions prices are very high.
Yesterday, we left the city of Florence and explored some of Tuscany by car. We followed the amazingly beautiful countryside of the famous Chianti Trail on Tourist Route TR 222 to Siena, passing through famous Chianti towns. We stopped for lunch in Castellina in Chianti and spent the late afternoon in Siena.
Siena has rivaled with Florence for centuries but is very different, with main attracting including:
Siena is more comfortable than Florence, with more space and far less crowds. It also has a wonderful selection of shops.
For us, the most vivid memory of Florence and Tuscany will probably be Michelangelo’s five hundred year old statue of Davide….
London Wheel – London (Photo credit: @Doug88888)
Yesterday, I published the proposals of John McDonnell MP and received a very detailed response from John Gelmini which I am re-publishing below.
Personally, I disagree strongly with John McDonnell MP and find the proposals of John Gelmini far too extreme for me, especially with regard to the Royal Family, industrial policy and public housing. However, in the interests of stimulating debate, here are John Gelmini’s proposals which in any event provides a comprehensive check-list for review:
John McDonnell’s policies would drive business offshore and cause a brain drain whilst damaging the competitiveness of the City, so I think we are in agreement at least on that point.
The measures needed to stimulate growth and jobs in the UK (whilst it remains in its present state are as follows:
1) Lower corporation taxes to the levels prevailing in Singapore, abolish inheritance taxes, lower VAT to say 15%, bring down levels of personal income tax to those prevailing in Singapore so that the present Black Economy, (possibly 15% of GDP starts to shrink and the 6 million people engaged in it start to actually pay some tax).
2) Pass laws to attract inward investment from people willing to invest at least £100 million gbp and employ 100 members of the indigenous population which allow such people to receive automatic British Citizenship (subject to proper checks undertaken thoroughly but on a fast track basis) enjoy no income tax and preferential treatment vis-a-vis planning applications for expansion.
3) Expand airport capacity and privatize the Border Agency and Immigration department whilst ensuring that passengers are processed as quickly as I was in Shanghai airport.
4) Lower airport charges for incoming passengers to the levels of Schengen Agreement passengers.
Currently Chinese and foreign businessmen complain to Boris Johnson and BA’s CEO, Willie Walsh that it is cheaper for them to do business in Europe with access to 25 countries than it is to come here. David Cameron, George Osborne and “Champagne Socialist Vince Cable are sitting on their hands and doing nothing whilst business goes elsewhere.
5) Put exporting on a war-footing by quadrupling the number of export salespeople over a Parliament and assigning them to firms which have market leadership in their fields.
For this use crash NLP and sales training via Miller Heimann and language teaching via the Pimsleur method (the World’s fastest way of learning languages).
6) Stop the foreign military engagements by leaving Afghanistan and other places where we have special forces stirring up trouble and cannot afford to be.
7) Abolish the Barnett Formula and the drain of resources from London and the South East to other parts of the country.
8) Cull the Royal Family of all its junior and unnecessary members and eliminate the payments to the Queen which are over and above the official Civil List.
9) Perform a value for money test on the Monarchy each year with independently audited and transparently checked figures.
The costs of the Monarchy would have to be justified by clear economic benefit in the form of new export sales which we would not have obtained as a country in any other way.
All properties over and above those which are needed by the Queen as homes or Royal Palaces to be turned into museums and tourist attractions and all minor Royals left after the cull to pay for their own homes just like everyone else.
10) The A14 to be widened now
11) Planning laws to be freed up with no Cameronesque “listening or U Turns” to appease NIMBIES.
12) Reduce the number of English Counties to 12, create County Unitary Authorities,eliminate all other tiers of local government, reduce English police forces to 12, develop 12 shared service areas.
13) Formulate a new agreement with other countries such as Australia and Canada to sell off surplus population as happened in the 1960,s when every man woman and child accepted by Australia was accompanied by a bounty of £2,695 gbp agreed under a secret deal completed by Harold MacMillan.
This should continue until our population is reduced to 35 million from its present level of 62 million plus 4.5 million illegal immigrants.
14) Clear all housing benefit recipients from London and major cities and house them in converted shipping containers which can be purchased on E-Bay for less than £2,900 gbp each, on brownfield sites at the edge of towns.
Recycle the savings into job creation and SME startup advice.15) Privatize rural police stations and neighbourhood patrolling in rural areas and increase police numbers in major commercial and tourist centres like London to make people feel safe and encourage inward investment.
Outsource all non core services and procurement.16) Introduce the death penalty for major drug dealers, people smugglers and murderers and expand prison capacity using
ICF construction methods to deal with burglars and prolific offenders.
Expand the “factories within fences programme” so that victims of crime can be repaid from work done by prisoners.
17) Introduce variable taxes on food, use robots in care homes,merge the NHS and Adult Social Care budgets and transfer Adult Social Care recipients without money or relatives to India where they are cheaper to look after.
18) Reinforce marriage in the tax system and stop all further attempts to make divorce easier ,cheaper or faster or to introduce damaging concepts like Gay Marriage and no fault divorce.
All our successful major competitors in the Far East recognise that marriage and family life is essential to economic prosperity and our leaders need to recognise the fact.19) Variable tax on food
20) Re-introduce National Service for 2 years to inculcate discipline ,sadly lacking in the general population.
21) Reform the NHS and state schools by benchmarking them against the best in the world.
22) Fire the postmen, tanker drivers and tube workers and lock them out without compensation-They have held the rest of us to ransom too often.
Privatize all this work and sell off the Royal Mail to the Bundespost.
Tube workers would be replaced by Serco and the tanker drivers by private hauliers.
23) Start onshore oil exploration sell the oil and use the money to fund language training and export sales schools for 6th formers.
24) Reduce holidays by 2 weeks, abolish all Bank Holidays except for Christmas and add the total to an overall holiday entitlement.
25) Introduce a substantial dog and cat licence with compulsory microchipping listing both the owner of the animal and the animal’s name so that owners whose animals fouled in a public place could be fined heavily as an example to others.
26) Introduce Beecroft style employment law reforms.
John McDonnell’s policies would drive business offshore and cause a brain drain whilst damaging the competitiveness of the City, so I think we are in agreement at least on that point.The measures needed to stimulate growth and jobs in the UK (whilst it remains in its present state are as follows:
1) Lower corporation taxes to the levels prevailing in Singapore, abolish inheritance taxes, lower VAT to say 15%, bring down levels of personal income tax to those prevailing in Singapore so that the present Black Economy, (possibly 15% of GDP starts to shrink and the 6 million people engaged in it start to actually pay some tax).
2) Pass laws to attract inward investment from people willing to invest at least £100 million gbp and employ 100 members of the indigenous population which allow such people to receive automatic British Citizenship (subject to proper checks undertaken thoroughly but on a fast track basis) enjoy no income tax and preferential treatment vis a vis planning applications for expansion.
3) Expand airport capacity and privatise the Border Agency and Immigration department whilst ensuring that passengers are processed as quickly as I was in Shanghai airport.
4) Lower airport charges for incoming passengers to the levels of Schengen Agreement passengers.
Currently Chinese and foreign businessmen complain to Boris Johnson and BA’s CEO, Willie Walsh that it it is cheaper for them to do business in Europe with access to 25 countries than it is to come here. David Cameron, George Osborne and “Champagne Socialist Vince Cable are sitting on their hands and doing nothing whilst business goes elsewhere.
5) Put exporting on a war-footing by quadrupling the number of export salespeople over a Parliament and assigning them to firms which have market leadership in their fields.
For this use crash NLP and sales training via Miller Heimann and language teaching via the Pimsleur method (the World’s fastest way of learning languages).
6) Stop the foreign military engagements by leaving Afghanistan and other places where we have special forces stirring up trouble and cannot afford to be.
7) Abolish the Barnett Formula and the drain of resources from London and the South East to other parts of the country.
8) Cull the Royal Family of all its junior and unnecessary members and eliminate the payments to the Queen which are over and above the official Civil List.
9) Perform a value for money test on the Monarchy each year with independently audited and transparently checked figures.
The costs of the Monarchy would have to be justified by clear economic benefit in the form of new export sales which we would not have obtained as a country in any other way.
All properties over and above those which are needed by the Queen as homes or Royal Palaces to be turned into museums and tourist attractions and all minor Royals left after the cull to pay for their own homes just like everyone else.
10) The A14 to be widened now
11) Planning laws to be freed up with no Cameronesque “listening or U Turns” to appease NIMBIES.
12) Reduce the number of English Counties to 12, create County Unitary Authorities,eliminate all other tiers of local government, reduce English police forces to 12, develop 12 shared service areas.
13) Formulate a new agreement with other countries such as Australia and Canada to sell off surplus population as happened in the 1960,s when every man woman and child accepted by Australia was accompanied by a bounty of £2,695 gbp agreed under a secret deal completed by Harold MacMillan.
This should continue until our population is reduced to 35 million from its present level of 62 million plus 4.5 million illegal immigrants.
14) Clear all housing benefit recipients from London and major cities and house them in converted shipping containers which can be purchased on E-Bay for less than £2,900 gbp each, on brownfield sites at the edge of towns.
Recycle the savings into job creation and SME startup advice.15) Privatise rural police stations and neighbourhood patrolling in rural areas and increase police numbers in major commercial and tourist centres like London to make people feel safe and encourage inward investment.
Outsource all non core services and procurement.16) Introduce the death penalty for major drug dealers, people smugglers and murderers and expand prison capacity using
ICF construction methods to deal with burglars and prolific offenders.
Expand the “factories within fences programme” so that victims of crime can be repaid from work done by prisoners.
17) Introduce variable taxes on food, use robots in care homes,merge the NHS and Adult Social Care budgets and transfer Adult Social Care recipients without money or relatives to India where they are cheaper to look after.
18) Reinforce marriage in the tax system and stop all further attempts to make divorce easier ,cheaper or faster or to introduce damaging concepts like Gay Marriage and no fault divorce.
All our successful major competitors in the Far East recognise that marriage and family life is essential to economic prosperity and our leaders need to recognise the fact.19) Variable tax on food
20) Re-introduce National Service for 2 years to inculcate discipline ,sadly lacking in the general population.
21) Reform the NHS and state schools by benchmarking them against the best in the world.
22) Fire the postmen, tanker drivers and tube workers and lock them out without compensation-They have held the rest of us to ransom too often.
Privatise all this work and sell off the Royal Mail to the Bundespost.
Tube workers would be replaced by Serco and the tanker drivers by private hauliers.
23) Start onshore oil exploration sell the oil and use the money to fund language training and export sales schools for 6th formers.
24) Reduce holidays by 2 weeks, abolish all Bank Holidays except for Christmas and add the total to an overall holiday entitlement.
25) Introduce a substantial dog and cat licence with compulsory microchipping listing both the owner of the animal and the animal’s name so that owners whose animals fouled in a public place could be fined heavily as an example to others.
26) Introduce Beecroft style employment law reforms.
gelmini@btinternet.comJOHN A GELMINIhttp://www.transactionfocus.com
English: source link: http://www.john4leader.org.uk/images/john1.jpg John McDonnell MP (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an interesting article from John McDonnell MP. Check it out!
John McDonnell MP: A Radical Alternative to Austerity | Speaker’s Chair.
Personally, I am very strongly against the prevailing policy of austerity in Europe but I am equally against the proposals of John McDonnell MP.
What do you think should be done to stimulate growth?
English: David Cameron’s picture on the 10 Downing Street website (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Another excellent article from the Guardian. Check it out!
David Cameron: German impasse on euro rescue plan may be shifting | Business | guardian.co.uk.
For me, the article also shows just how quick David Cameron is on his feet….
François Hollande (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This is an excellent article from Larry Elliott Economic Editor at the Guardian. Check it out!
Is Europe playing chicken with Greece? | Business | The Guardian.
For me, it is interesting that an extreme scenario is that the growth lobby will prevail over the austerity lobby. I shall be watching President carefully to see just how much political leverage he can exert.
Personally, I think that market fears are overdone.
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This article from Haaretz is well worth a read. Check it out!
For me, this article gives a glimpse of current right-wing German politics and perhaps gives us a clue why German Chancellor, Angela Merkel has been slow to move forward on rescuing the Euro.
