The economy is another where, if it weren't forpeople such as Krugman and Roubini, there might be a temptation to think that we exist in a topsy turvy world so great is the distance between our discussions and those happening in the wider world.

I feel energised by this, yet i feel frustrated too. There is an impotence of watching an avoidable car crash, yet unable to do anything but spectate.

keep to the Fen Causeway

can anyone think of a diary that is like an non-Wall St perspective economics 101 about why we should have let everything fail ? Or have I, as usual, missed the point completely ?

keep to the Fen Causeway

BRUSSELS, Belgium -- That the Colombians were spying on and harassing their own people -- tapping judges' phones, threatening journalists' children, trailing human-rights workers -- seemed scandalous enough.

But recently-discovered documents reveal that Colombia's Department of Administrative Security (DAS) also conducted these activities on European soil, largely in Belgium, and even in the halls of the European Parliament.

And at least one victim of the intelligence agency's "Operation Europe" believes there is a Washington connection.

About a month ago, Mr. Golata, a Sam's Club member, clicked through the retailer's Web site and found a page describing S.B.A. loans offered by the retailer. He filled out an online application, and, by the next day, got a phone call from Superior Financial telling him he was approved for a $10,000 loan, with an interest rate of 7.25 percent over 10 years.

"It made the payment, like, $118 a month. I thought I was dreaming," Mr. Golata said. Mr. Golata immediately bought the Dodge, and hired three drivers. He went from billing U.P.S. $3,000 a week to $8,000, he said.

A little under half of Sam's members are small-business customers, and they account for a little more than half of the revenue at the retailer. As its net sales began to slip last fall, Sam's surveyed small-business customers and found that tight credit was partly to blame.

Read more...

NB. 1957 is the year that the RFC was dissolved, finally.

Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.

The Holland keeper, Maarten Stekelenburg, has revealed that he has sent a text message to Luis Suárez nominating his Ajax team-mate for the World Cup's best goalkeeper award.

Suárez will miss the World Cup semi-final between Uruguay and Holland in Cape Town tomorrow as a consequence of the handball in the final seconds of extra-time that denied Ghana a place in the last four during the team's quarter-final on Friday.

Remember the case of George Appleton who was finding his victims on Facebook? One Russian woman went even further.

The murderer was killing her lookalikes from odnoklassniki.ru (the article is compiled from different sources including newsru.com and translated by using google translate then edited by me)

46-year-old Julia Pecheneva developed a perfect murder scheme, choosing her victims - single women, looking similar to her as two drops of water.

The two-legged predator put an end to at least three lives, and was caught only by chance. After murdering last victim, she had no time to hide the body because new owners of the apartment [which belonged to the victim and which Julia sold] moved in earlier than she had expected.

Besides selling property of victims Julia Pecheneva was also taking loans from banks on victims's passports. This is how she was eventually found.

The poltergeist

One month ago Odintsovo (a locality near Moscow) was terrified by shocking news. A young couple, on entering newly bought apartment in the neighborhood Dubky, discovered on the balcony disfigured and decapitated human body.

The police officer, who was investigating the murder, tells about a riddle: "It was found that dead woman was previous owner of the flat. However the stage of disintegration of the body did not match to statement of young couple which told police that they met the pretty smiling woman just few day before entering the flat when they were finishing formalities of the deal.

Julia Pecheneva had sold the apartment posing as Svetlana Sokolova (real owner of the flat) using almost perfect resemblance to her victim.

Scheme

Policemen are rational people, and do not believe in otherworldly forces. They offered incredible explanation: the apartment was sold not by the owner but by her lookalike. But even they, seasoned inspectors, were amazed at skills of the murderer when she was finally detained.

Julia Pecheneva almost all her free time was spending on the Internet. On odnoklassniki.ru [schoolmates] and vkontakte.ru [Russian Facebook] and other social networking sites, this woman was looking for ... her lookalikes. And once she found such women, she was attacking prey as she-wolf.

"Julia developed friendship with victims, by finding common interests", the investigator tells. "Svetlana Sokolova, for example, had a dog. So the criminal bought the same kind of dog and started correspondence pretending to be passionate caninelover. When she had learned habits of the lives of future victims in enough details, she was beginning to act boldly and quickly.

Julia wrote to her new "friend" that she was going to buy an apartment and asked for a visit. However, she already knew that the victim was living alone and noone would disturb her terrible plan. Svetlana Sokolova, for example, on her personal page in the "Classmates" had no friends, even no female acquaintances. During visit, Julia killed Svetlana in cold blood, and after dissecting the corpse, she hid the body [on balcony, apparently planning to get rid of it later].

This time the murderer had run out of luck: new owners of the apartment were too impatient and moved in before the criminal managed to get rid of the body.

"As it turned out, Julia has a long trail of blood", the investigator says. "She was under federal investigation for two similar crimes committed in St. Petersburg. After selling apartment, the criminal also took huge loans on victims' passports. It was virtually impossible to catch her. When real owner of passport and property was discovered dead she was already far away. Moreover, we knew only the murderer has fairly standard appearance and absolutely nothing else!"

And the world will live as one