Stanley Pignal

Breaking news: Kettle has strong thoughts about blackness of pot

an elderly woman is asking what is a weekend ALT: an elderly woman is asking what is a weekend

"what is... what is a factory girl?"

Imagine taking off your sunglasses after three weeks of darkness and the first thing you see is Robert Fico

Then have the payment system be a state-owned thing! A public option, in American parlance. I'm just very unclear why we need to drag the central bank into being a deposit-accepting institution into this. Seems like a very complicated way to do something that could be achieved more simply.

Your money supply is already privatised in pretty much every which way, starting with the way money is created (overwhelmingly by commercial banks, when they issue loans)

Is a digital euro even compatible with the existing rails? Seems like a v different architecture to me.

Again, why not mandate an EU conventional, bank-based payment system as "legal tender-like"?

(Also, legal tender yadi yada settlement of a debt yadi yada)

Indeed. My point is you don't need a cumbersome digital euro to do that. You could just create conventional "rails" that don't involve turning your central bank into a retail-deposit institution.

but we need a digital euro because America has stablecoins, Katie.

or we could just... have an already-existing functional payments system in Europe? just a thought.

Lots of world leaders are attacking Europe. Why? Often, Europe-bashing is best explained by domestic politics in America, China and beyond

For Chinese leaders, playing down the benefits of Europe’s more benign social contract is a comfort. For politicians in America and elsewhere, the bloc is a source of frustration

No! No!! Bovino??

GOD DAMN IT

If I were Andrew, I'd start sweating right about now

Let's take bets what term is most-searched in the Epstein data dump from the DOJ.

I'll give you a hint: five letters, rhymes with "Trump".

Using the well-reputed (and so far accurate) Weyand snapshot barometer, the EU–India deal could be classified as a good one

Early reviews are in:
‘Even if they showed this on a plane, people would still walk out’

If you are among those who said "EU GDP was the same size as US GDP in 2008, but then fell to a much lower level", that means you were comparing GDP at current exchange rates.

Logically, you thus have to cheer the fact that EU GDP climbed 2% in one single day today (because USD has fallen 2%)

I don't think anyone is claiming Europe can't hold back Russia in a land war. Nobody thinks Putin's tanks will be rolling in the streets of Paris, capital of a nuclear power. Doesn't mean Russia can't seize *some* territory and cause real trouble.

You lose points for not having a nuclear missile on display.

I'm sceptical Europe can replace many American big tech products, like Gmail or Nvidia chips. But Teams, oh man, there is nobody that can make a product that works as badly as bloody Teams.

was that the one where Macron crushed Trump's hand. weird geopolitical sequence. and wasn't there a flying dude as well?

too soon

India, North Korea, China and France -- really the only countries that can put together a military parade worth having. The camels are a fantastic touch.

MAGA military geniuses are talking about Minnesota protestors like they are the Iraqi insurgency, the Taliban, and the Viet Cong all rolled into one.

But would an inner-city child of the 1960s identify in any meaningful way with Shakespearean drama? With Middlemarch? He seems to think kids today lack that ability. I understand they may have a different ethnic background, but still. I personally didn't feel much kinship with Mr Darcy or whatever.

I found it a bit unconvincing on one key point. He says George Elliot and Shakespeare were so inspiring to *him* as a kid. Why would kids now–just one generation later–only be inspired by contemporary authors?

Minus 18 degrees centigrade coming up for Murmansk this week. Hasn't had power for four days. That might sharpen a few minds as to what the Russian government is squandering the natural resource bonanza on.

A military officer bearing a European Union flag -- both a sign of the times but also will raise a fair few questions back in Europe. A few EU leaders would no doubt have liked to see officers flying 27 national flags instead...

Europe’s five stages of grief for the transatlantic alliance From denial to bargaining to acceptance that the world has changed

The narcissistic hubris that emanates from Washington makes any enduring alliance impossible, even one as storied as NATO.

Europe has begun to grieve the alliance—but it must also adapt

It was first proposed after Trump was out of office. But it was stalled and its later adoption was in direct response to the Lithuania-China spat. European Parliament factcheet on the ACI sets out China as the base case for response.

Europe’s five stages of grief for the transatlantic alliance From denial to bargaining to acceptance that the world has changed

My Charlemagne column this week: REQUIEM

The Atlantic alliance, storied as it might be, is increasingly unworthy of the name. It is dead, or dying.

Europe is going through the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression -- and soon acceptance.

www.economist.com/europe/2026/...