29 August 2015   My father, a New York financier, used to call dubious stocks or bonds,  “Chinese paper.”   Last week, we saw a blizzard of  Chinese paper, both in China and around the world.  As manager of a sizeable investment portfolio (an unwelcome second job from my main work, […]


4 July 2015   PARIS – As the squalid drama of Greece’s bankruptcy unfolds, many alarmists claim the European Union is about to disintegrate. British and Americans are cheering the ills of the EU.  On top of all this, it’s a blazing 39.8 C here in the City of Light. […]


July 12, 2014 Just how independent is the European Union? Given recent events involving the United States and its European allies, one really must wonder. First, there was the US National Security Agency brazenly tapping German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s private cellphone and, very likely, many more vip’s in Germany, a […]