To Bring News To A Boil

Posted on July 12, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

(And increase entropy along the way.) The pot was placed on the cooking stove shortly after noon with the brief announcement by NZZ that at 2pm CEST the Swiss justice minister Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf will announce the decision regarding the U.S. request to extradite Polanski. Since, some French rejoice «Merci la Suisse! Bravo la Suisse!» while [...]

Folks, Fasten Your Seat Belts!

Posted on April 28, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

“Greek Debt Rating Cut to ‘Junk’ Status” goes the headline of the New York Times; “Die Schuldenkrise verschärft sich” the German Frankfurter Allgemeine; “Griechenland wankt immer mehr” the Swiss Neue Zürcher Zeitung, “Grecia declassata a livello ‘spazzatura’ Portogallo trema sotto il peso del debito” the Italian La Repubblica, faithfully echoing ‘Junk’ status. As per April [...]

Memorable Days

Posted on March 14, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

Largely due to discussions on women’s rights, equality, misogyny with a woman while I was in the USA during 2008 and the resulting misery I occasionally felt for being a man following those discussions, today I’m more than ever sensitive to a particular day of March, namely the 8th of March, the day that marks [...]

Exams Suomalaisittain

Posted on February 22, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

A note regarding the title. Suomi; Suomalainen; Suomalaisittain. The first one is easy, just point to Finland on a map. The second one is like in Suomalainen kielen, i.e. Finnish language. Now, the third one is where the fun begins. Suomalaisittain is the distributive adverbial case, one of 12 adverbial cases that exist in addition [...]

Ihanaa Ystävänpäivää

Posted on February 14, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

In our modern world of the news running fast and the hip spreading wide it is sometimes easy to forget that what we think to be the accepted standard is a belief that couldn’t be farther from the truth. I think, I’m probably correct in stating that most people I know across countries and continents [...]

«It’s The Bank Secrecy Law, Stupid!»

Posted on February 7, 2010 | by Markus Stocker

The German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble has spoken: “Switzerland’s bank secrecy law has no place in the 21st century.” For starters, what in Switzerland in German is called Bankkundengeheimnis — bank client confidentiality– is the safeguard of financial privacy, not the secrecy of the bank, as I argued almost a year ago. I’m sure Mr. Schäuble [...]

Confident Hope For Lukewarm Worries

Posted on November 19, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Concerns over a global economic recovery continue to reduce risk appetite (WSJ; DJI -2.09%; October 1, 2009). Fragile state of the global economic recovery (Reuters; DJI -0.23%; October 2, 2009). Question the strength and speed of the global economic recovery (WSJ; DJI +1.18%; October 5, 2009). Renewed hopes for a global economic recovery (Reuters; DJI +1.37%; October 6, [...]

Do Stamps Internalize Costs?

Posted on October 26, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

I know, it is a topic on which I tend to iterate rather often recently. This is, once more, about the problem of external costs. The use case is based on a recent experience and the question is very simple. From Finland, to post an A4 letter in a C6 envelope to Switzerland requires a [...]

International Day Of Climate Action

Posted on October 24, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Ahead of the UN Climate Negotiations in Copenhagen in December, today, is the International Day Of Climate Action, or 350, i.e. the “most important number in the world” aka the “safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” As far as I know we are now at 390 ppm carbon dioxide; guys, we need to [...]

Hope. Defrauded.

Posted on October 16, 2009 | by Markus Stocker

Today, on my daily walk to the office, I was thinking about something; I’m afraid I don’t recall what … However, I vividly recall how what I thought lead to think about hope; it must have been something that inspired hope, was hopeful, at least to me. As soon as I materialized the word hope [...]

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