Globalization and the opening of trade and capital between countries led to a reduction in income and wealth inequality between countries. The mobility of financial and intellectual capital also led to a widening of inequality within each country. Since the global financial crisis of 2008, countries have had to reexamine their economic and commercial models.

  There is policy fatigue in Europe. The recent LTRO has had poor take up, a mere 83 billion eur compared to 290 billion at the first 3 year LTRO. The first LTRO allowed banks in the euro area to do something they had not been able to before, to trade out of their foreign

  Whether Scotland gains its independence will not only be a question of logic and rationality but of nationalism and emotion as well. Why do the Scots want independence? Why not? Some 300 years ago Scotland was an independent country. Lately, every 18 years, the Scots have brought up the issue of independence. Scotland wants

  What does Putin want? It’s not clear. It’s likely he wants more than Ukraine. Those who believed that he would stop with South Ossetia and Abkhazia were wrong. What drives Putin? Avenging the humiliation of the USSR is a clear motivation. Having held arbitrary power within the KGB, he longs to exercise it again.

There is no such thing as an omnipotent central planner, even if the central planner has complete and perfect information and has unlimited resources and ultimate technology. Even an almost omnipotent central planner would not be able to satisfy everybody’s wants and needs. Sci Fi has explored such Utopian scenarios before but while they have