Yet another take on expensive housing. I’m not sure I fully agree with the idea that poor aesthetic (actually, ugliness) has a dominating role in the pricing bubble. I still believe the the biggest issue is with political choices, that most probably are driven by lobbist interests. Nevertheless this video is an interesting and watch-worth perspective. After watching this video I subscribed to “The School of Life” channel. And frankly you should too.
Britain, you have a problem: house prices in the East/South East have grown ridiculous. See 2014 house pricing data by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) that compares prices with the pre-crisis ones. +31.6!?!?!?! We all know that UK is very much London centered, and this is reflected in the graph above. The government doesn’t shy away from policy that are openly “pro-London” and while there are complaints, as an immigrant since 2007, I can see not much more than some “grumpiness” about it. It’s like Britons are “sort of ok with it”. ...
Last episode of the latest “Passate Parola” episode of the great Marco Travaglio. I wish it was in English: it would simplify a lot the life of who would like to understand the “Berlusconi’s Story”. There are Italian subtitles though: it could be useful for someone that is able to read Italian at lease.
Be a Media-Dictator in a semi-democratic country. Like Italy, for example Act like a stereotyped Italian clown in every International Meeting, pretending you are the one of the politicians that “actually do the job” Enjoy yourself with the youngest and stupidest show-girls during your 70, just to confirm, again and again, the shameless stereotype of the “Italian playboy” Have a wife that, after she was “seduced” by your money and your power when you were younger, making your first marriage fail, now complains for your unfaithfulness and the shame you are bringing to the family ...
Normalmente non quoto Marco Travaglio: lo segue sicuramente piu’ gente di quanta segua me. Ma questo video e’ davvero interessante per “capire” come mai Berlusca non e’ mai andato in carcere. Source: Voglio Scendere.
Semplicemente, un grande e sonoro: LOL! -_-’ PS L’Italia e’ sempre piu’ imbarazzante…
Only a country like Italy could do something stupid like this. In english: The Tuscan city of Lucca has imposed a ban upon foreign eateries in its historic centre, in a move described by critics as racism. The city council voted to deny new licences to bars or restaurants with a ‘non-Italian style of cooking’ within the boundary of the Renaissance walls circling the city centre. Tuscany’s centre-left regional government warned against discriminatory measures “introducing hidden forms of ‘gastronomic or culinary’ racism.” “The defence of quality is one thing, discrimination is another,” said Paolo Cocchi, the regional councillor for commerce. Lucca’s town hall defended the new rules, saying they were meant to safeguard the city’s cultural identity and that they were also applicable to sex shops, fast food restaurants and take-away pizza parlours. “The ban targets McDonald’s as much as kebab restaurants,” said a spokesman. The spokesman also said that the four kebab shops already in the city centre would be allowed to continue operating as normal, while, “as an invitation, not an order", all foreign restaurants in the city will be encouraged to include at least one typical dish from the region. CP/The Roman Forum 06 February 2009 Photo:Flickr/IthakaLB, An Italian enjoying typical cuisine ...
Sono sceso dall’aereo il 16 Dicembre… e da allora sto monitorando, a modo mio, quello che sta succedendo in questo mio paese natio. Crisi Mondiale A sentire le radio e le TV "maggiori", l'[it:Italia] e' una specie di oasi felice in mezzo ad un [it:Europa], un [it:Mondo] in piena crisi Economica e Finanziaria. L'unico sentore della crisi ce lo danno con i commenti (tagliati e riadattati) dei cittadini per strade e centri commericali: Spenderò di meno per regali, li farò solo a parenti e amici stretti… ma il panettone/capretto/pandoro/cibo-usanza non mancherà Questo rincuora l’Italiano Medio. Gli fa pensare «… tutto sommato non va così male…». E questo diventa il leitmotiv. Poi però mi ricordo che all’aeroporto di [en:Stansted] ho comprato un bel numero speciale dell’Economist, “The World in 2009”, e leggo. Leggo. Leggo. Non ci trovo traccia di ottimismo. Ma di sano “pessimismo riflessivo”. Non ci sono articoli fatalisti. Non ci sono dichiarazioni da fine millennio: solo coscienza che il 2009 non sarà un anno facile, e che i Leader di tutti i paesi devono intervenire ORA sulle economie per rallentare il più possibile la Spirale Recessica. ...
I could start comment this out, but the article itself is interesting enough: I don’t need to add my own juice (and, most important, it doesn’t need it neither). […] We owe our well-crafted democratic form of government with its cleverly designed system of checks and balances, to a weird bunch of policy, technology, and scientific wonks and nerds such as Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Alexander Hamilton. These guys and their compatriots were the kind of wonks and nerds, who, when presented with a problem and a complex system to analyze and possibly replicate, threw themselves into learning as much about it as possible. Some were best at policy, and others were best at technology, and some, like Jefferson and Franklin were outstanding contributors to both. But today - because some of them did not exactly have winning personalities and others had personal morality issues - few would have little chance of getting elected. Which is a shame because not only did they have the desire, education and life experience to deal with such problems, they also had what Walter Lippmann - a premier political journalist of past decades - called “civic virtue.,” […] The wonks and nerds we need to run for political office and take direct control are out there. Some I see working within government advising the politicials, such as engineering nerd and ecomomics wonk Neel Kashkari, the interim assistant secretary in the U.S. Treasury assigned with the responsibilty for managing the financial bailout. Others I meet at the embedded system design, science, and technology meetings I attend and write about. Many of you are satisfied and busy with the work you trained for. Others may have a complete disdain for politics and politicians. But remember our representative democracy was designed as a “goverment OF the people, BY the people and FOR the people.” […] ...
I strongly suggest to see this documentary. It will help people understand a lot of things about “how” things actually works in the [en:World Economy], why we trade Money and… why [en:USA] holds in its hands the balls of the World Economy. Or, doesn’t it? The Day of the Dollar Roel van Broekhoven (Backlight 2005) The documentary is in [en:Dutch] with English subtitles.