The UK National Institute of Economic and Social Research suggest in a report published today that the U.K. economy may have grown at the slowest pace in almost four years in the second quarter.
Growth was probably 0.3 percent in three months through June, compared with 0.4 percent in the first quarter, the London-based [...]

Clay Risen has a perceptive article in Slate today, warning non-German observers that Angela Merkel (Gerd Schr?der’s likely successor) is no Margaret Thatcher. But embedded in that article is this astounding sentence:
[T]he CDU … is actually an alliance between the more free-market-oriented Christian Democrats, from which Merkel hails, and the more economically liberal Bavarian Christian [...]

You most probably have noticed that prominent blogad we have at the top of the sidebar, promoting a book by Glyn Morgan: The idea of a European Superstate. Well the US-based Chronicle of Higher Education have a review of the book, and, whatsmore, tomorrow, Thursday 7th July at 1 pm Eastern time (8pm CET [...]

There is a pretty mixed bag of numbers coming in at the moment. The German economy shows some signs of a recovery of activity (here), as is the French one (here). It is important to understand however that trend growth in Germany is now extremely low, and the economy is very export dependent. The [...]

Charlie McCreevy, European Commissioner responsible for Internal Market and Services has a revealing and quite informative interview in EUPolitix.

An alliance of Russia, China and central Asian nations called today for the U.S. and coalition members in Afghanistan to set a date for withdrawing from member states.
he Shanghai Cooperation Organization, at a summit in the Kazakh capital, said in a declaration that a withdrawal date should be set in light of what it [...]

Mala leche (nothing to do with the CAP) we would probably call it here in Spain, bad blood (again not connected with mad cows) might be the English expression. We’re all off to Singapore apparently, and the fair ground side-show seems to be up and running. On this one I’m impartial, I’m being very pc [...]

Interesting piece today in the New York Times (reg. req.) on Germans having themselves cremated in the Netherlands. Wait; I should be more precise lest I alarm you — the article is about Germans arranging to have themselves cremated later. If you want to have your corpse burnt, the Dutch will do it with a [...]

The EU Observer reports on the labours of the Commission in producing a report on social models and sustainability, and the efforts they are making to try and de-politicise it. It seems our ageing societies and their implications will form the cornerstone of the report. This, at least, will mark a step forward. The October [...]

The latest survey by the British Retail Consortium suggests that retail sales declined in the UK for the third month in a row in June. This is definitely one to watch carefully.
Sales in stores open at least a year fell 0.5 percent compared with June 2004, the London-based lobby group said today. The drop followed [...]