When, on August 16, I saw the announcement that Bert Lance had died, memories of the disappointments of that period of my life known as "coming-of-age" came flooding back. Lance was a Georgian banker (born 82 years ago a little closer to Atlanta than Tbilisi) who took the train up from the South to Washington when Jimmy (pronounced Jimmuh)…
Till IRS Do Us Part
My first coherent memory is of an event 50 years ago this month when Ronnie Biggs and his South London mates pulled off the Great Train Robbery - a straight, plain vanilla crime involving stopping a mail train (hence the title), coshing the poor driver and making off with the booty (two and a half…
Judge for yourself
Silvio Berlusconi has a mission. Having already successfully nobbled two branches of government - the executive and legislature - he is out gunning for the third. In a speech that in any other country would have had him up in front of the Beak accused of incitement, the newly convicted (this one's for tax evasion) former…
Tax Break 