Nostalgia ruled for most of last week. While the British indulged in a House of Windsor love fest, the world delighted in snippets of the Queen over her sixty year reign. It was Prince Charles, the King-in-Waiting, who stated the obvious at the Buckingham Palace Doorstep Concert noting that for many people this was the…
It’s peace and democracy, stupid
We accountants do not care much for the front section of the newspaper. If a story cannot be reduced to prime numbers, it is not for us. After a cursory glance at the headlines we skip to Section B to be hypnotized by the latest business and finance news followed by yesterday's football, baseball and cricket…
The Euro – a mental exercise
Zbig does not understand what the fuss over austerity in Europe is all about. He fails to comprehend the fall of the Dutch government, the elevation of a socialist to the presidency of France, the inconclusive election in Greece, bailouts and quantitative easing. All he can say, with his utterly limited command of at least 10 European languages, is that…
Vive L’ Hollande
The swashbuckling Alexandre Dumas coined the phrase "cherchez la femme" (literally: look for the woman) that has haunted French culture ever since. In the run up to the French Presidential election it is generally agreed that, had Dominique Strauss-Kahn not fumbled in the wrong pocket of his bathrobe for the gratuity for the chamber maid…
The Greecy pole
When it was suggested last week by a sympathetic BBC interviewer that the Italian government's decision not to fund Rome's bid for the 2020 Olympic Games had cost Italy the chance of taking its place on the world stage, the interviewee retorted sharply "Italy has been on the world stage for 2000 years". Meanwhile, the Greeks keep…
L’entente cordiale?
De Gaulle once told Churchill's wife Clementine, "France has no friends, only interests". This could have been the motto for his great creation, the Fifth Republic or - for that matter - the Fourth, Third, Second or First. Nicolas Sarkozy is at it again. Spurred on by the threat of his presidency being guillotined at the French elections…
For tax advisor and country
There is a framed football shirt hanging on my son's wall. It is half blue, half white - the blue half sporting the insignia of the Israel Football Association and the white half the Three Lions of England. Scrawled in indelible marker across the English half is the inscription "Good Luck, Bobby Charlton" ( for the benefit…
Tax Break 