The Martin Hutchinson Place
My beloved wife Anna passed away unexpectedly last Wednesday, at the age of 58. In her memory I would like here to recall a joyful occasion, when through my journalistic work she was able to join me at breakfast with King Simeon II of the Bulgarians, her legitimate monarch since birth, elected prime minister of […]
President Obama this week announced in Africa that he would be confident of being re-elected, but was blocked by the 1951 22nd Amendment, which prevented U.S. Presidents seeking a third term. My first reaction was of course a crassly partisan sigh of relief, but then I began thinking about term limits in general, and […]
The Jetsons, a sci-fi fantasy family of the 1960s, lived in impossible luxury in 2062. Not only are we not nearing their living standards, we are going in the opposite direction. This column has wondered why, and a recent Supreme Court case has given us the answer. In one of its few good decisions of […]
A Royal Astronomical Society study published in Science Daily on July 9 and presented at the National Astronomy Meeting in Llandudno, Wales postulates that solar activity will decline by 60% in the 2030s, producing sunspot minima and a temperature decline similar to that of the “Maunder minimum” that began in 1645. During that period, the […]
This six-part review of David Kynaston’s book on the post-war City of London was published by UPI in 2002. It reflects my own thoughts at that time on why the City changed, and what went wrong. I stand by the analysis in Parts I-V today, but inevitably some (but not all) of the predictions in […]
(10th anniversary reprint of a Golden Oldie from July 11, 2005 — I’m away this week.) Discussion following Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor’s retirement has centered on her potential successor’s views on abortion and wrongful imprisonment, the two areas in which the Angry Left is most hostile to the George W. Bush administration. Yet […]
The terms offered by Greece to the EU on June 22 have one important feature: they offer almost no reductions in state spending, but instead plan to make the modest savings needed for EU respectability by tax increases on corporations and the middle class. But why should we scoff: nearly all our governments today operate […]
Moody’s Analytics Survey of Business Confidence is currently hovering near record highs and “expectations have never been stronger in this history of the survey.” What’s more, while the survey is a worldwide one, optimism is greatest among U.S. businesses. Indeed the National Association of Homebuilders Housing Market Index at 59 is the highest since November […]
The G7 group of world leaders last weekend committed to eliminating fossil fuels’ usage by 2100, as well as to cutting their use by 40-70% by 2050. That commitment is absurd; neither the world leaders nor anyone else knows anything about what the world economy or its technical capabilities will look like by 2100, yet […]
The trader Tom Hayes spent last week at Southwark Crown Court, accused of manipulating the LIBOR market. He appears distinctly unlucky; his manipulation was only profitable because of the grotesque bloating of the interest rate swaps market, which rendered inadequate a LIBOR mechanism that was solid when devised in 1985. Traders do what they do, […]