Street musicians in Biel, Switzerland. 

Note that one has a drum, the other a bagpipe. I have a video somewhere I’ll upload sometime. 

“The European crisis is no longer a European crisis. It has morphed into something that could easily engulf the global economy. And Europe can’t handle it alone. To get the situation under control, the IMF could go to the leading holders of foreign exchange reserves — most notably China — and ask for a $750 billion line of credit. What would China get in exchange? Well, it might be necessary to make clear that Christine Lagarde would be the last non-Chinese head of the IMF.”

lalitab:

London

Been here. Although I’m not Swiss, there’s a little Swiss pride. 

Each shield is a different canton in Switzerland. 

Wengen, Switzerland. 

One of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. 

Seems like every city in Switzerland has an “old town.” 

Biel’s is cute. Complete with hard-to-decipher old written Swiss-German. 

whiporwill:

Most popular names in Europe for newborns (click to enlarge)

jroutledge:

Château de Chillon, Switzerland.

Used to live across the lake from there. The water and sky are, however, clearly photoshopped. I have seen it through summer and winter and it’s never like that. 

Lac Leman (Lake Geneva), Switzerland, as seen from Montreux. 

Probably one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been. A bit taken over by street merchants but not badly. Check out the street performers. I had a rather good crepe from a Kosovar with a stall there. 

Across the lake from Montreux, you can slightly see a campus where I studied. 

In Oerlikon, Zurich, Switzerland. 

I’ve never been in one of these and the concept still baffles me. I can’t help imagining (with a degree of bewilderment and disgust) a normal cinema set up. Lots of rows of chairs… 

Anyway, it’s more likely private rooms with your own selection. But still.

I’m used to condom machines in Europe. 

But I’m not used to 7CHF single use sex toys for men or women in the bathroom of a nice cafe…

Zurich, Switzerland. 

This tram was called the Fondue Tram. Inside, people ate to a moving night view of Zurich, while eating fondue. Awesome idea.

theeconomist:

This week’s cover: the absence of leadership in the West is frightening—and also rather familiar.

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“Though both about debt, the arguments in Europe and America have very different origins. The euro crisis was brought on by investors with genuine worries about the solvency of several euro-zone countries. By contrast the stand-off in Washington is a political creation, thrust upon initially incredulous investors (see article). Increasing America’s overdraft beyond $14.3 trillion should have been relatively simple. But Republican congressmen, furious about big government, have recklessly used it as a political tool to embarrass Barack Obama.

The similarity between the European and American dramas lies in the protagonists’ refusal to face reality.”

whiporwill:

The Nordic governments have “set out to challenge what they call the ‘half-truth’ that Nordic voters are simply rather left-wing and wedded to a big, intrusive and conformist state”

Nordic voters like the state but are also exceptionally individualistic, the paper asserts. The circle is squared because Nordic voters believe that the state (which usually works pretty well in countries like Sweden) is the best referee and guarantor of their individual freedoms.

The most interesting part of the paper, written by Henrik Berggren and Lars Trägårdh, posits that when it comes to things like state versus private ownership or merit versus equality based pay, the Swedes are not especially leftist:

Though the path hasn’t always been straight, one can discern over the course of the twentieth century an overarching ambition in the Nordic countries not to socialize the economy but to liberate the individual citizen from all forms of subordination and dependency within the family and in civil society: the poor from charity, the workers from their employers, wives from their husbands, children from parents – and vice versa when the parents become elderly…legislation has made the Nordic countries into the least family-dependent and most individualized societies on the face of the earth. To be sure, the family remains a central social institution in the Nordic countries, but it too is infused with the same moral logic stressing autonomy and equality. The ideal family is made up of adults who work and are not financially dependent on the other, and children who are encouraged to be as independent as early as possible.

Remember that this paper is not some airy-fairy exercise: it was written for Davos and endorsed by the Nordic governments. It goes on to suggest that there is such a thing as a “Swedish theory of love”, which believes:

authentic relationships of love and friendship are only possible between individuals who do not depend on each other or stand in unequal power relations. Thus autonomy, equality and (statist) individualism are inextricably linked to each other.