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Hope all goes well. “Happy V day baby,” I texted my Valentine, from Chicago O’Hare. Which ain’t exactly a pro move, in case you wondered. And to make matters worse, Mara read my note while packing our bags. You see, I’d left her on her own, back in Santa Barbara. To spend the Day of Love schlepping four kids and ski gear to the Rockies. Which is a scene that never found its way into Romeo and Juliet. So at our rendez

“Vive la France!” chanted the rapturous crowd. Dancing. Singing. And emerging from the shadow of a monument commemorating Mali’s independence from France, Hollande took the podium, promising to stay as long as necessary. To free Timbuktu. From the ruthless grip of a radical minority. An austere sect. Unwilling to compromise. And with that commitment made, Francois jetted home. To lash out at the faceless, ruthless mi

Duck dude! They’re freakin’ everywhere. Rockets that is. South Korea launched their first satellite. Into space. To look back down. Onto Earth. Where 300 dusty dongs remain pointed at Seoul. And with so many rockets swirling round the Sea of Japan, Tokyo’s sleepy Samurai boosted defense spending for the first time in 11yrs (while reducing the overall budget for the first time in 7yrs). Of course, the Ayatollah launch

Overall: “Jose can you see?” she asked her child, by dawns early light, filled with Hope, excited for the show. Beyonce opened. Obama closed. Broad stripes and bright stars gallantly streamed. The crowd went wild. Of course, some gifted lyricist wrote Obama’s song. Beyonce lip-synced hers – and the media went berserk. You see, now that we’ve extended our debt limit to May 19, cut unemployment claims to 5yr lows

“An elitist hypocrite,” scowled the NRA in an ad. You see, Obama surrounds his kiddies with Secret Service agents, but rejects demands for Navy Seals on every playground. See? Hypocrite! But all presidents are. Elitist too. Hell, we all are. Scratch the surface, you’ll see. Take Mervyn King, the Evil Knievel of central banking risk takers. Merv warned that UK investors are “making worryingly risky bets at a time when

Oh my Ayatollah! Just look at that Rial roll. Yeah, their paper’s really snowballing now. Down 40% in a wk! Souks are silent. Merchants are shuttin’ shop. Hoarding. Hiding. Like they did in 1979, on the eve of revolution. Money-changers were short. But alas, Ahmadinejad insists the Prophet frowns on speculative profit. So he unleashed security services on ’em. Naturally, this ain’t really about prophet, it’s about fa

Spent the week walking. Stalking. First in London. Then Scotland. The City’s overrun by bears. Clever ones. Scary ones. Angry ones. They growl the same story; policy response to the global crisis is fundamentally flawed, it can’t work, so it won’t. These beasts are in restless hibernation, conserving energy, biding time. Reluctant to fight the Fed in the open. Till the seasons change, the winds shift. And up in the H

Think you had a tough week? Well, mighta been worse. You coulda been the dude who played Mohammed in that trailer. Yeah, I watched it, along with 15mm bearded kids. Oh my Allah, did it suck. Bad acting, cheap voice-overs, plastic swords, no plot. Even I was offended. Which says a lot. But I’m a glass half-full kinda guy. And recognize the upside potential. You see nothing stimulates the economy like a fight. Wanna pu

“So Arafat asked me what I’d do,” said Bill, to a captivated room of Muslim, Jewish, and Christian capitalists, at this week’s C3 US/Arab summit. “And I told him, ‘Yasser, I’d find the most beautiful 9yr old girl in all the West Bank, dress her in the prettiest Palestinian dress I could afford, give her a big ole bouquet of flowers, take off my pistol, stand beside her, and have that little girl welcome Sharon when h

Shhh… Quiet… Listen… “Bleep…Bleep…Bleep.” Oh, that’s it: Voyager 1 — miracle of Mankind’s imagination, launched Sept 5, 1977. It’s finally crossing the outer limit of our tiny solar system, 11bln miles from the Sun. Voyager sends back only basic measurements, after all, NASA blessed it with just 68kb of memory. Today’s iPod Nano has 100,000 times more. Yeah, we’ve come far in 35yrs. Just look around. Corn