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Greece would do everyone a favour by declaring a moratorium and forcing a rescheduling. The country faces years of misery in any case. The threat of being shut out of capital markets rings hollow. But by triggering losses on these derivative transactions and a credit events under the CDS it would help ensure a much more prudent approach in international banking markets. Bailing out Greece so everyone can pretend the country can remain “current” on its loans when it patently cannot would simply deepen the moral-hazard crisis. If market discipline is ever to be re-established (something which everyone agrees is desirable) then at some point creditors must take a loss. Greece is a good place to start.

Dr. Eric Schmidt, Google’s CEO, bedazzled the 2010 GSMA Mobile Word Congress in Barcelona. In his keynote address he told the industry exactly which parts of their lunch that Google will eat, simultaneously appeared to offer peace, showcased mesmerising new technologies, effortlessly took 45 minutes of questions from the floor, and then disappeared to widespread applause.

The effective way to use a cliché is to point to it and then do precisely the opposite. Juxtapose the cliché with the unexpected truth of what you have to offer.

Wo Politiker früher ihr Heil und das des Landes im „Poldern“ suchten, also in der gemeinsamen Anstrengung und Konsenssuche, steht noch im Jahr acht nach Fortuyn das Poltern viel höher im Kurs. Wenn die Umfragen nicht täuschen, wollen die Wähler es nicht anders. Polemisierende Populisten machen den bedächtigeren Regierungsparteien das Leben schwer, am erfolgreichsten derzeit der Islamfeind Geert Wilders.

[Goldman Sachs spokesman Lucas] van Praag seems to take obvious pleasure in the parries, ripostes, and counter-ripostes he makes to attacks upon his employer. He delivers them with a studied and almost ornate verbal style that conveys the message that not only are you wrong, but also he is smarter and better-educated than you. In my experience, this modus operandi tends to play better in Mr. van Praag’s native Britain, where the art of sharp, witty, spirited debate is still seriously practiced by public figures and enjoyed by most spectators. But here in the United States, schizophrenic home to both the largest number of elite universities in the world and the broadest-based strain of anti-intellectualism known to Western democracy, the aggressive debating style of lobbing witty insults at your opponent only plays well on reruns of Monty Python. If you doubt me, just look at the inarticulate clods we elect to public office. Most of these morons cannot even deliver a coherent speech, much less bandy about gerunds and subjunctive clauses in the midst of a heated argument. Most Americans would probably try to impeach them if they did. This is just not a country where you can use words like “egregious,” “febrile,” and “chimera” in public without running the risk of being lynched for general asshattery.