Pinchas Landau

Despite that headline’s somewhat sinister connotations — thanks to Hitler, Heydrich, Eichman et al — any Sherlock Holmes devotee will immediately recognise it as the title of the short story in which Holmes had his ultimate showdown with the man presented as his nemesis, the evil arch- criminal – “the Napoleon of crime”, as Holmes describes him to the ever-bemused […]

Sometimes you can actually see the global mega-trends that you read about taking shape in front of you at the most micro level possible. When that happens, you realize two very important things. One is that the big talk and the abstract theorising are not material for academic discussions, but rather issues that play out painfully in the real world. […]

What’s news in Europe?  On the basis of developments in the financial markets, that seems to have been a dramatic improvement in the economic and financial situation of the periphery countries, namely Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Ireland. Known collectively by the unflattering acronym “PIIGS”, these have been the epicenter of the wider European economic and sovereign debt crisis for […]

Wednesday may have seen a very important development for the financial markets and, by extension, for the world economy. But before explaining what and why, it is worth stressing that what is important for the markets is not necessarily important for the real economy, and vice versa. There is a widespread tendency to judge countries and regions on the basis […]

As a general rule, it is safe to say that matters of importance are not prominent in the media and that things that are prominent in the media are not important. Of course, that is a searing indictment of the media and, by implication, of the entire democratic system in which the media are meant to play a key role. […]