Jamie dimon

Tuesday

John Fund

Iceland’s ‘No’ vote is a warning to Europe

This summer, the CEO of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, bluntly told the American Council on Foreign Relations think tank that Europe was trapped in a high-tax, ultra-regulation model. “When Mark Carney said, 'The middle powers should get together' – it's a fantasy. They did that, it’s called Europe,” Dimon said. “The GDP of Europe has gone from 90 percent of America to 70 percent. And in our view, it will probably continue to erode over time because of high taxes.” The 27-country European Union’s response to such criticism has been to double down on its bad policies and try to enlarge its membership. On Sunday, their latest attempt came crashing to earth as Iceland’s electorate voted 53 percent to 47 percent not to even begin talks on becoming an EU member.

iceland

Thursday

Joel Kotkin

The battle of the oligarchs

From our US edition

Money and power have rarely been strangers; often nations are made to shudder when the ruling elites battle each other. Britain’s late empire was divided between liberal manufacturers and aristocratic interests, whose conflicts hastened the rise of the Labour Party and the end of empire. In the United States, opposition to powerful trusts defined progressive politics for decades, ultimately laying the basis for the New Deal and a greater scope for government. In the West today we are witnessing a similar divide among the uber-rich class — epitomized by Elon Musk’s embrace of Donald Trump — that is already reshaping politics. Until 2016 the US establishment, both Republican and Democratic, embraced similar views on national security, global trade and multilateral institutions.

oligarchs

Thursday

Cockburn

Rashida Tlaib demands banks stop funding new oil and gas products

From our US edition

Cockburn was busy vigorously shaking his evening martini, James Bond-style, last night, so he missed the first half of Representative Rashida Tlaib’s insufferably long-winded and self-righteous speech ahead of a really dumb question. Her overly accentuated red lips (a similar shade of blood sported by fellow Squad member AOC) spewed all sorts of nonsense, while her attention-grabbing glasses risked flying from her face as her head gestured dramatically back and forth on screen. Cockburn’s mixology ended just in time to hear Tlaib charge J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon with: “Please answer with a simple yes or no, does your bank have a policy against funding new oil and gas products, Mr. Dimon?

Thursday

Taki

The unsavoury truth about American sport

New York What follows has been covered ad nauseam, but I wonder why people were surprised at the planned breakaway football Super League? Professional sport in Europe now follows the American way, which means that money comes before tradition, hometown loyalty and the fans — the shmucks who live and die for their teams. The bottom line is what sport in this country is all about, and European football has a lot to learn from the closed shop that has made zillions of dollars for US sport. I’ll keep it brief. American football, baseball and basketball teams are privately owned, and no matter how badly they perform, they cannot be relegated to a minor league, as teams can in Europe.