Articles

10.06.11 Publication: La Stampa

If anyone had told me, ten years ago, that in 2011 I would be writing regular editorials for an Italian newspaper and would have published a book about Italy,...

06.06.11 Publication: The Times

This is a big moment for Italy, as two notable Italians are preparing seriously for their futures. Mario Draghi, who as governor of the Bank of Italy has...

30.05.11 Publication: La Stampa

We crave simplicity, or at least simple explanations. As Barack Obama made his triumphal, political-celebrity-in-chief tour of Europe last week, many wanted to...

23.05.11 Publication: The Times

In the bad old days of George W. Bush, whenever Europe was accused of being from Venus, in the sense of disliking war rather than being sexual predators, the...

14.05.11 Publication: La Stampa

No sooner do you think you have puzzled out how the Chinese economy works, than it changes, dramatically. That is what happens when an economy grows its GDP by...

14.05.11 Publication: La Stampa

No sooner do you think you have puzzled out how the Chinese economy works, than it changes, dramatically. That is what happens when an economy grows its GDP by...

09.05.11 Publication: The Times

When you are sitting through one of those interminable meetings in which the discussion rambles round and round every mulberry bush it can find, a pleasing way...

25.04.11 Publication: The Times

Gold always seems designed to catch the eye, whether on a Middle East potentate’s bath taps, a soon-to-be princess’s tiara or as the price passes $1,500 an...

24.04.11 Publication: La Stampa

It is quite normal to expect politicians to say half-truths or even lies: in this, Italy is not unique, even if it is fairly exceptional in the ability of its...

24.04.11 Publication: La Stampa

It is quite normal to expect politicians to say half-truths or even lies: in this, Italy is not unique, even if it is fairly exceptional in the ability of its...

21.04.11 Publication: L´espresso

Culturally, Japan and Italy are as far apart as they are geographically. Yet they still share some surprising similarities. Both are proud of their...

11.04.11 Publication: The Times

It is barely a month since Japan suffered the worst natural or humanitarian disaster that has befallen any industrialised country since 1945. The death toll...

09.04.11 Publication: La Stampa

It is cherry-blossom season in Tokyo, a time when traditionally the nation celebrates the ephemeral, transitory nature of life, symbolised for centuries in...

01.04.11 Publication: La Stampa

It was pleasing to see Antonio Vigni’s elegant reply (“Tre verita’ sull’Italia”) to my provocative article about “bugie”. His truths do, however,...

28.03.11 Publication: The Times

After his trial, Socrates was put to death by being forced to drink poison. His more modern namesake, Jose Socrates, the Portuguese prime minister, has just...

17.03.11 Publication: The Times

Birthdays are not always happy occasions, though you might have thought that simply to have reached the ripe old age of 150 would have brought on a smile. Not...

14.03.11 Publication: The Times

It is no coincidence that the internationally accepted word for a wave caused by an earthquake is the Japanese tsunami, formed from the characters for harbour...

13.03.11 Publication: La Stampa

If you have ever wondered why Japan has so few old buildings, or why the most famous Japanese woodblock print, by the artist Hokusai, is of a big wave, or even...

28.02.11 Publication: La Stampa

The resistance of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi to accepting either the moral or the practical logic of his situation, holed up in Tripoli and with more than half of...

28.02.11 Publication: The Times

The Arab awakening is an unfolding story that is barely two months old and which will most likely continue unfolding for years to come. But it is beginning to...

31.01.11 Publication: The Times

It is a sobering thought, for any European or American prone to proselytising for democracy and human rights, that this month´s events in Tunisia, Egypt...

30.01.11 Publication: La Stampa

A few days ago, a TV interviewer asked me what I thought an alien from another planet, an extra-terrestrial, might think about Italian politics if they were...

21.01.11 Publication: L´espresso

The euro is like a beautiful modern building, one that is still attracting new tenants (Estonia joined on January 1st) and hosting a helluva rooftop party for...

18.01.11 Publication: La Stampa

Everyone, it seems, accepts that there is a “G2”, or Group of Two, at the forefront of world affairs except the two countries participating in it: the...