Interest differentials between European government bonds and credit default swaps score new records almost every day. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain face increasing difficulties in financing their public debt. Financial markets fear the situation is untenable and are becoming nervous. Politicians and the ECB all with their own preferences and interests feverishly search for a solution. The dispute between Sarkozy and Trichet is not likely be resolved soon. 
 
Who pays the piper?
Political leaders favor a scenario of debt restructuring with a rigorous "haircut" for the bondholders, including the already shaky bank sector. Banking circles and the ECB obviously shun such a scenario. For Trichet the idea that an EMU member state would fail to fulfill its obligations is unthinkable. It would undermine the credibility of the euro project even further. An earlier proposal to create European bonds as a funding vehicle for individual member states has already been dismissed. For obvious reasons, banking circles favor a solution in which the European taxpayer would come to the rescue and would guarantee faltering government bonds.
 

America fails the “unblemished virtue” test. The guilt of innocence. Again the Viet Nam case and its misuse. Avoid the dangers of success. Democratic Socialism: Which part has priority? Money for repatriated criminals. Obama’s old magic and the new boredom. About obvious consequences.
 

1. Incredible. Therefore, it is true. In a recent conclave of the UN’s Human Rights Commission Iran, Cuba, Libya, Burma and comparable paragons of virtue castigated the United States. If you have not read about it, you want to know more. The charge is the systematic violation of human rights. A lesson is applied. Weird claims get intensive coverage. Being in the news repeatedly, lends credibility to what is otherwise absurd. Given the composition of the guardians of decency in this case, this much is to be expected. Rather odd is that the US sent a large delegation. Reported is that, “America” –well, at least its current spokesmen- had been self-critical and promised improvement. (Could it be that this promise is to live up to, let us say, the Libyan standard?) Considering who put the delegation together and who sent them, the “mea culpa” for not being perfect, might have been sincerely meant.

During the last weekend of October, a conference in Antwerp got a lot of resonance in the Arab world. The same conference was virtually ignored in Belgium, even within the local Muslim community.  "The place of Islam in the new Europe" was the title of the conference which was widely reported on Al Jazeera (see video below this article) and the Moroccan newspaper Le Matin.  In Belgium, only Gazet van Antwerpen published a short article on the local pages in three of its six regional editions. Make no mistake: this was a conference to promote multiculturalism en mutual understanding between the Islamic world and Europe.  The conference was organized by the Institute for Moroccan and Mediterranean Studies of the University of Antwerp, abbreviated as "IMaMs".

A GOP sweep and the global trend. Work hard to pay for others? Voting rights for non-citizens?
 
1. The following is the byproduct of a pleasant evening spent with an American couple that was about to return for the winter to their other home in California. A natural subject to discuss is the midterm elections in America. Special significance is attributed to the anticipated result’s place in the global scheme of things. “Trend, or no trend”, that is the question. The talk touches upon a subject that has been repeatedly discussed in this column. Is the anticipated -and since then completed- GOP sweep a further signal that the possible end of old politics by PC-consent might be an ongoing process? In this connection, the subject of strikes in France for continued retirement at 60 instead of 62 also comes up. To what extent does this resistance signal the limits of an eventual political turn-around? We conclude that the incessant chase of votes for “the next election” had induced traditional parties to bribe the electorate. The trick: promise to return part of the people’s money as a reward for support. In this realm, the differences between the old parties avoid the substance and they are limited only to the degree of the practice. In time, half of the electorate funds the other half. To many, the handouts to social services consumers have an attraction. They can be made to appear to be philanthropic trophies. To claim that we have supported someone in trouble, harvests points in the “done-good” area. Another motive to approve of “a bit more for everybody” is that the donor sees itself as a general beneficiary of funding. This brings us near to an ideal world. Once this process has taken us there, we will all be made “rich” by our politics’ gifts. We will also have enough free time –think of France’s 35-hour week- to enjoy it.
 

Republicans took over 680 seats from the Democrats in the parliaments of the different States. The number of Republican seats in these Chambers is now well over 50%. They won the majority in at least twenty more Chambers. Although recounts are still going on in a few places, it looks like the voters elected ten more Republican governors. Republicans will now govern in over 60% of the States.

This massive expansion of Republican power on State level has three important advantages for the Republican Party on a national scale.

Democrats lose badly. The Republicans win the majority in the House. In the next few days we will know exactly how many House and Senate seats were won. The prediction at Wednesday morning November 3rd at 2 AM New York time: the House – Republicans +63 (which means a majority of 24), the Senate – Republicans +6 (which means 4 short of a majority).
 
What are the consequences for Obama?
 
A significant number of his remaining Democrats in Congress will distance themselves more from him. Mrs. Clinton – but also others – will think sincerely about running against Obama in the Democratic Presidential primary of 2012.
 
How can Obama sail through the next two years? He has two choices. He can follow the turn in policy Bill Clinton adopted after 1994, or Obama can try to continue to force his radical leftist policies on the American people.
 

The uses and costs of migrants. PC and its dangers. Is the influence of the influentials wearing out? The Socialists: “Close the store”?
 
1.Those that participated in most immigrations of history would have called themselves lucky had they encountered the conditions now offered in Western Europe. This holds true regardless of the fact that this world neighborhood does not consider itself to be in need or wanting unqualified immigrants. Europe’s immigration practice suffers from crises. The dominating PC fashion clouds issues. PC cloaks illegal entries, falsified asylums request, crime and welfare chiseling. It claims that the all of the foregoing is insignificant and part of the propaganda of nativist extremists.
 

Muslim youth have discovered a new weapon to counter the dissemination of unwanted ideas: the vuvuzela.  Pro-Palestinian activists used the African noise horn to try to silence a Jewish professor in Brussels.

The Masses Disobey Their Leaders. Can government watchdogs control of the government? The EU’s choice: the Belgian or the Swiss pattern.
 
1. Reacting to a past crisis –and missing those of the future- is a damaging but understandable pattern that shapes our public life. The aftereffects of the banking and financial crisis fit the blueprint. Indeed, loose cannons, irresponsible actors and plain crooks operating due to lacking oversight, had much to do with the calamity that now effect entire economies. The reactive fashion of the moment is to create policies and government agencies to control and supervise a wide array of institutions and activities whose malfunctions are somehow related to the present’s vicissitudes.
 

Tensions fly high in the US. How many Democrats will die on Obama’s battlefield? With great certainty we can expect the Republicans to take the House back. They need to win 39 seats. Polls are conservatively predicting a win of 50 seats. (Rasmussen: 55) Winning 5 or 6 seats in the Senate, where the Republicans occupy now 41 of the 100 seats, looks doable. But four seats more may be a bridge too far. Although: one never knows. Note that this year only 37 Senate seats are contested: 19 occupied now by Democrats and 18 by Republicans. Taking ten Senate seats from the Democrats means sending more than half of them home!