0

12 November 2011

Posted by DMC on 14 November 2011 in Diary |

Barton (W-P) came round for a chat at 2.30. From my point of view this is a good time for such visits. I will have finished my blog entry and dealt with my e-mails, had my lunch and still feeling a little perky. Much later in the afternoon I will begin to feel a little weary and therefore not such good company. Yesterday afternoon, for example, Di’ Zurlinden kindly dropped in for a cup of tea – and incidentally brought me some delicious raspberries, for which many thanks – and we had a very pleasant chat mainly about ‘what has happened to mutual friends, of the last 40 odd years (I was amazed at how many of them are still alive and ostensibly in good health) and then we discussed her daughter, who is in Australia., Which of course due to my living there and my subsequent annual visits was of particular interest to me.

These little interludes break the days up so that there’s usually something to look forward to. I believe so that is the secret of being stuck in the same chair all day. Try to build in a little variety in your life so that every day is not the same.

 Are you still puzzled about the complexities of high finance and the problems with the Euro zone? Click here and see how the Canadians view it . No country would be immune. If the euro zone crumbled under the weight of debt owed by Spain, Italy, Portugal and even France. I believe that the country most vulnerable in this group is Italy.

Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian playboy Prime Minister has had last resigned following great pressure, not only from his Cabinet but also from the population at large. It seems suddenly that everyone hates him. He said he would not go until there was a plan in place, passed by Parliament, to get Italy out of the financial hole which seem to have dug for itself. The problem now is that they are having to pay 7% on borrowed money to service their debt, which is equivalent to 20% of their GDP, which is clearly unsustainable This plan has now been passed by the Italian parliament but whether it will satisfy the Eurocracts, the IMF, et al remains to be seen. I am very sceptical about Italy’s plans to reform itself. It might look good on paper but then their heart must be in it to make it work and knowing how laid-back the average Italian is, I very much doubt whether it is. As the leader of the largest party. There are already rumours flying about that Berlusconi may well attempt a comeback at some stage. I seem to remember that he tried to introduce an act of Parliament,. some time ago to exempt him from prosecution for various accusations of corruption, which, of course he denied,, but I do not believe that act ever gone on to the statute book. Owning,, or having control of, most of the media in Italy must have made it easier for him to attempt to convince the Italian people that he was whiter than white, which, by all events, he seems to have achieved, to some degree, otherwise he could not possibly have lasted 30 years in power. Now, it seems, that even his loyalist supporters are beginning to l believe there may be some truth in the accusations.

Spain seems to have dropped out of the headlines for the time being , no doubt because of the imminence of a possible default by Italy and Portugal substituted in its place.. Although we have not heard very much about Portugal. it seems that they too are in the same sort of trouble as Spain.. (See my full prophecy in the 23 March; 2 August and 11 of November entries where I predicted that Spain then Portugal and finally, Italy would fail to service their debts and this could possibly cause the crumbling of the Eurozone with tsunami type financial woes for the rest of us.. The problem is that this is entirely new territory and the world has never found itself quite in this position before. As a result no one can predict, with. Aof certainty, what will be the effect on the non-euro countries. As I suggested before, we must just hang on for the ride, but it is going to be rough from time to time.

It now looks as though the problems I was having over the contracts for the fourth edition of my book – Arbitration Practice and Procedure-Interlocutory and Hearing Problems – have now been resolved and it now comes down to the date when the contributing editors can finish their work on a new date agreed for the delivery of the manuscript the publishers.

I’m immensely grateful to James Barnett, struggling through negotiations with my publishers on what must be quite a complicated contract aimed to last for the length of my copyright. The main problem now is how much my good friend Julian can manage to achieve over the three-weeks during the Christmas break. I would feel more comfortable if I was confident that he could meet the new deadline date of the end of January, which will mean a possible publication date, say in June, but I am not at all sanguine that this will be achieved. I really would like to be around to see this new edition on the shelves but without being and too pessimistic or a Jonah. I do not have complete confidence that I shall still be around in June. The rate of deterioration in MND patients is so unpredictable that no one can even hazard an ,educated guess on once life expectancy, on which they would have any confidence If I have not deteriorated much more then I than I a next,, my target will be March 2013, our 50th wedding anniversary, but just at this moment it seems a very long way off..

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Copyright © 2008-2024 D. Mark Cato's Blog All rights reserved.