The long shadow of the 1930s

The growth in the size and power of the EU fed a dangerous sense of complacency. But Europeans are now discovering that the ‘European project’ provides no protection against the harshness of the outside world, writes Gideon Rachman

Those of us born in the west have never really experienced hard times. We have had decades of peace and prosperity. But perhaps Generation L – as in 'lucky' – has just had the luxury of an extended holiday from history, which is coming to an end, writes Gideon Rachman

By Qineqt:The demand for natural gas has been increasing in the U.S. and is expected to increase in the near-future as well. On the other hand, demand for coal is increasing in Europe. In the current year, U.S. coal exports to Europe are expected to reach a record high. However, the trend of rising coal demand in Europe is not expected to last for long.

There's been a striking change of mood in global financial markets since I left for my summer break: now it's the US that everyone is gloomy about, and views of the eurozone's recovery are more upbeat. But there are two reasons to think that the smart money will sooner or later return to the US. The first reason is simple - and fairly immediate. As this chart, from Capital Economics, suggests, the business cycle in the eurozone often operates a few steps behind the US.

WHILE much of the emerging world has taken substantial steps toward greater democracy in recent decades, the countries of North Africa and the Middle East have lagged behind. Early last year, it seemed like change might finally be on the way; a transition looks increasingly secure in Tunisia, but more questionable in Egypt and Syria, and not at all likely for a number of Gulf states. Is there something about the region which makes democracy inherently less attractive?

|Peter Boettke| Tim Congdon reviews Wapshott in the TLS, and in the process repeates the often made error in intellectual history that thinkers like Krugman continually make --- namely, to deny that Hayek was a serious intellectual rival to Keynes in the 1930s.  As Congdon puts it:

By Cam Hui: When I vote in an election, I give very little weight to a politician or party's stated policies. Instead I look at the candidate's overall philosophy to see how he or she would govern. Politicians change their minds. What's more important is how they would behave when circumstances change.

International Power (LON:IPR), the FTSE 100 electricity generation group, said today that trading in the first four months of 2011 had been in line with expectations and that it was on course to grow this year. In February, the group completed a tie-up with French multi-national GDF Suez in which the two sides combined their Energy International Business Areas outside Europe and certain assets in the UK and Turkey.