This is probably more for Tony to critique, but his pessimism with regards to events in the Middle East is serious. I'm sure it was in all the papers, but I hadn't realized that those ABB workers killed in Saudi were killed by their fellow workers. This paragraph really grabbed my attention
I refer here to the massacre of five employees of the Swiss-based ABB who had been contracted out to run a petrochemical a joint venture of Exxon Mobil and Saudi Basic Industries Corp in Saudi Arabia. It was an inside job. Their killers were Saudi nationals who worked there. This prompted the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia to urge all US nationals -- numbering in the tens of thousands -- to leave the country immediately, because neither the kingdom nor the United States can guarantee their security. This represents a retreat by the United States of historical proportions.Retreat of "historical proportions"? Well, that could be a bit over the top, but that doesn't mean that our economy (US, Ireland or EU - doesn't matter) won't be in for some very rough times.
{Found through the Corner.}
