A Few Euros More: March 19, 2006 - March 25, 2006 Archives

March 20, 2006

Defining protectionism down

Something worthwhile on the new Guardian blog: A post by Daniel Davies.

Economic "protectionism" is back in the news with a vengeance, with France objecting to takeovers in the steel sector, Spain putting together national champion utilities and the USA crying blue murder over Dubai Ports World's proposed acquisition of P&O. James Surowiecki had an article in the Saturday Guardian painstakingly setting out the conventional wisdom on this subject (ie that it's very bad). Trouble is, this isn't really what "protectionism" means.

Via Atrios.

Posted by David Weman at 5:14 PM | Comments (0)

March 19, 2006

Ceuta's place in history

Brian Ulrich writes a brief history of Ceuta.

What's more, Ceuta has historically been a gateway to Europe rather than one to Africa. As noted above, the city was difficult to take, but even after it was taken, the mountains surrounding it meant that you couldn't easily advance into the Moroccan interior. However, many invasions of the Iberian Peninsula and reinforcements of Muslim positions there were launched from its harbor. In fact, one could take this "gateway" pattern even up to the present, where desperate African economic migrants try to use it as a stepping-stone to continental Europe.

Via Coming Anarchy

Posted by David Weman at 11:26 PM | Comments (0)

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