lifestyle leader

-George Soros on Greece and the Eurozone's inherent flaws.

-Kenneth Rogoff sees a wave of sovereign defaults in the years ahead (they tend to follow banking crises).

-There is an interesting debate at Free Exchange on the need for a European Monetary Fund.

-We cite Paul Krugman a lot of these pages; The New Yorker profiles the man and his politics.

-In the wake of another coup in Africa (Niger, this time), FP Passport asks, 'Why are coups always led by colonels?'

-In Olympics news other than US Hockey's epic beatdown of Team Canada (sorry, Dave), the NYT has an interesting analysis of the controversial (for Russians, at least) men's figure skating competition, explaining why American Evan Lysacek didn't need a quad to win gold.