EU Commissioner Almunia on regulation and Maastricht
Tid-bits for entertainment on a winter day:
1. According to Alexei Kudrin, Russia’s finance minister, Gordon Brown is the man who is “known for always raising taxes.”
I once interviewed Kudrin in his socks in his room at the very trendy Sanderson Hotel (www.thebanker.com). I was rather nonplussed by a shoe-less finance minister, but was told this was a Russian custom when entertaining at home. He is the ultimate survivor, an exceedingly able technocrat who has navigated the perilous waters of Russian politics with unusual skill while standing up (sometimes successfully) for what he believes in.