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The today’s euphoria in the world’s markets is most welcomed and long awaited. After the Euro potential "bail-out" plan orchestrated this past week-end, a wave of long awaited optimism has stroke the financial markets, prompting a spectacular come-back for the main indexes. As I wrote this lines, the Dow, Nasdaq and S&P500 were all topping 10+% increases. That’s right: 10%! Everybody is exuberated like they’ve just came-out from a long nightmare and the happiness of getting back to normality is overwhelming. Which is true: both with the nightmare and the return to normality. For now, let’s enjoy this once again historical moments (after the huge drops in the indexes) and look forward optimistically to the future.

Then again, let’s also pay tribute to the the driving force behind it all, both fall and come-back. Here’s Mr. Douglas explaining it very eloquently over 20 years ago:

The global financial crisis (or credit crunch, or mortgage-backed securities crisis or..you know it by now:) is the most talked, blogged, wrote,  aired and so on, subject of the last few weeks (hence this post:) And it doesn’t show any signs that it’s going to be over soon. Among all the turmoil (great word, isn’t it?), many have tried to find both causes and solutions.

How many times a day you hear the word “nice” in connection with whatever? Nice trip, nice book, nice party, nice job, nice person, nice doctor!?, nice house… But what does it actually tell us? Is it good, is it better than not bad? It doesn’t say much actually and rarely can be taken as a true evaluation of something. A lot of people use it to detract themselves by actually evaluating something, either because that they don’t know or because other words might not be appreciated by their peers.

Take for example the omnipresent ” nice job”. Wouldn’t be more useful, as a feedback, to say “Hey, that was a well done job” or “That wasn’t that bad of a job” or even “Hey, it’s ok, but you could do it better”? At least you’d know where you stand!

After all, if you do a crappy job or have a crappy vacation etc., being said that your a nice person doesn’t mean that much, does it?

<<Let’s discuss the world. To answer the question, "is globalisation possible without God", the simple answer is "yes". Globalisation is after all itself a code word, a mask, for not using the C-word, capitalism. Globalisation is basically the latest phase of expanding capitalism. This not something which is neutral, this is a capitalism that has its rules: it has its economic rules, it has its political rules, it has its cultural rules and it has its military rules. It is a system. At the heart of this system is the United States of America, the world’s only existing empire today. The first time in the history of humanity that you have just had a single empire, so dominant, whose military budget is higher than the military budgets of the next 15 countries put together, and whose military-industrial complex itself is the eleventh largest economic entity in the world. This is the reality we live in, and this is the reality which confronts us in different ways.>> – quote by Tariq Ali

Spring, happy spring! Today, in the 1st day of Spring ‘08,  The Weekend Delight brings you a truly delightful tune from A Man Called Adam – Estelle. It’s quite a classic now and has been mixed and remixed and mixed again since its first making 11 years ago!! so it will probably sound familiar. This weekend, enjoy the Spring!

New! Recommended listening mode: medium loud, with a cup of coffee, facing the sun