Last night I got hung up on a game show on TV – it was called “The wall”. I had never seen it before and was curious as to its schema. In essence it is a trivia show with a contraption like a pin ball machine, except the user cannot influence the trajectory of the ball once it enters the pin maze. The machine randomly defines monetary prizes that can be positive or negative depending on the correctness of the participants’ answer. Other than their answers the users can also influence the stakes by selecting the number of balls allowed to trickle down. In one such instance one of the players justified the risk of giving up a sizable monetary balance for the opportunity to win a million dollars with a statement “This is the American Dream after all” – and so he went for it. My recollection of the

Over the last week I listened to the audiobook “The expendables” by the economist Jeff Rubin. This book offers analysis and insights into the history of free trade and its impact on local economies. It triggers a lot of thoughts, and I will try to capture mine at a later point in time. One particular phrase from the book stuck in my head – it stands out from the otherwise very rational narrative throughout the book. In conjunction with the discussion of the political and economical events that led to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia Rubin remarks that concerns raised by Putin over some time had not been addressed and triggered his military response. (Warning: the statement to follow may be offensive to some). “If you shove a stick up a polar bears ass, unlikely will it turn the other cheek”I will contain my own fantasy and leave it

The action of the German government to designate the party AFD (Alternative for Germany) an extreme right-wing organization triggered a broad range of domestic and international responses. Officials from the US also chimed in. Our vice president JD Vance posted on X that day: “The West tore down the Berlin Wall together. And it has been rebuilt – not by the Soviets or the Russians, but by the German establishment”.  We lived in Germany when the wall was opened and later removed and witnessed the events leading up to it – here the demonstrations in Dresden and Leipzig and other places and the raising of the barriers at the border crossings in Berlin. In fact, we took our very first trip into the Western world during a special visit to Berlin, crossing the wall in Berlin-Schoeneweide. You can get to the location of the former wall in Berlin in Germany