europe

—>Ugh, next time those snooty Europeans come over to blanket us with their Euro-gold, they'll have one more reason to be all smug and superior: ten of the world's largest telecoms have agreed to make a universal phone charger that can charge any phone sold in the European Union.  More »

—>The Washington Post writes that a national sales tax, known in other countries as a value-added tax or VAT, is getting some attention in DC, even among Democrats, who traditionally don't favor regressive taxing schemes. The article notes some pros and cons about a VAT, as well as the small problem that imposing a 25% sales tax on everything would be political suicide.  More »

—>Here's some weird news from Switzerland, a seven year old girl has "allegedly" found a condom amongst her French Fries in her McDonald's Happy Meal.   More »

—>Christopher Elliott, travel guru, has got to be a liar. In his latest blog entry he posts a story from an American who stayed in a hotel in Vienna... and was charged the room rate times the number of days he stayed. Can this magical hotel really exist?  More »

—>"Maybe O'Leary was just taking the piss this morning... Michael makes a lot of this stuff up as he goes along and while this has been discussed internally there are no immediate plans to introduce it," said a RyanAir spokesperson in response to the CEO announcing this morning they were thinking about having coin-operated lavatory doors onboard the aircraft.  More »

—>Ultra low-cost Irish carrier RyanAir is thinking about putting a coin slot on lavatory doors so passengers will have to pay when they empty their loose change from their coin slot.  More »

—>The debate on the BBC news right now is who is cooler, America or Europe. Europe is getting props for acting speedily and decisively in contrast to Paulson's pace, which is getting characterized as dawdling and indecisive. Some of the very policies Treasury derided, they're now considering since Europe enacted them. The ex-Reagan economic adviser talking head says it's nationalizing risk, a backdoor way of calling them socialists. However, it wasn't until Europe's "socialistic" actions did the markets rebound. Who is right? Only time will tell; we'll see if the rally sustains or is just another fitful shiver in this economic fever dream. The key here is confidence, and it seems to be the most precious and rare commodity on the face of the earth right now.  More »

—>As part of their multi-pronged effort to fight the financial Godzilla besieging the world economy, the European Commission today proposed a 14-day no-questions-asked return period for any online purchases made within the European Union. The "two-week cooling-off period" is designed to give consumers a chance to shop across borders for the best prices without worrying about return policies. The practically adorable European decision to respond to a financial crisis with consumer protections made us want to look inwards at some of the onerous return policies Americans face.  More »

—>The Dow is down over 800 points, and the day isn't even over. This beats last week's all-time record of 777 points. A global credit crisis is in full swing, with versions of what just decimated Wall Street repeating itself across Europe as governments swoop in with bailouts of high-profile banks. Verily, blood is in the streets. Hm, what's that old saw? Oh. Right. Buy when there's blood in the streets.  More »