Do most baristas in Norway have a master’s degree? | May 23rd 2026 Edition

Nice letter from ROLAND DEHOUSSE in Brussels in this week’s Economist.

Being myself on the verge of retiring from the European civil service, I felt a deep connection to Charlemagne’s column on federalists’ nostalgia for a Europe that never was (May 9th). I especially enjoyed the analogy between the pioneers of European integration and the builders of medieval cathedrals. Indeed I count myself as one of the “still many in Brussels who get teary-eyed as they describe their humble role in…this continental peace project, as worthy of admiration in their eyes as any cathedral”. But alas, I can’t help thinking that my late father, himself an MEP, was right when he used to fume: “They promised us a cathedral and built a supermarket instead.”

With a parking lot, too, I suggest— a la Joni Mitchell

Bezos, Backlash and Zombies – Paul Krugman

But [Jeff] Bezos obviously suffers from billionaire brain, which I defined last year as that special blend of ignorance and arrogance that occurs all too frequently in men who believe that their success in accumulating personal wealth means that they understand everything, no need to do any homework.

A review in the New Statesman ( 1-7 May 2026, p53, Kate Mossman) of Ringo Starr’s most recent album (and long career).

“The instrumentation is predictably perfect, with fluttery guitar from the appropriately named musician Billy Strings.”

Len Deighton’s Action Cook Book – Wikipedia

I have been re-reading some Len Deighton (who died recently). The quote below is from his Action Cookbook where he offers advice on keeping the party ticking over until is doesn’t..

The cookbook was mentioned in an episode of The Supersizers [ a BBC series on food and drink] focusing on the extremely high quantities of alcohol required for a 1970s cocktail party. It recommends half a 70 cl bottle (35 cl) of spirit (e.g. rum, vodka, etc.) per person every two hours of a party, increasing to three-quarters (52.5 cl) of a bottle per person after 2 hours “since drinking will increase if they haven’t gone home by then” (p126). This equates to 87.5 cl of spirits per person for a four-hour party.

Farage’s Reform UK still has electoral obstacles ahead

Deform is a better name for the Farage cult as, that’s exactly what he intends to do to the country before popping smoke and heading off to Florida with his ill gotten gains.

Xi Jinping wants China to read more—as long as it’s the right books

The Economist

The BINHAI library, often called China’s most beautiful, is breathtaking. Swirling shelves of books rise in gravity-defying stacks to a high ceiling in a light-dappled room: a modern cathedral to learning. No wonder the library, in Tianjin, an eastern city, has become a favourite photo stop for glammed-up young folk posting to social media. But it does not take long in the library to see that there is less to it than meets the eye. Most of the books are just pictures of spines glued to the wall. And most of the visitors are glued to their phones, not perusing books.

Tim Cook wrote a winning recipe for Apple. From The Economist

Apple’s market value has grown 11-fold on Mr Cook’s watch as, counting everything including dividends, he has stuffed some $4.6trn into the pockets of Apple’s shareholders. That is over $850m for every day of his long tenure.

The invention of Wales

Traditionally, one thing stood in the way of Welsh independence: the Welsh.

So true.

The Economist

Adam Tooze’s Chartbook Newsletter about April’s IMF and World Bank meetings.

Chartbook 440: Between complacency, escapism and cognitive dissonance. Impressions from the spring week in Washington, April 2026.

In one particularly candid, off the record exchange, a well-connected DC/corporate operator remarked to a large table: “We know we are burning the house down. An entire system is being reduced to ashes. Its a historic transformation. But, you know, new growth flourishes after a fire.”

One of the downsides of being around a long time, coupled with the tardiness in the production of personal software that can indeed act as a second ‘fact dump’, is that I spend lots of time trying to track down the correct version of a quote and its reference value. The one below I had remembered as “There is nothing in British medicine that the GMC cannot make worse.”

Claude and Google scholar didn’t get me there but mere chance did. The quote in question was penned by Nigel Hawkes, a wonderful journalist who used to freelance at the BMJ. He died in 2021: an obit is here.

Here is the correct version in the BMJ (paywall).

And then there was the GMC (General Medical Council), a body seemingly designed to prove that as bad as things seem, they can be made worse.

Doesn’t Britain do so well with its regulators! Think:water companies, Post Office, FCA etc). My own view is that journalists, and to name one example, MD, in Private Eye, do a much better job of protecting the public from the horrors and abuse of the public by the NHS or government.

Note added 1 April 2026 (no joke!)

I now see (again by chance) that my memory was closer to the mark than I made out above. Here is the same Nigel Hawkes writing in the BMJ on the topic of validation:

“On the usually sound principle that there is nothing in UK medicine that can’t be made worse by the involvement of the General Medical Council…” (BMJ 2012;345:e7375)