And this is a you know, the purple dinosaur with kind of bloat wear.

Debt write downs and guarantees will inevitably bloat Germany s government debt, as the authorities are forced to bail out German banks (and probably some neighboring countries banks). But the sooner the underlying reality is made transparent and becomes widely recognized, the lower the long run cost will be.

As Secretary General, Ban has lived up to his self styled vision of being the consummate diplomat, and has made some important gains in tackling the UN's bureaucratic bloat as well as dealing with the Middle East. But on other issues, Ban has failed to live up to the critically important precedent set by his predecessor as Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who transformed the position to promote human rights and assumed the role of the world's conscience when necessary.

As Secretary General, Ban has lived up to his self styled vision of being the consummate diplomat, and has made some important gains in tackling the UN's bureaucratic bloat as well as dealing with the Middle East. But on other issues, Ban has failed to live up to the critically important precedent set by his predecessor as Secretary General, Kofi Annan, who transformed the position to promote human rights and assumed the role of the quot world's conscience quot when necessary.