I vaguely remember meeting him.

In a world increasingly dominated by grievances against immigrants, bankers, Muslims, liberal elites, Eurocrats, cosmopolitans, or anything else that seems vaguely alien such wise words are rare. Leaders worldwide should take note.

Nor did Hayden suggest any national security concern that might justify spying on the EU (there is none). Instead, he sought to dismiss the entire issue by hinting vaguely about intelligence gathering by some EU member states.

We may agree that our goal ought to be promoting happiness, rather than income or gross domestic product, but, if we have no objective measure of happiness, does this make sense? John Maynard Keynes famously said I would rather be vaguely right than precisely wrong.

So, yes, there are plenty of vaguely plausible reasons why the euro, despite its drawn out crisis, has remained so firm against the dollar so far. But don t count on a stable euro dollar exchange rate much less an even stronger euro in the year ahead.

Likewise, the US worries that China may use the AIIB to advance China s economic and political interests. But anyone who is even vaguely familiar with the US approach to multilateral lending knows that no other country has been as adept at exploiting its power and leverage for strategic gain.

That so called is appropriate, because the project, despite being only vaguely defined at this point, is most certainly not intended to create a single European capital market. Indeed, European Union leaders know better than to announce such an ambition, which would require a new treaty no one is prepared to open up that can of worms.