I don’t think this is a problem for the EU – quite the opposite, in fact. It strengthens the euro’s position in international trade, increases the number of users and boosts the volume of trade. More customers for the EU’s financial services sector.

There are a number of countries that unofficially use the US dollar as their currency for major transactions without asking anyone’s permission (Cambodia come to mind).

There are countries outside the EU that have switched to the euro for this reason, such as Montenegro and Kosovo.

One solution for Iceland would be to join the eurozone without becoming a member of the EU, as Kosovo and Montenegro have done. However, this would only be desirable if there really is a deadlock over fishing rights.

When I went to see it, it was a joyful shambles, with rice, water, ad-libbed lines, and drag queens surfing the audience.

Repaying the interest on debt held by a Norwegian pension fund has only a very minor impact on the US real economy.

It is not as though the US Treasury can afford to wait until it finds a buyer at lower yield. It absolutely must sell these bonds to pay off the principal on the old ones.

If US bonds are at 5 per cent, your banker will add their margin on top and your bank loan will be at least 7 per cent or higher if they fear a rise in interest rates and inflation. Investors will be much more discerning and demand higher risk premiums to move away from risk-free yields. As there are far fewer sectors capable of offering such returns, investment will concentrate on a very small number of sectors and companies (does AI ring a bell?).

It is therefore the bond yield that affects us directly, rather than the volume of debt alone. The volume of debt does have an effect, however, as the bulk of the interest is paid by issuing new bonds. If the government repays with cheaper bonds, it isn’t too serious; but if rates rise, the impact on budget deficits is exponential.

The thing is, the more debt and interest there is to pay, the more bonds need to be sold. To absorb this huge supply, the market demands higher yields to attract buyers, which in turn drives up borrowing costs for everyone.

The SNCF doesn’t change its format when you travel to Brittany or Alsace.

Both countries have now officially switched to the 24-hour format.

There are many Ivorians and Senegalese promoting the CCP’s ‘Community of common destiny’ on Reddit, for example.

Edit: Community of common destiny for mankind/‘Community of Nations’

Talking about a country that sets up fake think tanks is a good way of triggering them.

I’d understood this was a typical Berlin experience even for German.

The abseil documentation is dense but clear. What I get is Swiss tables are a sort of SSE optimized upside down Merkle tree.

In many countries, the ducts belong to the operator, who is under no obligation to lease or share access with other operators.

It’s not perfect, as technicians from one provider tend to neglect customers of another, and it’s not uncommon to be disconnected by mistake. But it does mean there’s a wide range of options and genuine competition in the services and price. It’s not as if we’re left with ‘Verizon’s the only option here’.

There were literally regiments drawing up lines as the troops advanced.

The Polytechnique and École Centrale campuses are just a few kilometers apart, and both projects began around 1997–1998.

I don’t know about you, but as a student, I was too busy drinking beer to write clean code.