Conrad Black on Rupert Murdoch in the FT

Although his personality is generally quite agreeable, Mr Murdoch has no loyalty to anyone or anything except his company. He has difficulty keeping friendships; rarely keeps his word for long; is an exploiter of the discomfort of others; and has betrayed every political leader who ever helped him in any country, except Ronald Reagan and perhaps Tony Blair. All his instincts are downmarket; he is not only a tabloid sensationalist; he is a malicious myth-maker, an assassin of the dignity of others and of respected institutions, all in the guise of anti-elitism. He masquerades as a pillar of contemporary, enlightened populism in Britain and sensible conservatism in the US, though he has been assiduously kissing the undercarriage of the rulers of Beijing for years. His notions of public entertainment and civic values are enshrined in the cartoon television series The Simpsons: all public officials are crooks and the public is an ignorant lumpenproletariat. There is nothing illegal in this, and it has amusing aspects, but it is unbecoming someone who has been the subject of such widespread deference and official preferments.

Sir Martin Jacomb on Greece in the FT

The euro gave the peripheral countries a standard of living above their earning power and, at the same time, took away their ability to correct this by devaluation. It is the same process which led to the permanent impoverishment of southern Italy, when the lira became the national currency after Italy was united under the Risorgimento 150 years ago. At the turn of the 19th century Naples was the largest city in Italy and the region was relatively sophisticated. But its economy declined relative to the north. Although it had started to build railways in the 1830s, before any other part of Italy, the effort was soon discontinued. Moreover, railways were unable to reach the length of the country because Pope Gregory XVI forbade their construction in the Papal States. He called them “chemins d’enfer”. The economies of north and south thus became progressively divergent. Southern Italy’s economic decline continued but, with the introduction of the lira, it lost its ability to correct its uncompetitive position. Able and enterprising people moved to the north or emigrated, and the situation became permanent, as it remains today. This tragedy endures.

On the Greek fiscal crisis

Letter from David Riley of Fitch to the FT: "it is surprising and unfortunate that so much effort appears to have been invested in circumventing a particular rating outcome. By far the most important and beneficial outcome for Greece and its creditors is securing a credible solution to the current crisis. In light of the market focus on a rating outcome...Fitch is guided by the spirit as well as the letter of the criteria. If it looks like a default we will rate it as a default."

Kermode on Shakespeare

...One of Kermode's most important points. The later Shakespearean technique has foregone the traditional routine academic rhetoric for a new and supple style that follows the movement of a mind....For Kermode, the new capacity to create a style that follows the process of thought, with all its hesitations and convolutions, begins with Richard II.

Spinoza on interpretation

It is one thing to understand the meaning of Scripture, and quite another to understand the actual truth.

NYRB on Buster Keaton

The logic of his first pictures, the two-reel pictures, resembles the logic of dreams. It was an alternate reality that freed him from narrative obligations - one thing simply followed another - and allowed him to pack a staggering quantity of life's particulars into each twenty-minute film......Keaton's dreams and dream-like camera effects seem to compound the stillness and inwardness of his deadpan character. They are not a break from reality but a truer form of it.

The genius of Buster Keaton

"What you have to do is create a character. Then the character just does his best, and there's your comedy. No begging."