Kwarezm

 

At last, I learned where and what was Kwarezm. It was Central Asia - today Turkestan/Afghanistan - peopled by Persians. They spoke Persian. In fact, it was Persia. Very large and developed cities: Merv, Bukhara, Kabul, etc. Then the Mongol savages arrived and exterminated the population. Why? Because Mongols bred horses, ate horses, drank mare's mild, and waged war on horses, they measured wealth in the number of horses owned. The horses eat grass. Cultivated, irrigated land grew no grass, it was worthless. The population too was worthless, so they divided them into groups of 400 and assigned one Mongol soldier to kill the 400. They killed them like they used to slaughter sheep - one deep cut on the neck. Mongol nomads knew how to deal with sheep and soldiers completed their assignments before sunset. 800 years after Merv had not been repopulated and it is a UNESCO site.   

Meanwhile in Tel Aviv

  I had a meeting in the subterranean labyrinths of a hotel near the beach. It was very hot and I had to ask for a chair. A gentile African brought me a comfortable chaise longue while the people debated standing around.  Soon they too asked for chairs. After emerging from the depths of Tel Aviv, I went to girl-watching on the beach. The typical Tel Aviv beach girl has long blond hair and a slim and fragile-looking body; of course, the perspective of this alte-pischer is not wolfish as it used to be. I counted three girls for each boy but the boys seemed more interested in other boys. 

Lord Hannan on the small gangsters of Leningrad

 

Lord Daniel Hannan wrote the first sensible piece on the Wagner rebellion going on in these hours in Russia. In Yahoo News, my fav internet paper. Interestingly, he calls Prigozhin a small gangster from Leningrad - Leningrad and not Petersburg! - but not a member of Putin's Leningrad secret police circle.  His father was Jewish, now I see he looks like my Uncle Ivor. The  Wagner mercenary army and the legitimate Russian Armed Forces are apparently fighting. Wagner appears to be advancing toward the capital.  

Saudia is Doomed and They Know It

 
Saudi Arabia’s fiscal breakeven price of $76.10 per barrel means that it remains heavily in the red, with only Qatar being able to record a surplus thanks to its low breakeven point of $39.90 per barrel.

The Saudi solution is to diversify at a breakneck tempo, building up the Neom project which would be another Dubai (pic). 

Half of the young population has academic diplomas and will not do any physical work. 30-60% are effectively unemployed. All the work is being done by Pakistanis and similar on contracts. Saudi subsidies/alms to the Palestinians are being cut. 

No More War

 

The continent of Europe is tired and desperate to avoid wars. It has succeeded in living in peace now for seven decades and wants to continue enjoying quiet and prosperity. I hope it will succeed. 

But we know that war is the condition of the human species. Has it changed? 

Summertime

On Friday the 16 of June, I received the Permit for the Ramat Gan building. It was a very tense job, the owner called me every day and evening. Since then I did no work, I am taking a pause and just relaxing. My BP fell to the 110/75 region. Boring.

While I was not looking

 These days I was busy with the Ramat Gan project and did not look at the stock exchange happenings. Today I discovered that my portfolio grew very nicely - something like 20% in four sessions. I have no idea what happened. It could be that Ehud Barak insulting a female on the late evening news TV improved the national mood. Barak is a former Prime Minister, a war hero, a millionaire, and a monster, financing and inciting the masses to violence against the elected government. I hope he is finished and will disappear from the scene. 

INTEL is investing 25 billion dollars in its Israeli fab, it is the largest ever investment in this country. Parallelly is also investing 35 billion in Germany, 10 billion of it being a subsidy. There are no chip fabs in all of Europe.  If China keeps suffocating Taiwan, INTEL may find itself alone in the arena.