I doubt that many of the readers of this blog have heard of “Able Archer 83.” Able Archer was a military maneuver conducted by the US and its NATO allies in 1983 which the Soviet Union interpreted as a genuine prelude to war. The series of steps leading up to the crisis–the most serious US-Soviet confrontation since the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962–show how flawed communication, bad rhetoric, and self-serving miscalculations can lead up to a crisis. The National Security Archive has published some recently declassified documents on the crisis, and provides a very succinct summary of the crisis.
The European Commission has carried out a series of “unannounced” inspections of the books of BP and Shell Oil. The Commission believes that the oil companies have colluded to rig oil prices for more than a decade. If true, the collusion mimics the behavior of the large banks in manipulating interest rates during the same period for which the banks were fined hundreds of millions of dollars. It is hard to believe that such profitable companies would resort to criminal behavior to enrich themselves even more. Barry Ritholz catalogs the significance of the charges and puts them in a context that will simply leave one breathless with indignation.
The economic situation in Europe continues to deteriorate, and the slowdown has seriously affected the younger population, aged 17-24. Many of the newspapers in Europe are now referring to the “lost generation” as a way to describe the bleak employment prospects of the group. The problem is not merely economic. The political effects of a generation losing hope in the future are always debilitating, and often they turn to “strong” men to lead them out of their predicament.
World Politics News 
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