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Hofi marches in

henrycopeland — Tue, 19 May 2009 13:11:44 +0000

Hofi Geza, right, was Hungary’s comic genius 1950-90s. Around 30 seconds in this clip, Hofi reprises “Go marching in” as “Go Nanci Neni” (or “Go Aunt Nancy.”)

Don’t worry, hallucinate

henrycopeland — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 05:52:30 +0000

More assurances that there’s nothing to worry about in Hungary.

Hungary PM says bank deposits are safe, guaranteed

BUDAPEST, March 6 (Reuters) – Hungarian bank deposits are safe and the government provides a comprehensive guarantee for client deposits, the prime minister said on Friday.

‘We have made very important steps (during this crisis). It is a very big thing that depositors in Hungary need not worry,’ Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany told a meeting of business leaders.

‘They can be safe during a global financial crisis,’ he said.

Gyurcsany also said the government was ready to consider deeper and more comprehensive reforms than the measures laid out last month.

Dominoes as big as Alps

henrycopeland — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 16:34:28 +0000

Ever hysterically rational, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard writes this morning about European banks’ huge lending overhang to post Communist economies. The headline, “Failure to save East Europe will lead to worldwide meltdown,” seems to suggest there’s some alternative to failure. Sadly, Europe doesn’t have the capital, political will OR the political infrastructure to rescue either the west European banks or East European folks who have borrowed absurd amounts of money valued in other countries’ potentially much stronger currencies.

Bloviating about Twitter

henrycopeland — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:44:20 +0000

Budapest has many joys: hanging out with old friends, drinking great wine, philosophizing, candlelit dinners in gorgeous homes. Saturday night, I got to enjoy all these with Tom and Annabel high in the Buda hills. We talked about “the well,” TTT, inflation, Hungary, guide books, humidors, obsessive letter writers, batteries, Twitter, Marai, infantalized dialogue, Halo3, currency levels. Here’s a Winkball snapshot of the evening:

Schnell!

henrycopeland — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 01:57:53 +0000

When I first moved to Budapest, roughly one in four cars was a Trabant, a two stroke car manufactured in East Germany. Other than the engine and axels, the cars were almost entirely fiberglass. Nearly 20 years after the fall of Wall, only 1 in 1000 is a Trabant.