Stabilizing an Unstable Economy

I just finished plowing, and I mean plowing, through Hyman P. Minsky's Stabilizing an Unstable Economy. Minsky was a leading U.S. economist during the second half of the 20th century. I was drawn to his work because of his focus on public policy and financial crises, for obvious current events.

Admittedly about half the book went right over my head - there were way too many math formulas. Formulas aside the book was intellectually challenging for a non-business school person.

It did help me to better understand what has been happening economically in the U.S. since the late 1960s, especially since the 1980s and the S&L crisis and how all that fits into public economic policy.

Clearly Minsky has his own belief about what is right. I think in many ways his policy approach while smart for the 1980s, lacks an answer for today. It does however point direction and has helped inform my opinion.

Whether you decide to attempt this feat is up to you...though I'm sure plenty of my friends will be able to easily digest, math formulas and all.

Beer, Chocolate, Cheese & Pasta

We had a full day in Brugge on Sunday since our train wasn't leaving until about 7p. We headed to a lesser toured area of the city to see the Belgian Lace Museum. When you look at most contempoary lace it's rather boring. But I have found in my travels around Europe that antique lace has a delicacy and intricacy that reminds me of Buddhist monk sand mandals. The museum also works with local resident to help preserve the art of handmade lace, which is always a nice touch. As a little bonus Jeruzalemkerk is located right next to the lace museum. Dating to the 15th century the chruch used in the movie In Brugge as the Basilica of the Holy Blood. The windmills in town aren't too far from here and worth the extra couple of blocks just to check them out and while you're there, make sure you walk by the Kruispoort, an original city gate that dates to 1402...along with the city moat!

Belgium may be the world's capital of chocolate, but it seems the Belgians think Brugge is the capital of Belgian chocolate. Everywhere you look there are custom chocolate houses. You can't go home without some so we went to Stephan Duman. I have to admit that the contemporary design edge of the shop drew me in...it didn't disappoint. I've never been a sweet kind of guy, I'm a savory man, but I plowed through that 500g of chocolate in less than two weeks...very fast for me.

Having had our fill of beers, fried things, chocolate and more beer we decided to try an Italian restaurant just off market square for a late lunch/pre-travel meal. Ristorante Adriatico proved to be an excellent choice. I haven't had Italian food this good since I was in Rome. A stellar spinach soup and then baked pasta that defies description. Not exactly Flemish, but if you have a hankering for anything Italian, go!

A special shout out to our buds Neil and Dan whose passion for Brugge as a London weekend getaway pushed this destination higher on our list than it would've ranked otherwise.

Sites & Sounds of Brugge

Saturday we set out to take in some of the key tourist sites of the city. The Musea Brugge pass was an excellent bargain for us. Essentially you get in to every key museum and art space in the city with three minor exceptions, the chocolate museum, the diamond museum and the lace museum. The lace museum was the only one on the list we planned to visit.

We started out at the Basilica of the Holy Blood. This lovely little church in the heart of the city has a reliquary that contains the blood of Christ. I've seen lots of reliquaries in my tours of Europe, but this one definitely makes the top 10. From there we went next door to the Stadhuis, which has the most amazing Gothic hall on the second floor. The building is mostly 14th and 15th century and a definite must see.

We also visited the Hospital Museum - there are two actually, we went to Meming in Sint-Jan. It was, frankly, more interesting than I had anticipated. First of all you're talking about hospitals and medicine from medieval times in a country that was wealthy and had a very strong commitment to caring for the poor. Influenced greatly by religion, the thing that struck me the most was the focus on humane treatment for people regardless of their "station in life".

The "big" museum is the Groeninge. Normally this would've have housed a collection of primarily Belgian fine art. However, it was completely reassembled for an exhibtion called Charles the Bold. For the Flemish this was an incredibly important exhibit. Charles had been a beloved monarch from the 15th century. The country was very wealthy at that time and Charles traveled to war with a level of personal and cultural luxuries beyond pale for this time in world history. Unfortunatley in a massive defeat in which Charles had to flee, the Swiss got it all. This exhbition was the first time those possessions, taken so long ago, had touched Belgian soil. The pride of the Belgian visitors was palpable as they marveled at the style and quality of the artisianship of their ancestors.

Other highlights of the day included seeing Michelangelo's Madonna and Child - reportedly the only piece sold outside of Italy during his lifetime - and having a beer in the oldest tavern in Brugge...it's been serving travelers since 1515. A very touristy stop, but relaxing and charming and in a hostel kind of way, it was fun to watch people from all over the world stop in for a drink.

That evening we headed to the Concertgebouw to hear the world premier of Tejas by Wim Henderickx, a flemish composer. The piece is officially subtitled "What does the sound of the universe look like?" so...no reference to Texas. The piece was juxtaposed with Stravingky's Le Sacre du Printemps. An amazing evening. The building itself is an imposing piece of contemporary architecture (with accoustics to match) that sits at the entrance to this amazingly well-preserved medieval city. The piece - and the performance - of the premier was the most impressive piece of contempary symphonic music I had ever heard. The fun didn't end there. In the lobby at intermission, Joe started chatting up one of the bass players, who then introduced us Wim, who seemed happy to step away from whomever was chewing his ear and spent the rest of intermission just talking with us. It was just one of those great moments of serendipity.

Seging Brugges

A few weekends ago, we spent a long weekend in Brugges. What a great town and the perfect time of year too. Just as Spring was pushing through the soft ground and before too many tourists arrived. This medieval town is incredibly well preserved and very tourist friendly.

We took the train from London. It took just under 4 hours including transfer waits, etc. Our hotel, Hotel de Goezeput, an old monastery was really nice. Historic, wood beam architecture, romantic roof top views, beautiful church bells in the mornings (not too early), a nice breakfast and a simple bar that was for an afternoon beer. Everyone was really friendly. While it was perfect for a place to sleep and shower, I might recommend something a little more upscale for a longer visit as the bed was a bit worn and the bath small. But we got much more than we paid for and would stay again.

We arrived Thursday at midnight, got settled and went to bed. Friday morning we met up with our friends Loreen and Mike who were on their own random travels. After a stop for coffee and then for some incredible Belgian frites, we headed over to Segway Brugge for a Segway tour. (The frites place had been recommneded to us as the best in Brugges...you'll find it at the corner of Geldmunststr. and St. Jakobsstr. -- the Segway tour place is on St. Jackobs, so you can stop on your way there or afterwards). I'd always wanted to ride one and was more interested in the Segway than the tour.

The tour company owners were very friendly. They were just finishing lunch when we arrived and invited us to finish our frites in the kitchen. They also had a great dog that really took to Loreen - it probably had nothing to do with the frites she was feeding him. From the Netherlands, they had moved to Brugges last fall to start the business.

After a brief training in the shop, our guide took us to a small courtyard where we were given some more training and were allowed to ride without a person standing next to us. It's interesting because you want to "control" the machine, but it really works best the more you relax and just let it be part of you. By the time we were done with the tour I really felt like I had robot wheels attached to my legs - totally cool.

Our guide understood that we were more interested in driving the Segways than taking the official tour, so our experience was more about seeing the archictecture and riding the machines, than learning about the city. He did make sure we got to some amazing highlights including the inner garden of a 17th century almshouse, the swans at Minnewater and the most spectacular moment of the entire weekend the Begijnhof. We took lots of pictures, but none of them conveys the beautfy of this "walled complex" for nuns that was over run with daffodils in bloom.

The four of us then spent the rest of the day wandering around, tasting beers, munching and watching the world go by. A great start to the weekend.