In Norway There Is No Beer

That's why we drink it here. From The Economist (subscription required):

MAY should be a happy month for Norwegians. Warmer weather allows for the first utepils, or beers drunk outside. Newspaper readers (no other nation is so devoted to the press) venture out to balconies and outdoor cafes. The May 17th national day is celebrated with feasts of meat, cheese and fish. This year was especially jolly, as it marked 99 years of independence from Sweden.

But another May tradition threatens the fun: strikes. Last week, nearly 3,000 workers at a dozen breweries briefly went on strike, leading the makers of Ringnes, the much-loved national beer, to talk of shifting production to Poland. Journalists also downed pens for several days, leaving newspapers nothing to publish but advertisements. A five-week strike by transport workers has left supermarket shelves bare of vegetables, eggs, milk, cheese, washing powder and nappies. "It's suddenly more like eastern Europe was," said one Oslo resident, unimpressed by empty shops in the capital of one of Europe's richest countries.

Remind me again why we can't be more like Europe? Although an occasional newspaper strike might not be the worst thing in the world.

Meanwhile in the Middle East the stock markets are booming according to The Economist (this time the content is free):

WHILE the world worries about insurrection in Iraq and unrest in Palestine, an uprising of a different sort is bringing joy to executives and investors in the Middle East. Over the past year or so, especially since the removal of Saddam Hussein, stockmarkets across the region have soared. The SC Arab Composite Index, covering 12 markets in the region, is up by over 80% since March 2003, says SHUAA Capital, an investment bank in Dubai.

Arab investors are far less rattled by political risks in the region than are foreigners, says Matthew Eyre of Blakeney Management, an investment firm. It only took the fall of Saddam--once the biggest source of potential instability in the Gulf--to catalyse a share-price boom, he says.

So the fall of Saddam is in fact turning out to be good for the region, at least in economic terms? Imagine that.