Randomly Noted

All the talk on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean about the need to curb speculators in oil is part of a larger trend we’ve seen since the onset of the credit crisis and this deep recession: governments want to control more aspects of economies and markets.

The elected leaders of France and the United Kingdom teamed up on an op-ed piece in The Wall Street Journal today to decry oil price volatility. The argument of Gordon Brown and Nicolas Sarkozy is that oil is too important to be left to the short-term profit seekers who inhabit markets.

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The Islamic burka is “not welcome” in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy said today. It’s a sign of subservience for women, he told France’s Parliament, according to AFP. This from the fellow who briefly upstaged Barack Obama last week with pointed comments supporting Iran’s protesters even as the U.S. president took a more careful stance. Sarkozy is poised to reshuffle his cabinet, probably Wednesday. The burka has long been controversial in France, where many people – on both sides – take a hard-line approach to the head gear: The Muslim minority insists on their right to wear burkas, the majority contends religious paraphernalia has no place in public spaces, including classrooms. Here’s coverage: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124566644926636675.