Sunday, June 12, 2011

Co-Existence

This is what it looks like:
Bank of Israel governor Stanley Fischer has a new and unexpected supporter in his bid to head the International Monetary Fund: the Palestinian prime minister. Salam Fayyad says Stanley Fischer would make a "great managing director" for the world financial body and is a "superb human being."
When we were in Israel we met with Fayyad. He was singularly impressive. We visited with him in Ramallah the morning Fatah and Hamas were in Cairo signing their reconciliation agreement and his status was very much up in the air, as it is today. Yet he was very relaxed, cordial and generous with his time. He clearly was proud of his work building the institutions for the Palestinian state in waiting. He was especially proud of the fact the Palestinian Authority is able to collect and report credible economic figures on a regular basis which he said was the mark of a modern economy.

Also he served great baklava.

1 comment:

  1. Have you no shame, Sir? One would think that the first "mark of a modern economy" would be to actually HAVE an economy. Misfits Unite!

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