'Germany’s reaction to America’s credit-rating downgrade was predictable: a pre-emptive schadenfreude that has become the gold standard when reacting to US affairs'

‘In Germany, whether it’s a matter of beansprouts or nuclear power plants, moral superiority can quickly turn into self-centred hysteria’

‘I only discovered both how much I was missing New York and what was irritating me about Berlin when I visited Manhattan in the week after bin Laden’s killing’

'China’s place in the world is that of a plagiariser — the intellectual equivalent of the faked designer bags you find in Beijing'