GSTAAD—The fat cats were all over Davos last week, greedy bankers, self-important bosses of publicly-owned multi-nationals, craven hedge-funders, and shameless publicity seekers such as Bono and others of his ilk mixing freely with Gordon Brown, Al Gore, and Bill Gates. No, Carla Bruni did not ...

GSTAAD—I’ve been watching the Australian tennis open on the telly and boring myself to sleep. The modern game is too one-dimensional, the players too predictable. The pumping of the fist after a winner is now de rigueur, as is the tapping of the ball five, 10, in the case of Nadal, 16 times ...

This isn’t the first time I’ve written a story about CBRE, the multinational worth 28 billion and headed by Brett White, in this space. The behemoth, which did not do its due diligence and managed to lose the life savings of hard working people, most of whom are in their eighties, has finally ...

GSTAAD—The row over Indonesian “hobbits” has split this beautiful alpine village in half. Alas, it began when I wrote something about the Olden, one of Gstaad’s oldest and most beautiful inns and its owner Bernie Ecclestone, of Formula I fame. The Olden was originally owned by the ...

Like Count Dracula, I used to love the night, hence nightclubs and late-night parties were the staple of my life. Back in the good old days when Eisenhower was president, I used to sneak out from my boarding school near Princeton University—50 miles from New York City—and go to El Morocco, the ...

What I've often wondered about is the hurt feelings of those whose inferior names have been chucked for more upmarket ones. If my son suddenly became Prince John-Taki Schoenburg-Hartenstein, I'd be awfully pissed off. In fact I'd cut him off and tell him to collect his allowance from the ...

Sitting high in the Alps watching American news channels can be a gruesome experience. For example, after four hours of wonderful powder-snow skiing, it is a shock to the system to see a red Indian-faced Bill Kristol (he should make up his fat and rather nonexistent neck, too, because the ...

Okay, not really. But this is a column about the joys of nepotism. The Left-wing dictator I hated the least was Juan Peron, the Argentine strongman whose sartorial sense was as impeccable as his will to rule. Peron preened in front of the mirror for hours, and he looked as good in his waisted ...

I went to Palm Beach about one month ago to visit Conrad and Barbara Black with other friends of theirs but was advised not to write about it until after the sentencing. As Andrew Roberts wrote in the Notebook, “It was a masterclass in displaying dignity, good humour and charm under ...

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert recently rejected overtures by Hamas for discussions about a temporary cease-fire. So what else is new? Israel’s ruling coalition wants peace as much as the neocons want it back in Washington. What I find surprising is that the Likudniks no longer care to even make ...