I leave Wednesday night for Germany and Russia to take part in two important international classical liberal conferences. (I’ll spend a day and a half with good friends in DÃ?Â?Ã?¼sseldorf and KÃ?Â?Ã?¶ln first.) The program in the Hanseatic City of Hamburg is the European meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society, which will focus on “Europe and Free Trade: From the Hanseatic League to the EU.” Then in Moscow and St. Petersburg I’ll take part in a conference sponsored by the Cato Institute, the Institut eof Economic Analysis, and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs on “A Liberal Agenda for the New Century: A Global Perspective.”
Of course (see below), I’ll also do some shopping, as I have to get additional child-sized Lederhosen for the children of various friends who have recently successfully reproduced. (I should point out that the singular for “leather trousers” is “Lederhose” and the plural — as in, “two pair of pants” — is “Lederhosen.” Further, they are “Layderhose” and not “Leederhose” — or “Liederhose”, as the latter would be “song pants,” which conjures up an entirely different set of images.)
I’ll be back in mid April, until which time my beloved felines Wollstonecraft (“Wolly”) and Antigone (“Tiggy”) will be cared for by my colleague Ben Wyche.