I am back from the most intense week of my life. This conference, and the attendant meetings and future-altering decisions, as all my various partners came together, simply kept me from my inbox. I can’t remember going this long when the urge to peek was always present. And yesterday I just went through and organized and deleted, leaving reading till today, when I am on a plane. And I didn't exactly spend the whole day Saturday looking at emails; I really did chill. Pool, spa, etc. I had no adrenaline left after the conference but feel rather good today…

Which means I am going through my reading list, and there might be a flurry of Over My Shoulder postings. Playing catch-up and all….

This first one is a note from Stratfor. Basic history and geography lesson on Germany. If you don’t understand that Germany is every bit as made up of “states” as the US – and states that have far longer histories – it is hard to understand the problems that Merkel faces. Germany is complex for a multitude of reasons, but this piece will give you a brief history of how they got where they are.