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nkabcenell.bsky.social
Back & forth between Budapest & NYC (but always a New Yorker). Private & distressed debt for work, foreign affairs & CEE (Hungarian) politics & economics for interest & classical music, Arsenal, U Mich & bball fan for downtime
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I have been a fan of Elissa Slotkin since she entered the House, so maybe I'm not fully objective. In what has often been a very difficult assignment (hi-Marco Rubio), I feel she gave an excellent speech. More of her and a lot less of Schumer, Warren & the gerontocracy-please.

submitted 1 day ago • 0 comments

💥Viktor Orbán is pushing to get his chief-of-staff, Antal Rogán, off the US Global Magnitsky list—his FM Péter Szijjártó meets Marco Rubio today. TVP summarizes how Rogán’s golden visa scheme let poorly vetted Chinese, Russians & Iranians into the EU, based on @direkt36.bsky.social investigations.

submitted 2 days ago • 5 comments

I’ve got a piece in today’s @nytimes about Elon Musk as walking/talking violation of the Constitution’s appointments clause: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/o...

submitted 2 days ago • 72 comments

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/01/o... To take this argument seriously, why isn't US best served by funding UKR (to buy US arms) to tie down Russia & expose Russia's weakness without risking Americans? We should press Europe to take more responsibility for its own defense. But we benefit by Ukr's efforts

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

The Trump, Vance Zelensky meeting/debacle is not as significant it appears because there was never going to be a peace deal. The only "deal" was going to be a US dictate to Ukraine. Ukraine was never going to accept that. Today's meeting clarified things, but didn't change the underlying reality.

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

The Hungarian government desperate about polling on the economy ahead of an election promises more tax cuts and increasing pensions, and someday will need to make Trump happy by increasing defense spending. There is going to be a huge reckoning & a lot of Chinese debt to deal with.

submitted 6 days ago • 2 comments

24.hu/fn/gazdasag/... Ernest Hemingway- “How did you go bankrupt. Two ways: gradually, then suddenly.”

submitted 6 days ago • 0 comments

Washington has decided to abandon both Ukraine and its postwar role in the world, writes Martin Wolf. www.ft.com/content/b46e...

submitted 8 days ago • 56 comments

After Orbán's Saturday speech, government called food retail chains in and told them to reduce prices on wide range of products. Not sure if all chains or just successful, foreign owned ones. Not sure how this does not hit domestic food producers.

submitted 9 days ago • 1 comment

NATO charter Article 5 is not worth the bytes it takes to write this. China’s BRI terms are less onerous than what Trump is threatening Greenland and Ukr (50% of raw earths). Shouldn’t Europe look for a grand bargain with China and at same time arming themselves to the teeth?

submitted 14 days ago • 0 comments

Can we also keep in mind that while Zelenskyy like Churchill 1940-45 postponed elections, Trump in peacetime tried to overturn by violence an election he lost - and has since pardoned all the co-conspirators in his attempted coup?

submitted 14 days ago • 87 comments

WTF!!

submitted 15 days ago • 0 comments

“S&P 500, Nasdaq Composite see weakest start to a presidential term since 2009” source- CBS Marketwatch

submitted 20 days ago • 0 comments

This is absolutely insane. Musk’s DOGE crew just straight up *took* $80 million from an NYC bank account!

submitted 21 days ago • 1747 comments

carnegieendowment.org/europe/strat...

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

open.substack.com/pub/executiv... Jack Goldsmith’s very scary explanation of the scope of Trump v. U.S. and the potential for the unitary executive theory to be understood as a license to be a near king.

submitted 22 days ago • 0 comments

I completely agree, and I had the same experiences in Eastern Europe. I was always thankful for the FCPA for providing “protection” from having to explain my way out of bribery requests. Clearly saved us money and our integrity. This is harm to normal US investors.

submitted 23 days ago • 2 comments

💥 My colleagues' 56-minute documentary on Viktor Orbán's family enrichment is a huge success—2.2M views in a country of 9.7M. While Orbán’s propagandists smear us, we’re receiving unprecedented support and gratitude from our audience. 🎬Watch Direkt36's movie here: www.youtube.com/watc...

submitted 23 days ago • 2 comments

Top three stories on Hungarian site 24.hu today: 1 Hungary most corrupt in EU 2 Inflation accelerate in January 3 Marton Nagy says inflation unacceptable prepares new price controls An utterly predictable start to year that Orban told us will be miraculous

submitted 23 days ago • 0 comments

Hunter’s pardon,the legally wrong & useless last minute announcement of the going into force of the ERA & last minute efforts to subvert the TikTok law passed by Congress and signed by the President, Biden is doing his best to ensure Trump’s future lawlessness will be not be an outlier.Really bad

submitted 47 days ago • 0 comments

David Baer is such a shrewd observer of Hungary, and this is another invaluable piece for English speaking audiences. The Bulwark www.thebulwark.com?utm_source=n...

submitted 49 days ago • 0 comments

A devastating critique of the past four years. Biden “saved” the country from Trump only to fumble the opportunity all over the place due to his manifest weaknesses. Here it concerns domestic policy, but much the same can be said about his foreign policies as well. www.vox.com/politics/394...

submitted 50 days ago • 0 comments

Abject Arsenal performance through 85 minutes tonight. Team looks bereft of ideas and energy

submitted 57 days ago • 0 comments

This article is such a good retelling of the depths of Hungarian kleptocracy and the massive costs to the country fated to have much of its future economic success stolen from it. g7.hu/kozelet/2025...

submitted 61 days ago • 0 comments