The hung parliament will be a huge hangover, warns Eric Walberg

Britain is poised for a long period of political instability as it enters its first coalition government since WWII, when the wartime unity government was led by Winston Churchill with Labour in tow. There was an almost identical situation to the current hung parliament in February 1974, when the Conservatives tried to form a coalition with the Liberal Party, but balked at the demand for electoral reform to allow proportional representation, and Labour was able to cobble together enough votes to survive a few months and win a snap election that year, as it turned out, the last Labour government before the advent of Thatcher.

Down on the Euro Animal Farm, some animals are more equal than others, finds Eric Walberg

Two million people took to the streets of Athens last week in the country's second general strike this month, protesting the austerity measures proposed by their socialist government. All of Greece came to a 24-hour standstill and the airport was closed as a result of the action. The only public transport was the commuter train so that protesters could reach the demonstration.

Timeline 2000-2010: United States

2000: President Bill Clinton signs Commodities Futures Modernization Act (CFMA), deregulating the derivatives markets and credit-default swaps. Enron would go on to become the largest corporate fraud in history. Washington would become unashamedly captive to Wall Street. Presidential election stolen by George W Bush.

Obama desperately needed a new nuclear arms treaty to replace START I to provide some justification for the Nobel Committee's gamble. The award in the face of US imperial wars and hubris is proving to be extremely embarrassing to everyone, left and right. In awarding the Nobel Prize to Obama on 9 October, the selection committee “in particular looked at Obama’s vision and work toward a world without atomic weapons,” giving him an out, if he could at least bring a nuclear arms treaty with him.

Instead, US inspectors packed their bags last week and left Russian nuclear sites unmonitored for the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union almost two decades ago. The expiration of the treaty and stalled talks on a replacement dealt a blow to those in the Obama administration who had hoped to achieve at least this one tangible step before the president goes to Norway.