A great deal of Thai commerce remains a cosy oligopoly run by a handful of huge family-owned businesses, of which Shin Corp is one.
Successes include debut singles for Bombay Bicycle Club and Fear Of Flying – the group that became White Lies – though their cosiest relationship remains with Noah & The Whale.
The government forecasts that GDP will shrink by 3.5% this year; Capital Economics, a think-tank, predicts a fall of 7.5%.Hungary remains hobbled by corruption (a cosy cartel, especially in local government, slices up European Union funds), a heavy burden of debt and a black economy that may account for one-fifth of GDP.
In 2006 alone, the mayor's office counted 34,718 official shooting days for projects in the five boroughs; they say the "entertainment industry" as a whole comprises $5 billion of the city's annual economy.Still, there remains among film-makers a sense that New York is cosier and more nurturing than Hollywood: it tends to keep things (relatively) small and experimental.
Now only the pool remains and a newer structure keeps the temperature at a cosy 18C.
A rare example of the heights-scaling novelist who remains an exacting critic, Byatt has flashes of impatience with the cosy clichés of book-chat.
The current attack on cartels comes at a time when the temptation to strike cosy deals with competitors is stronger than ever, as pricing power remains weak and excess capacity abounds in the wake of the global economic slowdown.The costs of collusion should make any boss think twice, though.
Yet in Britain, our polarised attitude to handmade remains shaped by Savile Row suits at one end and crocheted tea cosies at village bring-and-buy sales at the other.
This is the kind of uncompromising analysis we have come to expect from Souness, who remains the gold standard on the experts' bench, a million miles away from the cosy camaraderie of his terrestrial equivalents.
But Russia will doubtless pursue the big idea through whatever small steps it can manage, at least for as long as the 67-year-old Mr Primakov remains in charge of its diplomacy.So should the West tremble at the cosying up of the two former Marxist giants?
