In Europe…
March 24th, 2010I am currently out of the country, spending time visiting Tilburg University in the Netherlands. I am working with co-authors on faculty at the School of Economics and Business Administration, and giving a research seminar. My schedule keeps me in Holland for a total of 10 days, moving on to Paris from here. I will be making a brief visit to HEC Paris for a seminar and some meetings, followed by a few days of vacation with my family.
A couple of thoughts/observations about the Netherlands in the few days that I’ve been here:
- civilized
- modern
- architecture
- bicycles
- bicycles
- bicycles
- rain
OK, I’ll leave you with that.
In the meantime, until I post more regularly, I’ll share a few things that I’ve been reading of late:
- How will and RMB Revaluation affect China, the U.S., and the World? – Michael Pettis nails this one, going further than many of the analyses that I’ve read about revaluation of the Yuan. His post echoes many of the sentiments that I expressed in previous posts about a sudden revaluation of the Yuan (see China and the Yuan Again and China and the Revaluation of the Yuan). He, like I, advocates for a measured revaluation of the Yuan, but he cautions against inciting a trade war with China. It’s quite a long read, but well worth it.
- Is China the Next Building Bubble? – An interesting compilation of arguments on both sides of the China Bubble debate. Although I was not so much interested in the investment advice (although some might be), I thought the review of existing arguments was very well done. The article is similar to a recent post that appeared on this blog (see Is China a Bubble Economy?), but goes further by providing more detailed data.
- America’s Real Dream Team – Exactly why I see that China (and by extension, developing countries) is still years away from closing the technological capability gap with the United States (see my comments in China Attracting High-Tech Research). I should, however, also point out one thing that struck me about Friedman’s Op-Ed. For those of you who have read Thomas Friedman’s book, The World is Flat: If Friedman is correct in the Op Ed that immigrants help drive America’s relative innovativeness vis-a-vis the rest of the world, then he may be refuting the same convergence effects for which he advocates in his book.
- Enormous Adviser Fees Spark Warning – An article from the Financial Times about how interested parties to M&A deals (namely, investment banks) and their fee structures can create perverse outcomes. The article suggests that “[bankers] fees [are] a “deadweight cost” on shareholders that could swallow a significant part of savings derived from mergers and acquisitions.” Well worth the read. I’ve written a bit about this myself (see A Great Shareholder Ripoff and Why M&A Deals Go Bad).
More on this topic
(What's this?)
Don’t Fall for This China Head Fake
(Wall Street Daily, 1/25/12)
Prepare for Europe – "It's Going to Be Ugly"
(Money Morning, 1/16/12)
Is this video death threat worthy?
(The Political and Financial Mark..., 1/28/12)
