For the lack a better explanation...

... my MBA adventure is now complete.

Final day, for real

Final presentation of our LNG project is about to happen within hours. Ergo, hours away from being MBA 09. Soon, several years of planning and preparing will come to an end, and it feels good.

Final day

Today, the fifth of july, 2009, I am taking the bus to my final day of ordinary MBA studies. It feels weird, but so good. The weather has also shifted heavily here in Oslo, from fantastic +32 centigrades to +15 and rain. Well, I have also decided that I in the end of next week will upload a couple of videos where I will describe my adventure in more detail and so on. A couple of minutes of video. I have also decided that those postings are going to be my last on my MBA blog. The reason for this is because I feel that when I get out of this bubble and start working, I dont think I have the energy nor the time to keep up with postings that are interesting and relevant, and since this blog has been about school and actually taking a MBA, Im closing it. This has been an incredible journey that I believe that a lot of more people should try. Over and out, on to the LNG propulsion.

3 more days

I now have 3 more days of studies, then this MBA-adventure is over. It feels f a n t a s t i c.

... the night

We are now concluding the night at Egils.. i didnt have any nice stuff to put on the grill, some really lame hot dogs and some potato sallad.. we also managed to conclude some interesting issues on the financial analysis today... which was nice. I cannot believe that Im going to move back to Stockholm in a couple of days. It also feels good that Bernie Madoff got 150 years in prison.

PBS Frontline has a great piece on Bernie here, and here is a story from AP.

BBQ at Bernies (Egil's place)

Today, we are going to have a BBQ at Egil's place. I have bought some sausages and we are currently sitting in Egils garden working on our LNG project.

Back in Oslo

I am now back in Oslo after a nice weekend in Stockholm; well deserved I think. What else? Finishing off my DCF model today.. Filipe has made some modeling to a route made by a ship and I will plug that information into our financial forecast. Will be very interesting - next monday; we're done

Back in Stockholm

The sun is shining and I am feeling a lot of emotions about the future.. the uncertainty is overwhelming, not only for me but for all my classmates. I think that some of them are sitting in school and doing their last piece of work. Mazel tov to Trond, Christian, Thomas B and Karthik wo presented for their company during last friday.

A pocket full of mixed emotions

Since I have one more week of studies left. Congratulations to Erlend, Kalle, Anders, Waldemar and Thomas L.O who turned in their final MBA-report today. The word "envy" cannot even start to describe how I feel.

Anyway.. I also have to say that I am feeling some separation anxiety of leaving the class.. It feels very weird to soon not be defined as a MBA-student anymore. I never thought that these feelings would be so strong though.

Working at Tavli's

Tavli's is a small bar/café located very close to the school. Since the school was closed today, Im sitting here and working together with Filipe.. going through some reports and trying to incorporating the data into my DCF model. Hopefully, i will only need three pieces of information to get done - going to look into that tomorrow.

Hope all the readers are having a great weekend.

News from the mark

Hello readers.. I guess there are some out there. I realize that I have not posted any messages on my blog for a very long time, so I think I have to do so. We are now definitely in the end of the program - feels like something that I have been thinking about for a long time, but now we are definitely there. Me - together with the group - are working on our final project/thesis which is slowly coming along. I also got this article about Ivy-league MBA's from David - who sent it to me. Quite interesting to read how the economic crisis has hit the US schools.

Well, what am I going to do today then? Well.. finish off my model, and then im going to work on something else I guess.. I have to send a couple of emails as well.

Back from Stockholm

I am now back in Oslo after spending the last couple of days in Stockholm doing interviews for a school project. It was very interesting. Now Im sitting in my small room in Slemdal and writing on negotiation project. We are going to hand it in tomorrow afternoon - I think.

Listening to some Chaka Khan gets me in the mood (listen here). I also managed to see the final at Roland Garros today - between Federer and Söderling. It was absolutely amazing for two reasons. (1) I never actually thought that Söderling had a chance, Federer is perhaps the best tennis player in the history of the sport, (2) the way the match went on, and how good Federer were - brilliant, stunning - a true champion. Well, now on to the hand-in.

Update from Christmas past

Well, he he.. im no Charles Dickens but i like to write meaningless shit on a blog.. I guess that qualifies me to become some kind of media focal point.. well, no. I came home after some beers with Christian, Ranajay and Rafa today. I had a very very productive day working with a finance assignment. Tomorrow, Ill be finishing it off, preparing for the trip and the interviews with our customers the following week.. but first, I have to see the game in the french open between Söderling and Davydenko.. what a match it will be. Saw that Federer was down with 0-2 sets against Haas, and then managed to fight his way back with 6-0, 6-2 in the two final sets. Huuuuh, he is scary.. But, tomorrow.. i hope for Söderling.
> Roland Garros

I cannot believe it

Robin Söderling managed to outplay Rafael Nadal (the worlds #1 tennis player) and is now on to the next stage in the French Open, I cannot believe it!
> The Times
> Svenska Dagbladet

Going to dinner at Anders place

I have been invited to Anders today - a friend from my years in Copenhagen. Its going to be a very nice to see him after bot being able to see him over the last couple of months. So, drink some beers and take it easy. I havent really been able to do some school work today, unfortunately. What I have done is that I have talked to my sister in Paris.

Going to Stockholm next week for market research purposes for our gas-project. Interesting to see how that will work out. Now i have to run to the metro.

The weather..

The weather is getting better and better in Oslo, and the program is slowly coming to an absolute end. It feels weird but good at the same time.. I handed in my last individual hand-in 30 minutes ago, which feels great. Hope that the grade i receive will be 'ok'. Over and out from Oslo.

Sunday evening.

I am currently in Stockholm taking it easy (well). I am writing on my final thesis on Management Control System and it is definitely a task not to underestimate. I have chosen to write about something called "RAMP UK", which basically is to assess the riskiness of a music festival. It feels as if the case has a lot of nice small "tricks" in it. The models that I am using are the following:

• Strategy map (example)
  
• Top 7 risk matrix
• Risk response matrix

And then I have write approx 5 pages of text regarding the risks.. I have read it.. but quite not finished with choosing the risks. Hopefully, Ill have a draft tomorrow.

A funny Dilbert

I got an email from a colleague of mine - Dilbert short.. i think its quite funny and i think you have to click on the picture to actually read it..

Wine tasting turns into MBA accident

We had a nice wine "tasting" event with the class.. after a glass of wine everyone turned (well, including your truly) into drunks.. so nice to let of some steam [Bennet]

The end is close

I went to bed at around 4 o clock, AM today.. finishing up an assignment in multinational finance. This is actually the final hand-in for this week, which really marks an end of an insane period in school.. we have had three weeks of constant hand-in's which has made life here very rough and hard. It is therefore nice to get a weekend where I dont have to be up until 2-3 in the morning hammering on cases. Im so so tired, and I need to do some nice laundry.

Additional postings to my blog

The reason why I havent really posted anything the last couple of days is because of the pressure in school.. it has simply been too much to handle while blogging. Soon, after this week is done, ill have more time.

In the mean time: Alex Tabarrok and how the current crisis resemble the crisis back in 1929

Seeing the actual end of an era

Well, I think I am a bit overdramatic, but we are definitely seeing the end of the fourth module in our MBA program. It feels good, and weird.. Soon, we are done, and I have yet another degree that hopefully will help me in my day-to-day activities in my work-place. We had a great discussion with Mark Kriger today - about Porsche, and the introduction of the 928 and the 944. It was a fairly old case, and it was used as a base of discussion rather than analysis. We also received feedback from our solution of Google, which was very very nice, especially the Exhibit. Well, Im thinking about going to a friends house, grab a couple of beers perhaps and then head home and watch some tv, my mother is coming tomorrow - which means that I have to be in good shape.

Old video with Malcolm Gladwell

I found this great video with Malcolm where he discuss the notion of spaghetti sauce tastes - its very interlinked with Blink.

Visit from Google

We had a visitor in todays class, the Norwegian CEO of Google came to class and we had a discussion about how Google managed their international business. It was very very interesting and I asked a question about how they perceive a lot of the critisism that they have taken - foremost in the Swedish press - about their alleged cannibalization on news sources. I got an answer that said that the reason why they often are accused of that is because they often choose to link their news back to the original source. The example that Jan (the CEO of Google Norway) came up with, was that if VG (a Norwegian tabloid) write about some obscure occurrance in Northern Norway, then Google News often generates a lead to the original story, often depicted in a local newspaper. Hence, many of the smaller news providers around in Norway has increased the traffic to their web pages to their websites. I cannot judge if this is "fair" or "not fair", but I use Google News all the time, and I think its a great tool.

Breakthrough with Google

We have finally been able to get a break through with Google and it feels fantastic. Im heading out to get some food with Laura, Filipe and Rafa, and then Im heading home to Slemdal to finish off the Exhibit. Hopefully, Ill be able to finish off the hand-in in "Negotiations". Saw a documentary about Ebbe Carlsson on SVT yesterday - it was good.

The final count down

Its now friday night and tomorrrow - hopefully - we can start finish off the case on Google and start our collaboration on the new case in Management control systems. When I say "we" I mean the group.. well, it feels weird to soon end the program... now its off to bed.

Looking at Google with fresh eyes.

So, tomorrow is labour day here in Scandinavia, its approximately 00.50 in the night (and its officially labour day). I have now finished preparing for a case discussion tomorrow about Google, which is a very hard case to "crack" so tomorrow ill meet up with my group mates and discuss. Me and Laura also received some very good feedback on our hand-in with Apple.. which felt really nice. Soon off to bed.

Connect through e-mail

Its quite funny, sometimes i receive e-mail regarding this site, often from Asia and the Baltics about the MBA program here in Norway and about Copenhagen Business School.. Well, this is the first time i receive "commercial" email; this time it was about the top 50 applications for MBA students from Apple Inc and their iPhone. I dont own an iPhone and wont do so in the near future either - but, anyways, here is the link... Its now less than 2 months until the program is over. It feels funny and weird, and very nice.

Our solution

Well, Laura and I decided to post our "solution" to the Apple case (Apple Inc., 2008, 9-708-408, HBS) we had with Dr Mark Kriger.. The "solution" encompass models from Schein, Kriger (a developed co-alignment model), Malcolm Gladwell, and VRIO framework by Barney. We get the grades tomorrow, if its good then ill post it.. if not, well.. then please write a nice comment and you would make me and Laura very happy.

One thing that I find amazing is that so many people from the US are visiting my blog. I wonder why.. but its great.

As Kalle said earlier last week: "Turning Apple into a family business would mean a heck of a lot more Jobs"

Out of diaspora

I came back from Stockholm to Oslo, and that felt weird yesterday.. Only three and a half more weeks of actual classes - well, I have to verify that with someone in school, but I think that is the case. Its a lot of mixed emotions, of course.. but most of all, im so tired.. I can most definitely say that I nerver - never - expected the amount of work to gradually increase in this way that it has. Egil was up until five writing on the hand-in while we could sleep, respect to that.

Friday, thank you very much

Ok, so this insane week is coming to an end, and will be followed by yet another insane week of studies. Im currently working on a hand-in in corporate finance about dividend policy, and it will hopefully be done in a couple of hours. I havent had time to look through the news in several days (besides that i noticed that Apple did better than everyone thought). So, what happened today:

• Came to school, we had a corporate meeting
• The corporate meeting got cancelled
• I slept on a couple of office chairs, put together in a row in the class room (this was the second time i did this, this week - i slept for almost 45 minutes)
• After that; corporate finance

Now, all i want is to get this done, and send it off to Geir.

What a day for a daydream

Got out of bed at 7.20 today.. managed to check my email and had approximately 3 hours of sleep.. well, its most definitely not sufficient, which means that I am completely wasted at the moment. Im currently in class, going through a hedging strategy. I cannot say that I am actually contributing, sitting like a vegetable in the MBA-trenches..

Well, we are having a hand-in in Corporate Finance (about div. policy) and a hand-in in leadership on monday. Ill see if i can post the things that I and Laura did on the Apple case.

3:58 AM

... and its a new record for me.. it was a long long time ago since I studied like this.. now, im tired.. oh so tired. Cant wait to go to Stockholm this weekend.

I have found life

Well, the workload continues to increase at a weird, slow, ever increasing rate. It is truly weird how much you can actually take in and produce in 24 hours. I have finished listening to the Tipping Point by earlier mentioned Malcolm Gladwell, which was good but nowhere near Outliers or Blink (even though Outliers was more interesting). Tipping Point takes up concepts like word of mouth theory and social epidemics.. I incorporated that information in tomorrows presentation on Apple Inc., so well see how that goes. Im now going to listen to Snowball, the story about Warren Buffet. It will be interesting to see how easy it is to get through, its on over 30 CDs!

The tech sector

I am currently doing some number crunching of Apples numbers, going back as late as 1981. We are having a fairly new case on the retail tech giant which is very very interesting. I have been a very loud Mac supporter for several years (the only reason why I didnt get new Mac was because of compatability problems and price differentiation strategy that I of course didnt like).

WSJ also reports that Google managed to increase their sales.. which is impressive. Apparently, the growth of sales is stagnating.. well, there is something that wouldnt come as a surprise since we currently are in a horrible recession. Now, its off to bed.

At eleven!

Ok, so time is now running by like usual, and it feels quite "ok". I received a link from Laura with some interesting videos with Niall Ferguson. He has especially one speech about the current financial crisis which is interesting, but the take on the US election was quite dull (i only managed until 6.57 or something like that). You find the link here.

Extra, extra, read all about it!

I just read on Swedish Statistical Page SCB that the Swedish consumer prices only were 1,9% on a full year basis. This is very interesting since stabilizing the rate of inflation will cause the Swedish currency to be fairly non-volatile as well as well as keeping interest rates (and the cost of capital) low. On the other hand, it could be seen as a double edged sword since low inflation could turn into deflation and Sweden would turn into Japan. I dont think that this actually could happen, but.. you never know. It would be nice if the Swedish society could ride out the storm and increase savings and see a gradual adjustment of the balance sheets and keep the cost of interest down. Read the report from SCB here, from what I have read on Swedish newspapers the information is more or less only paraphrased from this material. It is also fair to say that SCB does not spend their money in the Excel graph department...

Reflection on times passed

Since my blog has been "down" for a couple of days - due to easter and passover, I feel I have to comment on the recent events in the world economy that might affect all of us. Before easter, we saw a G20 meeting in London where rioters attacked a couple of bank offices and one person died. I guess this was very sad mostly because lives where lost and the fact that grown up people shouldnt smash windows that does not belong to them. Anyway, another issue, far more important than these two issues was the fact that no real steps were taken to tackle the the ongoing financial crisis (read more here from Brookings institute). Of course, we heard a lot of talk but no official plans were laid out that stipulated collaborative action against the ongoing lack of liquidity, demand and financial turmoil (even though some 750 bn USD where going to be allocated to the IMF - read the official statement here). I recently read it through, and it has some nice plans and words, not much else.

Some might say "well, they met, a new Nato chief was elected and all was good.. so we are good, right?". Well, no.. not really in my opinion. What we might see is that a few states (such as the US) are taking huge measures to counter the growing resession (I no longer think we are seeing a DEpression). These countries lower their interest rates and increase their quantitative easing (i.e. print more money) and buy bonds. If only a handful of states does this and if not everyone is on the wagon, we might see drainage from these progressive countries, and the effects of increased liquidity is diminished and we remain in a state similar to status quo. It is therefore absolutely vital that the G20 now collaborate and strike together and fast towards the evil of less liquidity. This reasoning is in line with some kind of Keynes theory, who had a thesis that more or less said (this is a great article):
"When times are good, save. When times are bad, spend"
...and this usually works fine - if you are a tightly knit and entirely closed economy with little or no leakages. The last time I took a look at the world economy and the worlds financial markets, it was like an imprenetable global web of nodes, interactions and trades. Could therefore one single actor, like the US government carry the burdon of all our greed and lust for cash? No, we all have to pitch in.

The reasoning is therefore that we all have to spend now, and spend like crazy to scare of the demons called recession, deflation and job scarcity. Hopefully we will see increased efficiency, products that the public actually want to buy and better and more efficient financial markets, where we are not reliant on a few to provide us with so much (I think of big banks). We simply have to lower the systemic risk, i.e. the statement "too big to fail" and face the fact that nothing in the future can be too big to fail and trying to get to that position should be punished, both by regulatory measures and by the stock market. How, in practice, this should happen - i do not know.

Even though its easy to think "lack of liquid markets does not affect me", it does. It is the common man that pays - not high flying CEOs of multinational corporations.

Easter break is now over...

... and I am heading back to the salt mine (even though passover continues)... oops, sorry, I meant to write school. Over the last week and a half, I have been in Stockholm and relaxed.. It has been an absolute treat even though I found it hard to wind down after the massive work load that we had over the last three weeks of school. We also received some grades in Organizational Design, where we wrote a theoretical paper about IBM, which was very well received. Hmmm, what am I going to do today? Well, might go to IKEA and get a new duvet and a pillow. And then Im off to Oslo again.. for the last "leg" of the MBA program. I have to say that it feels quite weird to soon be ready for the job market again, and see this journey come to an end.. after working towards a goal for several years.. and then.. see it through, it feels weird. Well, thats it.

Some reading that I have gone through over the last 10 days:

• Krugman (Article 1, Article 2)
• The Economist (Article 1, Aticle 2)
• Harvard Business Review (Article 1, Article 2)
• HBR Classic! (Must read)

Finally.

Finally, it is now officially easter/passover depending on your choice of religion. I am also free from school which feels absolutely fantastic. I am going to leave for Stockholm and I am definitely not going to do anythingi that isnt necessary.. I feel that I need a hot shower, a couple of beers and some nice chicken salad, prepared with some light sauce.

I have also been online and tried to read up on Gladwell and the New Yorker, seems like a very read-worthy piece of material.. Along with the Economist and HBR i guess. I have found a great article written by David Remnick, the editor of chief of the New Yorker... It is called "Kid Dynamite Blows Up", a very interesting piece on Mike Tyson and the world which he saw when he got out of jail back in 1997. Very interesting!

Enjoy the video!

Half-way through the week

I have now managed to get some really heavy assignment done.. Its around two o clock in the night.. And Im off to bed. I have listened to an audiobook called Blink by Malcolm Gladwell.. Im listening to Outliers as I go to school every morning. I like his voice, and its interesting to listen to very specific topics that he has chosen. I am not familiar with the New Yorker Magazine, other than I remember a guy at Brandeis who constantly read it.. Well, Gladwell is good. And Im off to bed.. soon holidays.

Not again..

Well, its now 2.59 and Im off to bed.. Im tired, but im looking forward to the holidays - they are soon coming up.. im tired.

Let's go to Holland

Well, it is now 2.35 on sunday evening and Im now shutting down my shop for the day. I have spent the last .. what is it.. 6 hours with writing an econ paper on Chile's economy. My findings so far:

• Debt/GDP=4%!!! (insanely low, the same ratio for the US is 70%)
• Chile currently produces more than 1/3 of the world total output of copper
• Chile currently has a Sovereign Wealth Fund, disconnected to the political governance, with a total net worth of 12% of national GDP

My conclusion: Could we see some dutch disease? Im not sure, but it's always a risk with countries rich of natural resources. Now, Im off to bed. It also looks like Rick Wagoner is being forced away from GM, not one minute too soon.

Hectic days..

Unfortunately, I have not really had time to sit down and ponder on my blog for the last couple of days. It has simply been to much in school, where the average sleep per day reaches somewhere around 4-5 hours. I guess this has something to do with the fact that I did take some actual time off when I was in Sweden two weeks ago, but.. well, you have to be free from school/work sometimes. What else, in Sweden, a large debate about remuneration levels might cause on the main political figures in Sweden to leave her position and in the "real" world Obama released his budget.

I think that there is some kind of hidden agenda here from "Big Ben" (a nick name i dont really like) and that is to position the US where they will see increased inflation. This is of course a scenario that the main lenders do NOT want, what would happen if China suddenly realized that their (huge) US assets suddenly started shrinking by 10-15% per cen per annum due to inflation? Then you might say that the investments that they made, the boosting of the US currency to keep up Chinese exports, was a bad bad bet. To me, it seems as though the Chinese are going to pay for their "mistake" or tampering with the market... It seems as though this is something that everyone knows, but do not want to talk about. Inlfation in USD is - to me - the remedy here, whether we like it or not. The Euro-zone? Well, deflation here we come!

Paul Krugman has written a piece about the US banks which is an interesting read. He also talks about the Swedish rescue plan in the beginning of the 1990's which I experiences first hand - even though I was a child. I like that Krugman supposes that the level of analytical brain power is somewhat limited in the US banks. On one hand, can someone who is the root of the problem, fix it? I think it has more to about culture than actual possibility to see the problem.. and from my limited experience, I find that a much harder issue to deal with than competence. (Related article: Obama on economic recovery)

Soon 30 individual hits from the US

Since I installed the "Flag-meter" on my page, it seems as if I have received nearly 30 individual hits from the US. I think this is absolutely amazing. I have not really had a clue about the amount of hits that I have received, but I could never imagine that it was this many! (and I am of course very very happy that people find my blog)

Well, since this seems to be case, I wonder what the US readers think of my "analysis" of the US election. See the posting here (Blog Retrospective: The American Election). It would be excellent to hear what some natives think about the perception that you can get through electronic channels.

Tonight Im at home working on a hand-in with Filipe and the other group members on Skype. Im pretty sure it will be a long long night.

Our demand for financial news.

One thing that I find very interesting with the ongoing financial crisis is the seemingly constant, and increaseing, demand for news concerning the financial "melt down". Every day we are bombarded with the "newest updates" on what has happened, and certainly so here in the Scandi-area. What I get frustrated about is the lack of actual analysis that comes from different Scandi newspapers, such as Swedish DN and SvD.

Let me give you a very concrete example of irrational exuberance that strikes news desks at this hour: Nothing is happening, market forces develop over time - the only thing we can do is wait and hope that large governmental offices do what they must to salvage the financial system (so we can pay our bills and transfer money in a safe and sound way). Suddenly, the financial crisis seems uninteresting and highly complicated. It is just too much "noise" in the engine to actully understand - hence; we write about bonuses and the system about variable pay. Our demand for news - in any direction - causes the suppliers (journalists and traditional media) to write about fund managers and managers who have received substantial bonuses, and that this is horrible, wrong and nearly punishable by death. Well, lets tie someone to the cross and call an angry mob. I am not so sure that we are doing a good thing by denying good people a variable pay. If payment systems are developed in a good way, that are tied to a sound strategy and you manage to control your employees in a good manner (through a balanced scorecard of some sort), then where is the corporate risk of excessive risk taking? and value damaging behavior?

The root of this problem has to be somewhere else. If Lehman Brother's was a fantastic and sound franchise, then why did it tank? Didn't they have a quant department themselves that could look at the probable risk? or was there a culture of greed and lust for excessive risk - that no one wanted to talk about - that was the cause of failure? If this was a bet, I would place mine on the latter. And this, analyzing data, going back and forth and talking to people, and analyzing variable pay agreement is hard, difficult to get ahold of and tiresome. And in my opinion, it does not make good news.

Hank Greenberg was the CEO of AIG for almost 40 years and built AIG into one of the most impressive insurance franchises in the world. Now, after some clumsy management - the corporation is dead (See the clip on the top of this post). Interesting to see that the financial stimulus plan for the EU is going absolutely nowhere and it is quite a sight to look at Lehman's homepage.. talk about meltdown with big "M". (My classmate Anja sent me this article about AIG - interesting read).

Here are some other very interesting movie-clips with Hank Greenberg (Clip 1, Clip 2)

Saturday night - 02:21

I am now off to bed after sitting with a nice hand-in in corporate finance about leasing. I have never - ever - worked with leasing at my old jobs.. I remember in school that it was one of my least favourite things to do calculations about.. Anyway, it has been a not so memorable evening. I am still very surprised by the amount of people coming to my blog from outside Scandinavia, six hits from the US in two days. Really cool.

Lost in the financial supermarket

It seems as if we have seen an interesting turn of events this week, Bernanke has green-lighted that the FED will buy bonds for USD 300 million, thereby increasing the amount of money in the US economy. Im sure that this will mean inflation, and with inflation .. lower debt in terms of purhcasing power (since salaries will increase).. and slowly erode the Debt/Equity ratio that many corporations and households see.

In Europe, we cannot see this quick response since we have to coordinate everything.. hope we can see some response, since some reports say that the Euro-zone is showing signs of Deflation, a horrible scenario that possibly could toss the EU into a zombie-like Japanesque state - Who would want that?

So, what does this stimulus package mean.. even though I actually am a trained economist, in some sense, i believe that the stimulus is good in the short term. Why you may ask? Well, the current economic system in both the EU and the US is in absolute shambles, it was on a brink of collapse. By this is I mean that we were inches away from seeing our ordinary debit cards malfunctioning, unable to pay bills through information systems and of course not being able to fund anything without 100% cash. This scenario is now, slowly being averted by taking out new loans (debt) and printing more money (a.k.a. Quantitaive measures). Of course, we are having huge debt/equity ratios, that is we are curing the pain with more future pain, but at the same time bringing out the old inflation monster from the closet and letting it eat up pensions, salaries and debt. The debt will also be a future problem or pain to cure, once markets start functioning again.. (hopefully soon). What do I mean when I say functioning? A slow recovery toward real positive GDP growth in what used to known as the "developed" world.

I therefore highlight some of the issues that I find most interesting when comparing the EU and the US:
US: Excellent education system - the best in the world, homogenous market - same language, willingness to move
EU: Larger than the US market, culturally diverse - could pose as both a threat and a possible gold mine for coming up with new ideas, becoming more integrated.

I am becoming more and more positive towards the possible signs of a slow and painful recovery, but... well, I would want to see some more hard evidence. The auto manufacturers problems are not over (Even though German VW managed to get a profit for 2008).

In school, we have started a new course that is called "Management Control System" with a professor named Norman Sheehan. So far, it looks absolutely excellent... In the class, we had some lecturing together with a couple of shorter cases that we "solved" in class. Very rewarding style of teaching.

More great material from Frontline

A new program from Frontline is coming up which seems to be great. It is called "Ten trillion and counting" and will revolve around what the US economy needs to do in order to change the amount of debt that they have. It premiers 2009.03.24 and I will definetly watch.

For those who are interested, I found this great explanation of what a CDO is on the Portfolio website. I have long thought about doing a graphical-layman-explanation of what a C.D.O is, but I have not just had the time.. Anyway.. here it is, and its much prettier than anything that I would have been able to do in Powerpoint. (Portfolio Website, C.D.O explanation)

Bernanke @ CBS 60 minutes

Here are three links to the interview with Ben Bernanke, that aired on CBS 2009.03.15.

Part 1/3, Part 2/3, Part 3/3