Sonntag, 27. April 2008

Financial Integration in Asia - And Why It's NOT Really Happening

Hey

Since the Asian Crisis 1997/98 there's been much talk on economic and financial integration in East Asia. However, EA seems to integrate more with the world than with itself (so, who is the true globalizer?).
More on the topic at:
http://www.aric.adb.org/pdf/workingpaper/WP13_Cross-border_Financial_Asset_Holdings.pdf

or will that change when China takes over the world leader role (creating a new "hub-and-spokes" system in EA?)? ...

we're curious...

ADI (more stress with papers)

Donnerstag, 24. April 2008

Uff . . . stress with paper writing

.. being behind with writing is awful, but the topics aref fascinating; cf. read news about Asia's burgeoning bond markets (even though they are still pretty small and illiquid):
http://asianbondsonline.adb.org/administrative/abm_overview.php

Dienstag, 8. April 2008

Wanna hear music from Switzerland?

Hey, maybe I am kind of chauvinist, but when I've heard this for the first time, it was quite relaxing.
http://www.elianaburki.ch/?get=musik

The Artist combines funk chill-out music with an alphorn. The alphorn, as everybody knows (:-)) is uniquely Swiss (I guess at least), i.e. a 3.5m long instrument. All you need to have is a strong belly/strong lungs and just simply blow in, possibly as strong as you can. You can even produce different tones. It's quite fun - and cool music.

Preparing for the big blockbuster

Mittwoch, 2. April 2008

Protests wherever you look

Hum, strange ... you wanna celebrate the Olympics, but - boom - there is blood, violence and turmoil in you country. Sad, but maybe not so surprising, if you take the cries for autonomy and the claim to be supressed for granted.

However, it gets silly, if you blame others and refuse to talk to them by putting words into their mouths they never have used. How can effective and goal-oriented communication work like this? Or is the goal simply not to talk (to a in the West quite famous and bold monk?).
Even more strange it gets if you blame "the West" (what is that exactly? maybe something to eat...hmm:-) to be partial and systematically misrepresent information (which of course you (can/are allowed to) do, because it's your right and your "domestic affairs", thank the UN-charter's territorial integrity of states).
Of course information and media are not always impartial, how could they? The human being is fallible, has hidden agendas, pays attention more to sensational than dry news etc.
But the good thing about pluralism is pluralism of information, debate and challenging positions. This does not mean that the truth is revealed just around the corner. It can (sadly) mean that one copies from the other, herding behavior etc. However, it tends empirically to evolve critical thinking (every once in a while), a mentality of mud-racking/investigative journalism, a mentality of healthy scepticism and has at least brought us (or scientists) the method of falsificationism (Karl Popper's legacy:-)
So, while we should reprimand ourselves of being sometimes distorted and (too much) simplifying, we should be grateful of the other to have reprimanded us about some imperfections of our media system. This helps to improve it and develop debate.

However, why one still sticks to near-waterthight censorship and keeps believing to have the legitimacy to blame others on reporting standards, is too much for me. Maybe I am truly just a stupid white man; however, at least I don't measure with two different gauges...

Hey, btw: also the Swiss have their small turmoil/strike: some old folks believe the state-run railway company SBB (or the federal government directly) shall provide them eternally with the same jobs as yesterday. The funny thing is that the proposed restructuring measures wouldn't have led to firings (they could have kept their jobs, just at different factory...).
Crazy that you allows those folks to strike for the 4th consecutive week (this never happened before in Switzerland, maybe except the general strike in 1918 ... 90 years ago).
As SBB Cargo has sky-rocketing deficits anyway, maybe it would be good to go ahead with the reforms at a fast pace. Think about Reagan you fired all (!) striker of the air traffic control in the early 1980s...
(i.e. tabula rasa sometimes helps)

Hopefully we can enjoy a nice summer. Maybe the nomenklatura who self-celebrates itself at the Olympic Games sooner or later may come to the conclusion that pluralism is needed to develop its country further...