And another thing

'tis the season of greetings, but how come I get so many poorly executed christmas emails this year?

(font face="Courier New" size=2>> <<...OLE_Obj...>> > > Wir wünschen Ihnen ein [...]

If you have to personalise and pretend to be all chummy at least do it properly.

December 23, 2004 in Misc | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Marginal Revolution rocks

Marhinal Revolution is always very thoughtprovoking:

• Germans definitely need somtheing like this:Colour coded badges indicating if an approach for conversation is ok.
• "On average, a working-age German works about 2 hours and 35 minutes per calendar day."
• On Brazil as Agricultural Superpower:"Over all, the agricultural bonanza, aided in part by mad cow disease in Europe and avian flu in Asia, is likely to give Brazil a record trade surplus of over $30 billion." - Yeah, and they dont allow testing for BSE, no prizes for guessing why...
• Me-Too drugs - there is an analogy with me-too venture investments. See also venture fraticide

December 23, 2004 in Misc | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Industrial Revolution?

Tyler Cowen asks if there really was an industrial revolution. This is a fascinating field, not least because it contines to define much of our "modern" consciousness.

I wouldn't be surprised if some historian of economic growth would turn around later and say about the new economy in the late nineties: bubble? yes. Miraculous growth? no.

December 23, 2004 in Misc | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Industrial Revolution?

Tyler Cowen asks if there really was an industrial revolution. This is a fascinating field, not least because it contines to define much of our "modern" consciousness.

I wouldn't be surprised if some historian of economic growth would turn around later and say about the new economy in the late nineties: bubble? yes. Miraculous growth? no.

December 23, 2004 | Permalink | Comments (0)

Good advice

The best time to look for money is when you don't need it.

Read OnlyOnce for more.

December 23, 2004 in Finance & Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Bruce Sterling in Munich

Damn! I missed him.

December 21, 2004 in Misc | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

German Exiles

Its always funny when you follow up some link about an interesting silicon valley firm and stumble across a German founder. It does happen occasionally, you know ;-)

Via Jeff Nolan

December 21, 2004 in Finance & Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Startup.com

The Film Startup.com was shown yesterday on HR, which accounts for the uptick of inquiries in my inbox (I distribute the film in Germany). If only more people would then also buy the film ;-(

December 20, 2004 in Misc | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

TechFinance Conferences in Munich?

Well, that used to be. The Sachs Forum, for instance, moved from Munich to Frankfurt. (Sponsored, amusingly, by Nasdaq and SWX, but not Deutsche Börse ;-). Note to State of Bavaria & City of Munich: must work harder to retain them here.

Munich, at least, will be supporting the German Tech Tour (PDF of Press Release).

December 20, 2004 in Finance & Technology | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Returns to equity

Before we know it we'll be back to 19th century style estimations where :

A new paper by Soosung Hwang of Cass Business School in London finds that the big equity performance premium is only a 20th century phenomenon. He calculates that, between 1830 and 1900, shares outperformed bonds by just 0.8 percentage points. Indeed, shares moved sideways for 40 years, between 1830 and 1870. This would suggest that bad long-run returns are more likely than widely thought. Investors, therefore, should reduce expectations for long-term returns because the past few decades have been more unusual on the upside, and hence less likely to recur.

Via Scotsman

December 20, 2004 in Misc | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack