Latest Stories

Rifkin, my hometown & the icing on the cake

27 — Tue, 15 May 2012 09:11 UTC

Today we had an Econopolis Economic Encounter at Lier, my hometown, which celebrated its 800th anniversary. Going into its 4th week of celebration, the future was in the spotlight of attention. And when it comes to visionary moments of truth, my hometown has a poor track record. Well not entirely. In the 15th century, we were faced as a town with the choice of ...

Growth pact - France, Chile & Sweden

27 — Tue, 08 May 2012 17:43 UTC

With the new French winds blowing at the Elysée, the debate on a growth pact gathers momentum: briefly ?piano piano? on austerity and public investment providing the growth kicker EMU ...

"A whale stranded upon the coast of Europe"

27 — Wed, 09 May 2012 14:18 UTC

A poetic quote coming from Irish political philosopher Edmund Burke referring to Spain. Unfortunately, the quote hasn't lost of its value because the whale has stranded in an economic ...

Krugman en de maakbaarheid van de economie

21 — Tue, 08 May 2012 09:06 UTC

De openlijke steun van Paul Krugman voor François Hollande is tekenend voor de Amerikaanse topeconoom. Hij schuwt geen duidelijke keuze, en is niet de typische tweehandige econoom ...

Post 06/05 reality check - If we only had time

27 — Tue, 08 May 2012 10:28 UTC

Have we witnessed a kind of decisive paradigm shift in Europe over the weekend ? It might still be too soon to conclude this but in political terms, some important events indeed took place. In order of importance : 1) Greek chaotic election result and not workable in the short term. Already after a couple of hours, leading party ND ...

Elk huishouden moet eigen energie opwekken

43 — Tue, 08 May 2012 12:26 UTC

Vorige zondag (6 mei 2012) verscheen het volgend interview in De Zondag:

Facebook, Google revisited?

42 — Fri, 04 May 2012 10:51 UTC

De kogel is door de kerk, iedereen van ons kan straks aandeelhouder van Facebook worden. Intekenen op een IPO is echter niet altijd een beleggerssucces gebleken, het kan dus nuttig zijn om e.e.a. eens objectief op een rijtje te zetten.Tegen de gehanteerde maximum prijs van 35 $ per aandeel zou het bedrijf bijna 100 miljard $ waard ...

The Asia Investor

32 — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 19:49 UTC

I have a confession to make. I like to read books. My goal is to try to read one book a month. There are years in which I easily reach that target, but in other years I fail miserably. Most -let's say at least 75%- of those are work related in some way, and the rest consists of travel literature, John Grisham (I read ...

Sell in May?

42 — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 15:42 UTC

Binnen enkele dagen zal men in de media deze titel ongetwijfeld weer ten tonele voeren, al dan niet onderbouwd door allerhande statistieken. Los van het feit dat deze statistieken uit het verleden niet de basis mogen vormen voor de aanpak van heden en morgen, zal hier af en toe wel een stuk self fulfilling prophecy spelen. Of mei ...

Onweerswolken boven grondstoffenland?

42 — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 10:31 UTC

Toen ik de laatste lijnen van mijn vorige blog schreef (de platte aarde) kon ik niet vermoeden dat een vervolg zich zo snel zou opdringen. Met dank aan Christina Fernandez, el Presidente de Argentina. Ze pleegde zo maar eventjes een staatsgreep op YPF, het Argentijnse oliebedrijf dat voor bijna 60% in handen is van het Spaanse ...

De platte aarde

42 — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 16:30 UTC

Door een abrupt beëindigde skivakantie (nauwelijks 50 meter op de latten gestaan) bracht ik de rest van de week haast immobiel en al lezend door. De Aarde is Plat, van Thomas Friedman, een kanjer van ruim 500 pagina?s, heeft me hier en daar met een aantal feiten geconfronteerd die ik misschien onbewust wel wist, maar waar ik niet ...

Destroying the recovery ex-ante ?

27 — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 10:50 UTC

A funny thing happened this week with a remarkable change of tactics inside the FOMC, the rate decision organ of the Federal Reserve. Whilst almost every one was anticipating some form of new (h)opium to please the bulls, the minutes of the March meeting showed exactly the opposite. Some might argue that these minutes from the FED ...

Friday Fun : tze Germans no longer like Helga !!

27 — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 17:30 UTC

Yes dear audience, sexism is of all times but this time we were surprised it came from out of an unexpected corner. The blog sphere picked up this beautiful objective piece of scientific economic research coming from ....tze Buba, AKA tze German central bank. Its March 2012 discussion paper is called "Executive board composition ...

POSTCARD from Hamburg - ADM

32 — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 10:43 UTC

At Econopolis we combine in-depth research and analysis with on-the-ground company visits around the world to find the best opportunities in this ever changing world. Yesterday, we had the unique opportunity to meet with some members of the top management from Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) in Hamburg. We talked at ...

Please don't upgrade us !

27 — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 09:11 UTC

Coincidentally or not, but emerging markets from very different angles have crossed my path over the past 24 hours. I have been to a presentation of a major fund manager today, looked upon various CDS premia world-wide and came across the 2 main leading articles in the latest Bloomberg magazine which both focus on the outlook for ...

Financial Repression - The goose and the MaxiMin principle

27 — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:09 UTC

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing" Jean Baptiste Colbert (1619-83), Finance Minister du Roi Soleil One of the "file rouges" and my personal pre-occupations during the current financial & sovereign ...

Apple, dividend maar de spaarpot blijft groeien

42 — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:38 UTC

Apple kwam de afgelopen week met de langverwachte medeling over hun spaarpot van 100 miljard $. Een mogelijke overname is nog niet in zicht maar onder druk van de aandeelhouders (en beleggingsfondsen) gaan ze toch wat dividenden geven. Naar schatting een derde van hun winst zou hier (maximaal) voor gebruikt worden. Zodat de ...

Farma, geen pasklare hap voor een beleggingsportefeuille

42 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:44 UTC

Het is nog niet zoveel jaren geleden dat de aandelen van grote farmabedrijven zonder discussie een plaats mochten hebben in elke beleggersportefeuille. Ze genereerden miljarden winsten en cash flows, keerden gulle dividenden uit en hadden allemaal een aantal blockbusters die de voornaamste brandstof waren voor deze zonnige ...

Banks, central banks & commodities

27 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:29 UTC

Manipulation and conspiracy theories are of all times. Last year, rumors surged that 1 particular giant broker in the US was doing all within its powers to depress the price of silver by selling silver futures. And the conspiracy became complete when rumors surged this was done at the request of the FED because precious metals were ...

To junk or not junk - the last role of the dice

27 — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 09:14 UTC

It seems we not only have missed the bonanza of 2012 so far, but we also see a redefining of risk in the markets. And we are talking here about sub-investment grade corporate bonds, AKA high yield or more commonly : Junk. And if we are to believe various comments, the B and C rated companies of today are "the sweet spot" and "new ...

On written and unwritten rules

27 — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 17:03 UTC

You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than any one else", dixit Albert Einstein. On these rules of the game, playing better and fair play, some confusion has arisen over the past couple of weeks. And the fact that it has become headline news should start ringing bells for our policy makers. A ...

Gezocht: 20 tot 45 miljoen vaten olie per dag

42 — Fri, 16 Mar 2012 09:31 UTC

Na de eindejaarcijfers komen nu ook de presentaties en toelichtingen op gang, en vanuit mijn persoonlijke interessesfeer kijk ik met meer dan gewone belangstelling naar het oliewereldje.Door de dure olie waren de sectoriële resultaten behoorlijk geflatteerd, maar bij de meesten zagen we toch dat het vierde kwartaal iets minder ...

The Future of Media

28 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 23:30 UTC

On March 14th, the Media Innovation Center was launched (under the wings of the IBBT) and baptized 'Mix'. Its goal is to support and help research and development project in the digital media sector. Econopolis was asked to give a presentation on the state of the affaires in the media sector, and some unbiased views on the ...

Central banking dilemma

27 — Thu, 15 Mar 2012 09:53 UTC

The most recent FOMC statement was again an exercise in walking on eggs. Bernanke told the world things were brightening up and at the same time being extremely frustrated about the slow recovery of the labor market. On the latter, he is right : of the more than 8 million jobs lost since this crisis struck, 2 mio have been picked ...