BMW Builds Its First Theme Park - In Korea [?!]

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/30/2014 01:30:00 AM
Where Gangnam stylers will be hanging out real soon. Having seen Ferrari World in Abu Dhabi, let's just say I am not entirely convinced about the authenticity of automotive theme parks. If I wanted to buy ludicrously overpriced Ferrari paraphernalia (or that of any other make for that matter), I could easily do that online. Worse, there wasn't really an opportunity to do real driving, whether deliberately crashing into other drivers Schumacher-style or unfortunately slamming into the barriers because I am no racing car driver. It's a real shame because the adjoining Yas Marina Circuit is among the best in Formula One Fortunately,...
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Dirigisme Rules: Etihad Buys 49% of Alitalia

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/29/2014 01:30:00 AM
Emirates pitchmen Pele and Cristiano Ronaldo celebrate it buying Alitalia.  You may wonder if I am suffering from schizophrenia after penning the post below on why "dirigisme sucks" using the example of French involvement in the sale of Alstom to General Electric. How can I now be contradicting myself by stating that "dirigisme rules"? To quote Walt Whitman, I am large; I contain multitudes. Poetics aside, the simple answer is that not all state-led intervention is the same. It's not the principle that determines outcomes but the execution. For examples of market intervention done right, consider the terrible trio...
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Latin Victimhood: From Depedencia to Suarez the Biter

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,,, at 6/27/2014 01:30:00 AM
Adidas takes the trophy for World Cup 2014's most horrendously prescient ad campaign. Last year, Luis Suarez hit the headlines when he bit Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic and was suspended for ten Premier League matches. Aside from the horrific image it creates of one of football's most prolific strikers--he's led both the Dutch Eredivisie and English Premier League in scoring--another interesting aspect is the speed at which the Uruguayan media has sprung to his defense as he bit Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini in Uruguay's 1-0 victory over Italy that saw the latter bounced out of the competition. He'd done so to...
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Dirigisme Sucks: French Meddling in GE Buying Alstom

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/26/2014 01:30:00 AM
Sold to the highest bidder: Alstom purchased by GE So the deed is done: French "national champion" Alstom--a global powerhouse in passenger trains and nuclear power generation--has sold a large chunk of its prized energy assets to the American Company Making Everything, General Electric, for the princely sum of $17 billion. This, however, was done with a lot of meddling from the French government. First it asked for an unsolicited counteroffer from the German industrial powerhouse Siemens. Second it safeguarded its "veto power" over Alstom through buying a 20% stake in it: As France prepared for a night of soccer frenzy,...
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PRC Higher Ed: German Model 1, US Model 0

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/25/2014 07:14:00 PM
Some assembly required...but not vision in putting engines together. As we await the outcome of the upcoming World Cup match between Germany and the United States, it appears that the Europeans have already won out in another respect: China is moving away from prioritizing university education to prioritizing technical/vocational education. This is a follow-up to a recent post I made on how the Western-style university system is taking a beating even in China for not providing graduates of much worth in the job market. In the parlance of us educators who actually give a damn about whether our students find work after graduation,...
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Open Source Firefox vs iOS, Android in Emerging Mkts

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/25/2014 02:00:00 AM
France's Alcatel is an also-ran handset maker seeking to capitalize on Mozilla OS. I got on the information superhighway in 1994. Back then, our 33,600-baud modem was a high-spec model even if pictures took minutes to load and I got disconnected many times over the course of an hour. No matter; I used Netscape Navigator then like everyone else--it wasn't the most stable program either but it got the job done. Twenty years later, my preferred browser is still a son-of-Netscape in Mozilla (Netscape's Mosaic + Godzilla) Firefox. The ethos of Mozilla Firefox do appeal to me in being an open source, non-profit institution. An...
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On Currencies & Hong Kong Hating PRC Tourists

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/24/2014 02:00:00 AM
Mostly PRC tourists queue outside the flagship LV store on Canton Road. Believe it or not, there are places where they hate tourists. These places probably believe they have (a) too many tourists already or (b) too much money to care about catering to such visitors. Now, folks who regularly go to Hong Kong are routinely amused by how the city's resident regard PRC visitors as bumpkins. Despite owing a lot of their livelihoods to the mainland--retail, finance, trade, and so forth--certain prejudices remain: Mainlanders have bad manners. Mainlanders are obnoxious. Mainlanders are unrefined. And so on and so forth. Given...
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Rating Countries by Mining Policy Attractiveness

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in at 6/23/2014 02:00:00 AM
To no one's surprise, investors say Sweden has the best mining policies. More so than the amount of extractable resources or the economic conditions in a particular country, I'd argue that the political climate is more important in determining its attractiveness to investors. Even in this day and age, mining remains a key industry, especially since many high-tech goods rely on certain minerals. Nor have we moved into a post-hydrocarbon age for powering the world economy. Canada's Fraser Institute produces an annual survey that ranks countries on these criteria, and the latest one shows definite trends. In general, developing...
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Will Xiaomi Be China's First Tech Superbrand?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel at 6/22/2014 12:30:00 AM
Xiaomi mascot Mitoo [L] dreams of overseas market share. The business press is all agog over the emergence of Chinese mobile phone maker Xiaomi. Supposedly, we are on the cusp of a Chinese tech superbrand competitive with products from anywhere else in the world. Naturally I'm a bit skeptical. Aren't these Chinese the same folks who had to buy the ThinkPad name from IBM to be able to sell PCs abroad? Outside of China and B2B circles, who's heard of Alibaba and Baidu? It doesn't really count when you buy off brands others have developed or you're only big in China. Admittedly a nation of 1.3 billion is a pretty big market,...
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Shakira, the Yoko Ono of Spanish Football

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/21/2014 02:00:00 AM
Shakira killed Gerard Pique and Spain's double fantasy for a World Cup repeat. [Apologies for this post not concerning IPE all that much, but it is definitely international and affects the reputation of the greatest footballing nation in recent times. Besides, it's the weekend.] Following its 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the Netherlands, Spain lost its second game 2-0 to a hungry and inspired Chilean side. Now, the reasons for Spain's decline have been endlessly rehearsed over the past few days and they all can't be ignored: Barcelona FC's decline mirrors Spain's decline. The Spanish team is now too old. Spanish tactics...
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From Where Does Silicon Valley Import Its Brains?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/20/2014 02:00:00 AM
There's an excellent infographic over at Businessweek on where its workforce comes from both inside the United States and outside of it. There are some highly interesting results: First, Mexico more than any other country or state provides the most human capital to Silicon Valley. Second, the Philippines is, after Mexico, the second-largest provider of human capital to the area. However, why is it that you rarely hear of startups from folks from those countries? Odd. By contrast, India ranks only ninth in terms of headcount, but it matters rather more in the overall picture since a third of all startups there are headed...
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How the World Cup Showcases Brazilian Inequality

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/19/2014 02:00:00 AM
Just as you don't see fat or old people in Ricky Martin videos, something's missing here. Brazil has long been the unwilling keeper of an image of radically high inequality, with fabulous wealth sitting alongside wretched squalor in any number of its cities. So many years after the black football player Pele won the hearts of the world with his magnificent displays, I am afraid that not all that much has changed. To be sure, the conditional cash transfer program Bolsa Familia which gives poor households grants upon meeting health and education criteria for their children has helped. That said, inequality remains radically...
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Happy 50th Birthday G-77! (Well, Sort Of)

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/18/2014 02:00:00 AM
We kicked out S Korea after it joined the OECD rich country club, but its UN chief attended anyway.  Most of you are probably thinking, those guys are still around? The G-77 was forged during a time when developing countries began to recognize their shared interests and desired to make them better known at international organizations. Even now, it remains the premier grouping among developing countries at the UN General Assembly even if it receives minimal press attention. To commemorate its fiftieth birthday, the G-77 recently held an event in Bolivia. Being perfectly honest, the G-77 has often degenerated into a...
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Iraq's a Goner, But Kurdistan Isn't

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/17/2014 01:00:00 AM
It's another fine mess we can lay on the West's doorstep: Mosul residents seek refuge in Kurdistan. Wolfowitz of Arabia, Kimmitt the Fallujah Frog...remember those Bushites? The impending collapse of the state of Iraq--a patchwork quilt whose borders were arbitrarily drawn by scheming Westerners--has given me flashbacks of the second Gulf War I'd rather forget. For historical background, let us first recall how Iraq came about. When WWI ended, the Ottoman Empire which had encompassed Iraq was dismembered. To fulfill British wishes and grant them international legitimacy, the UK "transferred" decision-making on modern-day...
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Italy, Migration & the "Balotelli Generation"

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in ,, at 6/16/2014 12:30:00 AM
Mario Balotelli: Not just a footballer but a poster boy for an entire generation. I cheered England on as it inevitably lost to Italy 1-2 (being a true romantic, I am drawn to lost causes). I was nonetheless intrigued by the contributions of Mario Balotelli, the first black player to make the storied Italian national team, who again scored the game winner for the Azzurri. There is no doubting that "Super Mario" has a few screws loose in his head. However, his odd behavior usually arises when playing club football, hence his bouncing around club after club after club. When playing for Italy, however, he has been remarkably...
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World Cup: Spain Loses 5-1, 'Socialist Football' Ends?

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/14/2014 02:45:00 PM
Spain's old guard looked, well, old. The rematch of the World Cup 2010 finalists Spain and the Netherlands was highly anticipated since they were paired in the group stages this year. Spain was thought to be in the ascendant, having two of its teams contest the Champions League final and another win the Europa League. The Dutch fans stayed home in droves as they didn't expect much from their aging attackers and young defenders. It was thus a shock to most that the defending champions were throttled 5-1 by the Dutch, who could hardly believe their luck. It was really ugly for Spain fans. As the world looked on stunned, Spain,...
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Philippine Call Center Ascendancy & 'Accent Neutralization'

♠ Posted by Emmanuel in , at 6/13/2014 02:00:00 AM
"Shuur, no prob...yeh, got that rite!" Oy, I was reluctant to say this myself for fear of bias, so it's good to relate the same idea through another source. In the past I've posted about how the Philippines has surpassed India in terms of both call center employees and revenues even if India still retains an advantage in higher value-added business process outsourcing services. Working in a call center isn't exactly considered a glamor job by any stretch of the imagination: You have to work the night shift and field complaints from ornery Americans who can't distinguish a phone socket from a Ethernet socket. That said,...
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