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Showing posts with label Economist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Economist. Show all posts

2024/01/24

Enterprise 2000 Symposium, June 23-24, 1994 – IBM International Éducation Centre, La Hulpe, Brussels (Belgium) a page of my Logbook

 

Enterprise 2000 Symposium, June 23-24, 1994 – IBM International Éducation Centre, LaHulpe, Brussels (Belgium)

Chancellor Helmut Kohl, was a great promoter of Hi-Tec companies, providing means of financing, education, marketing German products and companies world-wide. 

 


We did get plenty of support and promotion, and as a top German Startup in IT (Real Time systems) 1991 for military, industrial, aerospace, he sent us to China. Introduced us to Chinese Space, Telecom, and manufacturers, to build strong backed relationships to increase business for both sides during the 3 weeks long Business Exploration. This was in 1991, and this is reported in another page of my Logbook inside this very Blogger. Continuation of Government (both Federal and Bavarian) support was receiving an invitation to attend the Symposium s below:

“Strategic Analysis of European and Global Management and Technology for Future Business Leadership” by Helmut Schmidt, Former Chancellor, Federal Republic of Germany

 Symposium consisted of two full days and lectures by th Chancellleur Helmut Schmidt, spaced by question periods and lunches at the IBM HQ. Intensive schedule added to a top content and presentation by Helmut Schmidt and IBM VP Benelux. On the evening of June 23 a gala dinner was called and I was lucky to be invited to the table with Helmut Schmidt. A colegue of mine took a picture with me, my colleague Norber Hauser, the Chancellor and IBM VP Benelux. The picture is signed by H. Schmidt.


Helmut Schmidt became FRD first Defence Minister at the time of East German uprising in 1953. Later he was a very succesfull Finance minister, during the so called German Economic Miracle years (see Ludwig Erhard).

With his great expertise, competence in politics, finances, he created the first InterCouncil with 7 western leaders, which later morphed into a prototype G7 according to him. As an organizer of the Helsinki Accords in 1974 his take on taking in new members from the former Central-Eastern countries while EU placed stringent enrtry cryteria much more rigid and the earlier group 7 years before. When I questioned him "why the entrance hurdles are much higher for ie Hungary that a few years before ie Spain" which was much less industrialized. His response haas us all astonished:"because in 1987 we had our cofferss full of money, and now they are empty, and we could not afford now to pay for upgrade the economy.". Please not that in the bunch accepted was Greece. A wonderfull coutry, but country located 1 hour (GMT minus 2) behind Budapest. Geographically speaking. 

1994/06/23 Brussels, dinner: from left, Norbert Hauser, Chancellor H. Schmidt, Stefan Bagiński, IBM's VP Benelux                                                                                    Photo by S. Bagiński, signed by H. Schmidt


 

 



2010/07/12

The Economist comments on the debt economy of today


Looking for faster growth for your company? Borrow money and make an acquisition. And if the economy is in recession, let the government go into deficit to bolster spending. When the European Union countries met in May to deal with the Greek crisis, they proposed a €750 billion ($900 billion) rescue programme largely consisting of even more borrowed money.
Debt increased at every level, from consumers to companies to banks to whole countries. The effect varied from country to country, but a survey by the McKinsey Global Institute found that average total debt (private and public sector combined) in ten mature economies rose from 200% of GDP in 1995 to 300% in 2008 (see chart 1 for a breakdown by country). There were even more startling rises in Iceland and Ireland, where debt-to-GDP ratios reached 1,200% and 700% respectively. The burdens proved too much for those two countries, plunging them into financial crisis. Such turmoil is a sign that debt is not the instant solution it was made out to be. The market cheer that greeted the EU package for Greece lasted just one day before the doubts resurfaced.
From early 2007 onwards there were signs that economies were reaching the limit of their ability to absorb more borrowing. The growth-boosting potential of debt seemed to peter out. According to Leigh Skene of Lombard Street Research, each additional dollar of debt was associated with less and less growth (see chart 2).

Stopping the debt supercycle
The big question is whether this rapid build-up of debt—a phenomenon which Martin Barnes of the Bank Credit Analyst, a research group, has dubbed the “debt supercycle”—has now come to an end. Debt reduction has become a hot political issue. Rioters on the streets of Athens have been protesting against the “junta of the markets” that is imposing austerity on the Greek economy, and tea-party activists in America, angry about trillion-dollar deficits and growing government involvement in the economy, have been upsetting the calculations of both the Democratic and Republican party leaderships.
To understand why debt may have become a burden rather than a boon, it is necessary to go back to first principles. Why do people, companies and countries borrow? One obvious answer is that it is the only way they can maintain their desired level of spending. Another reason is optimism; they believe the return on the borrowed money will be greater than the cost of servicing the debt. Crucially, creditors must believe that debtors’ incomes will rise; otherwise how would they be able to pay the interest and repay the capital?


From charts you can very easily deduct that countries like Germany and Canada, but especially the BRIC countries are riping positive effects of their predicament, they are fast growing, even Germany was hailed as a export champion even in the 2010 again. Canada healthy banking system (however with limited, strongly regulated competition) is not breaking the C$ raise to a par with CHF and at 1.34 to the €.
For the whole article please log in to the latest issue of the Economist.

For Embedded Industry the growth is back, however stumbling, on Allocation, on rise in prices on BOM, lead times cause delivery problems for smaller players. Who is serving Mil markets in States, or some mil markets in EMEA the business is good if not brisk. EMEA shows increase in sophistication and complexity of some new project, simply demand on performance plays increasingly stronger role.