#3 70 or bust! (April 9th, 2011)

#3  70 or bust! (April 9th, 2011 Full edition)

April 17, 2011 (SUN) 10:00~12:00

At SHINJUKU STARBUCKS

ONO, YAMAGATA, OGAWA

Articles we discussed

[Leaders] [Portugal] The third bail-out

[Finance & Economics] [Portugal seeks help] And there were three

[Briefing] [The north Caucasus] Islam inflamed

[Business][E-commerce and data security] The phishers’ big catch

[Finance & Economics] [Economic focus] The reformation

　　　This week we discussed Portugal, the north Caucasus, data security and capital controls of emerging countries. I thought Economic and Financial articles are good for this study group because all of three have jobs related to the topic and our future specialty would be finance and economics. International political issues are of course interesting and worthy of reading but no more than liberal arts.

　　　The first article ”Third bail-out” is about Portugal’s rescue loan from EU addressed by the prime minister on April 6th. “Bailout” means an act of giving financial assistance to a failing business or economy to save it from collapse. After Greece and Ireland, Portugal is the third country that receives this bailout from EU. The article mentions Portugal’s poor industry compared to Asian emerging countries such as China. We discussed mainly on the possibility if the bail out to the next country, Spain. The second article “And then there were three” is also about Europe’s debt crisis. Mr. Ono said the title comes from a name of a rock song but we didn’t know the artist. We discussed different types of the crisis between these three and Japan focusing on an international current balance.

　　　The second topic of this week is about the current situation of the north Caucasus. “From Moscow to Mecca” shows the rise of Islamic groups in this region and the conflict between Kremlin and local people. A standpoint of the Economist is clear; they are on the side of Democracy not Empire. What I interested most is that there are conflicts between Muslims (Sufis v Salafis). We discussed why Kremlin declines the independence of these republics and we realize the geographical importance of the north Caucasus, which is the gas pipelines to Europe from Caspian Sea.

　　　Thirdly we read a short article “The Phisher’s big catch” from business. We discussed and shared each anxiety about the security of individual information. The credit information such as credit number and password is difficult to phish as this article says but we usually use one e-mail address and one password to use various Internet services so if one service company carelessly were phished by someone, the effects would be huge.

　　　Lastly, we discussed about the article ”The Reformation” from Economics and Finance section, which is about current inflows of capitals to the emerging countries. The ironical keyword is international monetary tsunami from the mouth of Brazils executive director at the fund. As the title suggests, some emerging countries that are troubled with the flood of capital decided to reform their capital control policy more strictly. Mr. Ono introduced us about trilemma on the international finance. We have to choose two of three, which are (1) independent monetary policy (2) free capital inflow and outflow (3) well-balanced exchange rate. Japan chooses (1)(3), EU chooses (2)(3) and China and emerging countries choose (1)(3) We discussed Japan’s strategy of choosing (1)(3) is good or not.

　　　This weekend we did this study group in Shinjuku. The air is cool but sunshine was so warm so we talked outside of the starbucks café in Southern terrace place. Ono bought Kindle last week so we chatted how to install the Economist articles on Kindle. The Lunch was stakes and a homburg in Isetan. I went Shinjuku by bike. It was so pleasant.