#2-10 The magician [Oct 8th, 2011]

The magician [Oct 8th, 2011]

Oct 16th 2011 10:00-12:00 Osaki Saint Marc Cafe

Ogawa, Ono, Iino, Tomozawa, Yamagata, Shimada, Saito, Kurasawa, Oshida and Nakamuea

Articles we discussed:

[Leaders] The magician

[Leaders][Echoes of 2008] Here we go again

[Leaders][Hope in Myanmar] A Burmese spring

[US][Free trade and the yuan] One step forward, one back

[Asia][Radiation in Japan] Hot spots and blind spots

[Finance and Economics] [Shorting China] Panda bears

[Science and technology] [Stem cells] The nuclear option

    This week we gathered at Osaki because Ogawa and Iino joined another The Economist readers group held in Osaki. It holds meetings from 8 a.m. on every Sunday. Goto-san introduced the group to us so we woke up a little early and joined them for the first time. The discussion was held only in English and the members were diverse. I will write about the experience on a next opportunity but it was so impressive and simulative experience for us and we got several ideas to improve our study group. In the earlier group, I met Oshida-san, who works at a governmental financial organization. We know each other because he held a study group a year ago and I joined it. Oshida-san came to join our group either as an observer. Nakamura-san, he was another observer, came to join us for the first time.

    We followed 7 articles this week. 7 articles are too much to discuss only in 2 hours. We should rethink how to manage our discussion when we have so many articles. The cover of this week was a photo of Steve Jobs, who died at the age of 56, presenting his new products at a conference. The impressive cover title was “The magician” from which we start our discussion. Tomozawa picked up it and made a brief presentation in English. He presented us his two discussion points: Where the strength of Jobs? (Why he was born in US?) And who are the next Jobs? (How about the future of Apple?) He had an anxious feeling of the current situation of Japan. Innovative people seem to be born in US not in Japan but why? We discussed the difference of Jobs and US from others and we shared several reasons. But I thought this reasoning was a trivial because a lot of possible reasons we can think of but none of them were certain. The only thing we could agree is that he was the magician and attracts the people in all over the world.

    Three articles on world economy were chosen this week. Ono picked up the first article, “Echoes of 2008”, which we already discussed the same kind of topics last several weeks. We followed up the current situation and discussed whether ECB lend to EFSF or not and what would be the problems they face when they decide to do it. Yamagata chose “One step forward, one back” from US section, which focused on a free trade principle and a trade relationship between US and China. His points at issue were the importance of economic partnership comparing to monetary policy and protectionism in US. He also pointed out a fact that The Economist didn’t take up discussions of TPP. Third article “Shorting China” was from Shimada. He said he would like to discuss the influence of fiscal crisis in developed economies on emerging economies including China. He pointed out a short selling on China is accelerated on the current situation.

    Other three members chose more diverse issues. Kurasawa picked up the case of Iidate, which is located 45km north from Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant. The article introduces that contaminated soil and trees in Iidate affects them for a long time. Kurasawa asked us what we do think of pulling up the standard of safe exposure. Ogawa picked up the article of Myanmar. Myanmar is changing their politics dramatically for the first time in decades. Ogawa insisted that even if the country had a potential of business and economical development, we should be in mind of their attitude toward human rights. Iino chose “stem cells” from Science and technology section. He is working at Bio department in his ministry so he is interested in the topic. We got to know the difference between cloning, ES cells and iPS cells from his explanation.

    At first we were going to gather Renoir in Osaki but we couldn’t find it so we changed café to Saint Marc Café. 10 people gathered and most of them had their articles so it is difficult to discuss all of these articles in a short period of time. At previous group, we discovered several ideas to manage meetings in which over 10 people join. We have to make improvements in our group introducing their ideas.