general thoughts

big orange

When I walked up the hill on Sunday morning for a jog, after having typed my hand written letter to Mandy into the computer(I wrote it on my way by train for a hike on Saturday. Yes, I did a night shift on Friday and managed to get away) and after having written a few mails, I look down over Zurich and it felt a bit like being on holiday. The sky was blue, like really blue, and the mountains looked all polished, like really lovely, and the little cars where moving over highways far away, and everything was so neat and lovely. You know what I mean? I have seen the city from exactly the same spot many times, but this time it felt different.

No wonder, folks like to come here, I thought. Remembering an article in the NZZ, where folks predicted 2 % more economic growth for Switzerland in 2011, partly because we will see about 100’000 new inhabitants (that is a lot)  mostly coming from Europe, highly skilled workers and academics. There is a lot of brain power and economic power coming into a small country. On the negative side, this puts a lot of pressure on natural resources and infrastructure. Actually, we are growing a bit too fast.

Actually, I began jogging in the US, before my one year life there in Texas I was 100% no sports. This has changed in College Station together with a few other things. I look very much forward to visiting the US again, hopefully I can book my flight soon, I just wait for offers by the carriers for later in spring. I want to visit the big orange again. In need for pancakes, and in need for a flight ticket to look at during cold winter evenings. In need of Hollywood dreams.

Thus, I started jogging and continued pondering about things I have read, and I figured I might “institutionalize” my mumbling on my blog; mumbling because with every kilometer jogging you get a bit tougher on yourself and what you think. I had a hard time yesterday during the last few kilometers…

I remembered an article about the commissioner Viviane Redding from the EU commission talking about Switzerland and how the treaties with Switzerland are becoming the longer the more difficult, and how we need to change to be fast enough for the EU, because the EU is moving so fast. I guess she is right in the sense that we are slow negotiators, but then: Sometimes there is no need to hurry things. And I prefer a Swiss system that is slow but less regulated than the speedy EU regulation. Although my business would take advantage of being in the EU, it would probably not exist in the EU as the administrative burden would be too high and I’d rather settle down outside EU.  And then I wondered why it takes weeks on average in the fast EU to start a company and days in Turkey (another article). And I figured that the EU is probably moving so fast because it needs to run from one dept crisis to the next (and we are all running with it). Which brought me to an article I read in the Irish Times, last week on Monday. I searched for it because I read this little note on the NZZ about Kelly Morgan being probably right. A really tiny little note. But these little notes are often the most important part of the newspaper. It looks as if the authors are allowed to publish the unpleasant truth on things in little sticky notes there. Anyhow;  so I read the Irish Times and I feel Morgan Kelly is right about Ireland but I hope he is wrong, which he probably is not. He published his opinion article before this weekend’s Ireland news. I sort of got into EURO trouble mode again last week.

Morgan Kelly’s article is a must read. Now. click here.

I continued jogging and felt sort of sorry for everybody/us paying the bailout bills. And then I remembered a  little note I read in 2007, NZZ again, saying something like, run as fast as you can and get out. They meant the US markets (bonds, treasuries, stocks, houses, everything). I got some put options on the DOW back then and still feel sorry as it is sort of unethical to get money from crashing stock markets.

When I finally reached the perfume thinking mode, I was worried for a few minutes. I remembered that -yes, sad news ahead!- Spain will not happen. It made me sad and angry.

After a few urgent e-mails forth and back on Friday, we decided to skip Madrid. I will not go to Madrid and neither will my perfumes. The importer could not get them in within reasonable time, and we decided that it would be too costly to find a cheat, and it was too short notice to fix things. OK. No Tauer Perfumes in Madrid, Spain. Sorry folks.

But then, I continued jogging. Hongkong, I am coming.