Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all Alpha.Sources' Readers and Fellow Econbloggers
First of all, I would like to apologize to my readers that I have been rather absent in the past weeks. As you may have noticed from the writings which I, after all, have managed to piece together it has largely been because of exams. Especially this last one in industrial organization demanded my complete attention and I still don't like that course. Too much micro and too little real world application. Ah well, I am firm believer in not being a cry-baby so it was, in the end, just a question of getting on with it. As for Alpha.Sources you should not worry too much. I have loads of material I want to share with you. Most specifically of course I want to rap up two of the main themes I have been pushing in 2007, namely my coverage of the Eurozone and Japanese economy. I also want to take up the baton again on Eastern Europe and specifically Lithuania which has also been a center of attention here at this space recently. Lastly, and if time permits of course I would really like to grind down to some more theoretical and conceptual writings. Of course, my main theoretical impetus epitomized in the 'demography.matters' dictum shines through a lot in my general writings but a further conceptualization is needed I think. All these things will be first on the menu as we wind up for a new year after Christmas and there might even be some surprises too, but I will say more about that later.
So, as you can see there will be plenty of reason to visit Alpha.Sources in the new year too. Over Christmas I will probably be preparing a few snippets (and one of those mandatory 2008 predictions perhaps?) but I will save the heavy stuff for after the holidays. Meanwhile the econsphere and media mill keeps on grinding and grinding of course which is just fabulous. Let me highlight a few of those must reads ...
- Morgan Stanley has a grandiose slew (not the right permalink, go for MS edition 16.12.2007) of notes and forward looking analysis on the macro environment in 2008. This is of course yum-yum for a nerd like me so I will be sure to chew myself through at least some of it.
- Furthermore and as per tradition the Economist (permalink to cover article) also publishes its bumper Christmas edition which is sure to bring hours of entertaining and enlightening reading. I for one am looking forward to some nice hours under the reading lamp. Of noteworthy article in the Christmas special edition of the magazine are, and this should not surprise you, the following articles in particular 1) Census sensitivity (article on the muddy process of counting people) and 2) Noble or savage? (article on the era of the hunter-gathers whose living dynamics, and do take note, are tantamount to understanding the modern world's human capital transition as well as current dynamics.)
- Finally, I should note my friend Edward Hugh who has been tremendously busy during my temporary semi-hiatus in December. It is impossible to pinpoint something in particular so all I can suggest is that you run over to Global.Economy.Matters and Edward's personal blog Bonobo Land to see what he has been up to.
Of course, this reading list is no where near as comprehensive as it should be but this is how it looks from my chair. So, all which is left at this point is to say merry Christmas and a happy new year. I am glad that 2007 was the year when Alpha.Sources got its first real piece of advanced praise as it made Felix Salmon's and Craig Robinson interactive econoblogsphere list published over at Portfolio.com. Furthermore, this blog also made Currencytrading.net's list of top 100 academic blogs every professional investor should read. Thanks a lot for this; I will do my utmost to live up to these fine patches in the new year. Finally, I also want to express my fascination and joy over the way the econblogsphere has evolved in 2007 with a wide range of excellent new additions to the universe of econ and financial blogs. If the development continues in 2008 we will soon be putting Bloomberg and co out of business I fear.
Merry christmas and a happy new year
Best Wishes
Claus