The Ecunomist
• Ecu-cribs • Cooking Corner • StarTales • Economic Articles • Committee Pages • Photopages
Official Magazine of study association ECU’92
www.ecu92.nl
60’s and 70’s 18th year, 5th edition July 2009
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Interesse brengt je verder bij KPMG. De technische details achter podcasting hoef je wat ons betreft niet precies te kennen. Dat je op de hoogte bent van de stormachtige ontwikkelingen op dit gebied en het ook leuk vindt om je erin te verdiepen, vinden we wel belangrijk. Want bij KPMG zou je zomaar kunnen gaan werken voor een grote telecom-speler. Of voor een televisieproducent. Om die goed te kunnen adviseren heb je interesse nodig in de wereld waarin die klanten opereren. En in de zaken waar ze dagelijks mee te maken hebben. Bij KPMG geloven we dat die interesse je een betere adviseur maakt. Daarom zijn we op zoek naar mensen die breed durven kijken én denken. Die ‘streetwise’ zijn. Als je over die mentaliteit beschikt, kun je hier aan de slag als trainee (bij Audit) of junior adviseur (bij Advisory). Kijk voor meer informatie over deze functies en over onze manier van werken op www.kpmg.nl/carrieres.
AU D I T TA X A DV I S O RY
Content and Colofon Five times a year The Ecunomist is published in a circulation of 1500 for the members, patrons, Æcunomen and external contacts of ECU'92. Introduction From the Editor and President ......................4/5 Updates Agenda..............................................................7 From the board ................................................6 Features WailingWall........................................................8 Work At... ..................................................10/11 ECU Cribs ..................................................12/13 Brenner ......................................................26/27 60’s and 70’s Economic Article ........................................14/15 Vacation Checklist ..........................................22 Photo’s Photopage Various..........................................16 Photopage Study Trip ....................................17 Photopage Various..........................................28
Published By: Studievereniging ECU'92 Janskerkhof 12 3512 BL Utrecht Tel.: 030-253 9680 E-mail: info@ecu92.nl Internet: www.ecu92.nl Printed By: Hakker van Rooijen Special Thanks To: ECU'92 Board Y.S. Brenner
Editorial Committee: Folkert van Wier Loura Vlam Jessica Krom Arjan de Hoop Rens Dautzenberg Lisanne Vermeulen Jennifer Evans Freelancers Ian Koetsier Joë l Kroodsma Elena Meshcheryakova Juliette Kuiken Joris Hehenkamp
Committee Pages: Introduction Committee ....................................9 Study Trip Committee ....................................21 And... Student Abroad (Armina Ajkicic) ................18/19 History Minor ..............................................24/25 Cooking Corner ..............................................20 StarTales ........................................................29 Final Say ........................................................30 ©Study Association ECU'92. The copying of articles is permitted provided that the source is stated
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From the editor and the president R: Yeah baby, yeah! Let's talk about sixties and seventies! Any special things that pop into your head? F: Well, I know that I have a dirty mind and I already picture you rolling your eyes at the thought of this dialogue heading in the wrong direction, but the sixties and seventies are all about pubic hair on the female perspective, you can’t deny this. R: *rolls his eyes a couple of times* Dude, as a chairman of ECU'92 I refuse to give my view on female pubic hair... As a human being I have to say: gross, you sick bastard! F: They had razors back then, didn’t they? I just don’t get that the consensus of free love and peace goes hand in hand with the flourishing of nature and shrubberies on the female body. You have some opinion right? R: Well, judging by some pictures of my dad I would say razors were either too expensive or not yet invented back then. Anyhoo, if you're living in a time of free love and there is more focus on someone’s spirit, I don't think it is very strange you don't pay too much attention to your hair (wherever it may grow). F: So you’re saying that if girls are spiritually developed they grow hair? R: Basically: yes! But besides pubic hair, any other mental images? F: I heard this one song from the ‘Amazing Stroopwafels’ , which was a proper Dutch band at the time. R: Music, ah indeed. The Beatles, The Who, The Stones, Bob Dylan… Icons of the sixties and seventies and the voices of a new generation. These musicians were their representatives and their music was much more than just music... rather a new way of living.
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F: Touching, Rens. A new generation perhaps, but what kind of generation? Lying in the park smoking jonko, growing hair between their legs...And where are those hippies now? In their Volvo's and suburbs. Where are the days of the protests I wonder... R: Don't you think they HAVE made a difference? They have set further generations free from the gates that were holding us all down man, and you don’t have to be afraid to be gay anymore. So without the hippies we wouldn’t have had the ‘Toppers’ at the European Song Contest. F: You sound like you’re born in wrong times, my friend. Have you seen decent protests nowadays? Apart from the French truckers that occupy the Route-du-Sud every year? Where are the days when the students ruled this nation? I miss those days, Rens. R: Sometimes I do feel like a hippie, Folkert. I mean, why not! Folks say children grow up as a reflection of their parents. You haven't actually met my dad, but I can assure you he was a great hippie back in the days. I have a suggestion: if you miss those days so much, why not start a movement yourself. You and I can go on the street today and protest… F: In my spare time I am a hobby-dictator, that is why I was asked for the job of editorin-chief this year. I like protesting, but I like suppression of the protesters even more.
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R: In my spare time I like to collect stamps, breed chickens and help little blind kids; but I would love to take over the world with you! I can be your Mini-you or you'll be my minime or we'll be our mini-us.
gender who dominates the other and it just happens to be that men are the better gender. Why try to change nature? But, of course, women don’t have the intellect to realize this…
F: A mini version of me wouldn't be that mini... By the way, I know you wanted to save the Austin Powers bit for your own article, but it's hard to talk about the seventies and not end up with frickin’ Austin Powers…
F: Yeah and what’s up with the nagging? We don’t like that women.
R: Minor detail: Awesome Powers (I just gave him a nickname) is a sex symbol of the sixties!! How dare you say seventies?! F: I don’t know how they write it, but like they say: potáto, potà to. Sixties, seventies, whatever.
R: Alas, they just don’t know when it’s time to shut their piehole… But, uh, I think there are people who are not going to appreciate these statements. What are we going to do with them? You know how to handle these rebels? F: Ha, I can handle any woman! But talking about shutting pieholes, we must round up. How would you describe this year of the Ecunomist in three sentences?
R: Anyhoo, as the two most important persons within ECU'92 we have to share some kind of message with our beloved peasants; and it has to be related to the theme of course. On top of that it has to motivate these peasants to read the entire magazine.
R: Totally gay!
F: I was thinking something about: make love not exams? Other suggestions?
F: Groovy, baby, very groovy!
R: Uhm...read Ecunomists not porn magazines! No, that's crap, everybody should read porn magazines, what was I thinking. On that, did you ever read a porn magazine? I wonder, why would one read a magazine while there is a bunch of porn on the internet?
F: Great contribution yet again. Round up? R: You think this is a great contribution? Read my sixties special in this edition! Have fun reading, you peasants!
Disclaimer: All the above opinions are made up for the occasion and are NOT the opinion of ECU’92.
F: On that I wish to rephrase my motivation: Make porn not war. R: Great! That reminds me of one of the bad things the hippies caused: feminism! F: Why is feminism bad again? I do not discriminate on race, gender or shoe-size in my practise as hobby-dictator. R: Well, it’s totally natural that there is one
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From the board ECU’92 and the labor market Douwe van der Meijden - Picturing the sixties and seventies, I see laid back people, who go to work with a joint on their lips, produce more smoke than the manufacturing industry, protest against anything they can think of and who probably had the best youth ever. Yes, I know this is a biased view with way to much stereotypes and exaggerations. So let’s also take a look at reality. To make it even more interesting for us, let’s take a look at the economic reality back then. At the beginning of the sixties the Western World stood at the beginning of a rapid increase in welfare. After the reconstruction period of WW II was largely completed, the sixties brought a time of growth. Wages began to rise rapidly and the demand for labor was larger than the Dutch workers could supply. This lead to the occurrence of immigrant workers. On the Dutch government’s initiative, workers from Italy, Spain, Portugal, Turkey and Morocco began to migrate to Holland in order to fill the gap between the demand and supply of labor. For high educated individuals it was easy to find a well paid job. If one employer didn’t offer a high enough salary, we just went on to the next. Labor-wise, those were the days. Although the immigrant workers were meant to stay temporarily, they stayed and so did their children. In addition we experienced a situation called the baby boom. These babies are now grown ups and are working. In the mean time technology progressed. Almost every industry began to produce more efficiently which, in combination with the increase in inhabitants, changed the labor market completely. Where it was once easy to find a job, it became harder and harder to find 6
work. And that is the situation on the labor market as it is now. In this situation ECU’92 can be of assistance. In the current economic environment orientation is vital. Not only to know where you want to end up, but also to meet people, start building a network. ECU’92 organizes several events where you can meet a wide range of companies. Whether you want to orientate yourself or have a face-to-face conversation with someone from a specific company, it is all possible. There probably is an order in which you should visit those events; some sort of orientation timeline. First you should have to get some idea of which field you’re interested in and after that you should go and meet companies in that field to see which company suits you best. Starting broad and gradually working your way to a narrower field of interest. At the beginning of next year, you will find another magazine in your mailbox. One which is specifically focused on the labor market, ECU’92’s view on orientation and how you should act in the current economic environment. This is one magazine they would not have needed in the sixties, those really were the days…
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Agenda July 17th
Start Summerbreak: ECU-room UCU is closed ECU-room JKH is open from Tue-Thu, 11.00-15.00
August 17th
ECU-rooms back to normal opening times
August 31st
Start Introduction week
September 8th General Meeting: Change of Boards September 15th Constitution Reception
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Wailing Wall Utrecht: a city of dreams and nightmares, but mostly nightmares. Alexander Visser - There is a Dutch song referring to Utrecht as “the city of my dreams.” Well, it is also the city I sometimes think about when I close my eyes and go to sleep. But then I always wake up from a nightmare...what an irony. But what is irony in a world full of cruel sarcasm? Shall I answer that question with another question? No. But now you may ask, what is so bad about Utrecht? Close to everything!
Although my last couple of words in the introduction don’t need further explanation, I will give one for the sake of structure, only because I have writing rules to uphold. First is the journey to the city itself, I don’t live in Utrecht (yet) so I have to go by train, and let me tell you that it sucks, really sucks. The trains are always crowded, meaning that I end up standing in the hallway most of the time listening to people's boring conversations, smelling the sweat of an old guy and looking at some fat persons’ ass.
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Then I am at the train station and the next problem becomes instantly apparent: congestion. People, cars, bikes: you name it, and there is too much of it. Getting to the Uithof or UCU takes forever as you stop at each traffic light or sit in your overcrowded bus. Oh, and did I give a reason yet for why I don’t have a room? It is ridiculously expensive -on average you pay €300 for 17m2, and you have to wait a minimum of six months. But since we are students we always have our lavish social life, right? Wrong! How can I have a social life with so much to do for school and my difficult personality, impossible. If you think I am too negative, first go procreate with yourself; secondly, you are probably right. It can also be a nice city, like the parks that have the highest pollution rate in the country or the nice overpriced stores in the city centre. Or the name calling you get when passing a group of antisocial Dutch people. Frustratingly, there is nothing that can be done about it. It is inevitable, like the one thing you don’t like about yourself, but you have to deal with it. And we certainly all have to deal with this big, concrete piece of shit. Still, it would be nice to put the blame on something: Aliens, they are here and making us miserable! Ahh well, maybe things will get better if we all hold each other's hands and praise a big Santa Claus in the sky.
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Committee Page Introduction Committee 2009 At this very moment the Introduction Committee 2009 is working hard to prepare an unforgettable week for the new freshmen. Again we are trying to set up a fun programme and we hope that you will join us as a coach and/or for a drink and parties. The theme of the Introduction Week this year is: Disney – growing old is inevitable but growing up is optional. This years’ Introduction Committee consists of 9 members: the coordinator of the Utrecht School of Economics Margreet van Soest, supervisor Guido de Beer and 7 active members from ECU’92. Let me introduce all of them shortly: Margreet is working at the Student desk of the Utrecht School of Economics and is supporting us greatly in setting up this
week. Guido as a member of the current board of ECU’92 is supervising the work that the committee is doing and supporting us whenever necessary. Merle and Marlous, as Coach Coordinators, are making sure that coaches are well prepared. Selma is setting up the scenario book to ensure that all activities are running smoothly. Most of the activities are free of charge, therefore, we need to have a close look at all the expenses. This is taken care of by Marijn. Juan is the secretary of the committee. In addition to taking minutes during the meetings, he will also take care of freshmen administrations together with Margreet. Laura is taking care of the contact with all the external parties that are involved in the Introduction week, such as party locations. And finally me: my name is Stephanie and I am the chairman of the Introduction Committee this year. I am trying my best to keep an overview and to coordinate the organisation of the week. We hope that you will join the new freshmen and us during the Introduction week 2009! For more information you can also check the website www.ecu92.nl/introduction
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Work at...
Folkert van Wier - In this working at, we meet up with USE-alumna Karin van Buuren, a familiar face from ECU’92. She is currently working at the ministry of Social Affairs, after she graduated from the government institution BoFEB. BoFEB is an abbreviation for Professional Training Financial-Economic Policymaker, Dutch version. BoFEB is a form of traineeship, established by the government, with support from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam. It focuses on economic policy, but is still related to the entire playfield of the government institutions; so it has a very broad view on that perspective. Together with Douwe, the ECU-board member of external affairs, we travel to The Hague. The building of the ministry of Social Affairs looks like a renovated bunker from the future, and truly deserves the ‘concrete-price’ that a trophy in the main hall reminds us of. After a quick tour through the building we decide to sit down and have a talk about BoFEB. Outline The traineeship consists of two major parts. The first six months are dedicated to lectures, (weekly) assignments, visits to governmental institutions and education like students are used to at their university. The subjects that are discussed during this period are similar to those you are confronted with in university. The important differences are that they are more complex and have an overlap with other disciplines that are
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relevant to policy making. This is done in order to prepare the students as good as possible for their work at the ministries. This high standard means that although you have enough free time, a lot is expected from the students. The people that are admitted to BoFEB are graduated master students from fields such as general and international economics and sometimes business related studies. The language that is used is Dutch. Karin herself is a bachelor alumna of the Utrecht School of Economics. She was active in the Introduction Committee of ECU’92 and the Book Foundation. After graduation, she did a master at the University of Tilburg after which she applied for BoFEB. Nowadays, she is living in The Hague at a distance of 25 minutes by bike or tram from the ministry.
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Work at... The second part of the BoFEB trajectory consists of an internship at one of the different ministries. The students spread their wings in government areas like Economic and Financial Affairs, Social Affairs like Karin, but also end up at the Central Planning Agency or the Dutch Central Bank. Working during the internship is similar to the ’real’ work once the internship has finished. The graduate transformation from student to full-time employee at BoFEB is the ideal way to get used to the working way of life. Especially because you are in close contact with people in all layers of the government machine, so you quickly learn about the relations between these institutions.
Karin ended up at the division that is dealing with social benefits. ‘People forget that the ministry of Social Affairs is dealing a lot with setting the incentives right for getting people to work. Therefore it is the perfect place to end up for an economist.’ Her task is to inform the ones responsible for the policy making process about the financial consequences of their choices. She applied for this job as a result of her internship. Government official During the interview, we notice the stream of people heading to the canteen and coffee machine. This prejudice about government-official behaviour seems to be correct. When we ask Karin about the prejudices, she notes that we are watching the phenomenon of ‘casual Friday’. We feel overdressed instantly, as we notice that we are the only persons in the big canteen that are dressed in suit… Karin is very happy with the government as an employer. The salary is generous for a starter, you won’t have to work 60 hours or more (although over-time necessarily occurs on busy days) and you are acquainted with The Hague in a very pleasant way. She mentions several informal drinks and associations of different institutions that made her feel very welcome.
Check for more info and the precise application procedures www.bofeb.nl
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ECU-cribs Folkert van Wier and Jessica Krom – For this edition, we head to the Ina Boudier Bakkerlaan, the big student complex near the centre of the city. In an earlier edition we visited the ECU-crib at the IBB, but since there are numerous economists living on the complex, we decided to give some of them a quick visit.
Laura: “Sometimes I spy on Erwin from my living room.” 1st stop: Laura van der Stee # 15 on the 1st floor Laura lives in the far corner of the IBB, in the bunker-like house of number 15. This house has probably the toughest policy on the house-fines. Forgetting your cleaning shift the first time will cost you 15 euros, the second 30 and counting. One of her roomies has a debt of 350 euro.. Also, this crib has a pet! Since Laura’s room already was the favo place of the kitty, she got the cat for free together with the room. By the way, only last weekend the Christmas house-dinner took place, because this was the first possibility.
Carolien: “Sometimes I don’t wash for weeks, because I don’t want to touch the thongs my roommates left in the washing machine..”
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2nd stop: Erwin Blom # 21 on the 2nd floor Most exiting part of Erwin’s house was the balcony - a very relaxed place to spend time during house parties. A leftover of the last party were the beer-crates that every room had stored besides the door, waiting for their journey to the supermarket. theymust make sure that the music is not too loud, because the trailertrash nearby will start moaning. He got selected for the room, partly because he was an economist, but as appeared later more because he won the coin-toss… 3rd stop: Carolien Hoogeland # 117 on the 3rd floor The first thing that caught our attention is the menstrual pad (inlegkruisje) that is glued to the mirror, with a phonenumber on it… Carolien told usthat her ex-roommate left it behind so Carolien would remember that she could call her former roommate any time! Her room seems to be entirely bought out of the IKEA-catalogue. Flowers, stuffed animals (the elephant called Pussycat), food and furniture. Besides that, she has a neighbour that she only hears when he’s singing along with the Feyenoord fan club CD.
Guido: “There is always a fire going on here.” Final stop: Guido de Beer #189 on the 18th floor Guido lives on the second highest floor of the tallest building of the entire complex. He therefore has a beautiful view on the city. He is the oldest resident of the four house mates by 1,5 years. The floor is shared with another housing unit. Due to the fire safety, the houses are separated with a (open) firedoor. One time, the people of the other unit snuck in Guido’s house, trashing the place and stealing his bread and toilet paper. However, Guido’s house was the cleanest of all. The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - June 2009 The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
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Rens in the sky with Diamonds Rens Dautzenberg - When people are asked to think of the sixties most people will name things like: protests, hippies, sexual revolution, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Vietnam, worldwide sex-symbol Austin Powers and so on. Quite tumultuous times one could say. As a reaction against the conservative social norms of the fifties, the war in Vietnam and the political situation evolving from the Cold War the new generation was one of protesting, experimenting with drugs and free loving. With all the things happening in the world right now, shouldn’t we all go and do those same things?
The times they are a-changing
to tell me I’m not in control of my own body? Who are my parents to disapprove of my sexual preference? No more! This new way of thinking is perfectly captured in one of the most characteristic songs of the sixties: ‘The times they are a-changin’. In this song Bob Dylan tries to create an anthem of the change for that moment in time. Take a look at some of the lyrics and you’ll understand what I’m talking about:
In the beginning of the sixties, the rebuilding after the Second World War went hand in hand with a number of changes within the average household: fridges, cars, telephones and of course the tv. The so called baby boom generation grew up in a world in many things different from the world their parents grew up in. No wonder they started to react against the social “Come mothers and fathers norms of their parents. The throughout the land. new generation did not want And don't criticize what you to live the way their parents can't understand. lived their boring life: a high Your sons and your rate of social control and su- daughters are beyond your rely no thinking outside the command. box. People would no longer just do as they are told witYour old road is hout questioning these authorapidly aging. rities. Who is the government Please get out of the new
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one if you can't lend your hand. For the times they are achangin.” Quite clear I would say. And Dylan is not the only example. In the beginning of 1964 the popularity of the Beatles accelerated throughout the entire world. In contradiction with the social critic Dylan, the Beatles put more focus on experimenting with their music. Resulting in a song like ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’. “Picture yourself in a boat
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resemblance. Are we sure for what exact purpose UStroops invaded Iraq? What are our own boys doing in Afghanistan and who are they fighting? How can it be that a politician who is provable intolerant of other people’s culture and religion can be so popular in a country where freedom of religion is a fundament of the constitution? How come our Prime Minister seems to care more about the brake up of two of our celebrities or a ridiculous movie than about world wide conflicts? Why is Frans Bauer still allowed to make music?
on a river. With tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly. A girl with kaleidoscope eyes.” If it isn’t clear these guys wrote their songs while enjoying some kind of illegal stimulations, than I promise never to say anything bad about feminism ever again! A decade of protesting If an entire generation starts to react on the social norms of their parents, there must be something else going on in the world except discovering the beauty of narcotics. You will know about the Cold War and the war in Vietnam. The United States were involved in a ‘silent’ war that could lead to the destruction of entire nations. i this really the reason why our boys are out there fighting or could it be something the government isn’t telling us? No wonder people went out on the street
to ask for answers. Next to the Cold War and the one in ‘Nam, more and more people started to realize women and black people should have the same rights as the other civilians. Think of feminism and of the legendary speech by Martin Luther King, who had a dream and then… was killed. These kinds of incidents triggered more and more riots and mass protests. With so much things happening in the world and so much tension both within the country and over their borders, can you blame these so called hippies for their protests? I think not!
I don’t have the answers to these questions. However, I think we have the right to know the answers to questions like these. If our representatives are not going to give them to us, we have to go and demand them and we won’t take no for an answer! Remember: power only works when we obey it. Without our support these so called representatives aren’t worth a penny. The bottom line of my statement is: It is time to go out on the street again and protest and I have a feeling it is going to happen some time soon.
I predict a riot! I predict a riot When I take a look at the things happening in the world these days, I see quite some
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Photo Page
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Student Abroad
“Lund, Sweden”
Jouke Donselaar - For the past five months I have been studying at the Faculty of Economics and Management of Lund University in Sweden. Being the biggest university of Scandinavia, it is located in the south of Sweden, very close to Malmö and Copenhagen, Denmark. The exchange-program is part of the track International Entrepreneurship of the master International Economics and Business at USE, which started off this year with eight people going from Utrecht to Lund. Here I will try to tell something about my experiences. At the moment of writing I have just handed in my thesis and in a week I will return to the Netherlands, a good moment to look back at what has been.
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The adventure started halfway through January, right after having done some early exams of the courses that were not finished yet in Utrecht. The first week only consisted of an introduction program with lessons about Swedish language and culture, partying and some more partying. Basically, the first few weeks sometimes more felt like a holiday than serious studying, but this changed when the courses really started off. The mandatory course within the program is Managing New Venture Growth, which is focused on things like growth strategies, network theory, clustering and more. Sometimes interesting, and sometimes a little bit too easy for the real economists that we are.
vanced “Financial Analysis and Corporate Restructuring” which I followed myself. It took a quite advanced approach to valuation, restructuring issues and (what I never really had before) credit rating. The workload was challenging, but with a little help of the more experienced people in the course we all passed it with good grades.
Besides the mandatory course, there was the opportunity to choose between “The Global Economy and Long-Term Economic Growth”, which -from what I heardwas quite interesting and on a good level, “Organisational Culture, Identity and Leadership”, which we used to call the “Mickey Mouse course” and the more ad-
Adopting the habits of people you hang out with, I found myself also partying a couple of times a week, and it always tended to be in the same ritual: having a pre-party at someone’s corridor or apartment, then moving on to a so-called Nation, followed by an after-party preferably in the same place where the evening started. These Nations
While we, as the group from Utrecht, were still a bit focused on passing the courses with good grades, the majority of the exchange students seemed to not be studying at all. They only cared about where tomorrow’s party was, and when they had to do an exam they only liked to talk about what they were going to do after.
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Student Abroad
are a sort of student associations, all with their own bars and party places in which they are allowed to sell beer with huge discounts. While a beer in a normal pub would cost you around five Euros, in the Nations they sell it for a mere two. This mainly explains why the nightlife is completely situated in the Nations, of which there are around fifteen in Lund but only around five opened per night. Not only alcohol is expensive here, life in general is more expensive than in the Netherlands. Rents are about 380,- per month, and also food (especially fruit and vegetables) prices are at a higher level. But, it was worth it. Swedish cities are not something really special, but if you like nature you will find a lot of beautiful places here. The people in Sweden tend to be a bit rigid and calm, but not much more than I am used to with Dutch people. Dutchies Because we were here with eight people from Utrecht, we were most of the time really seen as “those Dutchies”. In the MNVG course this was sometimes even a negative association, but that was only because our prior knowledge of the topics was a little bit better than the knowledge of most people taking the course. Ignoring this little thing it was really great to have a group with who you go to class, often have dinner with, go partying and even make a
few trips. We went to Göteburg for a weekend, and with part of the group we even visited Lapland! For the people who like everything to be arranged for them, ESN organizes trips to Finland, Russia, Lapland, Norway, party cruises, and a whole other range of activities focused on the exchange students. If you do the exchange program, you can choose between writing your thesis in Lund or in Utrecht. Since I am only one out of two doing their thesis in Lund, the majority of the group is now already gone for two months. Luckily I met enough people to hang out with, play football every week, and have a party with every now and then. The biggest advantage of writing my thesis in Lund was my deadline: I have just handed in my first draft and June has not even started yet. Once again I would like to repeat that if you have the chance, really try to go next year or in the years thereafter. It is a rather easy way to go abroad, you do not have to arrange everything yourself (lazy..) and the whole Lund experience is just great! And, besides that, I have enjoyed the complete master year very much, something I would never have thought of two years ago when I was not even planning on doing a master at all. And last but not least: thanks to the other “Dutchies” for the great monthsI have had here!
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Cooking Corner Pasta Salad with Chicken Enjoying the summer? But don’t feel like doing some complicated cooking or eating anything hot? In this case I found the perfect solution for you! Just go to your supermarket and buy the following ingredients (for 4 persons): • • • • • • •
300 g fusilli (pasta) 3 spring onions ca. 200 g smoked chicken 1 cup carrot-selleriesalad (250g) 3 fresh peaches (or 1 can) 100 g salted cashews Salt and pepper
Ok, now we are ready to make some magic happen in your kitchen! First cook the fusilli according to the instructions. Then run some cold water over the fusilli to cool it down. Secondly, clean the spring onions and cut them in rings. Also cut the chicken in pieces. Clean the peaches (or open the can) and cut them in pieces. And finally chop the cashews in pieces. Now comes the difficult part: take all the things you chopped or cut in pieces and the cold fusilli and mix this with the “carrot-selleriesalad". Put in some salt or pepper to your own taste.
Enjoy your dinner!
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The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
Study Trip This year the study trip was going to Riga and Tallinn, the capitals of Latvia and Estonia. A new destination where almost nobody had ever been before. Before leaving there was a bit of a problem. In the Dutch newspapers we read that Latvia was just about to go bankrupt due to the economic crisis. But after a reassuring email from the Dutch embassy telling us that we would be able to receive money from the ATM’s we were ready to go! And of course this crisis gave us as true economists also a lot to talk about. First stop was Tallinn. When arriving at the airport we noticed that the sun was shining quite bright and actually it was kind of warm…How was this possible? We were expecting it to freeze and snow; I had even packed my hand gloves. Luckily it turned out that we would get beautiful weather during the whole week. In Tallinn we have explored the city by bike and saw a bit more of Estonia’s countryside by going to Lahemaa National Park. This park was just as big as the whole province of Utrecht. Of course, there also had to be an economic aspect in the ”study” trip and this was our visit at Eesti Pank. This is the National Bank of Estonia. There they gave us a pretty bright lecture about the Estonian economic situation at the moment. The economy was in a bit of a depression right now, but the country would learn a lot from it and in the end would only profit from their new experience.. a little bit too optimistic maybe? Fortunately, almost everybody was too tired from the party in Club Hollywood the night before so that they fell asleep and did not listen to the fairytale. Well, then it was time to visit Riga. With a really small bus (we were just able to After a city tour everybody was free to explore the city themselves. After seeing the most important highlights we had planned a relaxing day at the beach! We went to Jurmelaa, a small village near Riga. Apart from all the daily activities we were also quite busy during night. We have celebrated Queen’s Day in a pub with a fear factor experience that nobody will ever forget. Furthermore we had the pleasure to see a heavyset lady doing a belly dance with snakes. But most impressive was the Skyline bar on the 26th floor of a hotel in Riga. With windows all around you had a beautiful sight over the city. I have not yet mentioned half of what we have done during these eight days, but as a short summary I can say that the l trip was great!
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Holiday Checklist Oh no, not again! It’s almost summer holiday, and of course, you are already worrying about What To Take With You! (Guys, don’t stop reading! This also concerns you!) Stop worrying, this is good news. We, from Ecunomist, are providing you with the most complete and thought-through checking list your eyes will ever see, whether you’re going for a sun-sea-beach vacation, for a city hop or for something more chilly and more adventurous. General packings o Underwear, as many boxers or panties as your vacation is in days o Pants, the number of days you’re going, divided by 2, minus 1 for vacations shorter than a week, and for vacations longer than a week divided by 3,5 o T-shirts, preferably as many as your vacation is in days o After-Bite (those damn mosquitos will find you everywhere) o Everything that’s in a Swiss army-knife, or just a Swiss army-knife o Socks! Almost forgot. As many as your vacation is long, plus one (pair, of course) o Toothpaste and toothbrush, towels, lens fluid, shampoo, conditioner, razors and everything else you find in your bathroom o Condoms (come on, just do it. It might just be your lucky year) o Mobile phone and charger o Passport o And, last but not least: Your wallet Sun-sea-beach o Swim suits o Sun protection o Flip-Flops City hop o Walking shoes o Camera, for all those unforgettable moments of you holding the tower of Pisa o A city guide, to find the places-tobe
Survival adventure (Assuming your pen-knife is already packed...) o A tent, plus instructions o Survival kit o Something to scare bears with, like a torch, or an ultra-sonic flute o Handbook that tells you which plants you must and must not eat (ever seen Into The Wild?)
Dear economists, we wish you a very pleasant vacation. Don’t forget to check all the boxes! See you all next year! 22
The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
Zijn jouw analyses van landsbelang?
Werk je bij het Rijk, dan werk je aan Nederland. Bijvoorbeeld aan economische analyses van globalisering, overheidsfinanciën of de woningmarkt. Voor deze analyses zorgt het Centraal Planbureau (CPB). Het CPB valt onder de formele verantwoordelijkheid van het ministerie van Economische Zaken, maar is inhoudelijk onafhankelijk. De uitkomsten van wetenschappelijk onderzoek en toekomstverkenningen helpen de overheid de koers van het beleid te bepalen dan wel te heroverwegen. Ondersteun jij met jouw economische analyses het overheidsbeleid?
Wetenschappelijk medewerkers (m/v) Centraal Planbureau (Den Haag) Het Centraal Planbureau voert een breed scala aan economische analyses uit en formuleert gefundeerde beleidsopties. Als wetenschappelijk medewerker houd je je bijvoorbeeld bezig met kosten-batenanalyses van infrastructuurprojecten, econometrisch onderzoek naar productiviteit, institutionele analyses van energiemarkten of de ontwikkeling van modellen om de gevolgen van vergrijzing in kaart te brengen. Je gebruikt je economische kennis om prognoses op te stellen en draagt bij aan het oplossen van complexe maatschappelijke vraagstukken. Functie-eisen: je hebt een universitaire opleiding economie of econometrie met uitstekende resultaten afgerond. Een promotie is een duidelijke pre. Je bent analytisch sterk, een teamspeler en je spreekt en schrijft goed Nederlands en Engels. Arbeidsvoorwaarden: het brutomaandsalaris bedraagt maximaal € 4.964,op basis van een 36-urige werkweek, met in bijzondere gevallen doorgroeimogelijkheden naar maximaal € 5.553,-. Er zijn zowel vacatures voor vaste aanstellingen als postdoc-vacatures voor een periode van drie jaar. Informatie en/of sollicitatie: www.werkenbijhetrijk.nl/EZPB090003 of ga voor andere vacatures naar www.cpb.nl/goto/vacatures
History minor Arjan de Hoop – Sometimes I make a mistake. All right, probably very often I make mistakes. Otherwise I would have been a summa cum laude. The only upside of making mistakes, is that you have a chance to learn from it and try to do it better in the future. I prefer to learn from other peoples’ mistakes though. Given that in the past mankind made many mistakes, it would be nice to learn from them! If everybody had done so, the world would have been different. Imagine that Hitler would have carefully studied Bonaparte’s military strategy. He might have concluded that Russian winters are cold, Russia’s territory is large and long supply lines are vulnerable. All right, he needed oil and by using Blitzkrieg techniques he tried to finish the attack before the winter. But the Soviets knew their history well. Czar Alexander the First used the scorched earth tactics and so did Stalin. After heavy fighting, Hitler had to retreat and fight a war on two fronts. Imagine what would have happened if he had stayed focused on Britain and conquered it… The learning of other people’s mistakes can also be done in economics. Lots of economic policy mistakes have been made in the past. For example, history shows protectionism diminishes total welfare and should be avoided at all cost (pay attention, Mr. Obama and monsieur Sarkozy!). History also shows deflation hurts the economy badly and is a potential cause of social unrest. But should it be avoided by printing money like crazy? Can it even prevent deflation if all the money is being held back by the financial sector? Time will tell… The history minor (too bad the only minor not in English) consists of some interesting courses which broaden and deepen your knowledge of economics and of social and political topics as well. It starts with ‘Economic growth and inequality’ and also addresses topics as the founding and the development of the European Community, colonization and Dutch entrepreneurship.
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During the course ‘Corporate history’ we learned about the development of Dutch business models during the 20th century, the effects of protectionism and war on businesses and the ensuring cooperation between entrepreneurs and employees. We also had some interesting people over to present themselves and their business. A retired man from Shell, former head of oil contracts, talked about the Anglo-Dutch oil giant and its interesting history. Quite different was the business of another speaker: family-held Concorp, the producer of ‘Autodrop’. The differences between the businesses reflected, among others, the topics taught in the course: the separation of ownership and management, internationalization and the relationship between employees and management. Surprisingly, the minor is not very popular among students. They often agree with me that the before mentioned topics are interesting, but then they ask: “But what can you do with it?” First, you have to know the past if you want to forecast the future. Forecasting can never be done perfectly, but analyzing the past improves your chances of being right. Sometimes you have to go back in history to analyze and forecast the effect of a certain phenomenon. Deflation has not taken place in the last decades, but that does not mean it will never happen again and we can forget about it. We, as young academics with a clear open-minded view, think we know the world. But most of our knowledge was formed in the era of large scale leveraging and possibly at the end of the Kondratieff cycle. We are accustomed to a savings rate close to zero in the U.S., either slightly positive or negative. This has not always been the case.
The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
History minor It was close to ten percent during the seventies. What we are seeing right now is a reversion to the mean. Second, it is not just the knowledge of the past that is valuable. History is a different sort of science and uses different types of skills. Debating is a much more important skill in history classes. Most of the time, the answer is not quantifiable and the truth is somewhere in between the most opposite opinions. Furthermore, searching data and literature is much more difficult. Most students use Google and Picarta. I have learned to browse footnotes, actually go to libraries, read books and in one case retrieve data from an archive. Not everything is available on the Internet. A typical setup for history courses is to introduce a time period and a theme. Students are allowed to choose a topic for a research paper. Then write a problem statement and sub questions, present it, implement the feedback, write the paper, present it and again implement the feedback. This was the case for the courses ‘Historical method’, ‘Corporate history’ and ‘European expansion’. Because papers are mostly written by one person and the range of topics is wide, it is important to know what information is available and to narrow the subject down to a specific research which can still be innovative. For example, I have researched the difference in the financing of shipping in Amsterdam between the 15th and 17th century, the diversification and subsequent specialization of ‘Van Ommeren’ (now Vopak) and the transition of white enforced labor to black slavery on Barbadian sugar plantations. The ability of writing a logical setup, of finding valuable information and of debating is as valuable in history as it is in business life.
So, should economic history courses be mandatory for all economics students? According to Erick Mecking, it should. Mecking is an historian who forecast the asset bubble back in 2005. According to him economists tend to extrapolate trends of growing welfare far into the future without paying attention to history. It is likely economic history will become more popular in the coming decades. The question of what determines economic growth and what can be done to ensure sustainable economic growth will become more relevant and will lead researchers to analyze historical developments. We have seen this before. After World War II Europe was ruined. It had to be rebuild to prevent major unemployment and poverty. The world had seen the effect of poverty on political choices of people. Hitler became powerful by promising desperate people the moon. The potential beneficiary of social unrest after the war would be the Soviet Union. Besides, colonies became independent and had to grow economically or they could become vulnerable to communism. American and European scientists hoped to find the key to economic growth, but weren’t able to find explanations using neoclassical theory. So they analyzed historical data to explore the true causes of growth, this time using quantitative analysis. This greatly expanded the interest in economic history. For me, the minor was quite interesting. I am sure more people will like it after they learn about the true quality. Some may prefer to pick just one course, next to two regular courses. This might not work out that well. Most history courses are quite intensive. ‘The political integration of Europe’ was an exception last year. Maybe a recommendation for those who want to know what the EU is about before the next elections.
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Brenner Reflections of a Hospitalosaurus It all began on Sunday afternoon, March 29th. On my way out of the house I tripped over something and fell. Unable to get up, I called my wife to help me. We soon realized that we could not get me back on my feet. So she went to phone the doctor. This being a Sunday, she was put through to the huisartsenpost for weekends at the Hospital in Zeist. The secretary told her to ask a neighbour to help her take me to the car and drive to Zeist. My wife tried to explain to her that this cannot be done but the secretary would not budge. She simply decided that this was not an emergency. All the same, in the end my wife convinced her to get a doctor on the line. Twenty minutes later the doctor arrived at our home. He saw that my ankle was broken and called for an ambulance. The two ambulance attendants knew how to lift up an 85 kilo person with a broken ankle on a stretcher, and in another 15 minutes I was on some hospital table being attended to by two competent ladies.. While they very professionally tried to put my bones in place and cover my leg with plaster, my thoughts drifted to Adam Smith’s invisible hand and division of labour. Then one of the nurses told me that I was to be transferred to Utrecht because in Zeist they lacked the facilities to treat the kind of broken bones I had. Another nurse asked me the questions which had to be registered on the form attesting to my hospital admittance. One question, which very much eased my mind, was whether, if something went seriously wrong with 26
me, I would prefer that they try to reanimate me or rather be left to expire. It took me some time to think about it. But given the state of the world in general and the current economic situation in particular, I decided I’d rather not be reanimated. Soon the ambulance arrived which took me to Utrecht, where I was given a bed and left to wonder whether it was the invisible hand which pushed me or my own carelessness that caused me to fall and break my ankle. Next morning I was subjected to a sequence of standard tests and eventually rolled on my bed to the antechamber of the operation room. There I was informed about all sorts of things by various specialists, and finally taken into the operation room. In the end, after getting an injection in my back, I no longer felt anything they did to my leg.
The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
Brenner After a while, when my bed was once again in the ward, I noticed that five large spikes had been driven into my leg and were connected with two longish iron rods on both sides of my ankle. Three weeks later I was sent home with an instruction to come back for an x-ray photograph to be taken in order to ascertain when this iron construction could be removed. And what then? All I was told was that eventually my ankle will be put in plaster which will allow me to use my left foot. Until that happy day I was under no circumstances allowed to stand on this leg. Let me assure anyone who reads this that I did not like the situation at all. Doctors, nurses, physiotherapists, cleaners, were all very nice and friendly people. But to be unable to get out of bed and move about in the room was more than bothersome. To this point, all this common practice seems reasonable, and indeed, a song of praise for Adam Smith’s Principle of the division of labour. Each helper performed his or her task with great dexterity, knowledge and experience. But when it comes to the coordination of these tasks, which Mr. Smith assigned to God’s invisible hand, things do not work so smoothly. Here in hospital God may be helping the patients to recover but he is certainly absent when the administration fixes the examinations or their timing. Each doctor at the various stages of treatment prescribes his
or her required examinations, like blood test etc. so that these are repeated over and over again. The person responsible for intake asks the same questions which had been asked and answered several times before and which could have been easily accessible on the computer. In my case she wanted me to have my heart tested for the second time within a week. But worse than that, although the test she wanted takes about ten minutes to perform, it could not be scheduled on the same day. As a result, I had to go home in a special taxi which takes wheelchairs and come back the next day with the same. The expense – let alone the difficulty for the patient – did not count because it does not enter the accounts of the hospital. Why should I bore you with these details of my hospitalisation? Perhaps because the organisation of a hospital can serve as an example for our modern world. Perhaps I just want to tell you that Adam Smith was right about the advantage of specialisation which comes with the division of labour, but warn you that he was as wrong as one can be about the coordination principle of the invisible – or even the visible – hand. But perhaps, I’m telling you all this because there is little else I can write about being “out of circulation” for the last few weeks. Y.S. Brenner Bilthoven, June 2009
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Greetings
from Riga & Tallinn 28
The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
Star Tales
Cancer (June 22 – July 22) What is that? You’re lying in the park way too much. If you continue this sloppy behaviour your study-results will get worse… You don’t want to pass courses with a mere 6 do you?!? Race to the library, because everyone knows the hottest students are inside that building…
Aries (March 21 – April 20) Something terrible is happening right now! Just around the corner an old women is afraid to cross the street! Stop reading immediately and help her out. Think about when you have turned her age! Plus the girls/boys watching melt for you on the spot…
Scorpio (October 24 – November 22) Dear Scorpio, you have to start eating more vegetables. It’s not that your body is out of shape or anything, but in a few weeks you will start feeling weak and get sick. Cook some more with your roommates and share the benefits of healthy food. Your healthy body will get you some wanting looks…
Taurus (April 21 – May 21) I know it’s frustrating, again troubles with your bike. It’s tempting to just go out and buy a new one from the junks at Central Station, but you will get caught. It’s 2009, jeesz they have cameras everywhere!
Sagittarius (November 23 – December 22) Dear Sagittarius (what a name), you should be careful next week with the booze when going out… every time you get some attention you’ll start such weird stories due to your mental state, that everyone is gone in a second, while you’re getting quite a lot of nice eyes on you…
Gemini (May 22 – June 21) Dear Gemini, the sun is shining, holiday coming up, but you are in the library nearly all week! Get out more! So what if you pass the course with only a 6! You have time to call that flirt from before the exams... Leo (July 23 – August 21) Watch out Leo, everybody can see you flirting with that cute girl/guy… You know that this is ‘not done’, and your friends will turn against you if you don’t create more space between you and your flirt… Virgo (August 22 – September 23) Call your mother, and say that you appreciate her for raising you the way she did. Start thinking about the things that really matter in life. Your friends and family need some more attention. Get back in touch with that lost cousin, do something nice together, and who knows… Libra (September 24 – October 23) Your bank account has been better the last few years right? It’s time to get some of the pecunia back on your account, or soon you won’t have the reserves when you need the cash. Get some work!
Capricorn (December 23 – January 20) When going out my Capricorn, don’t stand hugged with the wall the entire evening. Liquor up a little bit, and get some words out of your mouth. No matter what words you spray in someone’s ear, it’s probably the best thing to do convert the wanting eyes into something more… Aquarius (January 21 – February 19) You are the worst. Using your charm on that young teacher to get you some extra points on your exam. You should be ashamed of yourself. However, this is the way the world of business works. So use whatever you have and sleep your way to the top! Pisces (February 20 – March 20) It’s a bad day at UCU for you Pisces. The genitor will blame you for the computers that are broken, your candy bar will get stuck in the candymachine and you will run out of chipknip. Hang in there! At the end of the day, you’ll get in touch with the boy/girl sitting next to you in the lecture last week…
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Final final say Arjan de Hoop – ‘Final say’ fits perfect for this, probably last, piece I write in the Ecunomist. Deo adiuvante I’ll have my Bachelor’s degree this summer and leave Utrecht next year for a Financial Master. By the time I’ll have finished it and found a job, the economy will be on track again and I will share in the full boom of Western welfare. At the time of writing this, oil prices are near $70 a barrel, employment is rising less than before and the ‘fear’ indicator of the VIX-index is below the critical level of 30. The recovery is recovering and after cleaning up the financial weapons of mass destruction the economy will flourish as it did before. Is it? Is the crisis almost over? Are the Western economies going to grow substantially? Has everybody suddenly forgotten that American banks can borrow at interest rates close to zero and lend at much more? Why the euphemism about the icon of capitalism, GM, going bankrupt? And why is the estimate of total write-offs of $4000 billion being ignored? According to Niels Jensen from the Absolute Return Letters, this is even an underestimation. Actual write-offs might be much larger. And governments have to be careful with new bailouts, because of the large deficits they’re running. Japan had a large bubble in asset prices until 1990 and it is still in the aftermath. The American boom in this century, driven by low interest rates, provided only a temporary relief. The Nikkei is now lower than in 1985. But even if we come out of this mess within ten years, the long-term economic growth rate will be lower than that of the last decades. The government will implement tighter regulation, regarding financial and environ-
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mental issues. On top of that, higher tax rates are likely. Governments need to pay off the huge debts accumulated during the last decades. They have to show the consumers that excessive debt is bad and neither consumers nor governments should borrow on a large scale. The ageing population may provide temporary downward pressure to the rising savings rate, but in the end consumer spending and population will grow at a slower rate than before. Our economic big brother Germany will have a shrinking population, this will certainly affect their and our growth rate. Hard feelings prevail in this vision. And this even excludes social unrest and war. But there’s a spring after every winter in the Kondratieff cycle. This bear market will have a positive side-effect: a more sustainable, deleveraged growth. Resources now employed in the financial sector will be allocated to more productive sectors. People in the financial sector currently get interviewed by other people in the same sector about their feelings about the economy. Other financial sector employees develop consensuses about the outcomes of the interviews and more other people trade according to the estimates. These people could be employed in sectors which search solutions for renewable energy and the food and drinking water shortage/allocation problem… Did I just say I’m going to study Finance?
The Ecunomist - Annual Volume 18, Edition 5 - July 2009
((4 + 3)² + 4) / 1/4 = - - 11 + 6³ = - - -
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576 + 11 x 3² = - - 196 = - -
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