tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-143836952007-09-04T12:40:24.169+02:00Charles GoldfingerBlogger74125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-49093311626730981152007-05-20T14:46:00.000+02:002007-05-20T14:49:50.595+02:00

Sarkozy – chef d’entreprise moderne On s’interroge beaucoup sur le style Sarkozy. Il est vrai que dans le monde politique français ce style détonne et étonne. Il est aux antipodes du style classique: ambigu, alambiqué et précautionneux – tel qu’il fut pratiqué par exemple par le maître incontesté de la politique française de ces dernières cinquante années, François Mitterrand. Par contraste,

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-67046432040046294962007-05-06T18:26:00.000+02:002007-05-20T14:51:31.362+02:00

De l’importance de l’écart L’avenir politique de Ségolène Royal, ainsi que celui et de François Bayrou, dépend de l’écart entre le gagnant et le perdant. A 48% ou plus, Ségolène s’en sort avec les honneurs de la guerre et peut légitimement revendiquer le leadership du Parti Socialiste pour les législatives. Avec ce score, Bayrou aurait quelques chances de nouer une alliance formelle avec le

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-20467576817323645802007-05-06T16:20:00.000+02:002007-05-06T16:21:31.150+02:00

Quelques leçons du second tour des présidentielles Sur la foi des sondages concordants, il semble bien que Sarkozy sera élu ce soir Président de la République et que sa marge de victoire sera plutôt confortable. Ayant attentivement suivi les péripéties du second tour, je pense que l’on peut d’ores et déjà en tirer quelques leçons : Pas plus qu’au premier tour, l’excès de l’agressivité

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-69767604931089954522007-04-22T17:32:00.000+02:002007-04-22T17:33:08.584+02:00

Participation électorale au premier tour des présidentielles en France La forte participation électorale en France (bien plus forte qu’en 2002 et comparable à celle de 1981) peut être interprétée de deux manières différentes, qui entrainent des conclusions radicalement opposées en ce qui concerne les résultats du premier tour et les perspectives pour le second. La première interprétation

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-13018968393966832992007-04-20T22:41:00.000+02:002007-04-20T22:42:54.570+02:00

Ségolène Royal et Hollywood Plus les élections s’approchent et plus Ségolène s’éloigne de nos écrans. Son annonce électorale télévisée est la seule ou la candidate ne s’adresse pas directement à l’électeur. Des nombreux rendez-vous avec la presse ont été annulés et pour un entretien radio avec un éléphant des medias, Jean-Pierre Elkabbach, Ségolène a envoyé son porte-parole, Jean-Pierre

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-36908947559718738422007-04-20T15:39:00.000+02:002007-04-20T15:56:08.177+02:00

TCS: un omnibus politique d'enfer Alors que nous étions fascinés par le nouveau TGV Est, détenteur depuis peu du record de monde de vitesse sur rail, notre microcosme politico-médiatique a construit en un temps record un autre train: le TCS - tous contre Sarkozy. Evidemment, il s'agit d'un omnibus, qui s'arrête souvent et avance par des à-coups sur un parcours souvent sinueux et pas toujours

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-47184040430476998252007-04-11T15:21:00.000+02:002007-04-20T15:57:32.945+02:00

The battle of giants: Nokia vs. Qualcomm The ongoing conflict between Nokia and Qualcomm shapes like one of the defining IT IP (Information Technology-related IP) events of the early 21st century. Its outcome will affect not only the market position of the two combatants but also the approaches to patent valuation in this area as well as the relevant royalty calculations, not to mention the

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-19715119594339660992007-04-04T13:18:00.001+02:002007-04-20T16:00:02.576+02:00

Blackstone IPO: an excellent opportunity From an activity, which was supposed to prosper in discretion and secrecy, private equity has now become highly visible. It has thrived on publicity and skilful public relations, which helped not only to improve the flow deals but also to deflect raising criticism (remember “locust” accusation by the chairman of German SDP party). Widely reported

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-65498932432668523572007-03-28T16:57:00.001+02:002007-03-28T17:03:58.367+02:00

ABN Amro and Barclays: Will bankers ever learn? It is an interesting coincidence that, as the senior managers of ABN Amro and Barclays continue to discuss their merger, Citibank in the US is preparing to announce substantial job cuts, of 15, 000 jobs. This announcement highlights the pitfall of a big universal bank strategy, of which Citibank was probably the most often quoted example. As

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-62577376099516544982007-03-26T14:04:00.000+02:002007-03-26T14:06:40.977+02:00

Nanotechnology investing: What about risk warning? The other day, as I was looking through the web at trends at emerging technologies, I came across a research comment written by a Motley Fools contributor, Jack Uldrich. The comment dealt with the acquisition by Arrowhead Research, publicly listed company (NASDAQ: ARWR) specialised in nanotechnology, of another privately held firm, Carbon

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-18276352969461126232007-03-24T22:47:00.000+01:002007-03-26T14:03:38.455+02:00

John Backus and the IBM labs version of the war for talent Media reported earlier the week the death of John Backus, ex-IBM researcher, who in the late 1950s, developed the first high-level programming language, Fortran, and thus transformed what was previously a tedious, largely mechanical task into a challenging intellectual pursuit. Despite fame and honours bestowed on him, Backus remained

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-91042875884219856942007-03-20T14:13:00.000+01:002007-03-24T22:46:51.963+01:00

TEFAF market: High art going digital? Last week I had an unique opportunity to visit one of the most prestigious fine art markets, The European Fine Art Foundation (TEFAF), which has been held in Maastricht in early March for the last thirty years. This is a big and classy business. It showcases works of art, primarily painting and sculptures but also furniture, jewellery, table art,

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-41608579231445006372007-03-18T23:37:00.000+01:002007-03-18T23:38:13.732+01:00

Global warming: the risk of being a sceptic It appears after all that global warming is man-made. However, its main cause is not the accumulation of carbon oxide but the heat generated by the intense controversies over the scientific reality of global warming and the viability of statistical and mathematical models developed to explain its causes and forecast its future evolution. This

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-46331011722506396972007-01-05T18:42:00.000+01:002007-01-05T18:45:27.363+01:00

Hedge funds for the masses Will 2007 see the beginning of a large-scale retail distribution of hedge funds, similar to the well-established mutual fund industry? The development of hedge funds has been the salient feature of the asset management dynamics of the last twenty years. Hedge funds assets are estimated by the Chicago-based Hedge Fund Research Inc. at $1.225 trillion at the end of

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-30642484388221509972006-11-20T14:13:00.000+01:002006-12-24T21:49:42.085+01:00

Ségolène Royal: entre Jeanne d’Arc et François Mitterrand A l’occasion des primaires présidentielles du Parti socialiste, les médias tant français qu’étrangers ont pris la juste mesure du phénomène Ségolène Royal. D’ores et déjà, elle est sûre d’être présente au second tour de l’élection présidentielle en 2007 et beaucoup d’observateurs la donne comme favorite face à Nicolas Sarkozy. Ce n’est

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-28932407917214148902006-11-19T20:16:00.000+01:002006-11-20T14:33:20.010+01:00

Nymex IPO: not another bubble What a week for publicly listed financial markets. On Tuesday and Wednesday, November 14 &15, European exchanges, which had been outperforming the broader market for months, fell substantially: Euronext by 8.9%; Deutsche Börse by 6.25%, and LSE, by 5.7%. The immediate catalyst for the fall was the announcement by seven international banks that they plan to set up a

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-3205216535909606942006-11-17T23:11:00.000+01:002006-11-18T23:13:39.437+01:00

MGM trading platform project Emergence of financial exchanges as a major player in financial services has been a major if not always expected aspects of financial sector evolution of the last twenty years. Since the late 1990s, it became quite clear that their relationships with their erstwhile shareholders in particular global investment and commercial banks were getting more complex and many

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-964590202647724872006-11-11T17:17:00.000+01:002006-11-19T20:55:13.318+01:00

From long tail to variegated tails For close to 200 years, social scientists lived under the tyranny of normal distribution, which focused their attention on most probable outcomes and on the averages, means and medians. We now need to be careful not to commit the same error with the long-tail distribution. Book on this subject, The Long Tail, became a bestseller and a required reading for

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1162390492875253832006-11-01T15:14:00.000+01:002006-11-11T17:42:26.748+01:00

Stern report: Impressive piece, unlikely to work, not that it matters Report on global warming by Sir Nicholas Stern, ex-Chief Economist of the World Bank and (of EBRD before that), unveiled on October 29, was greeted by Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, who commissioned the report, as the most significant piece of policy research ever produced by the UK government. From now on, the fight against

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1162230139235034762006-10-30T18:42:00.000+01:002006-11-11T16:51:49.353+01:00

Il y a quelques mois, en janvier, j’ai posté un blog sur François Mitterrand comme politicien fractal. En regardant la semaine dernière le passionnant documentaire sur A2, consacré à Jacques Chirac, je me suis demandé si celui-ci ne constitue pas un exemple d’un politicien quantique. Qui, « quantique » comme la physique quantique, la théorie qui forme la base de toute la physique moderne. Cette

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1161976860391551942006-10-27T21:21:00.000+02:002006-11-11T16:51:48.729+01:00

On the weekend of October 20, I accompanied my Polish business partner, Professor Jan Lubinski, on a visit to Reykjavik. For an European country, Iceland is quite remote. It takes full three hours of light from London, Amsterdam or Paris to reach Reykjavik. Yet, once one has landed, remoteness disappears and one quickly finds familiar references: faces, architecture, street signs, even landscape

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1158850777671895002006-09-21T16:59:00.000+02:002006-11-11T16:51:48.528+01:00

Science and religion remains a hot topic. Alongside continuous and noisy brawls between zealots of darwinism and crusaders of intelligent design, occasionally appear more thoughtful contributions to this difficult yet (literally) essential debate. A new book by E.O. Wilson, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, is certainly among the most interesting contributions and deserves attention

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1158676959534414112006-09-19T16:42:00.000+02:002006-11-11T16:51:48.437+01:00

One of the commonly discussed threats of the Internet’s ever wider use is that of pervasive surveillance of our all activities by the government authorities. As we increasingly rely on the Internet to manage all facets of our life, both personal and professional, and life-supporting databases with our health, financial and judicial information move on line, it becomes possible to track the

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1156755134678969282006-08-28T10:52:00.000+02:002006-11-11T16:51:48.167+01:00

It is a customary to complain about the backwardness of the European financiers when it comes to supporting high tech (and I have done that as much as the next fellow). And yet, as Thorstein Veblen, great yet often forgotten economist of the early 20th century, asserted backwardness has also important advantages. These include the ability to learn from the others and to leapfrog previous

Charles Goldfingertag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14383695.post-1155914724997189412006-08-18T17:25:00.000+02:002006-11-11T16:51:48.070+01:00

In a February 2006 blog, I mused about the reversal of relationship between science and religion. This reversal is particularly striking in biology, long-considered as a bastion of atheism, in the aftermath of the triumphal progress of Darwinism. Yet, with the advent and progress of genetics many scientists wonder about the beauty and the intricacy of basic biological structures such as DNA and

Charles Goldfinger