EuroBubba

What I’m up to…

I’m in the process of demoting the Blue Danube translating business to become one in a range of export support services. What I want to be doing is facilitating export of American clean/renewable energy technologies to European markets. Depending on how things evolve, I may also be looking at import opportunities later. For the moment I’m still very much in a process of learning and building contacts, but I intend to have a solid starting business structure in place by mid-May. I’ll be visiting Germany and the Czech Republic in May, June and July; my goal is to be representing at least three American companies during that trip and for the trip to at least pay for itself.

More to come….

Rodrik’s progressive trade agenda

Economist Dani Rodrik offers some suggestions for what a progressive trade agenda might look like:

1. Embrace globalization
2. More and better social insurance (safety nets) and redistribution of gains from trade
3. Better international rules to protect domestic values and norms
4. Multilateral orientation
5. Leave “policy space” for developing countries while establishing broad democracy and human rights principles within the trade regime
6. Begin expanding international labor mobility, not just mobility of goods and capital

Mythbuthting

The Washington Post’s Steven Hill demolishes “Five Myths About Sick Old Europe”:

1. The sclerotic European economy is incapable of leading the world.
2. Nobody wants to invest in European companies and economies because lack of competitiveness makes them a poor bet.
3. Europe is the land of double-digit unemployment.
4. The European “welfare state” hamstrings businesses and hurts the economy.
5. Europe is likely to be held hostage to its dependence on Russia and the Middle East for most of its energy needs.

Wrong, not even close, wrong again, bzzz, thanks for trying.

Walled in

Risto Karajkov argues at Newropeans Magazine (silly name, interesting site) that the EU should ease visa restrictions on the people of former Yugoslavia (minus Slovenia and Croatia), who this January 1 “woke up to realize that they are completely surrounded by the thick walls of Europe. They woke up to realize they cannot move out. […] A businessman planning a business trip through a few new EU member states and a few of the old ones would have to spend a month (in the least) obtaining visas. Anyone confronted with such a challenge, realizing on top of that the amount of working hours he/she would have to spend in all the different consulates, would simply give up. Not to mention the cost. Many estimates have pointed out that a significant share of the financial aid the EU gives to theses countries is offset by what they spend on visas.”

New eastern EU members may enjoy open borders by Christmas

EU Business reports that senior European Union officials expect a final decision to end passport and security checks at land and sea borders between the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia and their adjacent older EU member states in November, meaning freer travel by the Christmas holidays. Airports are scheduled to join the zone next March.

Meanwhile, the EU Observer reports that non-members (so far) Albania, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia have signed visa agreements to make travel to the EU easier and less costly for their citizens. The Balkan countries are pushing for visa requirements to be eliminated altogether; the EU remains hesitant.

$2 euro?

Jérôme at European Tribune notes the correlation between record high oil prices and a record low dollar against the euro and asks, “Should I start a ‘Countdown to the $2 euro’ series…?”

The Beatroot: Idiot’s guide to Polish elections

Expat blogger the beatroot offers a tongue-in-cheek idiot’s guide to Polish elections, noting, “Being an idiot is not a disadvantage when trying to understand the Polish political scene. In fact, it maybe an advantage.”

Sellin’ something

I’ve been wanting to write about the Cluetrain Manifesto for a while now but haven’t really managed to organize my thoughts yet. I’d like to share a couple of observations here and will probably return to it in later posts.

Continue reading Sellin’ something…

Howdy!

Welcome to the new and improved EuroBubba blog. I want to do some things here that I can’t do on the old hosted blog at wordpress.com, so this is where I’ll be posting from now on. There’s not really a lot of content back at the old blog — it was only up for about six weeks and I didn’t really write much during that time — but feel free to have a look if you’re interested.