My view is that greed is human nature.  Everyone was party to taking advantage of easy credit, fuelling the housing price boom and running up credit card bills to buy consumer items.  Its a cycle, a churn of money which spirals up and down; although we can’t directly control it individually, we are all party to the macro economy.

The macro economy is not the issue on its own, it is long established, the issue for the west is the rate of leakage of that money from the spiral.

The big point that people in the west are missing, is that while everyone argues about who’s fault it is and how did this happen, no-one is prepared to tackle the real issues, as I see it.  This crisis would have been much less powerful, ifthe west was still a net EXPORTER of goods, rather than importer.   By importing all our consumer goods, food and clothes from abroad (because we are largely too arrogant and proud to get our hands dirty and make them ourselves – why else is it cheaper?) the west has made itself very vulnerable.  It would not surprise me at all if there was a large swing during my lifetime of wealth and power from west to east, that  critically will have a profound effect on the standard of living in the west – if you look it is already happening really (why else would the UK have to borrow so much?)

Nigel was outspoken on the Warwick MBA course and quite polarised opinion within our class – some totally didn’t connect with his teaching style at all.  My feeling was that he challenged us and didn’t spoon feed us information, which I think can only be a good thing if you are to learn effectively.

Interestingly, other than in class presentations, Nigel never graded me that well in the exams; I never quite figured out what it was he was looking for.  I should therefore be frustrated with him but instead I am a fan.  I like people with a strong opinion and who challenge the status quo, making one think.  Its rare to meet people like this, with the courage of their convictions (to many unabated arrogance!) and its nice the Wall Street Journal feels the same.

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Entrepreneurial Finance becons now.  I am very intrigued by this module.  It is like no other on the course and has the reputation of being one of the best experiences yet.  The professor is flying in from UCLA and, judging by the pre-work and rumors of the week long format, promises to be something quite tough, quite challenging but extremely rewarding.

Oxford won the boat race convincingly on Sunday. There was a program on before discussing their mental preparation and I think that had a big influence; were Cambridge beaten before they even got in the boat?

The story of last weekend though, for racing and sports fans, was of course the fantastic story of Brawn GP.  The team that only a few weeks ago was facing closure with no backing, turns up in Australia, locks out the front row on the grid.  Then in the race, Jenson Button drove well to secure a long over due victory and Ruben’s (the man most thought had driven his last GP in Brazil 2008) sees good fortune shine and picked up second (after some adventures in the race.) 

What went less well reported was that the actual racing was really exciting.  Yes, even F1 !  The front wing on the new cars certainly make them look odd but it the aero changes have certainly made the difference – car have not run that close to each other for many years.

A great rags to riches story.  Richard Branson also timed his entry into F1 sponsorship perfectly – he is a lucky guy!  As is Lewis Hamilton – 3rd in the first race when the car looks a handful and when he started dead last.  Like Alonso and Schumacher before him, he never gives up and it pays off.  The mental toughness, like in the Oxford boat cannot be underestimated in sports success.  Fascinating. An exciting season is ahead…

At the begining of 2007 he set off from Australia for New Zealand in a Kayak.  The 1600km trip took in some of the worst weather the sea could generate, storms and swells of over 30ft.  The irony here is that he survived the big waves and the mental challenge to capsize and drown in relatively calm waters.  After 30 odd days spent in his kayak he got to within 30km and within sight of land.  Rescue crews found the kayak but not him.  Most of the footage from the film was recovered from one memory card on one camera that he took.  You see total range of emotion. A link to the blog is here.

The cloud as it is often referred too, is not something light and fluffy, but simply lots of computers connected together on an industrial scale.  They are supported by very real infrastructure (advanced air conditioning, high security, massive diesel back-up generators) and are only set to grow in number in the future, as more and more software delivery is moved off PC’s and onto web-based interfaces.

Read what he had to say here

MAM is a maths based module looking at modelling and simulation. Given my previous work experience, this should be ok in terms of picking up concepts but for many there was a look of horror on their faces – regression models, LG programming, first order this, re-arrange equation that, sigma, standard deviation (you get the picture) … At least the lecturers were organised and I enjoyed the fun delivery style.

The weather continues to be cold here (-12deg C) and the war in Gaza ensures one maintains perspective. My Dad sent me a book on “Arabic for Dummies” together with a (heavy going!) book on arab history. Really looking forward to getting into those and learning more about such a historically troubled, yet interlectually advanced, region of the world.