Warren Buffett gave a talk to MBA students at The University of Florida in 1998

Allies and Adversaries: 2013 BCG Global Challengers

Emerging markets have become the world’s economic engines. They are large and becoming larger, thanks to annual GDP growth exceeding 6 percent and a rapidly growing class of consumers with disposable income.

These markets have become highly prized by companies everywhere, not just for their growth but also as sources of talent, capital, and companies. Over the past five years, more than 1,000 companies headquartered in emerging markets have reached at least $1 billion in annual sales. Many of these are content to focus on their home market, while others are expanding abroad. And many of those that are going overseas aspire to be global leaders in their industries. These are the global challengers. They are the companies that will shape the global economy over the next decade.

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Does the EU Suffer from a Democratic Deficit?

The rejection of the Lisbon Treaty by the Irish electorate has given new vigour to the debate on the European Union’s widely perceived democratic defi cit. Does the EU indeed have a serious democracy problem? What are the options open to the European political leadership and which of these should be acted upon?

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Top 10 risks and opportunities in 2013 and beyond

Ernst&Young ha publicado el estudio Business Pulse: Top 10 risks and opportunities in 2013 and beyond que describe cuáles pueden ser los 10 principales riesgos globales, para poder mitigarlos, y maximizar las oportunidades para responder a la persistente crisis actual y adecuarse a la globalización, ya que ha contribuido a intensificar la competencia.

 

A partir de una encuesta realizada a ejecutivos de  multinacionales de diferentes sectores a nivel mundial, presenta una serie de radares que evalúan diferentes grupos de indicadores, desde  los aspectos financieros, estratégicos, y de competitividad a nivel de costes, entre otros: con una previsión hasta 2015.

OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook

El déficit de las administraciones públicas en el área de la OCDE en su conjunto se estima que alcanzó el 5,5% del PIB en 2012, lo que equivale a alrededor de 2,6 billones de dólares. Se prevé que disminuya al 4,6% del PIB en 2013, lo que equivale a unos 2,3 billones de dólares.        

Los gobiernos de los países de la OCDE tendrán que refinanciar alrededor de 30% de la deuda pendiente a largo plazo en los próximos tres años. El promedio de aumento de la tasa de interés a largo plazo se espera que aumente a alrededor del 4,0% en 2013, frente al 3,8% en 2009.

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El Mundo en el 2050: oportunidades y desafíos

La economía mundial está acelerando su proceso de transformación. La crisis financiera internacional está empujando aún más rápido el centro gravedad de la actividad mundial hacia los países emergentes. China superará en 2017 a EEUU como la mayor economía del mundo; India se consolidará como la tercera potencia mundial en 2050; ese mismo año, Brasil desplazará a Japón en la cuarta posición; Rusia se convertirá en la primera economía europea por delante de Alemania y países como México o Indonesia podrían superar a economías como las del Reino Unido o Francia, según el informe elaborado por PwC.

Grupo Catalana Occidente alcanza un resultado atribuido de 200,2 M€

En el ejercicio 2012 el Grupo ha conseguido: 

• Mejorar el margen de solvencia hasta el 497,5% con 1.752,9 M€ de exceso 
• Alcanzar los 200 M€ de resultado atribuido 
• Mantener un excelente ratio combinado: 88,0% en el negocio tradicional y 88,4% en el seguro de crédito gracias al rigor técnico y la austeridad en el gasto 
• Incrementar los ingresos y el volumen de negocio 
• Adquirir un 49% de Plus Ultra Seguros (anteriormente Groupama Seguros) 
• Incrementar un 6,48% la participación en Atradius hasta el 83,2% 
• Conseguir un ROE del 14,0% 
• Mantener la remuneración a los accionistas

Presentación de resultados

Austerity in Small Places

Interest in small countries’ economic policies is usually confined to a small number of specialists. But there are times when small countries’ experiences are interpreted around the world as proof that a certain policy approach works best.

Read article by Daniel Gros

 

 

 

Berkshire Hathaway: Annual Report 2012

In 2012, Berkshire achieved a total gain for its shareholders of $24.1 billion. We used $1.3 billion of that to repurchase our stock, which left us with an increase in net worth of $22.8 billion for the year. The per-share book value of both our Class A and Class B stock increased by 14.4%. Over the last 48 years (that is, since present management took over), book value has grown from $19 to $114,214, a rate of 19.7% compounded annually.

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Finland. A Case Study of Environmental Education in Nature Schools

The article aims to introduce Environmental Education (EE) in Finland and to discuss how it has been taken into account in Finnish nature schools.

How Much Cash Does Your Company Need?

More than you think—a lot more—if yours is a knowledge-based corporation. That’s because you need to provide for intangible liabilities—the investments a company has to make to realize the benefits of its knowledge.

 

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Banking and Debt Crises in Europe: The Dangerous Liaisons?

The potential mutation of the Sub-Prime banking crisis into a sovereign debt one in Euro area countries is investigated. After reviewing the criteria used to measure the debt vulnerability, the balance sheet approach (BSA) is presented in order to illustrate the potential connections between these two types of crises. A graphical analysis yields evidence that at the end 2009 the probability of observing a Euro area country defaulting is less likely than six month before. Nevertheless, the serious threats, which concern Greece and Ireland, do not permit us to exclude the occurrence of a contagious, or selffullling, sovereign debt or currency crises in Euro area in the future.

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Business Elites and Family Capitalism. The Case of the Swiss Metallurgy Industry during the 20th Century

The aim of this contribution is to highlight the long-term evolution of family capitalism in Switzerland during the 20th century. Using a large database on Swiss elites including the members of the 110 largest Swiss firms, this research focuses on a sample of 22 big companies of the machine, electro-technical and metallurgy (thereafter mem) sector, whose board of administration and general directors (634 persons) have been identified for five benchmarks across the 20th century (1910, 1937, 1957, 1980 and 2000). The contribution develops then around two main aims. The first one is to identify the degree of family capitalism for each company and each year, in order to highlight the evolution of this form of corporate governance during the whole century. For this purpose, we take up the distinction made by other authors between family-owned and family-controlled firms. This allows us to show the strong persistence of family capitalism in the mem sector until the 1980s, and then its relative decline at the end of the century. Second, we focus more specifically on the question of the control of the firms, with an analysis of the educational profile of the actors holding a decisive executive function in our 22 companies (195 persons). The main objective of this section is, first, to highlight the long-term evolution of their education, and, second, to determine if the educational profile of the heirs of family firms differs from the one of the “outside directors”. This allows us to show that family members are in general highly qualified, their educational background being quite similar to the one of “outside directors”. In other words, being an heir do not exempt them from getting a qualified training in order to accede to decisive executive functions in the family business.

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European end game

The striking similarity between today’s eurozone situation and the end of Bretton Woods.

Hans Werner Sinn

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Economic activity report for the Scandinavian countries (September 2012)

Norway

• 3.5% growth in GDP for mainland Norway in 2012 and 3% in 2013

• Low unemployment

• Building and construction investment adjusted upwards to 6% growth this year and 5% next year

• House building increasing, 30,000 starts this year, and house prices increasing by 8%

• Construction investment increasing by 8% this year

Sweden

• GDP growth of 1.5% this year and 2% in 2013.

• Unemployment increasing slowly

• Building and construction investment up 0.5% this year and 1% next year

• The housing market weakened during 2011; 18,000 housing starts this year

• Construction market up 5% this year and 1% in 2013

• Weak growth in non-residential building

Denmark

• Zero growth this year, 1.5% in 2013

• Households affected by the need to reduce debt and the unstable house prices.

• A weakened Danish krone and investment by the government will help encourage growth from autumn 2012.

• Building and construction investment still at a low level.

• No improvement in the housing market 

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201 preguntas sobre finanzas

Este documento contiene 201 preguntas que me han formulado en los últimos años alumnos, antiguos alumnos y otras personas (jueces, árbitros, clientes…). Se han recopilado para ayudar al lector a recordar, aclarar, reforzar, matizar y, en su caso, discutir, conceptos útiles en finanzas. La mayoría de las preguntas tienen una respuesta clara, pero otras son matizables. Las preguntas se agrupan en doce apartados: contabilidad y finanzas, flujos, endeudamiento, tasas de descuento, valoración, transacciones, divisas, bolsa e inversión, intangibles, creación de valor, eficiencia, noticias de prensa y crisis 2007… A todas las preguntas les sigue una respuesta breve.

El Anexo 1 contiene un índice de términos y 150 preguntas de autoevaluación. El Anexo 2 contiene comentarios a versiones anteriores de este documento.

Pablo Fernández