The one wants to have it at any price; the other would touch it with a barge-pole. There is no doubt that the Facebook IPO has polarised opinion. Still, if everything goes to plan, the social network will come to market at a price that values the company at $100bn. That is as much asContinue Reading

“Europe – Why our continent is worth fighting for.” This is the title of the book in which ex-Deutsche Bank chief economist, Norbert Walter, shares his optimism for the euro’s ultimate survival. I had the opportunity recently to hear the good doctor elaborate his arguments in the flesh.

In the blink of an eye, empathy towards an individual’s pain can reverse to schadenfreude, becoming yet another twist in the strange nature of humans. In a recent study which we previously wrote on (One Man’s Suffering…), differences are displayed in the willingness to help based on group association.

In their 2008 book, Nudge, Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein illustrated how policymakers could ‘encourage’ the public to make better decisions by giving them a behavioural push in the right direction[1]. The reasoning behind

I have to admit, although I love playing football, watching others play is not one of my favourite hobbies. I am hopelessly lost in the jungle that is the Bundesliga. My spectating is limited to the regular perusal of the sports pages of the newspaper, where I recently came across an interview with FC Schalker’sContinue Reading

4 April 2012. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). Stock markets seem to have been somewhat schizophrenic in recent weeks: when they receive information that suggests the global economy is recovering, stock prices rise; when there is a hint from policymakers that the economic recovery they are witnessing might prompt a withdrawal of stimulus, stock prices fall backContinue Reading

India surprised me. I was fascinated by the beautiful landscapes, and sometimes the helpfulness shown to me at some of the places I stayed on my trip went far beyond my expectations. On the other hand, I loathed seeing the stinking piles of waste everywhere. Plastic bottles seemed to have been tossed everywhere and theContinue Reading

Anyone who has been there knows that travelling in an Indian city by motor-rickshaw is an adventure. Instead of using the two-lane traffic system as mapped out by the city planners, drivers there navigate at least three abreast through never-ending traffic jams made up of thousands of cars, trucks, buses, rickshaws, and even more bikes,Continue Reading

As the elephant stormed through the tall waves, my joy was total. For about 20 minutes, I was able to swim and dive with this majestic creature against a picture-postcard backdrop of sparkling sea, a stretch of white beach, and an emerald green forest. When I returned to shore, I was intoxicated from the experience.Continue Reading

Investors have not appreciated the 20 percent DAX gains since the last ECB operation We all now know that the first Long-Term Refinancing Operation helped to stabilise the outlook for the eurozone banking system, drove down sovereign bond yields, supported lending to the private sector and, given the 20 percent rally in the DAX sinceContinue Reading

This time tomorrow I will be embarking on a flight to an incredible Indian holiday. I love to travel and I have been looking forward to this trip for ages. As usual, I have already spent far more money than I originally planned. Although India is a relatively inexpensive country, I just had to chooseContinue Reading

People like things that are familiar – they are rarely frightening and we enjoy the warm, comfortable feeling of having some control, or at least some understanding, of what is going on around us. The same applies to our investment preferences: someone who regularly sees BMW cars on the streets will tend to see themselfContinue Reading

"...if institutional investors dared not advance Greece as a justification for adding to their underweight stance, what argument did they use? The only real change since last week that could have influenced their decision-making was the price itself. That the DAX traded at the highest level in over six months was probably a factor; thatContinue Reading

No sooner was the ink dry on the resignation letter of Germany’s disgraced ex-President, Christian Wulff, was Twitter alive with discussions about his most likely replacement, Joachim Gauck. “Let’s see what this guy has to hide” “This time they should look more carefully at what he has been up to” “Isn’t it dreadful that peopleContinue Reading

In the football stadium, the temperature is rising. There are only ten minutes left on the clock and the score is still tied at two apiece. It is a knockout game, so there is all to win and all to lose. The fans are going wild: they whistle; they sway; they chant. Then their eyesContinue Reading

Have you lied yet today? According to some studies we lie about three times in every ten minutes of conversation[i], which means that unless you just woke up you have already let a few lies slip. Perhaps you told your neighbour how good she looks this morning, even if that wasn't strictly the case.

"One of the most selfish things you can do is to help others." I ran into this quote by psychologist Daniel Gilbert in an interview piece. What? It's selfish to help others? It didn’t sound right. But the implications of this statement were revealed to me last Sunday when I was serving meals at aContinue Reading

My first time ever on a ski slope a few days ago was quite simply incredible. Even thinking back on it now, I’m filled by a feeling of exhilaration: the pristine landscape; the trepidation; the adrenalin rush. My clumsy descent might not have been a pretty sight, but it felt great. Since then, everyone IContinue Reading

Stark divergence between owners and managers of German firms. The IMF is not too confident about Deutschland AG. The Fund’s economists have recently lowered their growth forecast for Germany to just 0.3 percent for 2012. Domestically, however, the opinions are far from downbeat. Jens Weidmann, the Bundesbank president, was the first to rubbish the IMFContinue Reading

I know the feeling all too well – the sudden realisation that one’s keys are lost. The numbing sensation with each passing minute that one’s access has been denied to yet another place: home, office, locker, mailbox, and bike shed. So when I read my colleagues recent blog post about a friend robbed by aContinue Reading

Should the President of Germany borrow money from millionaire friends and holiday at their expense? Should the wife of the Swiss central bank president make speculative investments in the currency under her husband’s responsibility? Oh dear. Once again the morality of our elected officials is provoking public ire.

Back in 2002, with the freshly-minted coins in my euro starter kit, I bought a movie theatre ticket. Those shiny new coins had an almost comic feeling – I regularly had to turn them over to check what each was worth. Today, ten years after the introduction of euro notes and coins, it is difficultContinue Reading

We would like to thank our readers for their avid interest in Unexpected Utility.   The contributions were very welcome and helped us widen our horizons.  We take this occasion also to wish you all an excellent holiday and a prosperous new year and above all opportunities to make good decisions.  

I know exactly what lies in that elegantly embossed box on the middle shelf of the fridge in the office kitchen: the luxury chocolates belonging to my esteemed boss. If I lifted one of those tiny hand-made delights from the tray and popped it into my mouth, he might not even miss it. I couldContinue Reading

What to get loved ones for Christmas – the perennial problem? Even if you’ve already found what you believe to be the ideal gift, you might not better off than those of us who have yet to make up our minds because you don’t know that it’s the right one? Will your other half glowContinue Reading

Expectation management is a tough task when one is the president of the ECB. Mario Draghi yesterday had to admit to being “surprised by the implicit meaning” that was given to his comments in the European Parliament last week when he said the ECB could follow faster fiscal union with “other elements.” His admittedly vagueContinue Reading

Quips are made about the certainty of death and taxes because they are unpleasant and because people don’t have the right to choose. Maybe this is the reason why the political debate in Germany about freedom of choice in organ donation has sparked such heated debate; in a macabre way, the idea of organ donationContinue Reading

23 November 2011. FRANKFURT (Börse Frankfurt). Domestic DAX investors have embarked on another sudden change in tack this week. After a fortnight, during which sceptics had tended to drift back into a stock market that seemed immune to the surrounding economic ills, the bears have returned. Some six percent of Börse Frankfurt’s survey panel haveContinue Reading

Would you prefer to live in a house that boasts 200m² of living space when everyone else lives in 150m² houses, or would you prefer a more generous 300m² home when all your neighbours live large in 400m² properties? This is a question that is often posed to behavioural finance students when they learn aboutContinue Reading

Hiking is my latest pastime. On any of the last few weekends you would probably have found me striding hill and dale, or walking through forests. Contrary to my expectations, I actually find it great fun. But I am awful at sticking to my schedule; I can’t even keep to the planned route. I invariablyContinue Reading