Salocin

Check out the meatrix for a nasty shock.

Recently, the tobacco farmers in Europe have been burning tobacco leaves outside the European Commission in protest at the proposed removal of the subsidies that maintain their industry. Over half the paid price of tobacco is currently subsidy, so the end of this aspect of the Common Agricultural Policy is likely to cause a significant reduction in the amount of tobacco produced in Europe - especially in southern parts.

But is this a bad thing? As with all subsidy-based systems, they are easy to set up and hard to take away. When you propose to prop up a failing industry with funds rediustributed from other people's taxes, that industry is unlikely to resist. But what happens when you propose to remove the crutch that keeps a fundamentally non-profitable business in existence? Protests: tobacco smoke over Brussels.

I'm an economist first and foremost, and the support of an industry that would otherwise have moved abroad has to be justified on grounds somewhat stronger than the maintenance of an industry for the sake of that industry. This is not job-creating, it's job-redistributing: for every farmer that has a job in Europe thanks to the subsidies, you can bet there's a dozen farmers in a third world country that are out of a job because they can't compete with a world market drowning in foreign subsidies. The CAP was always a nightmare, and this is no exception.

According to the BBC, tobacco subsidies make up 3 euros of the total 4.5 euro price. In case that number doesn't quite register with people, take a look at the graphic to the right. The big block is the amount of money redistributed from European Union funds to support a non-competitive industry. Tobacco production in Europe is incapable of producing efficiently enough to support itself. This is not a reflection on the producers themselves, but on the fact that this can be done cheaper elsewhere, and therefore the resources in Europe (including the manpower and the money spend subsidising it) are best used in other endeavours. What is more - where's the sense in subsidising tobacco one the one hand when you're taxing tobacco consumption on the other in order to reduce what you perceive as a health hazard?

The removal of the tobacco subsidies is the right thing to do. It is just one of many steps the CAP has to go through on it's way to extinction so that we can finally be rid of the most distortionary and inefficient use of EU funds currently on the books. Let us all hope that our leaders have the courage and strength to stand up to whatever bullying tactics the protesters choose to employ.

On Friday 14th November 2003, the 8th annual Wharton European Business Forum was held. This year's theme was, "A New Vision for Europe: Leading the Global Economy".

Although poorly attended due to inappropriate clashes with certain recruiting events, the conference illustrates the incredible opportunity that coming to Wharton represents. Given the number and quality of speakers and panelists, this conference represented an unparallelled opportunity to expand our knowledge to cover the realm of international politics and global policy. With former US ambassadors, distingushed senior members of the World Bank and international think tanks, not to mention global business leaders, this was the kind of exposure I came to Wharton for.

The day started off slowly, but soon gathered pace. The highlights included

• Anshu Jain, VP of Global Markets of Deutsche Bank on the transformation of Deutsche Bank.
• Lawrence R. Klein, 1980 Economics Nobel Prize Laureate, on trans-atlantic economic policy.
• Jean-Francois Rischard, Vice-President for Europe of the World Bank, on the theme of, "20 Global Problems, 20 Years to Solve Them".
• A panel on the enlargement of the European Union, with representation from a former US ambassador to Romania, Ambassador James Rosapepe, the Chairman of the EU-Turkey Cooperation Association, Mr. Erdal Kabatepe, the adviser to the Permanent Representative Office at the European Central Bank, Mr. Raymond Ritter, a sovereign credit rating analyst from Standard & Poor's, Mrs. Helena Hessel and the adviser to the governor of the Czech Central Bank, Mr. Tomas Holub.
• A panel on trans-atlantic relations, populated by three former US ambassadors, Cynthia P. Schneider, Tom Loftus and Kingdon Gould, and a holder of the Jean Monnet Chair for European Studies, and member of the faculty of George Mason University, Professor Desmond Dinan.
• A panel on international finance from the perspective of Multi-National Corporations, comprising Mr. Georges Ugeux, Mr. Carlo Cottaelli, Mr. Erwin van der Voort and Mr. Wayne Felson.

By all accounts, an extremely impressive line-up, made all the more interesting at the time for those that attended by the fact that the turnout was below expectations, and therefore created a more intimate setting than would otherwise have been the case.

The reduced attendance did surprise me: Given the line-up, I would have travelled a considerable distance in order to be there. That an event of this magnitude can be organized and fail to draw substantially all of the student body, or at least it's 35% international component (although there was a Latin American conference next door, it was equally poorly attended) reflects, in my opinion, quite poorly on the international and political curiosity of the current student population. More likely though, it is yet another consequence of the poor job market, combined with some unfortunate scheduling clashes. Many students were in New York or elsewhere on career treks or a "day on the job" with potential employers. It is quite revealing of priorities that the scheduling should have been so - and perhaps reflects also the importance of ensuring that one earns a return on the investment in the MBA.

Regardless, the presentations have, from the feedback I have received from other attendees, caused a few to remember that the shape of the world, and the actors that influence it, are perhaps not so far removed from us as our academic isolation sometimes causes us to think. It was refreshing and revitalising for me to have one of the windows of the Ivory Tower opened, and a strong wind blow through, reminding us of the richness, and occasionally rankness, that many of us will influence through our actions or inactions in our future careers.

The BBC has a photographic record of a trip into North Korea

So it looks like CBS has decided to yield to the political pressure encouraging them to back off from their planned miniseries, The Reagans.

Although the mini-series features impressive production values and acting performances, and although the producers have sources to verify each scene in the script, we believe it does not present a balanced portrayal of the Reagans for CBS and its audience. Subsequent edits that we considered did not address those concerns.

They claim that their decision was reached independently of the controversy that has surrounded the script. In order to allow people to see it (because CBS cares about free speech), they've given the show to Showtime, a pay-per-view where the viewing audience is restricted to extremely bored people who miskey an entry on their remote control.

Ethiopian man breaks record for non-stop laughing. Deemed infectious.

I wanted to see Kill Bill on Friday, and looked up all the relevant details on the internet, found that The Bridge Cinema in Philadelphia was showing it, and arranged to go see it with a friend.

We bought tickets, bought drinks, walked to the screen, and were told by the bloke at the door that the film had "accidentally been started an hour early", and that it was, "the night shift's fault, because they hadn't prepared it correctly".

I'm not going to try to understand how that's even possible, or try to figure out how that level of incompetence doesn't result in people losing their jobs, but reflect rather on my cynical, but often uncannily accurate friend's guess: A friend walked in earlier, they weren't expecting too many people for a 12:10pm showing, so they just put it on an hour early as a favour". A year ago I would have laughed, but now... I wonder.