Round Two

The spring semester is drawing to a close, and I welcome it. While I have really enjoyed my classes this term, the combination of work, school, volunteer work and improving weather have steadily derailed my resolve. I need a break.

In some ways, I get that break either sooner or later. Classes end the first week of May, and in the third week of May I will be studying abroad in a program in Koblenz, Germany. It is a two week program that ultimately counts as a single course credit. Having lived in Germany as an adolescent, in the days before the Euro and the unification of Germany, I am truly looking forward to this opportunity to see firsthand how Europe has changed, and learn about Eurozone approaches to regulation, marketing, and monetary policy. Especially now, monetary policy.

I have greatly enjoyed my law class, though it has only clarified how deep the law goes, and how little we MBAs will understand it compared to a lawyer. Contracts, torts, Intellectual Property, and a bevy of legal terms (promissory estoppel and respondeat superior vie for my favorite) have been thrown at us for almost ten weeks now. Is it seeping in? Yes. Will it seep out? Yes, until of course it matters.

I have also enjoyed my strategy class, in particular the turn it took this week. After a semester of studying frameworks and case studies, this week we talked about how to engage non-market forces, such as the government and "activists". We studied the case of Shell's disposal of an oil terminal in the early nineties, and came up with a few alternate strategies that might have ended better for Shell and for the environment.

This summer, after a few weeks off after returning to the US, I'll be studying emerging markets. I notice a lot of references to the Long Term Capital Management crisis, and it turns out the prof worked for LTCM at the time of that event. Suggested reading includes FA Hayek, who is already on my long-term reading list. Maybe I'll catch up on the plane.