Wednesday may 29 2013

Dr. Dan Glaser is lecturing in Romania, We are re producing his thoughts and experiences for our readers.

My second day at Babes Bolyai University went pretty well. I presented to a group of undergraduate students at 9:30 in the morning. I found that the class was a mix of about 1/3 ethnic Hungarians (Romania’s two largest ethnic groups are Hungarians and Roma), and one Italian and one Russian student. They were all in the English management program. Getting my computer to work for my presentation took a little adjusting and it is always a case of amazement on my part to see students whiz through deep technical parts of anything Microsoft. It happens on all my trips here. It seems that 1) Microsoft is the king in Romania and other places I have visited (it is like as if all academic users have it, just like air and water) and 2) my Romanian students, irrespective of major, seem to know it inside out.

After the presentation, Irina, my host, took me out to lunch and we discussed the material needs for our video. The main materials will be cardboard, Styrofoam, tape, markers, rubber bands, three ring notebook binders, Velcro, etc. Finding the Romanian word for Velcro took a while to figure out. The technical or non-brand name in English is hook and loop fastener. We will be looking for these items in the next few days.

In the evening, Ovidiu Bordean and his wife took me out to dinner. We ate some nice traditional food at a Romanian restaurant named Valachia (It turns out that last night was also his wedding anniversary. They married two years ago. Geez, I felt I was crowding their style.).  Ovidiu is a new Assistant Professor. I’ve known him for a few years, since about 2005. He spent a summer in San Antonio partially hosted by OLLU and on an EU grant gathering data for his dissertation in the summer of 2007. Having an international experience is an important factor for promotion for professors at Babes Bolyai University. Ovidiu is fully  fluent in English and has done post-doctoral work in England and in Germany. He is now also working on the journal Marketing and Management (http://www.managementmarketing.ro/). Check out their website. It is excellent! Ovidiu asked me to tell my US colleagues that he is looking for articles from US professors. A foreign presence improves the journal's  prestige in Romania. Their journals are evaluated at the national level and having foreign authors is an important criteria.  If you are considering submitting a paper, please let me know. I am an on the editorial board and we can make things happen. 

Monday May 13 2013

ACCT 3312 students have difficulty grasping just what a bond does and just how accountng for stocks
operates. Interestingly there is yet another movie version of Gatsby out, which has received poor reviews by Joe Morgenstern in the WSJ  and elsewhere. In this version Toby Maquire plays Nick Carraway the narrator. Recall from the book that Nick had come to New York to learn the Bond Market, though that is about all the coverage bonds got in Fitzgerald's book. 

In Bonfire of the Vanities, Tom Hanks is portrayed by Tom Wolf as a Master of the Universe, he is a successful bond trader. 

But the best way to learn about bonds is by reading on the credit markets everyday. We will be requiring a subscription to the WSJ so students can do just that. 

Here is an article from Bloomberg on bond prices falling with the rising dollar. Understanding these concepts is key to understanding rather then memorizing accounting solutions to bond reporting.