What to Expect

As you can see, I've decided to bring some order to my chaotic brain by creating a schedule for this blog. My goal is to post at least four times a week, on topics as follows:

Mondays - Top 5 Something
Topics will include the usual (movies, music, books) but will also touch on some more abstract subjects as well.

Wednesdays - The Stanford MBA (Abridged Version)
Since we don't have class on Wednesdays at the GSB (Graduate School of Business) I thought it would be a good day to pass along the condensed version of the lessons I've learned to you, the reader, at no charge. Just keep in mind that I bear no responsibility for the results that putting these lessons into practice may cause.

Fridays - Reviewing Stuff
This is where I provide my opinion on whatever is interesting me at the time. My promise here is that I will not review anything I have not personally used, experienced, visited, etc.

Weekend - Wildcard
Pretty self-explanatory.

In addition to these topics, I may throw in posts on other stuff whenever I have the time and inclination. For example ...

China in the News
As you've probably seen, China has been in the news a lot this week. On the business page, the big story is that the surge of Chinese takeovers of American businesses has hit a big snag. Both Unocal and Maytag now look as if they will end up in the hands of American purchasers - Chevron and Whirlpool. The board of Unocal decided to accept an increased bid from Chevron over CNOOC's, even though the purchase price was lower, due to the risks associated with closing the deal with CNOOC - namely, that Congress would block the deal due to national security concerns. On Monday, a group of investors led by Chinese appliance maker Haier withdrew its bid for Maytag following Whirlpool's submission of a higher competing offer.

Then today, China finally revalued it's currency - unpegging it from the US dollar. This is a move long sought after by the US government and many European governments that will make Chinese exports more expensive, thereby making domestic goods more competitive. That said, the revaluation is not nearly the 10-15% sought by many in Congress and the administration. It will be interesting to see how CNOOC, a primarily state-owned entity, uses this concession in it's battle for Unocal.

On a personal note, I would have been happy for the revaluation to occur in a couple months, after I'm back from my trip to China (more on this later).

Finally, the Pentagon issued a report on China's military that, though careful not to depict China as a military adversary, did indicate that China's increasing military expenditure could threaten the military balance of the region. China promptly voiced their opposition to the conclusions of the report as well as to the United States' "crude meddling in internal Chinese affairs."

Though the report is a routine Pentagon publication, the timing of it's release could have certainly been better. There is no question that China is an economic rival. It also happens to be one of our nation's largest creditors and a supplier of many inexpensive products to US consumers. There is also no question that China is a military rival - not necessarily to the US itself - but certainly to US interests in the region (namely Taiwan). But the last thing we want to do is establish linkage between our economic and military rivalries.